[12345142]

Well, around summer last year, I was interested in the Pro 900s, and there were only a handful of owners and as with all Ultrasones, opinions were quite polarizing. The positive opinions I read were really quite appreciative, though.
 
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I have a question pertaining to the mids. I feel like they are still to recessed for my liking. I Kees modded mine and, while they do sound better. I still find the mids to sound too plasticy and recessed. Does break-in remedy this? Mine have about 150-200 hours of break-in, I reckon.

To be honest, I doubt it; even after Kees modding and burn-in, the Pro 900s' tonality will likely remain very much intact. It's just they way they are - they're just that kind of headphone. Although there is some influence, in general, no amount of burn-in, modding, or amping can totally change the sound of a headphone. I could be wrong, though.

 

[Sid-Fi]

Thanks to Jibbie for going out of his way to meet up with me today so that I could check out his Pro 900s. I just wanted to reaffirm a few points that have been made throughout this thread...
 
The pro 900 do indeed have very nice build quality and are indeed attractive. They are made of what seems like a very solid polymer material and feel very sturdy and adjust smoothly. They are also very comfortable in my opinion. They hold themselves on easily but do not clamp. They are indeed larger than they appear in pictures and their cups easily surrounded my ears, which I definitely prefer. The padding on the top headband seemed ample and it did not bother me at all.
 
As for sound signature impressions, they actually surprised me a bit. As an HD 650 owner, I expected them to be the opposite--as many have pointed out here--of my cans and be very forward, very energetic, and bright with mad scientist bass (like high-end grados without the bass). What I actually found was more of a refined and solid all-rounder, albeit with an obviously exaggerated bass curve. It had good imaging, good detail, sound stage closer to open cans, and did not seem very forward or bright (nothing like grado brightness that I don't handle very well). I left with the impression that if you Kees modded them with...hmmm..maybe 3 or 4 layers, they might be a nice, polite, and fairly balanced audiophile can.
 
They definitely were fun with some of my favorite downtempo electronica artists like Ulrich Schnauss and Jon Hopkins and clearly better than HD 650 in this regard as the Sennheisers are a little too smooth and warm to excel here (although I can still easily enjoy this type of music).
 
My brief impressions were based on listening through my laptop > foobar 2000 with Wasapi > Nuforce Icon HDP & Matrix M-stage > Denon D5000 and Ultrasone Pro 900s. Both the HDP and M-stage paired very well with the pro 900s and Jibbie and I agreed, any differences were subtle in nature.
 
Happy listening bassheads!

 

[Sid-Fi]

I would really recommend starting with Audio Technica M50s for public use and then getting the best possible higher-level audiophile cans later without having to worry about isolation for a couple of reasons. First, they have much better sound isolation than many of the higher end cans you are considering. Second, they are cheap enough at $140 to $170 that they are affordable (relative concept for sure) as a second pair. Third, they have very low impedance and can easily be driven with great sound quality out of an iPod or cell phone - I use them with my Google G2 and Pandora to awesome effect. Fourth, they are awesome sound quality for the money and have quite a bit of bass.
 
As you have noticed, many of the higher end cans have more sound leakage and often require an amp to reach their potential. You really don't want to impose too many requirements on a main rig can that you might have for quite some time and end up with the wrong pair. My two cents.

 
Quote:

 
Well I would prefer it not to leak in the library, I would probably listen at moderate volumes. As for people knowing what I listen to, I could care less. I just don't want to be "that guy" always playing music that people can hear. At home I'll be both listening to music & gaming, but out in public it will probably be just music.My roommates said they could care less, but I only recognized it as being polite. The problem would also be that sometimes Id be in a noisy environment, which would most likely cause me to raise the volume..which would in effect also leak more sound and bother others. Such a scenario would be friends watching a moderately loud movie in the living room, and Id be sitting at the dining table which would only be a few feet away (same room, just different sections)Im also not too crazy of IEMs (but to be honest I haven't really researched them. I worry of losing soundstage mostly), I don't like sticking them in my ear..feels odd. Not to mention they slam music directly pointed at your eardrum. A friend of mine owns a pair of headphones(RP-HTX7) quite capable of having no leaks. True that it does leak very little, but it's quite ideal. The PRO550's I owned previously however were not ideal at all.My dilema is that I'm afraid of committing to the HFI-580, which is said to leak very little to no sound, when the PRO900 seems as if it would be quite an improvement on all aspects(though I havent read your review yet x]) such as bass, mid/highs, soundstage.. though assumingly leaks more sound. I hope it's not as the PRO550's were, they almost sounded open, and those had (p)leather pads.

