Amos, I completely agree with you on the afraid for fingerprinst and scatching part, but I do have to say this Ed.8 beats my ES-10, and not by a small margin. ES-10 is fun, but not as detailed and balanced, at least to my ears. And that comes from someone who prefers ES-10 over ESW10jpn and thinks ESW9 is very significantly less then the others mentioned.
But portable for jazz/classical, I guess your best shot is DT1350, good choice.
Thanks for the read.

I appreciate your candidness Currawong, especially so since you are a member of the staff here. That's seemingly a rarity in Hi-Fi unfortunately.

I've done what damning I need to do re: Ultrasone ... but I'm right with ya Amos. The Ed8 is weak for the price.

I normally wouldn't question an uncompensated review, but this one is so incredibly lacking in substance that it's tough to ignore. I can respect someone's opinion, but when they openly state that they couldn't listen to the headphone for more than five minutes and then post a "review" of it there's an issue. Clearly the impressions gained from this audition were better served as a single forum post than a hastily scribbled four paragraphs that fail to make mention of something as basic as the gear used to comprise the rig.
Two things that are definitively inaccurate with this review that everyone should know about the Edition 8:
-These are resolving to a fault. If you listen to poorly recorded material or have a bottleneck in your equipment chain, these will bring any shortcoming to the foreground.
-These are by no means have "boomy bass" or lack control in their low end performance. Do they exhibit more in quantity than, say, the HD800? Absolutely, but by my personal experience the HD800, while having less in quantity, output bass that is much more "boomy" and dispersed sounding. The Edition 8's low end performance is incredibly tight, textured, and varied. Whereas headphones often struggle with producing two or more distinct basslines, the Edition 8 passes this test in spades for me. (utilizing either version of Apogee's Duet feeding a PPAv2... the Meier Concerto didn't display the same level of articulation but still good) Futhermore, these add no bass if it isn't already in the content to begin with. Darth Beyers add bass. Denons add bass. PRO-900s add bass. The Edition 8 does not. This isn't head-shaking performance, but it can be ear-vibrating performance with the right track.
Full disclosure: yes, I'm a happy Edition 8 owner. With that said, these are the first and only Ultrasones I've owned that I actually enjoy. Of those owned, I would rank the other Ultrasones at the very bottom. I was in no way clamoring for an Edition 8 as, despite the written impressions that seemed appealing to me, I was expecting disappointment. Still, I had to know for sure. I spent over a year (close to two...?) intermittently contacting sellers on the FS forum to haggle a deal or watching eBay and Amazon to see if one would go for a price in which I could turn around and recuperate my investment with a quick sale. I finally found one on Amazon, pulled the trigger, and reservedly awaited its arrival. It came in, I unceremoniously plugged it in, and came away underwhelmed after a few tracks. It wasn't until I threw a wide variety of content at it that I fell in love with its signature.

What the Edition 8 is about is versatility. It doesn't "enhance" any particular part of the spectrum and doesn't smooth any rough spots. It doesn't make classical and jazz sound "romantic" and doesn't give rock any extra "crunch." What it does is sound honest and true to the recording as well as the equipment used. Due to personal preference, perhaps this is a potential shortcoming to some. However, for someone like myself who has zero belief in the boundaries of genres this is my reference. For those like me who place the burden of the "wow factor" on the musicians, composers, and audio engineers much more than on rolling various listening equipment, these are ideal.

But at $1500+ MSRP, the consumer would naturally expect a certain level of "wow" for their investment. Ultrasone seemingly didn't think the extreme resolution, superb imaging, and excellent tonal representation across the spectrum was worth putting a price tag on, and instead opted to build with ultra-premium components that were pushed as a premier feature. In that sense, these are absolutely overpriced. To me, there's zero reason why more run of the mill leather pads couldn't be married with plastic cups and a composite (or even keep the aluminum) frame. Unfortunately, the articulate SQ is not available in a separate package from the expensive luxury materials, so the value for cost takes an immediate hit. Not all the way to a one-star rating, mind you, but rather to a three star rating. Still, factor in the absolutely fantastic isolation that allows me to listen at my preferred volume while the significant other sits next to me and reads a book or watches TV comfortably and I would have to give a star back to bring the value rating to a solid 4 out of 5.

But I digress as this is fast becoming less of a comment to a mere stream of consciousness of one's first impression masquerading as a "review" and more of a review proper.

EDIT: Ha! I went on too long for the comment field.

Too long ... didn't read.

Tyll... you don't have to. If anyone's read (and heard) it all before, it's you.

I have looked at the Edition 8 with interest,a potential great sounding mobile set of headphones, Skylab amongst others rated them very highly,Currawong and Tyll certainly did not to say the least.
All of the above have opinions I value, I,m now officially Confused.com.

Curly21029: I owned them for some months and tried them many times, but on my system they were demolished by the likes of the HD-800s and LCD-2s -- the latter even having a general tonal balance that I tend NOT to like.
b0wl1ng: I have a bit of a theory that it may the different amps and types of headphones both Skylab and I like. I was using the ED8s mostly on solid-state gear, as does Tyll as far as I know and Skylab uses tube amps. With my dead-neutral Phoenix I found the ED-8s to be dead boring, as well as under-performing. It could simply be that Skylab can get something more to his liking out of them by tube rolling.

