Ok, just reporting in this thread as I may be one of the first people to have auditioned all three of the new performance series headphones. I dropped into my favourite headphone store here in Melbourne on the off chance that they had received their stock of these and to my surprise they had received all three for display purposes - they are still awaiting their main stock. They had already had a brief listen to the 840 but the 860 and 880 were still sealed and I was the first person to hear them.......So what did they sound like?? In a word GREAT!! Especially in their respective price points and their position in the pantheon of the Ultrasone range.
Firstly I had a brief listen to the 840 - classic bass heavy model along the lines of the hfi580 but smoother overall, much greater comfort and better styling. These will make a lot of bassheads very happy - a good alternative to the M100 or DT770
Then came the 860 - a big jump in detail and a much more linear presentation a la the hfi680, same great comfort and styling as the 840 but a clear step up if you like more than just bass heavy genres.
Lastly I grabbed the 880 - wow, another step up again and IMO worth the extra $$ over the 860, especially when you consider that it comes with 2 sets of pads and 2 cable lengths so the accessories alone may justify the increase in price - but the sound also was clearly more dynamic and rounded while still maintaining a balanced signature, they were a little sibilant out of the box but prior experience with Ultrasone titanium drivers would probably see this calm down with a little playing in.
I was sufficiently impressed by the 880 that I decided to put it up against the 2 Signature models. It was very close in balance to the Signature pro but with a little more space, less thick sound. Next up was the Sig DJ which had a clear elevation in bass from the other 2 but the soundstage was similar to the 880 so it sort of had the balance of the Sig pro with the soundstage of the Sig DJ. Less micro detail than both but not by much and considering the 880 is more than half the retail price of both the signature models it would be expected that it would fall short somewhere. But as I said, not by too much and they were very enjoyable nonetheless.
I only listened to them all directly from my ipod so there is always the assumption that the signature series would probably scale a little better with amplification but you never know, the performance series may improve a bit as well.
Overall, I was very impressed with both the 860 and 880.
They are well worth a listen if you are looking for a mid price closed headphone