Of all my Bluetooth devices there remains two of the top two Bluetooth devices that truly took me by surprise as the greatest to ever exist and easily the only devices that made me almost reconsider my stance against AudioPhile Wired IEM’s vs Bluetooth for the first time in my life. The two earphones are the Cambridge M100 and the Denon Perl Pro. If you have kept up with all my reviews, you know that I give nicknames to all my earphones and IEM’s. For the Cambridge M100, I nicknamed it Feyd Rautha. It was the shake up of all the bluetooth devices at an incredible price of $159, possible the greatest price to performance to exist in the world of Bluetooth today. And then finally the ONE, NEo..aka The Denon Perl Pro, the greatest sounding bluetooth at the time of reviewing a couple of months.
The battle had to take place and honestly I had no idea what would happen or how it would turn out. Being that I was mostly listening to the Cambridge M100, I was really smitten by this unit. The amount of bluetooth that was left defeated by this earphone was just too many to count. Other earphones just couldn’t match the sound quality, price, and especially the battery life. The only problems I had was the bulk of the inner piece into my ear was just a little wider than I wanted. It wasn’t something I couldn’t wear for hours but it was at times a little sore if I extended over a hour or more. And and of course I was never impressed by the phone quality. I think it might have been the hardest to impress in that category.
The Neo, aka Denon Perl Pro…while haven’t worn in months did have something wrong with them in their operation after my initial praise for them. This caused me to return them but I repurchased them to do this test and comparison, on top of the fact that I truly missed them and hated that I had to send them back. I was hoping that the issues I had wasn’t just across the board and maybe a firmware fix that had already took placed. Before I sent them back, I wasn’t impressed with the touch controls delays( this has been fixed with the new one) and the phone call quality was just passable just like any other bluetooth but that meant that they were better the the cambridge at least. The only question existed was if the sound quality was still the best vs the new kid on the block.
Results …..
The first thing and obvious thing is that that the Cambridge regardless of anything else holds the crown for battery life at 52 total hours. There is nothing to compete with! Cambridge outdid themselves. The next utterly complete victory goes to the Cambridge again as you can get them new for $159 vs the $270 for the Deon. NO Competition whatsoever, the M100 is just a jewel. The next thing that was the best on the M100 was the ANC and Hear thru. Their foam tips really made things silent when using them and the sound quality is amongst the best. FEYD RAUTHA…is a beast.
And so we move on to the Denon Perl Pro…NEO. The first thing I was surprised by was the fit. They actually were the very best I’ve felt …even better than the Cambridge by a good deal. They just sat still without any pressure and sealed so well. Another thing I love is how flat the design is made to be on your ears, something I struggled with the M100 (they would stick out like Frankenstein). The next up was the superior App. The Denon’s tech in their app is just next world advancement. I love how it has the ability to examine your ears and tonal ability to fit your sound needs. It also has tons of advance features like “high gain mode” and “Spatial Audio” that actually work and make a difference. They then turn around and give better phone call quality, thank God. Then, possibly the biggest shock victory in this contest, SOUND. I truly thought that the sound was going to be closer than this result. I thought there was no way that the Cambridge wouldn’t tie or defeat the Denon’s. I was wrong. Once all is set up and you using all the options available to you in the app, the sound difference is a clear as the Black sun difference to the Matrix Colorful world. It did beat the M100’s in bass, clarity , imaging , dynamics, and volume power, something I didn’t think was possible because they were already great but there is no way around the Denon Perl Pro ability in Sound quality.
If you add up all that what you end up with a tie between the Cambridge M100 vs. the Denon Perl Pro. Denon wins in sound, comfort, phone call quality, and app advancement. Price, ANC, Hear thru, absolute Royal kingship quality of denomination in Battery life belong to the M100 (with still absolutely amazing sound quality) and QA now. The only thing you have to ask yourself is what these things in each wins mean to you. Right now, I think that the QA issues, battery life, AnC, hear thru, and price might take the victory compared to the Sound and fit on Denon.
Update: Denon Perl Pro might have lied about battery life…..case goes red to 30% after 1 single charge. So no, you won’t get but two full charges from the case …placing this battery life under 21 hours. 1 hour after this, the right earphone just quit being seen or charged by the case and wouldn’t communicate with my phone anymore,the case had only 1 light on it and couldn’t be reset.
NOT ACCEPTBLE!
The bottom line is that it’s a great time to be into audio products that give such a big amount of choices that actually aren’t named Sony, Sennheiser, or Bose. For me, QA….fit, sound, Battery, Phone call quality are my top choices followed by ANC and Hear through. So I’m still on the fence about my direction. With Denon lying about battery charges and flat out failing within hours of purchasing it again …I can’t recommend them anymore. Either way … you can not take away the sure battle and respect you have to have for such brand names and especially the battle fought by the Cheaper of the two, more reliable of the two, the M100. The Reigning and Defending new Champion for blutooth audio earphones lies with Cambridge!
Tech-N-Things 