MAntonSim
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2010
- Posts
- 34
- Likes
- 11
I just want to share my experience when buying Ultrasone HFI450
Ultrasone HFI450. Why I choose it?
1. Bright, very bright. The brightest headphone I have ever heard, then later owned.
2. Soundstage. For a closed unit, this thing can deliver soundstage like an open unit. Not as realistic as surround speakers, but satisfying enough for listening privately.
3. Clarity. I tested several songs with complicated instruments arrangement. My eyes must have been shining like a child opening Xmas gifts. The details and the instruments separation was unbelievable. I thought I can only find that kind of separation in a wallet-killer headpiece. But this HFI450 was impressive in deed.
The songs that I used for testing the headphones:
- "Now We Are Free" - Lisa Gerard & Hans Zimmer (a lot of complex percussions and instruments are played throughout the song)
- "Psychosocial" - Slipknot (3 sets of drums are difficult to separate if the clarity and the soundstage is not sufficient)
- "Bare Island" - Hans Zimmer (there is a shift of music style in the middle of the song, from classical to rock, which makes this song difficult to deliver)
- "When I Fall In Love" - Susan Wong (for testing guitar clarity and soundstage)
So there, I bought my HFI450 as a decision.
Review after usage for 3 months:
For listening at home, I always grab my HFI450. This headphone gave me a new habit of ripping the highest quality from any CD to my iPad. I even re-ripped several of my favorite CDs because of it. The songs that I have heard so many times on PX100, now become new songs. The details of the songs make a lot of differences. I can ehar every percussion played in "Now We Are Free" from Lisa Gerard and Hans ZImmer. Slipknot's "Psychosocial" multiple drum sets are well separated and hearable. My wife now has gotten used to letting me enjoy my headphone since I wouldn't be able to listen to her anyway once HFI450 rests on my ears.
The brightness of the sound stays bright without being overly sharp. The mids are enjoyable. The only problems that kinda annoying sometimes is that the bass are not impactful. Don't get me wrong, HFI450 delivers good amount of bass with clarity. Depending on the song, sometimes it feels tight, sometimes boomy. However, it does not have the bass impact that delivered by bass-focused songs, like "Feelgood, Inc" from Gorillaz. It has bass, quite lively, but the punch is somewhat lacking. (Note: my apology if I use the wrong term, I'm not familiar with the regular terms for this kind of matters).
The lack of bass punch is due to the Ultrasone S-Logic sound system that instead of attacking ear drums straight on, they reflects the sound frequency from the bottom to outer ear wall before delivering the sound to our ear drums. This a good thing coz no matter how high the volume, HFI450 dampened the pressure to our eardrums. I guess I just need to live with it. I stil have my Senn HD477 for bass-filled (punch and boom) for that purpose.
The only 2 sound quality problems that I have found with HFI450 are:
1. Lower quality ripped music really becomes unbearable to listen to.
2. Certain classical music that has too much low frequency sounds muffled and less enjoyable to listen to.
Music Recommendation to listen with HFI450:
- Blues (those guitars will bring you to a different world, man)
- Rock
- Semi/Light Classical Music
- Lower level audiophile
- Pop
- Jazz
- Any instrumental heavy/complex music
Also there is a fact finding that quite surprise me, maybe not to any of you experienced audiophile, Ultrasone is pretty much the re-branding of Yamaha Headphones from the olden days. So the the sparkling and fluffy sound quality is similar.
So that's my experience, not so much as a review, I guess. I hope it helps those who wants to get an Ultrasone HFI450
Ultrasone HFI450. Why I choose it?
1. Bright, very bright. The brightest headphone I have ever heard, then later owned.
2. Soundstage. For a closed unit, this thing can deliver soundstage like an open unit. Not as realistic as surround speakers, but satisfying enough for listening privately.
3. Clarity. I tested several songs with complicated instruments arrangement. My eyes must have been shining like a child opening Xmas gifts. The details and the instruments separation was unbelievable. I thought I can only find that kind of separation in a wallet-killer headpiece. But this HFI450 was impressive in deed.
The songs that I used for testing the headphones:
- "Now We Are Free" - Lisa Gerard & Hans Zimmer (a lot of complex percussions and instruments are played throughout the song)
- "Psychosocial" - Slipknot (3 sets of drums are difficult to separate if the clarity and the soundstage is not sufficient)
- "Bare Island" - Hans Zimmer (there is a shift of music style in the middle of the song, from classical to rock, which makes this song difficult to deliver)
- "When I Fall In Love" - Susan Wong (for testing guitar clarity and soundstage)
So there, I bought my HFI450 as a decision.
Review after usage for 3 months:
For listening at home, I always grab my HFI450. This headphone gave me a new habit of ripping the highest quality from any CD to my iPad. I even re-ripped several of my favorite CDs because of it. The songs that I have heard so many times on PX100, now become new songs. The details of the songs make a lot of differences. I can ehar every percussion played in "Now We Are Free" from Lisa Gerard and Hans ZImmer. Slipknot's "Psychosocial" multiple drum sets are well separated and hearable. My wife now has gotten used to letting me enjoy my headphone since I wouldn't be able to listen to her anyway once HFI450 rests on my ears.
The brightness of the sound stays bright without being overly sharp. The mids are enjoyable. The only problems that kinda annoying sometimes is that the bass are not impactful. Don't get me wrong, HFI450 delivers good amount of bass with clarity. Depending on the song, sometimes it feels tight, sometimes boomy. However, it does not have the bass impact that delivered by bass-focused songs, like "Feelgood, Inc" from Gorillaz. It has bass, quite lively, but the punch is somewhat lacking. (Note: my apology if I use the wrong term, I'm not familiar with the regular terms for this kind of matters).
The lack of bass punch is due to the Ultrasone S-Logic sound system that instead of attacking ear drums straight on, they reflects the sound frequency from the bottom to outer ear wall before delivering the sound to our ear drums. This a good thing coz no matter how high the volume, HFI450 dampened the pressure to our eardrums. I guess I just need to live with it. I stil have my Senn HD477 for bass-filled (punch and boom) for that purpose.
The only 2 sound quality problems that I have found with HFI450 are:
1. Lower quality ripped music really becomes unbearable to listen to.
2. Certain classical music that has too much low frequency sounds muffled and less enjoyable to listen to.
Music Recommendation to listen with HFI450:
- Blues (those guitars will bring you to a different world, man)
- Rock
- Semi/Light Classical Music
- Lower level audiophile
- Pop
- Jazz
- Any instrumental heavy/complex music
Also there is a fact finding that quite surprise me, maybe not to any of you experienced audiophile, Ultrasone is pretty much the re-branding of Yamaha Headphones from the olden days. So the the sparkling and fluffy sound quality is similar.
So that's my experience, not so much as a review, I guess. I hope it helps those who wants to get an Ultrasone HFI450
