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Originally Posted by Bootleg /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The funny thing is that the only pair of Ultrasone's I have heard so far are 4N6's Ed 9's. I absolutely loved them.
Based upon that listening session, I asked my audio dealer buddy to order me a pair of Ed. 9's.
He then went into his Stevie Wonder story and he and I argued a little bit about the merits of the 750's vs the Ed 9's.
He then said he had a buddy who was an engineer type at Ultrasone's office on the East Coast somewhere and that he would call the guy and get his take on the 750 vs Ed 9.
A few hours later, my friend calls back and says that after some initial jockeying, the Ultrasone rep kinda "came clean" and stated that 90% of the difference between the two cans is "cosmetic stuff for audiophiles". He also mentioned that the 2500's are his personal favorite (even beyond that of the Ed 9's) because they have flatter frequency response.
After hearing this, I decided to give the 750's a try, and possibly the 2500's at a later date (At $400 vs $1500 he didn't have to twist my arm that hard). I opted for the 750's because I strongly prefer the isolation advantages of closed vs open...so long as SQ is approaching similar levels.
I'll have the opportunity to compare them directly to 4N6's Ed 9's in a couple weeks.
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It makes little difference to me that you get the 750s (which I owned and loved) of the Edition 9s (which I own and love much more). What does bother me is the implication that myself and a whole bunch of other are dupes who are fooling ourselves with placebo effect. It's just not true. I've had a number of other things where if I was going to "placebo" myself, my more expensive gear (owned) would have come out much better than some lesser expensive gear (also owned) I A/Bed with. Also I get concerned that other who lurk and monitor might be falsely swayed by the implications and speculations of your comments.
I don't know the depth of your relationship with your audio dealer "friend." It sounds like some inaccurate information (not necessarily deliberate) has come out so far from you or him regarding the supposed Ultrasone office in New York that doesn't seem to exist if Dex (who has a lot of info on all things Ultrasone) is accurate. But if you are interested I have a simply test that you can do to see if availability of the Edition 9s has had anything to do with the way you were influenced. PM me and I'll tell you how to do this "test."
Engineers are not necessarily into the appreciation of high end audio, so it's not like that is an iron-clad endorsenment one way or the other. I would want to find out how much listening for enjoyment the engineer (assuming he/she exists) does. What I can tell you from my experience is that the whole percentage analogy just doesn't hold up. If that were the case I could very happily say that the Edition 9s are 98% (or more) of the R-10s. And that may be true. IMO & experience there is magic in that 2%. For some of us that magic can be enough to make us want to spend some big bucks.
I have had the Koss KSC75 (and currently own the KSC35), an approx $20 headphone. By your profile you have Porta Pros that I suspect might be similar to the KSC 75s. By
my estimation the KSC75 is probably close to 85-90% of the 750s or of say your 701s in raw overall sound quality (whatever that is). Why would you pay approx 20X ($20 vs $400) as much for the 750 or 701s? For me, the answer is that I can hear the difference and it's worth the added expense to me. And is the difference you can hear (assuming this is the case) between the Porta Pro and your 701s due to placebo?
There is no way in the world (IMO) that the Edition 9s (list $1500/ street $1140) is 4X better overall sound quality (whatever that is) than the 750 (list $400/ street $260). But in terms of my subjective experience the Edition 9s are more than 4X better. Knowing what I know now, and having aquired the taste for the more refinded sound quality of top tier headphones (I include the Edition 9 and the balanced Senn 650s in this group), I would probably pay $2500, maybe up to $3K for the Edition 9s--as long a I had the money.
And if the Edition 9s didn't exist, I'd probably be looking to spend that kind of money on the Grado PS-1s or the L-3000.
What I've come to realize is that even if 2 headphones share the same driver there can be sound quality differences. I have proof of this for me in my Senn 580s that I did the 600 mods on. Maybe it is in spec matching of the drivers, or that higher performing drivers are selected out of a batch (I'm told that computer chips do this to obtain their different grades) or the quality of other materials used (besides the Ethopian sheep leather, which I assumed was a comfort tweak). One thing for sure is that the internal wiring is different. Whatever the technical differences, and I don't really care as long as the bottom line is there, there is a very significant difference in sound quality with the Edition 9s.
I hope that once you get your 750s (fine as they are) you will compare them side by side with the Edition9s. And then come back here and report your findings. You've implied some things publically in your posts here and I hope that you are a big enough person top "eat your words" publically
if your experience proves them false.
