[b3nlau]

Hello Head-Fi. This is my first post here at head-fi after extensive reads through the forums about my first possible purchase for hi-end headphones. I thought i'd do my thoughts on the Ultrasone DJ1 PRO vs HFI-780.
 
What I wanted from the headphones that I was gonna buy, were that they be portable, closed so to provide isolation, good sound quality, quality music for mainly electronic, trance, some hip-hop and mainstream songs.
 
I live in Hong Kong, so searching for headphones was kind of a different experience for me. I found a shop where they put out alot of hi-end headphones for people to demo and listen to which was an absolutely great experience. Both these phones retailed for $1900 HKD which is about $244 USD, and it's pretty much the standard price to be found in Hong Kong. At first I was looking at headphones costing $1200-$1500 with the same qualities in mind and the sales guy recommended the ultrasone DJ1's, and the Shure DJ750's. Both of which cost $1500, and $1280 respectively. But he recommended that if I had the money I should go for the HFI-780s for my needs. At the time I didn't have to money yet to spend on headphones. Gave all 3 a listen and got to recognize some new brands in headphones that I didn't know before. I wasn't too familiar with both Ultrasone and Shure at the time.
 
So I come back about 6 weeks later with the same intent. This time he starts to recommend the DJ1 Pro's, which were at the same price range as the HFI-780's but were apparently different. He told me the DJ1 Pro's were more of a reference headphones which picked out the details and flaws in music and hence gave better depth and soundstage, but the HFI gave much more of a color to music. The DJ1's would hence pick out whether or not the music came from a good source or not or if it was recorded well or not whereas the HFI-780's would just flavor the songs.
 
I did quite alot of reading on the HFI-780's before, with alot of people bashing it about it's burn-in period, or the bass not being tight enough and the treble not being clear or w/e. One thing the sales told me (very nice guy btw), is to trust forums only to a certain extent and experience everything before you make a clear judgement on which phones I wanted. Btw, I was gonna use this on the go with my ipod touch anyways so they had to be easily driven and sound good without an amp.
 
I sat down both headphones, and here were my basic thoughts. The HFI indeed color everything and gave it a very "fun" feel to everything. The music would seem wide but there didn't seem to be much depth and doesn't really analyse the individual components of the music very well. As contrasted with the DJ1 Pro's, I listened to the exact same songs. There was a very evident depth perception and analysis of the different instruments, vocals, noises, sounds. However, it did lack the clarity or supposedly brightness that the HFI-780 had. Both demo headphones apparently have been there for a year so I assume that burn-out has already happened.
 
I ended up choosing the DJ1 Pros'. This is in part because, even though on some high's they were clearly not as good as the HFI-780's, the soundstage and clarity in separation of sounds was much compensated and I felt were much worth it. I listen to a quite a wide range of songs, but mainly in the electronic / trance section and some mainstream and I felt that would really make it a more enjoyable experience. I knew I wouldn't be a making a bad choice choosing either one, but even though without an amp, I felt they were driven perfectly fine straight out of an ipod touch.
 
Anyway's that's my 2 cents. I'm not audiophile and no expert in any of this, but just sharing my thoughts on these 2 brilliant headphones. If anyone has some similar thoughts, please feel free to share.

 

[WyldRage]

First of all, welcome! And sorry about your wallet.
 
Your sales guy gives good advice: it's the users that are not satisfied with their purchase who have the most reasons to post on a forum. They will always be over-represented, no matter what you want to buy. At the end of the day, the only real way to choose an headphone is to listen to it yourself and make up your mind.
 
I hope you enjoy your headphones... at least until upraditis strikes.
 
By the way, just for my own curiosity, did they have the other headphones from the HFI lineup (580 and 680) and did you try them?

 

[clou91]

Your experience with the 780 sound stage is consistent with my experience as well. If you're interested, check my sig for the link to my 780 review. 
 
Also, can you give any more detail as to how the mids and bass compare between the 780s and DJ1 Pros? Pretty interested as it seems not a lot of people here have the DJs.

 

[b3nlau]

Quote:

First of all, welcome! And sorry about your wallet.
 
Your sales guy gives good advice: it's the users that are not satisfied with their purchase who have the most reasons to post on a forum. They will always be over-represented, no matter what you want to buy. At the end of the day, the only real way to choose an headphone is to listen to it yourself and make up your mind.
 
I hope you enjoy your headphones... at least until upraditis strikes.
 
By the way, just for my own curiosity, did they have the other headphones from the HFI lineup (580 and 680) and did you try them?

Strangely enough they didn't have the lower end HFI models for me to try. But they did have all the higher end ultrasone models. I didn't want to be a greedy slob and sit there and try them all, but maybe next time when I go back to them haha. I wanted to try the 580 model but he said that one was pretty old and unfortunately they didn't have it for demo.

 
Quote:

Your experience with the 780 sound stage is consistent with my experience as well. If you're interested, check my sig for the link to my 780 review. 
 
Also, can you give any more detail as to how the mids and bass compare between the 780s and DJ1 Pros? Pretty interested as it seems not a lot of people here have the DJs.

 
Strangely enough it's true, not as many people go for the DJ Ultrasone series although the name would imo throw people off. I'm still learning my terms here so I'll try to do my best. I like the bass more on the DJ's. They seem lighter than the 780's, but then seem a little bit more crisp. Not bass-heavy by any means. The mid's are definitely clear and all the frequencies are very well distinguished as opposed to the more overall colored 780.

