Ultrasone PRO 900 Headphones Review

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Jul 15th 2010 at 4:02PM

Nothing like a good pair of luxury headphones to make one's audio player feel it's worth. I find it so sad that form has brutally beaten the wind out of function when it comes to audio these days. People are obsessed with style and size. You can mostly thank Apple for feeding us too many cheap headphones (earphones) with those craptastic white earbuds. I am afraid that the younger generation has no idea what good headphones sound like. Not only that, but traditional "can" headphones are healthier for your ears, as sounds aren't jammed directly into your head.

Those who still want a quality sound experience will likely go with a more tradition set of headphones - of which there are many options. Here are the Ultrasone PRO 900, a higher-end set of headphones from Ultrasone. I am not a dedicated audiophile or sound expert, so I can't comment on qualities such as sound range, etc.. What I can do is give you the low-down from the point of view of a picky person who has had a lot of headphones in their life.

Gallery: Ultrasone PRO 900 Headphones

The PRO 900 has a large, quality feel to them. Ironically, even though they aren't at all flimsy feeling, they fold up for better portability. They also come with a lot of accessories. Several cables, adapters, even two sets of ear cups. I really like that you can unscrew the cable from the set. Cables can get damaged or wear out over time. So being able to replace them on a high-end set of audio equipment is a good thing. Lots of padding on the unit makes them really comfortable. If it is overly hot, you'll sweat a bit, but the ear cans are large enough for your entire ear - this prevents skin wear, and makes them comfy for hours of wear. Perfect for people who need to listen quietly at work, or DJ professionals. Although, because the ear pads are replaceable, they can come off easily (and the area underneath isn't exactly glamorous looking).

The cords that it comes with are really long - better safe than sorry right? These aren't the right headphones for running, or the gym, but you'll be happy to have them even on the go in travel situations. As professional headphones go, they are pretty nice in sound quality. Ultrasone has provided the PRO 900 with its S-LOGIC natural surround sound system. Which is really just that. A way for it to blast directional sound into your ears. This is opposed to hearing sound from just two channels (right and left ear). So with S-LOGIC, you the PRO 900 gives the the illusion of sound coming from various places and distances. Does it work? Well it really depends on the audio you are listening to in my opinion. Highly complex audio recordings that offer "dimensional sound" will probably sound excellent with the S-LOGIC system. The problem is that most of the audio we listen today is pretty crappy.

In terms of music, most MP3's etc.. are a step down from CD quality music. So the majority of music that we listen to these days doesn't sound as good as it used to. You can thank all our wireless distribution and obsession for size, for that. If you listen to audio coming from DVDs or Blue-Ray, you are more likely to experience higher quality sound recordings. I say all this because good headphones can only make low-quality audio files or recordings sound so good.

Overall the Ultrasone PRO 900 headphones are a good mixture between very high end, and the basic stuff you'll find at Best Buy. They offer comfortable listening with good sound quality for most purposes. One feature I did wish they had (especially since I listen to music and sound from many digital audio devices) is an on-board volume control. Depending on what you are listening to - if it doesn't have sufficiently amplified sound, then even at the highest volume the sound won't be very loud. This isn't really the fault of the headphones, but a luxury pair should be able to overcome this audio player problem with that additional volume control feature. The Ultrasone PRO 900 headphones retail for $599, and are available at various outlets including online at Amazon.com.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews website aBlogtoRead.com.

Gallery: Ultrasone PRO 900 Headphones

Tags: 900, earphones, headphones, luxury, pro, review, Ultrasone