Ultrasone Signature PRO Headphones Launch in North America

[Cristian_25H]

Ultrasone introduced Signature PRO, the first model in a select range of "made in Germany" headphones for discerning music lovers and professional users. The handcrafted headphones are based on the company's more than 20 years development expertise and, with patented technologies such as S-Logic Plus, offer an impressively detailed sound experience. Designed as a closed system, the first model in the Signature range will appeal to musicians, sound engineers and hi-fi lovers in equal measure. With its classical design and high-quality materials, the Signature PRO boasts and excellent sound experience combined with a stylish look, inspired from their Edition 9 headphones.





The Signature PRO uses a 40-millimetre titanium-plated sound transducer developed in-house. With a frequency range of 8 Hz to 42 kHz, it reproduces more than the entire range of human hearing. Clear audio sound, a detailed midrange and precise low-range frequency reproduction ensure rarely heard audio excellence. The decentralized arrangement of the sound transducers within the ear cup creates a pleasant spatial sound. Thanks to a 'broader' stereo platform, all signals in the panorama can be particularly well located. The S-Logic Plus technology that has been patented all over the world also ensures an outstanding depth of sound: this gives musicians and sound engineers a perfect feeling for their mix, and music lovers experience their favourite tracks exactly as intended by the respective artists. The closed design principle supports S-Logic Plus with a precise and present low frequency range.

The Signature glass nameplates on both ear cups are a visual highlight that blends harmoniously into the form of the headphones. The high-quality black leather and the special soft-touch coating ensure a pleasant, firm grip and are what give the Signature PRO its visual appeal.

"With the new Signature range, we are closing the gap between our high-quality PRO headphones and the exclusive models in the Edition range", explains Michael Zirkel, COO of Ultrasone AG. "The Signature range is aimed at a quality-conscious consumer group comprising of both professional users and music lovers. As with our Edition models, it is extremely important to us that Signature is "made in Germany" and the headphones are manufactured here in Tutzing."

Ultrasone has developed a new headband system that ensures comfortable listening even after long periods of use. In addition to special upholstery that follows the shape of the head, the ear-cup pads and head pad are covered with Ethiopian sheep's leather. The advantage of this extremely high-quality material is its tremendous robustness, as well as the fact that it does not perish, even after years of heavy use. Weighing in at 300 grams, despite its more complex construction, the Signature PRO is no heavier than conventional headphones.

Ultrasone has paid particular attention to the headphone cabling: thanks to a bayonet fastening on the left ear cup, the cable can be exchanged in a flash. The headphones come with two high-quality Neutrik connectors: a 1.5m cable with a 3.5 mm gold-plated jack and a 3.0m cable with a gold-plated 6.3 mm stereo jack. By including a cable with a 3.5 mm connector, Ultrasone is taking account of the fact that more and more professional users are working directly with a notebook without an external sound solution.

Specifications

- S-Logic Plus technology
- Dynamic principle, closed
- Frequency range 8 - 42,000 Hz
- Impedance 32 Ohm
- Sound pressure level 98 dB
- ULE technology, MU Metal bufferboard, field emission in accordance with ULE standard
- 40 mm titanium-plated driver
- Magnet: NdFeB
- Weight: 300 g
- Includes transportation case
- 2 detachable cords with B-lock connection:
3.0 m straight cable with gold-plated 6.3 mm Neutrik plug
1.5 m straight cable with gold-plated 3.5 mm Neutrik plug/angled

The Ultrasone Signature PRO headphones are available now for $1,299 with a specially built case for transport and storage. Further Signature models are planned for 2012.

[RejZoR]

That's one insane frequency range. It almost comes to native CD frequency. Too bad they cost this much...

[ZoneDymo]

only downsides I see is number one the low impedance and number two the look.
They really look boring and average.

[m1dg3t]

For that kind of money i'd snag a set of Grado's, these look like a pair of beefed up Sony mdr-xxx.

[npp]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

That's one insane frequency range. It almost comes to native CD frequency. Too bad they cost this much...

Native CD frequency? I guess you mean the sampling rate. If you've got a very well mastered recording (not that common these days), what you'll get is around 20Khz at most as upper bound. Keep in mind that most of the time, a wide frequency range is given mostly to emphasize that the product will behave extremely linearly in the audible spectrum, and not because it is guaranteed to reveal some unheard ultrasonic details in the source (well, they'll remain unheard anyhow). And yes, 1,2K was a bit of a surprise to me. I recon there are other (more) interesting options in that price range, as someone noted above.

[Tannhäuser]

Just pay for our german quality and don't ask for other options.

[seronx]

Would rather get AKGs

[FirsToStrike]

How they are able to sell such a cheap looking headphone for 1300 dollars is beyond me.
Just look at it! it looks like it was made in some chinese factory that sells them to ultrasone for 5$!
Marketing bullcrap like "S-logic plus", "Ethiopian sheep's leather" or a fake ridiculously high frequency range doesn't make good headphones, and I wish they would just stop making such highly priced headphones, because despite all their effort they never made even 1 highly priced headphone that had it's high price justified by it's sound quality.
And this... this is just a new low, because all those other 1000$ headphones they made at least looked expensive. These however look even worse than their own HFI-450, and somehow I don't think they sound 1250$ better than those.

[Ra97oR]

So many comments on it before even hearing it. Low impedance going to make it bad?

If they follow the trend of the Edition 8 in sound, it could be very interesting as being one of the best portable headphone. However the price made this the same price bracket to the better looking yet still excellent sounding Edition 8, either it have to sound noticeably better or they are just kicking themselves.