Currawong... thank you for providing more details concerning your Edition 8 experience. For the record, I know that Skylab was one of the contributors who recommended the Meier Concerto as a good mate to the Ed8, (not as good as the PPAv2, in my opinion) so he hasn't used it with tubes exclusively. Furthermore, I believe you're correct that he may simply have a different preference. At the risk of putting words in his mouth, I believe that he's stated his dislike for the HD800 on a number of occasions. I myself came away underwhelmed and unimpressed by the HD800 after a few auditions. Of course, I would need to spend some time with them in-house to make a confident recommendation concerning their performance, but I found them to be cold, distant, and having an unnaturally large presentation that rendered them impressive for large ensembles and uninvolving with everything else. They also have good detail and extension, but was more smooth and forgiving of flaws than the Edition 8 (a positive for many, a negative for myself and other critical listeners) and, as alluded to above, gave a bottom end that lacked in both presence and control. Truth be told, I preferred both the HD600 and, although I have less experience with them, the HD650 to the HD800 overall. But hey, thank goodness for choices, eh?
b0wl1ng... the best I can tell you is to try them for yourself. I know that may be easier said than done as I couldn't find anywhere to audition before purchasing, but you may need to do what I did: be patient, and wait for the right deal. (i.e. one that you can get out of easily if necessary) The Edition 8 clearly has many supporters and a few detractors. The main attribute that seems to make them a lightning rod for conflicting opinions is price. Being that cost vs value is largely subjective, only you can determine if the performance is worth the investment. To a somewhat lesser extent, keep in mind when reading others' comments that personal preference and a bias against Ultrasone products in general comes into play. Expounding on the latter, I'm in no way implying Currawong has a pre-established bias. If he ponied up the cash then obviously not. However, if you take a look around many of the less-established manufacturers can take a bit of flack that you won't see lobbed in the direction of an AKG, Beyerdynamic, or Sennheiser. Heck, if you asked me before trying the Edition 8, I may have made the general statement that I dislike Ultrasones based on the other offerings I've heard from them. It's not an extreme concern, but it's there and worth taking into account.

I am a pretty amateur audiophile and don't have nearly the resume as everyone else on this forum, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
I don't think its fair to compare these to reference, open cans. I own these and I'd give up my first born for them, but even I will admit as far as reference cans go they don't live up to HD800 or the beyer t1, or heck even my senn hd595's sq is alarmingly close.
These cans fit a niche. They are closed, portable, have a unique sound sig that emphasizes punchy mid bass and detail throughout the spectrum. If you are looking for a headphone to listen to classical music to on your 1000 dollar tube amps in the comfort of your home w/o ambient noise, this is not for you. If you wanna jam to lady gaga on your ipod (optionally with a lineout n small portable amp) while on a noisy train, then this is for you.
When you look at things that way, there really aren't very many options at this price point, basically D7000s, T5p, jv dx1000 and whatever else I'm missing. I haven't heard the T5p or the jv dx1000's, but these are definitely on par w/ D7000s.
just my two cents...

@rrahman
These are for "jamming to lady gaga on your ipod"? Are you serious? PLEASE be joking.
I don't understand the hate for this AT ALL, comparing it to Beats, saying it's only good for garbage pop? Have any of you actually listened to the ED8s??? Look at my profile, I prefer these to almost every single can I own and have tried, including the HD800. They are right up there with my LA7000, LCD2, HE500, and T1 as my absolute favorite cans.
I have absolutely no problem with anyone having different opinions from mine, but the things some of you are saying are completely ridiculous.

jeez... can't take a joke.
I happen to agree with you that they are the best I have heard... somehow that wasn clear or you missed it...
I didn say they were only good for garbage pop. I am just sayin they aren't meant to be reference headphones... My point was merely, they aren't meant to be compared to 300 ohm open backed beasts meant only for flat line frequency responses... rather comparisons should only be made to portable closed headphones, because thats what they are

and yes, i own a pair...

Funny, I wonder why I prefer them to the HD800 then (and yes I do like the HD800, love them in fact). I rank them equally to several other touted "reference" headphones, and I'm not the only one. The fact that they are also portable does not mean they cannot compete on the homefront. Also, the ED8 is leagues beyond the other portable closed cans.

You are right, that is funny.
Well, my understanding of reference was closest or most true to the actual recording. UE8's sound very, very different than hd800s and T1's to me. Infact they sound pretty different than any other headphone I have ever heard. I don't know if I could ever put UE8 in the same group of "reference" headphone as I'd put HD800s and T1s, which have signatures relatively closer together.
Again though I am an amateur... no need to bust out the caps, cause you disagree.

I disagree with you Currawong.

I agree with Alghazanth.

Since I posted this review, it seems very likely that the consistency in the sound between different pairs varies considerably, so it is possible I got a "bad" pair. Even so, that doesn't encourage me towards buying an expensive pair of Ultrasones again. The Sig DJ I heard recently though sounded very good to me and is far less expensive and more durable without the shiny metal.