Denon AHGC20 Globe Cruiser Review

Noise Cancelling

4.0 Great

Comparing noise cancelling to Bose QuietComfort as category standard, Denons fare quite well. Bose headphones are still winners of course, but only by a small margin.

Noise cancelling in these headphones is very effective and you can use them in any noisy environment. The effectiveness can be compared to Audio-Technicas or Sennheisers, not quite beating Bose, but close.

ANC technology is powered by one chargeable battery. You can only charge it with a micro USB cable that you get in the package.

For 3 hour charge, you’re getting about 20 hours of battery life in wireless mode. This is pretty good.

See:

Best noise cancelling headphones

Best noise cancelling earbuds

Durability

4.5 Almost Perfect

When it comes to Denon, build quality is top notch. These headphones are no different.

Very nice design with quality plastics and strong metal internal parts. These headphones were made for travel.

You can expect years of use out of these as long as you don’t abuse them too much.

Headphones fold flat so you can pack them in the carrying bag together with all the accessories and they’re ready to go. These were made for travel. Hence the name.

Comfort

4.5 Almost Perfect

Over-ear design with plush ear pads is very comfortable. This is more or less a standard in high-end noise cancelling headphones, but it’s good to know you can wear these for hours on end.

Even if they look big and heavy, they’re actually not. Because of plastics, they’re lighter than they look and fit very comfortably.

Long plane flight with these are a non-issue.

Features

4.0 Great

Bluetooth 4.0 ensures you can connect these to any smartphone and Bluetooth enabled devices. It works without connectivity problems, up to 30ft in range.

Supporting AptX you get the best possible sound quality you can get through a wireless connection, just make sure your music device supports it too.

Also featuring CVC, meaning Clear Voice Capture is a newer technology that helps with sound quality during calls. Many times talking over headphones is problematic, because of external noises that get picked up by the microphone.

You can connect them with the cable that you get in the package in case you want to use them as wired headphones, but note that play/pause and ANC on/off buttons don’t work in that mode.

Additionally, the sound is slightly better with ANC on, like with many other headphones. It’s just one of the limitations of the technology.

Sound Quality

4.0 Great

Sound quality is very good for Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones. You have to understand that you can’t achieve perfect sonic fidelity with Bluetooth and ANC headphones, at least so far nobody has done it to a satisfactory degree.

In fact, Denon AH-GC20 Globe Cruiser have come closest to that high standard.

Compared to most other noise cancelling headphones, these sound great, maybe not much better than Bose QuietComfort 35 but the support of aptX does make a difference.

The sound is fun to listen to, not flat but with quite some bass. Some would say even bass heavy, though real bassheads won’t be happy either.

Highs are clean and detailed, mids come alive from places you’ve never heard before and bass gives the sound that extra fun factor.

These are not audiophile headphones looking for a flat response, but great sounding headphones to have some fun with no matter where you go.

If you want great sounding Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones, from a reputable brand , Denon AH-GC20 Globe Cruiser are a possible choice.

Specifications

Matija Ferjan

Enthusiastically writing about headphones and audio technology since 2015.
Tested and tried hundreds of headphones. A true nitpicker, always looking for the “best-value-for-money” headphones.
Today, he’s mostly dealing with back-end content production and technical issues.