 

[Scytus]

You are most definitely right, higher-end headphones have more leakage and require an amp to truly shine, it's probably not the most practical for my circumstance at the moment. Why I can't find really high-end cans that don't leak and wouldn't require amplification is something I am still trying to understand.
I'm thinking that I should just get the HFI-580's (Similar to the M50's), and then eventually upgrade myself to the PRO900's (or anything similar) down the line. The PRO900's just seem perfect in what everyone describe of their sound aspects (great mid/highs, powerful punchy bass, massive soundstage, closed design). However, they do require an amp to sound their best (I tried directly off iphone with meh results), and don't provide the best leak preventive measures.
 
The 580's seem to have well done mid/highs, punchy bass, with an unknown soundstage (I wouldn't know how it compares to the PRO900's). So soundstage is what somewhat concerns me I guess, as well as the whole spectrum not being as detailed as the PRO's would be.
 
Quote:

I would really recommend starting with Audio Technica M50s for public use and then getting the best possible higher-level audiophile cans later without having to worry about isolation for a couple of reasons. First, they have much better sound isolation than many of the higher end cans you are considering. Second, they are cheap enough at $140 to $170 that they are affordable (relative concept for sure) as a second pair. Third, they have very low impedance and can easily be driven with great sound quality out of an iPod or cell phone - I use them with my Google G2 and Pandora to awesome effect. Fourth, they are awesome sound quality for the money and have quite a bit of bass.
 
As you have noticed, many of the higher end cans have more sound leakage and often require an amp to reach their potential. You really don't want to impose too many requirements on a main rig can that you might have for quite some time and end up with the wrong pair. My two cents.

 
Quote:

 
Well I would prefer it not to leak in the library, I would probably listen at moderate volumes. As for people knowing what I listen to, I could care less. I just don't want to be "that guy" always playing music that people can hear. At home I'll be both listening to music & gaming, but out in public it will probably be just music.My roommates said they could care less, but I only recognized it as being polite. The problem would also be that sometimes Id be in a noisy environment, which would most likely cause me to raise the volume..which would in effect also leak more sound and bother others. Such a scenario would be friends watching a moderately loud movie in the living room, and Id be sitting at the dining table which would only be a few feet away (same room, just different sections)Im also not too crazy of IEMs (but to be honest I haven't really researched them. I worry of losing soundstage mostly), I don't like sticking them in my ear..feels odd. Not to mention they slam music directly pointed at your eardrum. A friend of mine owns a pair of headphones(RP-HTX7) quite capable of having no leaks. True that it does leak very little, but it's quite ideal. The PRO550's I owned previously however were not ideal at all.My dilema is that I'm afraid of committing to the HFI-580, which is said to leak very little to no sound, when the PRO900 seems as if it would be quite an improvement on all aspects(though I havent read your review yet x]) such as bass, mid/highs, soundstage.. though assumingly leaks more sound. I hope it's not as the PRO550's were, they almost sounded open, and those had (p)leather pads.

 

 

[Jibbie]

Thanks for posting Dave 

 
Quote:

Thanks to Jibbie for going out of his way to meet up with me today so that I could check out his Pro 900s. I just wanted to reaffirm a few points that have been made throughout this thread...
 
The pro 900 do indeed have very nice build quality and are indeed attractive. They are made of what seems like a very solid polymer material and feel very sturdy and adjust smoothly. They are also very comfortable in my opinion. They hold themselves on easily but do not clamp. They are indeed larger than they appear in pictures and their cups easily surrounded my ears, which I definitely prefer. The padding on the top headband seemed ample and it did not bother me at all.
 
As for sound signature impressions, they actually surprised me a bit. As an HD 650 owner, I expected them to be the opposite--as many have pointed out here--of my cans and be very forward, very energetic, and bright with mad scientist bass (like high-end grados without the bass). What I actually found was more of a refined and solid all-rounder, albeit with an obviously exaggerated bass curve. It had good imaging, good detail, sound stage closer to open cans, and did not seem very forward or bright (nothing like grado brightness that I don't handle very well). I left with the impression that if you Kees modded them with...hmmm..maybe 3 or 4 layers, they might be a nice, polite, and fairly balanced audiophile can.
 
