Denon PerL Pro earbuds review – Getting great sound buttoned up

We want to love all of the Denon PerL Pro earbuds. We do. But two aspects of these excellent-sounding in-ears prevent a complete love affair. One of these is purely aesthetic and you might find you’ve got a different opinion to us. The other… that one’s pretty universal. But these do sound great.

As well they should for roughly R7,500. It’s possible to find them for less than R6k and you should consider picking a set up at that price, but you’ll have to make do with some less-than-stellar active noise cancelling. We’ve seen relatively affordable in-ears best Denon’s buds in that category. More than once, actually. But that’s no reason to disregard these.

Cute as a button?

Denon’s PerL Pro buds arrive in a neat pill-shaped case that doesn’t look far off from Sony’s XM4 offering. There’s relatively little in the box along with the case and their cargo of earbuds. A small cardboard receptacle contains a short USB-A to USB-C charge cable and a loose collection of interchangeable tips. We feel like Denon could afford to go for something more organised but since the default set was perfect for us, there was no reason to interrogate this choice further.

Inside the case are the buds themselves. They are… large. Not comically unwieldy, though part of us thinks that would be hilarious. The buds weigh a little under nine grams each, which is heavier than we’re used to. Most of this weight has to do with Denon’s choice to perform considerable self-advertising.

The design is somewhat practical but Denon couldn’t resist putting a large logo on the large button-shaped section of plastic that faces the world. It makes us look like we’ve got a large plastic cylinder rammed through our skulls and also unbalanced the PerL Pro’s fit enough to ensure that these are confined to non-active usage only. They’ll stand up to a moderate walk but anything that puts a bounce in your step will see you stooping to retrieve one bud or another with alarming regularity.

AAT’s what I like

It’s almost a pity that Denon’s PerL Pro has opted for the wonky fit because we’d wear these everywhere if it was feasible. The sound out of the box is a little thin (Stuff‘s Duncan Pike would say this is because they were “properly tuned”) but it grew on us after a few hours. We’d cheerfully wander through months with this sound profile active and not lose a minute of sleep. But there’s a reason why that would be a silly choice to make.

The default sound is how we tend to conduct reviews. Part of this is because we’re a) lazy but also because b) other folks are also lazy. Denon’s PerL Pro buds punish laziness by keeping the very best sound they’re capable of to themselves. A feature called Masimo Adaptive Acoustic Technology (AAT), which is a series of tones you interact with via the mobile app, will configure these buds specifically for you. In theory, the best sound you’ll ever hear from your earbuds is possible here. If, on the other hand, you have a bit of a tin ear, you’ll find the feature wasted on you. It’s nobody’s fault. Okay, maybe it’s yours. There’s a reason you wear ear protection in a shooting range.

The resulting unique profile will suit your idiosyncracies down to a tee. The feature isn’t unique to these in-ears, as we’ve seen it in action elsewhere, but Denon’s 10mm titanium drivers perform better than many competitor buds. The custom audio profile is almost a bonus.

What’s the catch?

There’s always a catch and it’s not the overlarge button design of the buds themselves. The major stumbling block is in the form of noise cancelling. Active noise cancelling (ANC) hasn’t been left out but the implementation feels half-hearted. The hear-through mode seems to mostly mute some of the PerL Pro’s volume, allowing sound to leak through. Activating ANC is a more immersive experience but there’s still intrusion from outside. We’ve seen cheaper buds do a better job at this. If the audio quality was similarly good we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend those but Denon has the edge there.

So ANC isn’t up to the standard set by the audio. So what? The app lets you tweak the touch controls on the buds themselves. The large surface means you’ll rarely mess up your navigation, though it’s easy to whack an earpiece a little too far into your ear canal if you’re too enthusiastic.

The PerL Pro’s battery is worth noting. It’ll power through an entire workday without quitting. That’s a claim from the company and a practical result — eight hours on a charge is decent going in our books. There’s a further 24 hours in the case too, which is competitive without leading the pack. We’d have expected more, based on the case’s size, but it seems that’s mostly to accommodate the two large Denon buttons you’ll be thrusting into your ears.

Denon PerL Pro verdict

For nearly R8,000 you could probably grab a better-balanced set of earbuds than Denon’s PerL Pro in-ears. There’s absolutely zero cause for complaint on the sound front, which is the main reason to check these out. The battery handles its end of the couch too. The fit isn’t suitable enough to make these an all-round pair, even if there’s an IPX4 rating packed in. They’re too easily dislodged and we found the button design a little unsightly. Finally, there’s active noise cancelling, which is present but has been done by competitors offering in-ears at half the price.

The result is above-average audio, with the potential for excellent if you’re able to make the most of the Masimo Adaptive Acoustic Technology feature. That largely depends on you. If your hearing is sensitive enough to finely tweak these buds, you’ll struggle to find better sound anywhere else. Of course, they’re then customised to you so you can’t show off the finer points of that Salieri concerto to your mystified mates who are wondering why you’re suddenly a fan of eighteenth-century Venetian composers. For sound alone, check Denon’s PerL Pro buds out. If you need all the boxes ticked and can accept less on the audio front, it’s better to seek relief elsewhere.