On the contrary, I reckon planers are going to overtake 'stats essentially. I sold off all my Stax gear because I couldn't see myself with a $5k amp that I could only use with one pair of headphones and a $4k pair of headphones I could only use with one amp. With that money I could have a very competent speaker and headphone rig with a lot of flexibility. It's a pity, because the 009s are outstanding.
The Sig Pro (much the same pair of headphones) is basically an Edition 9 without the fancy metal, for half the price. Neither have the same resolution at any of the other pairs of high-end headphones I have here. They also get quite congested as you turn up the volume due to the construction. The Edition 8s fixed some of this but the inconsistency in sound between individual pairs was a huge problem. It isn't like Ultrasone is incapable of making good headphones, but seem to have found a market, especially in places like Japan, that prefers bling over ultimate sound quality, so the prices push them well over what a lot of people here would consider. The cheaper Performance series that was more recently released was actually quite decent, for example. Also, not to mention, they blew it totally with the ED10s, so even when the cheaper and better ED12s came out, nobody here was willing to take them seriously any more for anything more expensive than the ED8s. Granted, if you're one of those people for whom the S-Logic works very well, everything I've said will probably be moot.
i only own dj one pro, and listened to signature dj and plan to buy it.
to put it in simple ways, for my ears it was almost the exact same thing as hd800, but with more bass, less black background, and a sweeter general tonality.
i really liked the sound, making ti my first choice, because i considered hd800 to be kind of.... i do not know, i guess that i wanted a more sweet tonality.
Detail retrieval, microdetails, air, soundstage and most of hd800 characteristics can already be found in dj one pro, signature dj being even better.
I also tested lcd series, and a few others, and i really need the treble ultrasone in general and hd800 has.
Also, i would also say that i tested hd800 with a lot of amps, from cheap m-stage to wooaudio tube expensive amps, i liked solid state much more, like hdvd800.
maybe it is me, or maybe it is not, i really loved hd800 too, but ultimately i need a closed back pair of headphones, and i cannot listen to anything besides ultrasone that are closed back, [maybe lcd xc, but it had a dark signature, not enough treble for me], i also listened to edition 5, and i liked signature dj more.