 

[clou91]

I'm getting the impression that the DJs just may be easier to drive than the HFIs, and thus a better option for portable use out of an ipod. When amped, I feel that the lows, mids, and highs of the HFIs are all represented well and easy to distinguish (though I admit that I did have to nerf the bass on my pair). I'm now curious to try the DJs with my set up, but I know that's a long shot.

 

[b3nlau]

Quote:

I'm getting the impression that the DJs just may be easier to drive than the HFIs, and thus a better option for portable use out of an ipod. When amped, I feel that the lows, mids, and highs of the HFIs are all represented well and easy to distinguish (though I admit that I did have to nerf the bass on my pair). I'm now curious to try the DJs with my set up, but I know that's a long shot.

Both the DJ's and HFI's drive just as easily out of portable player such as the ipod. Don't have the budget to amp my phones yet

 

[clou91]

I don't think you fully understood what I meant. An amp just isn't for volume level. Basically, the traits you listed that you heard from an unamped DJ1 Pro were similar to my results with an amped HFI such as the distinction between lows, mids, highs and the crisper, more controlled bass.

 

[Rayzilla]

Quote:

...I live in Hong Kong, so searching for headphones was kind of a different experience for me. I found a shop where they put out alot of hi-end headphones for people to demo and listen to which was an absolutely great experience...

I am living in Hong Kong too.  Would you mind sharing the name of the store that you bought your headphones from?  Did they have the Pro750 to demo?
 
BTW, great job on the review and thanks!
 

 

[b3nlau]

Quote:

I am living in Hong Kong too.  Would you mind sharing the name of the store that you bought your headphones from?  Did they have the Pro750 to demo?
 
BTW, great job on the review and thanks!
 

 
http://www.dma-audio.com/ - it's on the 2nd floor of Sim City - MK (or Sin City, I forgot).
 

 

[techenvy]

im pretty sure someone told me that the dj1 were just modded 580 and that the dj1 pro were modded pro 550
 
would someone like to elaborate on this further?
 
 
i think im gonna give the hfi 780 a try but if the dj have more bass punch than????
 
thanks

 

[b3nlau]

Quote:

im pretty sure someone told me that the dj1 were just modded 580 and that the dj1 pro were modded pro 550
 
would someone like to elaborate on this further?
 
 
i think im gonna give the hfi 780 a try but if the dj have more bass punch than????
 
thanks

 
the DJ pro's definitely have a much crisper bass, and i think i'd prefer the bass over 780's bass
 

 

[JohnMcL7]

Sorry to bump an old thread but after a lot of searching this one seems to contain the most information on what I'm looking for so thought it better than creating a new thread.  I've had the HFI 780's for a few years but the cable is an annoyance so I've been thinking of getting DJ1 Pro's (which look to have a much better cable system) for use out and about while keeping the 780's for home use.  My concern is the Ultrasone site lists the resistance for the DJ1 Pro's as twice that of the 780's as I'm mainly wanting to use them with a Cowon J3, are there any issues connecting them to a portable player or should the combo work fine as per the posts above?
 
Thanks,
John

 

[smibe]

Quote:

Sorry to bump an old thread but after a lot of searching this one seems to contain the most information on what I'm looking for so thought it better than creating a new thread.  I've had the HFI 780's for a few years but the cable is an annoyance so I've been thinking of getting DJ1 Pro's (which look to have a much better cable system) for use out and about while keeping the 780's for home use.  My concern is the Ultrasone site lists the resistance for the DJ1 Pro's as twice that of the 780's as I'm mainly wanting to use them with a Cowon J3, are there any issues connecting them to a portable player or should the combo work fine as per the posts above?
 
Thanks,
John

 
Hey John, good question. I have the DJ1 Pro's and use them both unamped on a Sansa Fuze, as well as amped via the FiiO E7.
 
I would say that I do notice an improvement in audio quality with the E7, but it's not huge, and it shouldn't stop you from buying these headphones.
 
I may differ from other people's opinion about the sound though, haven't listened to the 780's before but I don't think the DJ1 Pro's will have as much bass quantity. I'm not sure if it's due to the wide soundstage, but the bass seems slightly recessed to me, so I will usually listen to them with the bass boost function on one with the E7. You can probably just increase the bass with the Cowon though I suppose. The high's are good, maybe slightly rolled off, but they're not very... crisp. They are very smooth, which means it's not very fatiguing if you're listening to them for hours.
 
I think these headphones strong point is actually the mids. I remember seeing a youtube video where an Ultrasone rep was being interviewed and said that either the Pro 550 or DJ1 Pro (essentially the same headphone), were good for monitoring guitar tracks as they have good mids. I would have to agree. In fact, these headphones really pick out the flaws in tracks where the guitar is not recorded well, for example a lot of the songs on Mastodon's Blood Mountain album, to the point where I tend to avoid certain songs that are recorded badly now. However, other songs with distorted guitar, like nude with boots by the Melvin's, sounds fine.
 
The only other headphone I can compare the Ultrasone's too, that I have had extensive time listening to, would be my gf's Beyerdynamic DT235's. I think they actually have slightly more present bass, and a more crisp sounding treble, but the sound feels compressed and muddy in comparison to the DJ1 Pro's, which has a very distinct separation of different frequencies and instruments.
 
Hope this helped.
 
 

 

[JohnMcL7]

Thanks for the response, in the end as I couldn't find much on the 780's vs DJ1 Pro's I went for the Pro 900's instead.
 
John