As previously detailed, after first getting my hands on the Ruthenium and being taken aback by their perfection I was disappointed in the quality of the Limited Edition I had received. The Palladium I ordered arrived today and it was a complete feeling of déjà vu... to the former experience.
Absolutely stunning! I must say, none of the three finishes are done justice by photographs. I thought the Ruthenium looked too "blingy" before receiving them, but was impressed by how sophisticated they actually look. The "too brown" look of the Limited Edition was actually more subdued in person and a much darker, classier shade than anticipated. I previously described the Palladium finish as "pedestrian" compared to the other two. Oh how wrong I was. The ceramic inlay by no means "cheapens" the look of them as I previously stated and instead looks quite appropriate as it mimes the piano black finish of other high-end electronics. The cup finish itself is as elegant as the other two but with an edge. Literally, the brushed style looks more pronounced than anticipated and actually looks like it would feel sharp to run your finger over horizontally! Upon touching it, however, it's nearly as smooth as the standard Ruthenium and, in the right lighting conditions, actually reflects quite a bit. It's more of a dispersed reflection in contrast to the Ruthenium's mirror finish, but one can see their own reflection in it. The new headphone bias is too strong for me to comfortably pick a favorite at this point, but the Palladium is much more of a contender than I thought it would be.
In terms of ease of handling, as one can assume the Ruthenium is the toughest to live with. Fingerprints are to be expected and, seemingly no matter how careful you are to only handle them by the pads and headband, they're unavoidable. The Limited Edition does much better in this regard with its matte finish, but they weren't without a caveat. Wheres the Ruthenium always got fingerprints but were effortlessly polished away with the supplied cloth, the Limited requires some scrubbing to remove them. When I was trying to take pictures of the inlay imperfection, I ended up getting a few palm and finger prints on them. When I was done I wiped them down as I did with my previous Ruthenium pair but noticed that it really didn't do anything. I was actually a bit concerned at first that I had somehow gotten some strange chemical on my hands that reacted to it, but I wiped them down again and they started to return to their former glory. A little more pressure and all was well.
While I obviously haven't had them for long, early impressions seem to indicate that the Palladium are by far the easiest to live with. I handled them without regard for finger prints and then checked them over. Nothing. Nada. I then brought them to more direct light and, after tilting them around, could see a few smudges here and there on the semi-gloss topcoat. A quick wipe down with the cloth a la the Ruthenium and any signs of handling had disappeared. It's exactly why I wanted the Palladium in the first place and I couldn't be more satisfied with them in this regard.
I haven't listened to them yet, but they'll likely spend the remainder of the week hooked up to my desktop being fed a steady diet of pink noise and frequency sweeps. Sure they sound the same as the Ruthenium, but it's been nearly a month since I've listened to an Edition 8 (or a quality headphone in general, for that matter) and am very much looking forward to falling in love with their sound signature all over again. Well done, Ultrasone!
