Headphone Reviews

Measurements
Frequency Response

Fig.1 shows the frequency response of the Edition 10.

All looks fairly normal up to about 1250Hz, then it takes a 15dB nose dive, followed by a weird humpty-bump frequency response curve, and quite a bit of energy above 10kHz. No wonder I hear them as confused and bright.

Distortion

Fig. 2 shows the Total Harmonic Distortion plus noise curve for the Edition 10.

The upward trending curves in the low frequencies is typical of headphones unable to contain and control the low notes. Escaping pressure from the earcups distorts the extremes of the low frequency sound causing essentially soft clipping distortion. Unfortunately, this is somewhat typical of headphones … until you get to the expensive ones like the HiFiMAN HE-500 and HE-6, Audez’e LCD-2, and Sennheiser HD 800 where the money you spend has been put into solving problems.

There is a strong distortion peak at 2kHz, which aligns with a bump in the impedance curve, and a strong null in the frequency response curve. The half wavelength of sound at this frequency is about 3” and roughly matches the inner diameter of the earcup. With the driver emitting sound at the edge of the inside of the earcup, I suspect this is the primary resonance mode of the enclosed volume between the headphone and ear, and is somehow loading the driver and causing it to distort.

Transient Response
300Hz Square Wave

Fig.3 shows the 300Hz square wave response of the Ultrasone Edition 10.

Fig.4 shows the Impulse Response of the Ultrasone Edition 10.

Transient response (behavior of the headphones with high frequency information) can be seen in the ability of the headphones to react to a rapidly changing signal. The leading edge of the square wave response shows an essentially undamped ring of a couple cycles. I suspect this is what I’m hearing when I perceive snare drum hits and high hat snaps as undifferentiated bursts of high frequency energy. The first positive going blip of the impulse response is rather stunted, and the following two negative going spikes is quite unusual ... and not a good result.

Ear Pads
I understand from reading about these headphones on Head-Fi that Ultrasone claims there was a problem with the ear pads making them too bright. The unit tested was serial number 411, and Todd said Ultrasone told him these cans had the fixed pad.

Summary
I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised at the poor performance I experienced with these headphones. There’s not a single Ultrasone headphone I’ve heard that I thought was worth the money. A $2749 headphone should sound much better. As far as I’m concerned, a buyer would be far, far, far better off buying a Sennheiser HD 800 and one of the new planar magnetic headphones from HiFiMAN or Audez’e, and still have change for quite a few hi-rez downloads from HD Tracks.

Way not recommended. I just feel sorry for those poor dead Ethiopian goats. :(

Resources after the video.

Resources

Florian Konig’s AES Conference Paper "The Causals of Headphones Tone Coloration Variations related on the Human Pinna Influence."

Head-Fi impressions thread for the Ultrasone Edition 10.

Head-Fi thread discussing the logic of Ultrasone's S-Logic.

A big thanks to Todd the Vinyl Junkie for letting me borrow the headphones for review. Sorry, man. (Somebody buy some headphones from this guy, not the Ed 10 ... but something. Poor guy is sitting on 3 pairs.)