They definitely were fun with some of my favorite downtempo electronica artists like Ulrich Schnauss and Jon Hopkins and clearly better than HD 650 in this regard as the Sennheisers are a little too smooth and warm to excel here (although I can still easily enjoy this type of music).
 
My brief impressions were based on listening through my laptop > foobar 2000 with Wasapi > Nuforce Icon HDP & Matrix M-stage > Denon D5000 and Ultrasone Pro 900s. Both the HDP and M-stage paired very well with the pro 900s and Jibbie and I agreed, any differences were subtle in nature.
 
Happy listening bassheads!

 

[TheDudeNextDoor]

how do you guys find the midrange on these headphones?
They really interest me, but I don't want headphones with recessed mids. If the Kees mod fixes that, then that's fine with me too. It's just that I want them to sound good in the long run with a mod or not.

 

[Katun]

I've Kees modded mine and I can definitely vouch for it and the significant improvement it brought.
 
The cool thing is, you can buy all the supplies at Wal-Mart, including the screwdrivers to open it up.
 
With the Pro 900 Kees modded, I simply cannot even *think* of owning a better headphone. Top notch value.

 

[Voohoo]

Hi all. I've been casually lurking this thread, even though I don't own a pair of Pro 900s (though I probably will in the future).
 
Kees mod came up and I've been getting more and more interested. I currently own the Pro 2500s which is a rarer Ultrasone round these parts it seems like. Anywho, has anyone heard anything about Kees modding an OPEN Ultrasone can. It seems like everyone that does the mod owns a closed model. Should the results be the same with my 2500s? There's something lacking in my pair and it must be the recessed mids. It's a bummer when I want to listen to classical and indie/folk. I end up throwing on my ancient Senn HD 555s for those genres instead.

 

[Dougeefresh]

I posted a comparison review of PRO 900 vs. HFI-580 vs. DT770 PRO 80 for those who are interested in 900.
And, I would like to thank Jibbie for his review which got me to where I am AND making me spend more money

 

[mibutenma]

Pro 2500 doesn't have recessed mids it has recessed treble if you want to call it that.
It's very flat and with no push at all.
 
The HD 555 has a treble push.
 
Amping the Pro 2500 gives it a more lively sound but it still has its flat treble.

 

[Katun]

Quote:

Hi all. I've been casually lurking this thread, even though I don't own a pair of Pro 900s (though I probably will in the future).
 
Kees mod came up and I've been getting more and more interested. I currently own the Pro 2500s which is a rarer Ultrasone round these parts it seems like. Anywho, has anyone heard anything about Kees modding an OPEN Ultrasone can. It seems like everyone that does the mod owns a closed model. Should the results be the same with my 2500s? There's something lacking in my pair and it must be the recessed mids. It's a bummer when I want to listen to classical and indie/folk. I end up throwing on my ancient Senn HD 555s for those genres instead.

I guess you can experiment for yourself if you feel comfortable with performing the mod. I didn't rest until my ears convinced me I was hearing an improvement. I opened it up probably 7-8+ times just experimenting with different things each time. Probably on the 7th time opening up, I took everything out so it was then stock again. After closing it, the sound was *definitely* different. The bass all of a sudden seemed to lack control and was simply a bit too much, and the highs had too much sizzle. I instantly knew then, that the Kees mod WAS a definite improvement.
 
So, you may just have to try for yourself, because you really might come across something you *really* like. If not, I'm sure someone will chime in that has done it before to their open pair.

 

[Jibbie]

Good review Dougeefresh, and sorry about the wallet! 

  In the case of the Pro 900s, however, I think it is money well spent.
 
Quote:

I posted a comparison review of PRO 900 vs. HFI-580 vs. DT770 PRO 80 for those who are interested in 900.
And, I would like to thank Jibbie for his review which got me to where I am AND making me spend more money

 

[Leander7777]

Currently the mid range sort of reminds me of the way music sounds when you have blocked ears, due to a runny nose. It's quite frustrating and I'm not sure of how to remedy this. The mid range is extremely detailed but sounds tiny and artificial....
 
EDIT: I'm not sure if it's my hearing, as I was sick for a while, but none of my other iem/hps sound that way.

 

[Jibbie]

While the Pro 900s mids are slightly recessed, they are of great quality and I am not bothered by them at all.  Not nearly as hollow as the mids on the DT990 or D2000s.

 

[Dougeefresh]

Will Kees mod roll off the high fq? What else does it do overall?