S-Logic is neither here nor there, something of a marketing ploy with genuine but somewhat esoteric theory behind it. I don't think anyone has been able to prove nor disprove it at this point. Basically it has to do with sound-space, and the claim is that it enhances dimensional perception and imaging. Due to the implementation however, it's believed that not everyone responds to its effects, and thus some individuals would appear to benefit from it while others do not. In either case I don't think it hinders the sound, and for those who don't sense it the effect is merely negligible. Personally I find the effect to be somewhat apparent, and it seems to give the Edition line (and new Signature line) a satisfying holographic quality. It enhances the feeling of "being there."
The HFI line is pretty good if you're looking for "fun" coloration, the sort of headphone that lends itself to movie watching or other multimedia applications. On the other hand, I personally think the normal PRO line is awful. I know they have a following here, but personally I can't stand the PRO 900 / 2900. The Edition line is fun and excels in certain areas, but they have a lot of quirks and idiosyncrasies that one should be aware of before proceeding. They're far from perfect with definite flaws, but I feel this gives them a somewhat endearing quality. Plus there's definitely a strong emphasis on aesthetics over which some head-fiers get their panties in a bunch. The Signature Pro on the other hand stands as Ultrasone's most competent effort yet, and I would recommend it as THE money-is-no-object fully closed headphone. It shows that Ultrasone can learn from their past mistakes, though it remains to be seen whether they can keep it up or not.
So a quick history lesson.
When the Edition 7 was first announced, people took one look at the $3000+ price and their opinion of Ultrasone was pretty much cemented. You know what they say about first impressions, after all. When word arrived that they were essentially made from fancy metal-covered plastic with exotic, pseudo-endangered-species-leather earpads and 14K gold accents, all housed in a box fabricated out of the wood from a 100 year old tree, it kindled the flames of suspicion and served as the genesis point for a host of memes. Ultrasone was all style and no substance. Ultrasone gobbled up rare natural resources. Ultrasone was for people who had lots of money but no common sense. I think many individuals made up theirs minds as to how the Edition 7 sounded without ever having heard it, and still others assumed, perhaps understandably, that it must sound better than anything else currently on the market. The price = performance assumption is, of course, erroneous.
Not many people listened to the Edition 7. Really it only took a few mediocre reports to get many a forum goer to move on and never look back. Still, enough Hong Kong businessmen and Bavarian showboaters took notice for the stock to sell out, and Ultrasone more or less succeeded in what they set out to do. Next came the Edition 9, the concept for which was actually in development simultaneously alongside the Edition 7, and from the get-go it was intended to be a "less luxurious" alternative for the "slightly more average connoisseur." The drivers were the same as the Edition 7's, and only a slight difference in damping was implemented between models. The biggest difference was in the build materials: the silver-colored Edition 9 was slightly less extravagant than its blue-enameled sibling. The earliest models lacked a serial number printed on the face of the cups, but subsequent production runs printed these identifiers on the headphones. Whereas the Edition 7 could be considered a failure in the overall scheme of things and in the popularity it failed to garner, the Edition 9 suddenly became quite desirable for a time. Ironically they were more or less the same headphone in terms of sound, but now suddenly the Edition 9 was esteemed in this regard, and I think this legitimately had to do with the fact that more people heard them versus the Edition 7 whose reputation was fixed on a handful of mediocre, noisy meet impression.
The pendulum swings. There was a period of FOTMism surrounding the Edition 9 specifically, mostly due to the shilling efforts of a few rather infamous head-fiers in particular. Unfortunately it was passed off as being a giant killer and misrepresented in the midst of this fervor, and so there was a backlash when peoples' expectations for a neutral reference headphone weren't fully met. Consider that people were saying that it outperformed the Omega 2 or the R10; as much as I enjoy the Edition 9, these sorts of claims are just FOTM silliness. So as the fervor wound down and the dust settled, the same old memes began recirculating with renewed enthusiasm as the hype-busters recounted their victory. It's a cycle that repeated itself once again for the announcement of the Edition 8, and now that Ultrasone was marketing them as a portable and promising to make an endless supply for those interested, more people than ever before began to take notice of the Edition series, and as one might expect both sides---supporters and detractors---garnered more adherents than ever before. With the Edition 8 however it seemed as though Ultrasone hit their stride, finally producing something extravagant but with enough mass appeal to ensure that the period of FOTMism that followed eventually petered out and diverted into a more stable, steady stream rather than continue to churn without a place to go, working itself up into a swirling frenzy of backlash.
The Edition 8 is not without its share of controversy, but it stands as Ultrasone's most mainstream success. Keen to capitalize on this, they decided to make the Edition 10 an open headphone, a true reference and statement piece to coexist alongside its portable brethren. In planning the direction to take things, Ultrasone seemed to have gotten their wires even more crossed than usual, and they ended up with what amounted to a parody of "hi-fi" more or less. They pursued this vision to a singular extreme, forging a headphone with too much of that treble sparkle people often equate with detail and focusing too much on its spatial prowess and soundstage, neglecting other facets such as overall tonality and coherence. Basically it was a stereotype of "audiophile headphone" as defined by recents trends, namely the HD800 and Ultrasone's own Edition 8. What they created in the end was a headphone that excelled in several areas---quite astonishingly at times, I might add---while failing utterly in several others. Not a bad headphone to my mind, but a very uneven and problematic one.
Of course, when the Edition 10 was announced, people took one look at the price and their opinion was once again pretty much cemented. You know what they say about first impressions, after all. When word arrived that they were essentially made from fancy wood-inlayed metals and exotic, pseudo-endangered-species-leather earpads, all housed in a fancy wood box and bundled with its own headphones stand, it kindled the flames of suspicion and served as fodder for a host of memes. Ultrasone was all style and no substance. Ultrasone gobbled up rare natural resources. Ultrasone was for people who had lots of money but no common sense. I think many individuals made up theirs minds as to how the Edition 10 sounded without ever having heard it, and still others assumed, perhaps understandably, that it must sound better than anything else currently on the market.
The price = performance assumption is, of course, erroneous.
