utdeep
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2001
- Posts
- 1,872
- Likes
- 760
All,
I'm back from my regular 2-3 year hiatus from this board. My last incursion brought me the JH16Pros (to replace SE530s which replaced UE10s which replaced every other headphone in/out production in 2004) and Sennheiser MX980s (which replaced broken Yuin PK1s which replaced my all-time favorite KSC35s). I've also gone through my fair share of Ray Samuels amps and different DACs.
On this "trip", I've already replaced a Centrance DAC with a AudioQuest Dragonfly. While I'm not looking to replace the JH16Pros, I am looking for a closed back headphone. Based on what I've read, I'm only interested in the Ultrasone Edition 8.
However, I really don't understand the market value of the headphones. While retail value seems to be around $1,500, I see them trading for around $1000 in their Ruthenium form. On eBay, they seem to be available for even less with a recent auction getting down to the $760 level.
Between the information on Head-Fi and eBay, I can usually tell what a good price for a headphone, whether it is a good value, and what it sounds like. It seems like all my old headphone supremo role model folks are gone and I can't leverage their feedback on this. Two questions:
1. At around $800-$900, is the Ruthenium Ultrasone Edition 8 a good deal?
2. Ignoring IEMs, Denons, and HiFiMan, are they still one of the best closed headphones? Would it be accurate to call them headphones with Grado like sound + decent bass? The Grado SR225 also rank high on my list of most loved headphones but I like bass too.
Take care,
-utdeep
I'm back from my regular 2-3 year hiatus from this board. My last incursion brought me the JH16Pros (to replace SE530s which replaced UE10s which replaced every other headphone in/out production in 2004) and Sennheiser MX980s (which replaced broken Yuin PK1s which replaced my all-time favorite KSC35s). I've also gone through my fair share of Ray Samuels amps and different DACs.
On this "trip", I've already replaced a Centrance DAC with a AudioQuest Dragonfly. While I'm not looking to replace the JH16Pros, I am looking for a closed back headphone. Based on what I've read, I'm only interested in the Ultrasone Edition 8.
However, I really don't understand the market value of the headphones. While retail value seems to be around $1,500, I see them trading for around $1000 in their Ruthenium form. On eBay, they seem to be available for even less with a recent auction getting down to the $760 level.
Between the information on Head-Fi and eBay, I can usually tell what a good price for a headphone, whether it is a good value, and what it sounds like. It seems like all my old headphone supremo role model folks are gone and I can't leverage their feedback on this. Two questions:
1. At around $800-$900, is the Ruthenium Ultrasone Edition 8 a good deal?
2. Ignoring IEMs, Denons, and HiFiMan, are they still one of the best closed headphones? Would it be accurate to call them headphones with Grado like sound + decent bass? The Grado SR225 also rank high on my list of most loved headphones but I like bass too.
Take care,
-utdeep