The Denon AH-NC732 over-the-ear headphones are meant to compete the Bose QuietComfort series and other high-end active noise cancellers. Unlike many other active noise cancelling headphones, the Denon AH-NC732 headphones allow you to turn off active cancellation. Not only will this help conserve your batteries for when you need active cancellation, but the headphones have markedly better audio quality with the feature off.

Like most over-the-ear headphones, the Denon AH-NC732s are a bit on the large size, but are also very comfortable to wear. The headphones ship with two lengths of cord, a longer cord for connecting to your home audio system and one for using on the go with a portable media player. While we appreciate the options, carrying these around on a regular basis simply isn't feasible due to their size and loose fit: they'd slide around with every step. In addition to the two cords and carrying case, the headphones also ship with two adapters: 1/4-inch and airplane.

Performance  (read the full lab performance results at HeadphoneInfo.com)
The AH-NC732's performance depends on how you are using them. In particular, we noticed significant distortion when active cancellation was on that shrank to  virtually nothing when we turned the feature off. So what's the bonus of the active noise cancellation? Well, we found that in loud environments it does do a good job of cancelling out exterior sounds, especially bassy ones. While the active cancellation isn't as good at blocking out sounds as a good pair of in-ears, it is better than not having the option. Apart from distortion and noise cancellation we found the audio quality from the AH-NC732's was average; the headphones had particular issue with higher-pitched sounds.

Comparisons  (read more in-depth comparisons at HeadphoneInfo.com)
Compared to other over-the-ear headphones with active noise cancellation the Denon AH-NC732's offer one major bonus: good audio quality when the feature was turned off. When the feature is on the quality takes a hit, but if you need the feature, like on a bus or airplane, you're proabably not going to notice and quirks with distortion or frequency response. 

Although all active-cancellers tend to be over-priced, the Denon AH-NC732s manage to almost be appropriately priced. The AH-732s are $50 to $100 less expensive than competitors from Bose and Sony. Even without cost being in their favor, the Denon AH-NC732's make a compelling case for themselves as versatile over-the-ear headphones.