[McPatD]

That's the caveat of high end headphones. To get the most out of them you need more power and a great source otherwise they will disappoint in most cases. I've been there myself a few times. A good lower mid phone could do wonders with your setup. HD598 os very good.

 

[KimChee]

I think you're going to need something along the lines of Headstage Arrow, Alo Rx MKIII, or Pico Slim to drive the headphone to its full potential.

 

[mrconfuse]

what about full desktop computer? would the sound card produce enough power for it?

 

[Roller]

A good soundcard (such as a Creative X-Fi Titanium HD, Auzentech X-Fi Forte, Asus Xonar D2X and Asus Xonar Essence STX) will enable you to have nice well defined sound. Adding a desktop headphone amp like an O2 or Schiit Asgard will help deliver enough power to drive Ultrasone Edition 8 properly. If you want a portable amp, the suggestions above do work, as well as the C421 amp.

 

[mrconfuse]

Ultrasone 8 sensitivity is listed at 96 dB and Westone 4 is 118 dB. Ultrasone is 31 impedance and westone 4 is 30. Both are nearly at the same impedance so shouldn't the Ultrasone be as easy to drive as the westone 4?

 

[Sanotter]

Ok, I thought of an idea for an analogy concerning headphone amping:
 
Imagine you're buying a car, and you get a new top of the line Ferrari.
 
This brand new car is top of the line, amazing, but if you put in biofuel into it because it's cheap (in relation to the car), it will not perform the way it was made to perform, however, if you put in premium unleaded it would be performing as it was intended - at its full potential.
 
Both fuels make the car work reasonably enough, but the more expensive fuel uses that expensive new car you bought run as it should. 
 
This is the same with headphones and amplification. Imagine the amplification to be the fuel of the car, an E7 or onboard soundcard is going to be biofuel, whilst a good quality amp matched to your sound tastes and power needs of the headphones would be the premium unleaded. 
 
Hope this rather poor analogy helps!

 

[mrconfuse]

Quote:

Ok, I thought of an idea for an analogy concerning headphone amping:
 
Imagine you're buying a car, and you get a new top of the line Ferrari.
 
This brand new car is top of the line, amazing, but if you put in biofuel into it because it's cheap, it will not perform the way it was made to perform, however, if you put in premium unleaded it would be performing as it was intended - at its full potential.
 
Both fuels make the car work reasonably enough, but the more expensive fuel uses that expensive new car you bought run as it should. 
 
This is the same with headphones and amplification. Imagine the amplification to be the fuel of the car, an E7 or onboard soundcard is going to be biofuel, whilst a good quality amp matched to your sound tastes and power needs of the headphones would be the premium unleaded. 
 
Hope this rather poor analogy helps!
 
 

 
yup that helps a lot.

 

[mrconfuse]

So I did a quick run over to the audio store during my lunch to play with the ultrasone 8 some more. It was raining today so not a lot of people in the store so it was perfect timing.
 
I'll try to explain it as clearly as I can and hope that this is the way it's suppose to sound. I'm going to compare them to the Westone 4 since they're my primarily. 
 
Bass + drums are very pronounced. I mean I had FLAC tracks that had drums/bass but these phones really took them out of the background and made them stand out. They were booming away but not in a bad way (like all muddled and stuff). On the Westone 4 the drums/bass normally don't stand out that much. I hear them but they're pretty much behind the vocals. Vocals stand out more.
 
String instruments They stand out a bit more than on the Westone 4.Again like the drums/bass they feel more in front of you vs the Westone.
 
For some songs there seems to be this concert hall /stage like effect going on with the song. Not sure if this is the S-logic effect
 
So I did a number of A & B testing between the Westone\Ultrasone and the Ultrasone 8 sounds a bit more 'crisp' with a bit more separations of individual elements. It's like hey that's the drum, hey that's the volin, hey that's a cymbal and etc. But at times I feel like the the bass and drums seem to really really stand out to much. For example in the song 'Alex Clare - too close' - bass/drums are incredibly strong. I can hear all the other instruments and he vocals are very clear/crisp but they seem to be pushed back by the drums & bass. I guess a better way to explain is this, there's a stage and the drums are out in front, 3 steps behind the drums is the singer with the rest of the musical instruments

 

[mrconfuse]

i wonder if i should purchase it. In some ways it does sound a bit interesting