Denon AH C250 Review

The AH C250 music maniac in ear headphones from Denon are both elegant and understated. Promising high quality audio with precision engineering, find out what we think in our full Denon AH C250 review.

Denon have been producing understated, high end audio equipment for decades. You may not be aware that they also manufacture professional studio equipment as well as high quality hi-fi and home cinema systems. The music maniac range of headphones are Denon’s flagship headphone series with the AH AC250 earphones being the only in ear headphones in the series.

Denon are aiming very high with these earphones, trying to make them sound as pure as possible and promising a studio quality sound experience.

First Impressions

For first impressions, looks are everything – the first thing you notice is the clean, elegant, simplistic beauty that oozes from these great looking earphones. The business end is cast from solid zinc providing a very solid base for the speakers to perform from. The inline microphone and music remote also looks overly simple but equally matched in terms of function and beauty. The cable has a double sleeving that makes it both tougher and tangle free, making the overall earphones very tough and durable. Made from leather, the storage pouch also oozes quality and comes with a removable carabiner for attaching it to a bag or clothing securely.

Fit & Function

The Denon AH C250 earphones are presented as  top of the range smartphone earphones. The in-line music controls and microphone (mic) are placed further up the cable than on most earphones rather than at where the cable splits. This is a much better location for the microphone and makes for much better voice quality during a call. This position also has its benefits for the music controls as they are always in the same place – no rummaging around for the loose cable in front of you trying to find where it is.

The fit of the Denon AH C250 earphones is also very good. Denon have made an extended effort to design some of the most comfortable, best fitting headphones around. They claim to have studied over 4000 pairs of ears from people all over the world. This enables them to produce a set of earphones that can adapt to differences in ear shape, ear placement, ear canal size, head size and jaw depression.
Included are not just your normal 3 sets, but 7 sets of ear adaptors. You get 4 sets of the normal style silicon ear tips (XS, S, M, L) and then 3 sets of double solid silicon ear tips (S, M, L). The double solid  silicon ear tips are capable of providing a far greater seal inside your ear canal, further improving the sound quality. This extra range ear tips mean that you are guaranteed to get a superb custom fit.

Superb Audio Quality

Denon’s music maniac range of headphones is all about quality of audio & the joyous listening experience that they give. The AH C250 in ear headphones contain single balanced full range drivers that are matched with a passive crossover to give a totally transparent, character free audio curve. Music truly comes alive when listening with crystal clear vocals coupled to a deep, yet accurate bottom end. Because of the overall comfort and spacious audio detail, listener fatigue really isn’t an issue in the slightest. These are perfect travelling earphones that allow you to lose yourself in your music on the move.

Denon Club Audio App

Instead of pretending that audiophiles don’t listen to music on smartphones, Denon have taken the decision to embrace the future. As mentioned before, the Denon AH C250 earphones have been specifically designed for use with smartphones. They have also taken an additional bold step by actually developing an app for both iPhone and Android to use with their earphones.

The app allows you to customize your audio experience by allowing you to create, store and share custom EQ curves. The addition of a real time spectrum analyzer makes the creation of custom EQ settings even easier. As you’d expect with any music app, you can create custom playlists easily. An added extra bonus is the provided access to over 70,000 international internet radio stations via the TuneIn internet radio service. There are also additional social features so you can update your Facebook or Twitter status while you’re listening as well.

Outstanding Quality

Denon aimed very high and promised a lot with the launch of the AH C250 earphones, and we think they have achieved what they set out to do. They are stunningly beautiful to look, feel very solid in the hand and sound amazing in the ear. They are quite possibly the best earphones for use with a smartphone around. We love them and highly recommend them. If you are serious about your music, and want to immerse yourself in audio when you commute or travel, then these are the earphones for you.