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The bigger the number the better, or are they side-grades?
That would be subjective. Personally, I now firmly subscribe to the latter school of thought.
My first Ultrasone was an ALO-modded HFI-780. (supposedly more "refined" than stock) Of the "audiophile" headphones I've owned/heard it was one of my least favorite. (possibly the very least) The treble was very aggressive and metallic with an overall glaringly bright, forward, and grainy presentation. I couldn't even tell you how the mids/bass performed as I couldn't get past the overly pronounced top end. They were sold in short order (were purchased used and already said to be extensively burned in so I wasn't going to waste any more time on them) and the funds reallocated. Although I didn't enjoy the ALO-780, my extensive reading here had me convinced that the Ultrasone "house sound" was what I was looking for, so I had a PRO-900 at my doorstep about a week later. These were again purchased used, but I did put on about 100 extra hours of burn in prior to listening as the previous owner was unsure of their head time. In terms of overall resolution and spaciousness they were a marked improvement, but again there was an excessive treble presence with the same brittle metallic quality of the 780. The bass, while paling pitifully in basshead comparison to the quantity and quality of the Darth Beyer V3 I had in the house at the same time, was easily more distinguishable on the 900 than the 780 but seemed to intrude on the lacking-in-presence mids from time to time. Comfort-wise, the PRO-900 performed admirably while I didn't/couldn't spend enough time with the ALO-780 to give a proper assessment. Both were driven from an Apogee Duet -> Meier Arietta.
My next Ultrasone encounter didn't come until much later when I owned the Edition 8 multiple times. (different finishes) I won't spend much time here as they're a completely different beast from the HFI/PRO offerings and do, in my opinion, what they should for the price: perform as the best current-production closed headphones. Just a lovely product through and through. (well, minus the 1500+ hour absolutely essential burn-in period...)
My ownership of the Edition 8 does, however, help to frame my admiration for the Ultrasone I received just last week: the HFI-580. Due to a change in living situation, I decided to sell my beloved Edition 8 in favor of re-embracing the grind through the mid-fi world as a pleasant distraction. While I no longer require closed-backs and will be adopting some open headphones as my main cans, I still want to have a closed pair around for when the isolation is necessary. Maybe it was the Edition 8 restoring my faith in Ultrasone or it could've just been pure curiosity, but when I seen a barely used HFI-580 hit the FS forum for under $100 I had to give it a shot. According to the seller they weren't fully burned in yet, but when I received them I had to test them to make sure they didn't have a blown driver or anything. I took off the 1/4" adapter and plugged them directly into my Macbook Pro, opened my iTunes library that was full of Fluke'd FLAC files, and selected a song at random... and then another... and then another. Three hours later I was responding back to the seller proclaiming my surprise for how well they performed! They were definitely on the brighter side of neutral with pushed, slightly thin treble, but they were an incredible improvement over the HFI-780 and PRO-900's sibilance-dominated presentation in nearly every regard with the only conclusive advantage either headphone having over the HFI-580 being the 900's soundstage size and comfort. (not that I took issue with the 580's performance in either of these categories) After the initial session, I decided to put them on a steady diet of pink noise/random content ran from my desktop to be revisited in 24 hours.
The next day, my intention was to play with some amping but wanted to hook the HFI-580 up directly to my laptop again to see if I could discern any marked improvement... and I did. The treble seemed more in line with the rest of the spectrum (less forward) while the mids gained a bit of body giving an increased sense of warmth (still brighter than neutral, but more slightly and plenty acceptable) and the bass... oh, it came out to play! In terms of bass quantity they're quite a ways off from something like the Darth Beyer or Terminator V4, but unlike those two headphones they don't unnaturally "inject" bass into the content, but rather summon it when it's necessary and conveys it in a clean yet pronounced manner. (much like the Edition 8... although the 8 also has greater bass quantity) Even running directly out of the Macbook I was also impressed by how resolving the HFI-580 was with no discernible grain, muddiness, or any other nastiness that clouds the presentation, but A-Bing iTunes and Amarra didn't yield the expected fidelity that I was accustomed to. The built in DAC was the culprit, because the second I hooked up the Apogee Duet 2 and plugged the 580 into its headphone jack I was floored! iTunes was now exposed for the boomy, congested, veiled mess it (comparatively) is and everything about the 580 was taken to the next level. More resolving. More spaciousness. More bass. Thicker but more extended treble. They still retained the drawback of being on the bright side of neutral, but for a sub-$100 investment I'm incredibly impressed by their overall performance. They did, however, seem to be "overdriven" by my PPAv2, but that'll be something that I'll revisit and go into further detail on at a later date...
But alas, after another 3 (or was it 4?) hour listening session back to burning in they went. I'm planning to keep them there for the better part of this week, but even if they see absolutely no marked improvement they're definitely keepers. I wasn't planning to gush about them this early into my ownership and wanted to wait until I have accrued some quality post-burn in head time, but the fact that I've found no disappointment in the HFI-580 coming directly from longtime (by Head-Fi standards) ownership of the Edition 8 should be considered an incredible achievement in its own right. Don't get me wrong, they're NOT in the same league as the 8, but for less than a tenth of the price they're fast becoming my price/performance favorite.
TL;DR: HFI-580 >>> PRO-900 > HFI/ALO-780
