[mikemercer]

Quote:

[size=10pt]I appreciate your review! because I have had these now for 2 weeks and can't agree with you more.  I just don't understand how these are not just flying off the shelf.  I have T5Ps, some potable sens at home, Shure 500's Westone ER4ps, and travel weekly.  I owned Bose, and compared these to Bose at my daughters, and the sound is AMAZING.  I compared them to all I own, including in a store the new Parrot Zik (I also had for a week,), PSB 's, and the MU 40, the new Senns and Beats.  In most respects, the Bass is better more popping but not overbearing, the mids and highs are clear, great soundstage, detail and expressive decay; i enjoy them as much as any I have owned. The vocals, mid and highs are not recessed, but very forward and pleasing.  They sound like I am in a club or demo room.. Over time of listening I actually turn down the volume.   I really think Polk is doing something with the drivers, when NC is on, the only way they can be used; as in some sort of balancing.  In comparison to Parrot which I thought was all DSP, and thin at best, I think these are true audio cans; and very comfortable and secure!  Great build and case too boot![/size]

I just got a pair of the Polk Ultra Focus 8000's in for review from Jimmy at Polk - and I must say:
 
Polks were the first high end speaker I ever owned!  I bought them at a garage sale for 20 bucks in 1991 (can't remember the model, was in high school, they had two 12" drivers and a ribbon tweeter - one 12" was a passive radiator) and I owned them up until 3 years ago! They weren't my reference, but made for a KILLER bench monitor set!  All those years, all they needed was to be re-foamed, ONCE.  
 
So...  Unfortunately they got sold to a big company and I thought the soul of their products slowly disappeared over time.
 
However: I absolutely love these headphones thus far!  To be honest, I hate the controls on the outer-shell of the right ear-cup - the look cheapens them I believe, 
especially with the carbon-fiber headband (very slick).
But, that's the only negative thing I have to say about them so far, and I've been listening all night!  It's true, they don't do the best job of noise-canceling, but
what they do well is cancel out noise without completely sucking all the air out of the recordings!  To my ears some of the active noise canceling headphones 
just get so claustrophobic once you kick it in.  The Polks let the instruments breath on Mogwai's Les Revenants for example.  There's great dimensionality, and
the emotive power of the music is fluidly translated.
 
THUMBS UP
 
I look forward to really digging into these in a full review!
Will probably publish in Part-Time Audiophile or Positive Feedback.
 
Glad I found this thread!! 

 

[mikemercer]

Quote:

Just been spending some more time with these ... and ... wow.
 
They don't cancel noise very well, but they sound great.
 

YUP sir! I was very impressed with their smooth midrange, and most active noise-cancelling headphones, to my ears, just KILL the air in a recording.
That may sound nuts.  I don't just mean the actual air, as in what I breath while listening (SMILE) - but rather the upper end bloom/ambient information thats captured in the recording, giving it dimensionality if there's a sense of depth of field.  I may lose a little of that with these - but not nearly as much as the Bose, again the signature just may be more agreeable to my music preferences too.
 
We took them out into the streets of LA however, and they didn't cancel out noise as well as we thought sitting in my office,
but, I would still recommend these for travel, and I'm working on the review...
 
Having fun field-testing:
 

 

[yjtflI]

How well do these compare to larger headphones like the Q701 and HD 598?

 

[WheelchairMitch]

Just got a pair of these for 150. Excited to receive them. I'll post my thoughts here.

 

[scottzehm]

If you are going to compare the Polk UltraFocus 8000 headphones to either the Q701 and HD 598 headphones do remember that the enviroments might/should be different for the UltraFocus than the Q701 and HD 598s.  I use my 8000s for travel and noisy enviroments and they are great.  However, when I listen to music at home I always use my HD 600s.  While the 8000s are a great musical experience I feel the 600s are better overall. 

 

[yjtflI]

Quote:

Just got a pair of these for 150. Excited to receive them. I'll post my thoughts here.

 


Yea, that's the only reason I was considering them.  I had read in reviews that they wont work in passive mode though.  And that the active noise cancellation creates a buzzing or humming noise in the background that is noticeable in a quiet room, so I decided to skip them.

I'm not sure why polk doesn't try to make any higher end non-NC headphones, they're all walkman style except for the 8000.  My guess is they're probably trying to copy Bose's business model.

 

[C00kies0fD00m]

I know that this thread has been dead for a little while but I wanted to add my two cents of this headphone. First like it's been said before the noise cancelation of random noise (such as dogs barking, people yelling,etc) is not the greatest, I would say the cancelation effect brings the outside volume down 1/3rd. Now for constant background noise, for instance loud fans, HVAC and plane noise the headphones filter out about 2/3rds the volume. While not in the Bose QC15 realm, I'd still say the Polks do a decent job at NC.

Where these really shine is the acoustics of the headphones itself, the bass is well defined not over powering maybe lacking a little punchyness for my taste (but I fixed that, read later in the post), the mid section is well represented again very clean and does not bleed together with the bass. Finally the highs are very crisp, not overwhelming but very proportional to the music your listening to. Basically these headphones represent all the tonal frequencies very well, and do not favor anyone region, they're not reference monitor flat however (which for non production use is desired).

What I found to be annoying was this, older classic rock tracks that had deep baselines such as queen's "another one bites the dust" seem to lack the punchyness I would hear on my home theater setup. It almost seemed like the bass guitar lost a little bit of its low end thump. I purchased an external headphone amp, the fiio e11 and hooked it up on bass boost 2 and WOW WHAT A DIFFERENCE. It's almost like it woke the headphones up! Now after reading up a little it seems the headphones have an onboard amplifier already, I think the actual headphone speaker impedance is 100 ohms hence the need for the amp. So if you do amplify these headphones becareful that you do not overdrive them or it could damage the headphones.

Without the amp I'd give the headphones a 4.20-4.50 rating out of 5
With the Amp these headphones can hang with any I have ever tried. 5 out of 5

 

[yaby1979]

These are simply outstanding. I've never been a Polk home audio fan but these are worth the price. And they make my HD 598's sound thin and pathetic.

 

[duffetta]

I've owned my UltraFocus 8000 headphones since April 2013 (and my Polk Monitor 5B speakers since 1981).  I love the sound of these headphones.  I use them exclusively in the office where the over the ear cans and the noise cancelling are effective enough.
 
I have a few issues with these, however.  First, the build quality on these is horrible.  I haven't removed them from my office since I got them, and I am very gentle with them, and yet several plastic parts on the headband have just broken off, and one of the tabs that holds the cover on the battery compartment has also snapped off.  A few weeks ago, after some effort (and a nasty tweet aimed towards Polk) I got Polk Customer Service to replace the headphones.  The new ones arrived last week, and they are exactly the same as the originals (no redesign on the weak parts).  I know that I am not the only person with these issues.  It is quite easy to find photos on the internet with exactly the same parts broken.
 
My second issue is that you need to turn them on in order to hear anything through them.  Not sure why they did this.  I have a pair of Sennheiser PXC 200s where they work whether noise cancelling is turned on or not.  Again, this is something Polk should address.
 
So, while I love the sound quality, every time I use them I wonder if something is going to physically break on them.