So what's the word on the new Ultrasone HFI-780???? - Page 141

where did you get that for under 200 dollars?

Northern Sound and Light - order by phone to get the best price, then you are "a member of the club" and can log in to buy cheaper online the next time.

i know every one says these headphones are very bassy(is that a word?? lol)...and i am looking for a headphone that is good for bass...How would these headphones compare to the portapros in the bass department??

Now that it seems to be all-over-but-the-FS-forum-transactions, I've just read the first 29 pages of this epic thread and have ordered a stock HFI-780. The shipper is estimating the arrival date as Monday, 3/23/09. The careful descriptions of its sound, as well as the more subjective listening experiences involving the HFI-780 - and the many comparisons to other cans I have been wondering about - have made this can a must-try for me. Thanks, everyone, for all of the info. While waiting for the HFI-780 to arrive, I'll continue to work through the remaining hundred twenty pages of posts. Lotsa great infotainment here.

Some favorite HFI-780 "Recipes"

I have about 45 hours of use on the new stock HFI-780 and, so far, here is a totally winning combination: Purity Audio Caliente -> HFI-780 for listening to Collide. With Collide, I've been turning the volume up more than usual looking for a satisfying mix of the gorgeous bass with kaRIN's ethereal and mesmerizing vocals in the female vocal mids. With the combo listed above, I can listen at more usual overall volume levels to get the particular mix that my ear has been looking for.

This combo is also extraordinarily good with Caroline Lavelle (Spirit album) and Lisa Angelle (eponymous album). Let's see if the excellence of these combos hold up as the hundreds of hours of use accumulate. From what's been posted already about this, though, I'm expecting this to hold up (after going through a growing pains period of sssssibilance-perdition that I have yet to hit).

Since the Caliente is my favorite amp with the HD650, I've already had the experience that combining a bass-rich amp with a bass-rich phone does not necessarily result in too much of a good thing. To the degree that the stock HFI-780 are abundant in high quality bass, I am surprised that the combo of these phones with the (warmer) Caliente is as wonderful as it is. Again, need to see if this wonderfulness holds up as I take the phones through more of their burn-in cycle, which I'm expecting based on posts to date.

I'm also pleasantly surprised that the soundstage using the HFI-780's has as much depth as it does. As posted, the HFI-780's give a wider-than-deep presentation of the spatial aspects of the music, but its depth is more present than I was preparing myself for based on those posts.

Listening sessions intended to be "a quick listen-in on break in progress" can easily morph into several hours of being lost in the "(stock) HFI-780 Triangle" of Spectral Profile, Clarity/Detail and Timbre/Tonality.

Another convert! I will never sell my pair of 780's. I love them.

Just beware -- as I posted way earlier in this thread -- pick up and listen during the burn-in at your own risk!

Some 780's seem to be stable during burn-in time, but....

Some of these cans go wildly haywire during burn-in,(!) and you may pick it up and have a heart-failure from some funky (BAD funky) sound -- if so, put them right back on burn-in, and wait until the time you pick them up later on, again, and they sound r-e-a-l-l-y good -- mine took almost 200 hours to "settle down".

Mine went from "pretty good" to "WTF!?" to really good -- all during the burn-in.

No kidding. But, it's worth the wait.

I have just read this entire thread. Interesting and a bit worrisome at the same time, given the rollercoaster burn-in and some saying that its bass is crappy and the treble is way too strong.

I ordered the HFI-780 recently and it will get here Thursday. Hopefully I will like its bass. I'm currently listening to the DT770 Pro 80 ohm, and I'm kind of enjoying the heavy bass on the tracks that I think need it, but the quality is not good - bloated and "slow" is what I would call its bass. I miss the Denon AH-D7000's incredible bass, but I have decided that a bassy sound is not worth more than $200 to me, thus the DT770 Pro and now the HFI-780 (which will hopefully remind me more of the D7000 than the DT770 Pro's crap-bass).

The HFI-780 really is not that bad. The ALO modded ones take 180-200 hours to burn-in, stock takes an extra 50-100 hours due to the crappy cable I guess. For the $160 they go for these days, I think it is a decent value.

So far I like mine with about 50+ hours burn in. They work well with my Zune as well (unamped). The Bass was crazy wild when I first tried them but they seem to have settled down. Now I like the bass sound coming out, sounds really good with both indie rock and Jazz.

I predict that very soon the sound will go a little flat and dull vs initially, and then by 100-125 hours it will sound better than before.

When i used mine 780's out of my zune they sounded really loose, like everything was good but just not tight and punchy as it did out of my icon mobile. But i guess i am using alo-780's so they might be different

I definitely experienced a turn for the worse with my 780's around the 90 to 110 kinda of time frame, but now they are better than ever and i am loving how they sound

Hopefully it isn't too late change my order from HFI-580's to HFI-780's!

OK, just got them, and they sound like utter tinny ****. If there is a headphone in existence that will convince me of the existence of burn in, it will be this one. The sound I'm hearing now, I would not pay even $10 for. There is no such thing as body, bass, midrange, or anywhere near accurate tonality or texture in these things. Just horrendous, worthless, tinny sound. There is nothing good about the sound.

Burn-in better happen with these things, or I've just made the absolute worst purchase ever in my whole life.

edited to add: I am 100% serious about this; ignore the last line of my signature.

Interesting... mine had quite a bit too much bass right out of the box.

Oh, GOD. The bass that is there is literally just a "boom." That is it. No texture or anything to it. There is no midrange, just tinny-*** treble.

This is the headphone equivalent of an April Fools' joke. "APRIL FOOLS!!! You just paid $190 for a crappy $20 headphone!"

edited to add: I've only been trying directly out of my laptop; maybe it is the worst possible headphone/source match in existence. Be back with impressions out of my 0404 USB and Total AirHead.


edit: nope, still worthless. I thought I was done with crap this bad 3 1/2 years ago.

edit 2: I think the S-Logic is a big part of the worthlessness of the sound. It reminds me of the way my headphones sound like with my X-Fi's CMSS-3D on, which is to say, ruins the sound signature of any headphone, turning it into generic $20 headphones. Looks like my ears hate S-Logic.

edit 3: ok, maybe the bass isn't as bad as I thought, quality-wise. But the midrange and treble are both horrible. I cannot imagine anyone thinking that this is a realistic or even good sound. There is no such thing as lower-midrange in this headphone.

edit 4: I'll be back tonight to report on any changes in sound.