[florin]

OK, went to the showroom, spent two hours there.

First I tried the DT250-250... well nothing impressive: the sound was too dark (opposite of bright ?!) for my taste... on some songs cymbals were too weak, bass a bit overwhelming . Rock sounded quite good even so, but overall tonality was wrong to my ears - for example a male voice that I enjoy very much (Marc Lavoine - he's french

) sounded awful to me.

Then I tried some DT770-250. The guy over there told me they are 2005 edition and are more expensive than DT770PRO-80 (is there a non-PRO version or what?!). This ones were pretty good - tonality was good, some nice details, treble was much better than of 250 although seemed unclear. Strange thing that I found the bass a bit lacking...

at least compared to DT250 it was obviously less bass, but it might be because of the source... some cheap-looking DVD-player.

So, if the DT770/80 are even better than this ones + a good source... should be quite OK. The bad news is that they'll be available in 2-3 weeks... so no I'm considering making a 60km trip to listen to those Ultrasones

 

[MaloS]

Make the trip, 60 km is not too bad. Judging by what people say about them they should have what dt770 is lacking.

Oh ya and on the case of dt770 lacking bass - 250 ohms driven by an out of a cheap DVD player can't ever be good, dt770 needs an amp >.<

 

[BushGuy]

to get a few things out of the way : dt770 DO need an amp to show you their capabilities.
k271s are one of the first pairs I got rid of - never get piano right despite verifiying by using with both EMU 0404/Portaphile amp....and also Juli@/Portaphile 2^2 maxxed......so,
that brings you to your last choice for 'phones: A900 which is o.k. unamped (and does not show much improvement with amping) - I'd suggest you take advantage of jmmtn4aj kind offer.
Soundcard: move up from your orig. choice of EMU 0404 - the ESI Juli@ is soo much better, trouble-free, and widely available in Europe - a card you'll be glad to have for several years. It's the best deal, unless you expect to be able to move to substantially more expensive cards.

 

[florin]

Ordered the Prolines 750 a few days ago, arrived today... I only get sound from one of them (left)... the other one is dead. I screwed the cable until it doesn't rotate anymore, tried both cables, with and without the adapter... Am I missing something?

Guess I'll have to send them back...

 

[oqvist]

yeah must be defective... you just screw them in until they sit tight and you have to use some force to unscrew them. If you only get sound on one headphone then they are definiatly defective.
if you mostly use the adapter you must push that in all the way as well...

However I am glad you went with them when you get a working pair I am sure you will be in heaven. If not instantly at least after about 200h of burn in

.

Not glad to hear they are defective... The storys so far has been the cable fitting loose but don´t seem to be in this case...

What source do you have? I would recommend the X-fi Xtrememusic. Elite PRO is better but it´s like 3 times as expensive so I can´t say it´s better bang for the buck lol. It´s nice if you have an Xbox 360 or other console since you can run dolby digital and use creative X-fis CMSS3D, crystalizer technologies etc. It really helps some of my Xbox 360 games like Halo 2. Many of the games have very poor surround through headphones seem only be optimized for 5.1 speakers or the sound quality just sucks...

The weapons was so flimsy in HALO 2 but with crystalizer I managed to get some punch out of them

I tried the X-meridian as well it´s in between a X-fi Xtrememusic and X-fi Elite PRO. If you like warm sound and don´t care to much about EAX that is a good soundcard for sure especially if you switch op amps.

 

[florin]

That looong thread about Ultrasones convinced me, but now I'm now a bit disappointed about their quality control - don't they do a basic test on them before packing?!
The problem is that this was the only pair in stock, so I'll probably have to wait a couple of weeks for a replacement.

As a source I've decided to stretch a bit and get the 0404 USB as I've read they benefit from good amps. For games and movies I'll just keep the Audigy.

 

[slwiser]

Ultrasone is really getting some bad press with all the bad phones that they have been sending out lately. Maybe they are building them to fast. But they better get a handle on this or they will kill what good press they have gotten. I have not had any problems with mine but I don't like hearing about others either having this issue.

 

[syncmaster68]

Don't forget that the 0404 USB has got a built-in headphone amp.

As far as I know, upgraditis is a nasty disease...you will want to try a different flavour of sound in no time, and then the money spent on the USB version may drill holes in your pocket (it depends on the size of your pocket, of course

).

So go for a nice ampless sound card (0404 pci, Juli@, Onkyo 150...)and pick up a decent amp which would work fine on most headphones you will ever buy.

I don't know if headphones amps can be easily found in your region. If not, the 0404 USB may still be your safest bet, though.