Ultrasone Edition 8 headphones hands-on and impressions
By Darren Murph 
posted July 17th 2009 12:45PM
posted July 17th 2009 12:45PM
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Make no mistake, these cans are for audiophiles (affluent ones, at that) only. We mean, $1,500 headphones are hard to justify regardless of your salary, but those obsessed with hearing only the best have proved time and time again that they'll pay absurd quantities of cash in order to do so. At any rate, we have to admit that the fit and finish here really shines. Every square millimeter of these just scream precision and luxury, and the materials chosen for construction are just delightful to the touch. The headband and earcups are soft and supple, and the extensions on both sides were easy to adjust. We'll confess -- we weren't huge fans of the chrome cup exterior, as our fingerprints managed to mar the shine within a few seconds of looking things over. The cabling that extends down is nothing too fancy, and while we're sure it'll hold up just fine, we honestly expected something a bit more extravagant given the price.
Frankly, the earcups are on the small side. We got the feeling that Ultrasone built these to barely fit around one's ear in order to provide maximum isolation from outside noise, but in practice, it's a design that will very likely irritate wearers after an extended period of time. While testing, our head and ears were perfectly comfortable for around 1.5 hours (and noise from the outside was essentially nonexistent), but into the second straight hour of listening, we were finally forced to remove them due to noticeable discomfort. We made sure to tweak the headband and all, but we never could wear these for over three hours without having to give our ears a break. Granted, most listeners won't sit for three solid hours and listen to their headphones, but if any niche would, it'd be the hardcore audiophiles (read: the very segment these are targeting).
So, we know you're curious about the sound quality, and we have to say -- it's downright dazzling. We listened to these on everything from a janky $20 MP3 player to an iPhone to a Denon SACD deck, and one thing became glaringly apparent: if you're listening to lossy tracks through these, you'll know it. These are amongst the few cans we've ever tried where the detail was so great that you could literally tell a difference between sources. We heard background vocals and subtle instrumentation changes for the first time in jams that we'd been listening to for years, and we were simply astonished that actual head pain set in long before ear fatigue. The Edition 8s did a marvelous job of projecting the highs and mids in a way that really cut through, yet we never grew tired of hearing cymbal crashes and squealing vocals. "Clarity" was the one word that kept popping to mind when switching from track to track; it was almost as if the fog we'd been listening through on stock earbuds had finally been removed.
Though, for as well as the cans handled the highs and mids, we have to admit that we expected more from the bottom end. From the factory, the bass lines are nearly non-existent. We had to bust out the equalizer and boost the bottom frequencies to bring the bass more in line with the mids and highs, and in most instances, that sufficed. When given a little incentive, the Edition 8s handled kick drums and bass runs like a champ, but they didn't seem to get along so well with pulsing beats and electronic booms found frequently in the techno genre. In fact, we heard audible distortion in the bass frequencies alone on a number of occasions with the volume at around 40 percent, and while killing the EQ fixed the issue, it also removed the drive that's so crucial in these types of tracks.
All in all, we were absolutely impressed with the overall clarity and build quality of Ultrasone's new flagship headphones, but the quirks present weren't minor enough for us to totally forgive. If you're the type who listens exclusively to Johnny Cash, Nickel Creek and Dolly Parton, you've found your perfect cans. If your playlists contains artists such as LCD Soundsystem, M83 and Brothers, you should probably look for a set that's built to handle the low-lows a tad better. If you're somewhere in between, we'd say that you'll be thoroughly pleased with the output of the Edition 8s, but unless you've got boatloads of cash and a dearth of ways to spend it, we don't feel that these perform $1,300 better than, say, the also marvelous Audio-Technica ATH-A900s.
Why do the writer's of Engadget and Gizmodo always refer to themselves in plural in their own articles? Sure both are blogs but the freedom of that does not warrant such bad style. There's clearly only one author and frankly it's ridiculous to read. Sure both a blogs but the freedom of that does not warrant such bad style. Either the writers should look up a psychiatrist with this problem or go back to school.
Maybe because several people listened to them?
Possible, but then why isn't it stated who was present and/or had a go with them? It's just we-we-we-we-we... It can't be that everyone thought the same. There's a lot of such articles here where the author expresses his subjective opinion with 'we'.
Sennheiser's FTW
Fanboy alert. Sennheieser makes great products but so does Ultrasone, AKG, Beyer, AT, Denon, Grado and others.
All so you can listen to music that was most likely mixed using a pair of $200 headphones
Not for nothing, but you'd think at $1500 they'd offer a replaceable cable or AT LEAST a one-sided cable that doesn't come out of both earcups.
I'd take a 2 sided cable over a 1 sided cable anyways.
1 sided cables feel unbalanced.
The padding has creased leather. Seriously? I pay $1500 and I get CREASES ON THE PADDING??? WHAT AN OUTRAGE.
They should come to my house, measure my ear and then mold that shit to my head for $1500. J.k. but $1500 is really expensive for headphones.
I'm all for surround sound headsets... I just bought and reviewed a pair of Razer Megalodons and I am about to buy a set of Astro A40's to compare.
BUT, you are comparing apples with oranges my good man. Surround sound is great for games and immersion while you play, but they won't compare to a set of high end stereo headphones for music.
Fuck those headphones. Imagine the pair of speakers that can be had for the same price.
I'm imagining a fairly shitty sound system. Headphones are way cheaper than sound systems, even if you ignore the fact that your speaker amp is going to cost a lot more than a headphone amp.
My receiver alone costs more than those headphones.
Imagine this. Only 5.1 but that's enough.
http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=3
So it sounds like these aren't actually that great. For $1500, you shouldn't have to put up with any discomfort at all, let alone sound that isn't that great. I also don't really see the point of closed headphones at this price. If you want to use them on the go or in a plane, you'd be better off with some in-ear buds from Shure, etc. If you're using them at home, you would get much better sound with some open headphones. I picked up some Sennheiser HD580 for $120, and they are pretty damned good.
If you guys are going to start reviewing high end headphones, I would get a headphone amp to match them. Rule of thumb in the audio community seems to be to spend about as much on the amp and DAC as the headphones because those are just as important. Good headphones are going to sound like crap with a poor source. I don't know what price range that Denon SACD player was in so it could have been good enough. Even then though, since ultrasone makes headphone with electrostatic drivers, you need an amp that works well with those as they are much different than normal ones.
A lot of bigot customers assume that price = quality.
I also would rather have a pair of HD800's or maybe a D7K or that JVC model that's also around this price. I own a pair of W5000's myself which are also around that price, but I would recommend another one of this short list over them. They are fantastic if you like a relaxed sound but the others are just cooler.
For that price. rather HD-800.
For bang-4-buck, HD-650/600 FTW. The rest are just there to fill the void. Details are overrated once you had your burn-in, seductiveness and emotional highs are wut get ppl coming back for more, and hate to say it, senn gets it done without compromising too much.
I'll stick to my Ozma 7's thanks.
Hafa Adai!
I haven't heard Hafa Adai in like 5 years. To cool!