[RejZoR]

Originally Posted by npp

Native CD frequency? I guess you mean the sampling rate. If you've got a very well mastered recording (not that common these days), what you'll get is around 20Khz at most as upper bound. Keep in mind that most of the time, a wide frequency range is given mostly to emphasize that the product will behave extremely linearly in the audible spectrum, and not because it is guaranteed to reveal some unheard ultrasonic details in the source (well, they'll remain unheard anyhow). And yes, 1,2K was a bit of a surprise to me. I recon there are other (more) interesting options in that price range, as someone noted above.

Sampling rate or frequency, its the same thing... They are both 44,1 kHz. It's also not about reproducing unheard sounds but a speaker that can do well beyond 20kHz also reproduce audio differently than the drivers that can only do 18 or 20kHz. Despite the fact that we can only hear up to 20kHz...

[Ra97oR]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Sampling rate or frequency, its the same thing... They are both 44,1 kHz. It's also not about reproducing unheard sounds but a speaker that can do well beyond 20kHz also reproduce audio differently than the drivers that can only do 18 or 20kHz. Despite the fact that we can only hear up to 20kHz...

Please read up on that. Standard red book CD only records up to 22.05 kHz. Most hi-fi headphones does advertise having higher than 20kHz response. Like the Sony MDR-SA5000 have advertised a 6Hz -100,000Hz range.

[seronx]

I am pretty sure if your music/sound is 44.1kHz and your headphones were 22.05kHz

You won't notice it most likely but you are missing 1/2 of the sound or the sound is 1/2 less accurate

44,100 times per second
vs
22,050 times per second

[Ra97oR]

I think you are mixing up with sample rate and frequency. The 44.1kHz is 44,100 samples per second in the digital domain, the 22.05kHz is 22,050Hz in the analogue domain as a wave. You only hear the sound wave in the analogue domain, after decoded by the DAC.

You aren't missing half the sound as you are still human, nor that your equipment is likely to playback 44.1kHz accurately even if you have it recorded (like in SACD).

[jsfitz54]

I would like a free sample to try against my AKG's.

[Wile E]

How long before we see a review by Frederik?

[mab1376]

I love my HFI-780's, pending a good review I may have to get these.

I was thinking of getting the Pro900, but we'll see how these do in the reviews.

[STCNE]

Don't bother with Ultrasone unless you have audiophile level recordings. They are very revealing headphones. You'll hear every little detail in your music good or bad. I'm a former PRO2900 owner. Great bass though, you won't find better for electronic music.

[mab1376]

I love vnv nation and KMFDM with my ultrasones!

[Anisotonic]

Originally Posted by STCNE

Don't bother with Ultrasone unless you have audiophile level recordings. They are very revealing headphones. You'll hear every little detail in your music good or bad. I'm a former PRO2900 owner. Great bass though, you won't find better for electronic music.

I would say that I love my pro900 with audiophile level recordings of electronic music.

I'm not sure this new model will fare well against the pro900, which has better specs for 800$ less in exchange for less luxurious materials. I think they look better too. This is a far cry from the edition 10, or even 8, really.

By the way, about the impedance, ultrasones use incredibly stiff titanium drivers that are hard enough as it is to move, you definitely need an amp, but one with a low impedance setting is preferable.

[lauri_hoefs]

"...is aimed at a quality-conscious consumer group."

Right. And they use the same cheap plastic headband they use in 90 € phones, but wrap it in expensive leather? Yeah, that really has quality written all over it.

Ultrasone makes some really high quality products, and a couple of them also have a fairly good price/quality ratio. But then they also make these "premium" phones

[AhokZYashA]

I hope this is going to be good,
I love their Edition 8's and PRO2900

I tried the ED 10 and its not very good in mainstream recording, as its treble is too sharp

[npp]

Originally Posted by seronx

I am pretty sure if your music/sound is 44.1kHz and your headphones were 22.05kHz

You won't notice it most likely but you are missing 1/2 of the sound or the sound is 1/2 less accurate

44,100 times per second
vs
22,050 times per second

You aren't missing anything, except the frequencies that are higher than 1/2 of the sampling frequency (and which often are deliberately filtered off to avoid aliasing). As simple as that. As long as the sound you're sampling doesn't contain frequencies higher than 1/2F_s you'll be able to reconstruct that sound perfectly (in a perfect world).

[Anisotonic]

Originally Posted by lauri_hoefs

"...is aimed at a quality-conscious consumer group."

Right. And they use the same cheap plastic headband they use in 90 € phones, but wrap it in expensive leather? Yeah, that really has quality written all over it.

They use the same plastic for all their products regardless of price and it is easily the highest quality plastic I've seen on headphones.

[lauri_hoefs]

Originally Posted by Anisotonic

They use the same plastic for all their products regardless of price and it is easily the highest quality plastic I've seen on headphones.

Except of course the Edition-line, yes they do. And this is perfectly fine, it's a durable construction, just like you would expect from professional quality products ranging from 90 € to 500 €.

But we are still talking cheap plastic construction in a 1000 € phone, one that is supposed to be a premium quality product. Now, the housing clearly is not the part that makes the price so high. Neither are the cables or the headband. Is it the drivers then? Supposedly so, nothing else left.

If you think that it's a justified price, then fine, for you that is justified. But I think the phone better sound damn good for price that high and construction that cheap.





P.S. And please, don't alter sentences from the quotes, you moved the "" to another sentence, which alters the meaning of the original post...

[BumbleBee]