[derekvan]

Hi all,

I recently returned my HD280pros because the bass was so boomy it gave me a headache. I went to Guitar Center to try out their selection, and left with the ultrasone hfi-450s, which i think sound great for the price ($99). The only problem is they rub on my ears something fierce. I read the "missing manual" for ultrasone, but so far I can't find a comfortable position.

I'm hoping that, since all the HFI models look like they have similar design, someone has some advice for me. Here's what happens: when I put my ears directly in the ear cups, they touch the fabric covering the drivers. But, with ultrasones, there's some type of flat metal plate under that fabric. This means that my ears press uncomfortably against this plate, rather than just rubbing on some fabric. Ouch. I couldn't really notice it when I tried them on in the store, but after an hour it really starts to bug me, like wearing stiff shoes.

Anybody encountered similar trouble and resolved it? I'm thinking that if the earpads were fuller, my ears wouldn't touch the plate. This model though doesn't have those switch-replaceable pads, so I'm not sure how i could replace them. Should I just try out the sony v6, or the rp-21?

thanks!

 

[Contrastique]

I did a search for you since some sort ot the same problem has been noticed with the edition 9 as well some time ago by some people. They have invented a mod as descibed below which seems to do the trick for them.
After the text that I copied from the thead in question I'll post a pic where you can see the mod quite well. If you wish to do more research on this topic I'll give you the link to this thread:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/my-...8/index10.html

"The ear pad mod was shared with me by Sovkiller, and it has been really great for me. What you do is cut 2 lengths of some disposable cabling about the diameter of one of the cups and you wedge them underneath the pads where the backs of your ears go. This way, you get a little extra wiggle room with the ears. I tried two sizes of cable before I finally went all out and destroyed a perfectly good computer power cable. These are quite thick and thus provided a nice amount of space. (I wasn't even sure it would even fit at first...)

The mod worked well, but not flawlessly. The cup still does touch the tops of my ears, but it doesn't apply much pressure at all, so it's nearly perfect for me anyway. You should be able to see it in a couple of the pictures."

Here's the pic:

I'm not sure this will work for you since I haven't tried it myself and in your case it's the driver that's touching your ear, not the earpad itself. It's worth trying though since you seem to like this hp and you will not damage it permantly. It's a fully reversible mod. I hope you have your answer and good luck!

 

[derekvan]

Thanks for the link here. I had done some searching, but not enough obviously. This mod works great, and I even get a much better seal now, so they're more isolating. Thanks!

 

[dmk005]

I found a high quality (super thick) S-Video cable at the bottom of my cable crate. It gave me great joy to cut it up and get as much out of that cable now as I did in the early 90's with it hooked up in my home theater. I have zero of my ears touching the material covering the E9 drivers.

 

[Contrastique]

Yeay! I'm glad to see it worked out for you and even gained an extra advantage on top of the one you asked for. Enjoy them!

Ow, and there are quite a few threads about the Ultrasones here including a real big one so no wonder you couldn't find what you were looking for. I kinda know the threads a little and it even took me quite some time to find this particular mod again

 

[ilovemusic1376]

How does hfi-450 sound like? i am very interesting about this headphone, could you write a review,thx!

 

[derekvan]

Hi there,

I know lots of people have been asking for a review of this headphone. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near qualified to post one in this forum, since I've had very limited experience in these things. That said, here's my thoughts:

Prior to the HFI 450, I had the Sennheiser HD280 Pros for a month. I really liked those comfort wise (i must be a pinhead since i didn't find them tight in any way), and the sound was very accurate and revealing to me (i've never heard better headphones, so obviously take this with a grain of salt if you're used to listening to $300 headphones, etc.). However, I really disliked the bass--it was very loose and boomy and gave me a headache. So, I sent them back, and went to Guitar Center to try some out.

I listened to the Beyerdynamic DT 770 there and liked those a lot. I also listened to the HFI-450. I liked these as much as the DT770s, and at half the price, eagerly bought them. I think they sounded good out of the box, although I also let them run all night to break in for several days. As noted earlier in the thread, it took me awhile to get them adjusted for comfort, but now with the wire mod (I used coaxial cable, nice and thick) they're great.

