Ultrasone goes 'airy' with $329 HFI-2400 headphones
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 7th 2009 8:04AM
posted Oct 7th 2009 8:04AM
posted Oct 7th 2009 8:04AM
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Really? $329 for head phones? really?
If you're going to spend hundreds on an iPod, why not also spend some cash on what is actually producing the sound as well?
i would love to hear the difference between my £40 Sennheisers and something like this.. Does it warrant the price difference? I hope so :P
even so, these cost more than most PMPs. I just dont think unless you have rediculous disposable income that these are worth the money.
I find the argument of "These cost so expensive! Why would anyone buy it?!?!" pretty moot.
You buy a DVD player for less than $200. YET, you just spent $1200 on a new TV. Why buy such an expensive TV if the DVD player you are using is sooososoososoo much cheaper?
You're paying for the higher fidelity that comes with your $1200 TV. You want all the HD goodness that comes out of the TV. Sure you could have bought that $200 TV, but you don't want to watch your movies on the 20" screen that doesn't do 1080p.
In a sense, that is what you would be doing if you spent the $329 on these cans. I COULD listen be listening to mp3s at 128kbps with the $2 buds that came with my mp3 player, or I could listen to quality V0 rips (or FLAC) from my $350 headphones and experience the musical fidelity that comes with it.
It's all about where your priorities are.
Plenty of people spend more than that for a DAP and then listen to it thru shit $5 headphones.
Anyway, you can keep these phones and use them in 10 years when you'll be saying "holy crap, only 8 gigs of music? And they wanted $200 for that crap??"
The average listener should first focus on buying low end headphones that don't suck, and then figure out where he wants to go from there.
airy? maybe because they look like have an open case on the speakers.... not really anything special.
Meh .. Grado SR135's for the win ..
Yeah, what do these do that a much cheaper Grado (which is considered a very, very good headphone)
doesn't?
What they do that Grado's don't is be comfortable. My Grados are the best sounding phones I have for about 10 minutes and then they hurt my ears and give me a headache. Circumaural headphones FTW!
Airy tones? For ultra realistic fart reproduction?
Fart jokes are hilarious. Hilarious.
I'm no audiophile, but when I pay upwards of $200 for a pair of cans, I would expect that they wouldn't be "airy", and instead possess a much more closed sound so I can pick hear the subtle nuances in the treble and such.
Maybe I'm confusing "airy" with "non noise-canceling"
In any case, I'm not buying these. I'm plenty happy with my Shures. :)
What they mean by "airy" is that the sound feels open. Imagine you are listening to a stereo system, the sound feels open and 3d. That is what these are supposed to reproduce. A open, 3d sound, rather then an "in your head" sound that most in ear and closed headphones produce.
Thx Zman, I was trying to figure that out too.
Nice design, dont know about the price though.
Well these aren't noise canceling, and most high end headphones aren't! You'll find that the ultimate best audio quality is achieved in open headphones without any noise canceling.
I don't know about these in particular, but I have a pair of Sennheisers that cost about this, and they were worth every penny.
Noise cancelation is a form of DSP. DSP = bad news for audio quality. Generally speaking, whatever you like better is better. But if you want accurate sound reproduction (i.e. not necessarily what you like, but what the artist intended you to hear like it or not) then you want to disable all DSP, noise cancelling, bass boost, EQ settings etc.
Of course open headphones sound better. They also require the most ideal circumstances while listening and are generally the bulkiest.
Man...i hoping for something like a wee bit cheaper than the Edition 9...
I guess have to stick with the plan...ALO HFI780...
this is nothing but the same ol OEM rebranded crap and dance. Look at Numark's PHX headphones. SAME THING. http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=numark%20phx&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi
LAAAAAAAAAAME
Some people can't really tell the difference between $20 headphone & $300 headphone although its dramatically sound different...
but that doesn't bother from enjoying the musics.
Why would people buy these to listen to compressed mp3`s with all the artifacts that come with it?
No these are not mp3 play/ipod phones,if you buy this range of audio headphones you need a decent cd/record player
amp and headphone combo otherwise you are paying $200 for something you cannot hear.
Anyway,nice earspeakers but i`ll stick to my Sennheiser HD580 Precision and the HD650`s
Epicurean? What?
I have a pair of their previous high-end closed model (Pro 750) and they are worth the money if you have source material that demands the fidelity. They're one of the few headphone models I've found to be useful when mixing and the comment about "airyness" is spot on. With my Ultrasones, I get a soundstage that is much more like a pair of properly placed monitors in a room rather than two speakers sitting an inch from my eardrums. They aren't a complete replacement for monitors, but I can get 85% of the work done in them before doing the final polish.
For PMP use, though, they're overkill and possibly not even usable. My iPhone doesn't have enough juice to drive them adequately. I also used them DJing once, but they weren't as useful as a pair of Sony 7506s... Ultrasones are accurate and relatively flat, which doesn't translate well when you're trying to hear exaggerated highs and lows in a club environment.
If anyone does pick up a pair, though, be sure to follow the break in process. I hooked mine up to iTunes at mid-high volume and stuck them in a drawer for 48 hours. Prior to break-in, the drivers are harsh, metallic, and almost literally painful.
Where can you buy good headphones for $80-90? With multiple drivers. They can be ear-buds or ones you wear outside. Anyone?