Ultrasone bass vs. Denon bass

[runswithaliens]

Heya,
I am wondering if anyone has compared say a pair of recent Ultrasone HFI 2200 ULEs to a pair of Denon ah-d2/5/7Ks? I had a pair of the Denon d5000s for a while but returned them because the bass was at times just too much and detracted from the rest of the music. Also, maybe it was the closed design with wooden cups but it felt like it was creating unpleasant sonic pressure or something on the eardrums. They were very comfortable to wear though...

So I wonder how the bass of an open pair of the Ultrasones might compare? Is it tighter, more defined, and slightly less quantity than the un-modded Denons?

By way of comparison I also have a pair of Yamaha RH-5Mas that do the bass just right for me: at a level that you can hear it, but not overdone or loose - very groovy little cans. The only thing keeping the Yamahas from being totally awesome is their very closed-in sound stage. At the opposite end of the spectrum I have a pair of open AudioTechnica AD700s which have very rolled off bass and what little you can hear of it down below is very loose and rounded off. Also for me the somewhat "tinny" sounding highs become fatiguing after a while. They are very comfortable on the head though...

 

[Graphicism]

I've compared Denon D2000 to Ultrasone HFI-780 if that helps at all... IMO the Denons NEED a good amp, a portable amp or amped soundcard isn't going to cut it. The Ultrasones while incredibly detailed are less source dependent and still punchy from any half decent amp. I had the D2000s with a Singlepower Slam and anything else was inadequet. I have tried the 780s from a few sources; directly out of a soundcard, mp3 player they sound okay - from a portable amp like the iBasso or amplified soundcard like the 0404 they greatly improve - from a dedicated amplifier like the Zero while on the cheaper end sound phenomenal, really beastly!

I most definitely prefer the signature sound of Ultrasone to that of the Denons, the bass for one is a lot better; deep, hits hard, layered... all those good descriptive words...

 

[haloxt]

The HFI-2200 has just about the right amount of bass you need for a musical sound signature. It doesn't go deep but the texture is present and it augments rather than overshadows the rest of the music. Only issue I had with the HFI-2200 (other than getting hypnotized by the sound signature) is that it is not as detailed as you'd expect of $300 MSRP headphones.