I don't find them to be as revealing as the HD280pros, not quite as crystal clear. However, the bass is so much better--tight, like a thump instead of a long boom. The boom may be more accurate (i'm not sure) but it hurt my head. The Ultrasone's sound really great--I enjoy many types of music on them--jazz, ambient electronica, acoustic bluegrass and folk, grateful dead, phish.

If you have more specific questions, I'll try to answer them, but keep in mind I don't have too much experience in this area.

 

[siwiwid]

thank you derekvan, that will convince me to choose them rather than equation audio RP-15.

 

[tops2]

Hi guys,

Long time lurker, but never posted.

I just bought these 2 days ago too and love it. I been using my Sennheiser PX100 & my dad's Koss KSC35 for a couple years now and finally decided to get a closed headphone for work to reasonably block out office noise. I really liked the sound of my PX100, but since its an open headphone & in the office setup, a lot of the details gets lost (especially the bass). I don't like using IEMs too much (but I use them on plane rides to block out sound).

I went into my local Guitar Center to try to demo the ES7, but they didn't have it (luckly or else I'd never find out about Ultrasones!), but the guy recommended me the HFI-450 since its in about the same price range. I demoed it for a few minutes and loved it, but never really heard of Ultrasones so I went home to read up about it and discovered the really really large "There's Something About Ultrasone…" thread! =D

Finally went back to Guitar Center, then demoed a bunch of their headphones out on their demo headphone "tree(?)" and still liked the sound of the Ultrasones the best (and loved the bass "feeling" in my head). Picked up the HFI-450's (since they were in my budget) and like it. Most of my music sounds awesome! I hear even more details in a lot of my songs that I never heard before (and I thought I heard a lot with my PX100). But the bass right now is pretty lacking, but maybe its the combination of my badly encoded mp3s, my mp3 player, and not enough time burning in (~30 hours with pink noise). I'm not an audiophile tho, but so far I still like the sound! =D They feel like a pretty substantial upgrade from my PX100 & KSC35 to me.

Since the HFI-450 drivers are not gold or titanium plated like the higher end model, may I can burn them in less than the 200-400 hours? Till then, I'll try to be patient and not to listen to it.

I can't wait for the burn in process to finish (and I'm trying to resist buying an amp, and from the eventual upgrade to the PRO 750 for the sake of my wallet... and mostly cause of the gf)

Thanks! =D

 

[Rick540]

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I just bought a set of Ultrasone HFI-450's (50 bucks at Musicians Friend till the end of March BTW. That's half off the regular price.). Anyway, shortly after putting them on I had the same problem that the OP had. The metal behind the fabric in the cups rubbed my ears big time. I used an old computer power cable and it worked perfect. Now the metal doesn't rub at all and it's perfect.

Seems to me that Ultrasone would have noticed this problem and manufactured the 'phones so that they operate like this out of the box. Regardless, thanks for the tip.

Peace 'yall.

 

[MAntonSim]

I'm a new comer in head-fi. Just want to drop some words. I'm a proud user of Ultrasone HFI450. To be honest, at first I was aiming for Senn PX200-II to replace my Senn PX100 which got damaged from wear.

Anyway, I compared 3 most amazing headphone before laying my choice on HFI450: Grado iGrado, V Jays and, of course, HFI 450. I was searching for the clearest and most natural sound headphone under $100, so you can imagine the limitation that I have.

V Jays might be the closest to PX100 experience that I have heard with a jump in clarity and a more balance frequency response with tighter bass than PX100. I recommend this one for those who travel a lot. It's very comfortable and light. My only fear is that I would break it in no time at all. I think this headphone can be used for listening to almost any music.

iGrado maybe the power bass headphone among the 3. The bass attacked my ears fiercefully and the rest of the frequency are similar to V Jays. This is a very good headphone for Rock, Hiphop and Dance music. I tested with classical, it just ruined the music for me.

Now, the 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

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