I borrowed an Edition Eleven. Curious to see where Ultrasone has been heading to after the very well regarded Signature Series, and indeed they steer towards new waters with this headphone. Despite a few flaws I like these.
I made a few amateurish photos of my headphones (HE-500, HD800 etc.) so here you get a shimmer of the beauty of the ED11. Ultrasone Edition headphones generally look amazing and are very well built, also in material choice they don't play around.
If only more headphones came packaged so well and actually FEEL a premium once in your hands and don't fall apart like the soul of an ex-communist spy caught switching sides.
Package includes: headphones, travel bag, a cable terminated with the connector of your choce (XLR, 4.4 etc, ), an enclosed sample of their new TruTex bio-cellulose driver and a nice headphone stand. So whatever you decide to do with the headphones after listening, there is no need to buy additional gear.
Honestly, headphone prices rose up so much and for a Kilobuck we often don't even get a simple bag, nevermind the nth revision of a headphone. That's embarassing. Anyway it doesn't stop there.
5 years of warranty.
Here's the FR of my model. FR's don't tell everything but from this graph you can already see that it's nothing you would expect from an Ultrasone when you departured from them years ago or skipped headphones like the Sig DJ, DXP etc.
comfort: Yes, these headphones do not have a lot of "wiggle" room and are actually surprisingly stiff in that regard. However once you placed them onto your head with your preferrable fit (forward, backwards away from the back of your ears etc ) they mould around you very soon and all is forgotten.
Kinda surprising. Even after a few hours these remain comfortable, my ears never touch the earpads in any case or circumstance. Notable headphones I cannot wear for a long time: T90 (pressure point on the top my head, ear touches pads), P7 Wireless (same), old K7XX headbad (instrument of torture), old LCD headband, T1.
The headband has no pressure points at all and actually fully disappears on your head. Well done. Most people are sensitive up there. Eierköpfe, rejoice! (mine is a well shaped grapefruit).
There is a slight clamping pressure below HD650 levels making sure you can headbang with these without risking them to come crashing down upon your desk, lap or into your Suppenschüssel.
And a good, hot, rich, well-flavoured Suppenschüssel is something you might want because they indeed are a departure from what some definitely expect from their previous Ultrasone headphones - which is a great move.
general sound impressions: overall good tonality/balance with a few exceptions (more below)
Dynamic, lively headphones with great kickbass that stomps and pounds very well, albeit not fast and clean like a (EQed, because midbass there needs to) LCD-2C and there's a bloomy character to it. However in exchange more openness and clarity in the mid and treble sections.
Anyway, under 1k and a few steps above, no headphone does bass like a well-driven LCD-2C so no shame there.
Bass: The above mentioned slight bloominess of the bass also gives this headphone a warmer tone and a somewhat enveloping, fatter character, making the image appear larger but naturally also slower (more romantic) overall due to the nature of the longer decay than the best planars. Extension down low is pretty good and as it usually happens with dynamic drivers there's
a rolloff when going into subbass regions (yes, there are exceptions like the TH-900 etc). Still where it matters for most genres, it comes plentiful without becoming too loose or going overboard, becoming boomy and even causing fatigue. All in all the ED11 does this part well and in a very engaging manner.
Mids: Mids are clear at first but also pronounced in the upper mids, I haven't found a peak there that made voices shouty to me, even at higher volumes. Mids are involving and portrayed with fine detail, breath. They lack the dreamy character of the HE-500 but they don't share the coldness of the HD800's mids or the LCD-2s distance/ in comparison lack of involving factor and don't apear thin to me due to the FR.
Treble: Rather well extended, well behaved, not HD 650 smooth though. Can be slightly splashy at certain frequency ranges and slightly aggressive like the HE-500 with velpads, on a smaller range though. Overall there is no glossing over details, no "eingeschweißter Schinken" effect
in terms of texturing and finer details as it can happen with some planars or the Sig DJ.
While rougher than the very best headphones these can still be driven loud.
S-Logic Plus is a strange beast. Certainly needs adapting, It might possibly not work for everyone and at first you might miss the openness or nature of these headphones. I don't know, kinda hard to describe. I certainly needed accustoming to it and now I can sense it even when having listened to the LCD-2C or another headphone for a day.
I wonder how S-Logic EX does in comparison, unfortunately it's reserved for the upper class headphones.
Negatives. There is some stuff I didn't like, since it can stick out:
There's a slight hard/harshness involved with these headphones (in the presence region) that can extend to a somewhat splashy nature in the treble with instruments, for instance with hi hats. Sabre DACs can go home, I don't think these would pair well, as with the HD800.
Reminds me of its 6khz. HD800 rises to greatness like Ikarus, and below the sun the beauty of our mother earth gazes upon you with a symphony of love, smiles and joy and then ZISSSSCHHHHH and you're back in the reality of a cold night in Munich waiting for the Ubahn for 40 minutes while wasting away unnecessary calories outside of the McDonald's. Yes this happened last night.
Anyway, while these aspects are less severe in annoyance factor compared to Herr 6Khz, they are harder to trace and remove for me. Maybe a mod might help as I suspect reflections to play their part here. It won't matter for many genres but it's there and we should tak about it.
more about this headphone later, also its gaming aspects.
Not knowing the ED15
these are the best open Ultrasone in years actually.