This is a long-winded first post but is for those of you who are wondering how the HD800 and the Ultrasone Ed. 8 might stack up against each other.
I'm quite new to headphones having only owned a pair of Ergo 2s (which long ago disintegrated in the Singapore climate). Recently, with all the hype about the Senn HD800, I thought I would have a listen to see if they really are better than a good pair of speakers. Anyway, to cut a long story short, in the last two days I have listened to the following : Beyer DT880, AKG 701, Grado GS1000, Senn HD800 and lastly, Ultrasone Ed 8 and 9.
The major problem I have with headphone listening is the hard in-your-head sound so I tried the Meyer and Phonitor amps to see if their cross-feed functions would help (they didn't). In the end, only the HD800, Ed. 8 and Ed. 9 gave me any semblance of an external soundstage. So to those of you who love your AKGs and Grados, sorry - they may be great headphones but I couldn't really like them - my problem, not the headphones' .
First I have to say that all the guys at Jaben, Stereo and especially the Sennheiser showroom were really great - very informative and patient.
So, what did I think of the three on my shortlist ? Well, the Ultrasone Ed.9 (with the Phonitor) lasted only 10 minutes. I did get that out-of-the-head experience but the bass sounded exagerrated to my ears and it resulted in the mids being less detailed that the other two 'phones. Didn't really like them.
The HD800s were quite astonishing in their transparency - better than any loudspeakers I have ever heard , with or without room treatment/equalization (Overkill, Wilson 7s, Harbeth M40.1, Quad ESL63, etc etc). So if you want all the detail possible from your source/amp, these are the ones. I didn't hear any sign of brightness but this was with the Lehmann amp so maybe a diff amp gives a diff result. There was some external soundstaging but this was the bit that let down the HD800s in my mind. The effect wasn't consistent enough - on some tracks, it felt like there was a real source in the room, with others not. Worst of all, on some tracks, the music sounded like it came from directly above my head or from behind me. Very weird. The other problem was that it didn't really engage me - but maybe that was the amp.
The Ed. 8 were the winners and unfortunately for my bank account, I bought them. I listened to them using the Phonitor and sure, this is a really great amp, but the Ed.8 had it all : extended, balanced freq response, harmonically rich (ie realistic), pace and timing, and of course, a decent out-the-head experience. I took them home, plugged them into my not-very-impressive Creek amp and within 4 hours, they sounded almost as good as I remember them in the shop. The only problem may be that their ear cups are quite small so if you have larger ears than mine, the outer ear might be compressed in such a way that it affects the performance. The only way to know is to go to Stereo and try them.
Anyway, just my personal opinion. I get the feeling that headphones are even more subjective than speakers so YMMV.
