Ultrasone HFI-680 Natural Surround Sound Headphone Review

Audio Performance

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As eluded to in my review of the ASUS Essence STX Headphone Amp Sound Card, the Ultrasone HFI-680s do some things quite well. We’ll continue to use the Essence STX sound card as our source while we check out these headphones in depth with Music, Movies, lower quality sources like low bit rate MP3s and streaming audio. We’ll finish it off with a workout in some games that I play often.

Music

I took a large number of MP3s and WMAs ripped at high bit rates (greater than 320 kbps) and proceeded to listen intently. One thing that you will notice right away with any of the tracks that you know particularly well, is just how much bigger they sound in the HFI-680s. The S-Logic technology really brings out the space between the instruments and gets that sound out of your head and into a room. The effect was very natural and didn’t for a moment sound nasal and “blobby” like what some pseudo-surround sound effects can do to your sound. It’s definitely more like you’re there.

The other thing that I eluded to as we combed through the features was the frequency response and how I thought they’d be more apt to favour the mid range and the highs. That proved to be correct as the mid range was extremely detailed. The S-Logic Plus technology really takes the S-Logic up a notch and just goes to town pulling out every drop of detail in a track. The highs sparkled, but could at times be a bit shrill depending on what you’re listening too though.

The bass was punchy and accurate, but sounded a bit distant at times. These definitely aren’t headphones a bass head will like, but if you tend to listen to a lot of Jazz where the bottom end tends to be plucky and punchy to begin with, you’ll enjoy these headphones a lot.

Movies and Low Quality Sources

Since most movies are mastered for 5.1, you do come away with some crappy mix downs to 2.0 at times. Thankfully, the S-Logic Plus does a great job of improving the sound, giving soundtracks a lot more three dimensionality and detail. You’ll love them in movies like “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Matrix” where gunfire tends to inhabit almost every scene. Dialogue was also very clear and you’ll even hear some moans of agony in the background, accurately placed of course.

Low quality sources like low bit rate streaming audio was made more palatable and the same goes for low bit rate ripped MP3s. With some high end headphones, you get the complete opposite which is the revelation of how truly crappy the source material is, but not so with the Ultrasones.

Games

The S-Logic Plus and the natural surround sound effect really becomes a factor in games where knowing where your enemy is hiding in Crysis is just as important as knowing which units to counter for in a game like Command & Conquer 3. With the detail and directional cues brought out by the HFI-680s, I was actually able to respond faster to threats. Even MMORPGs like Age of Conan benefitted because I knew something was coming up behind me, or I could tell that another group was having their asses handed to them. Most importantly it was very natural sounding.

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

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The Ultrasone HFI-680s are great sounding headphones with a natural surround effect that faithfully reproduces the soundstage that audio should be listened in. By taking the sounds out of our head, we get back into the room with the musicians. The detail was stunning in many instances where I was picking up noises in live tracks that I couldn’t quite place before without the spatial cues.

Deep, resonating and sloppy bass is not where these will take you. However, if you want punchy and accurate, these headphones will give that to you. Hip hop just isn’t the same without those big sloppy bass notes, but Jazz, Rock and anything else that doesn’t rely on big sloppy notes will be a hit in the HFI-680s.

The HFI-680s have a fit that I have trouble getting comfortable with. The headband is way stiff, giving it great clamping force, but I don’t need my head clamped that hard. Also, there seems to be a lack of foam on the headband, which makes for a sore experience after playing a game for a couple hours. I really don’t know if further break in would have helped and I did take some time to try to stretch band out, but to no avail. I did find that wearing a hat with the headphones on top of it seemed to help. Maybe that’s how they tested them?

Overall, the Ultrasone HFI-680s get praise for their stunning audio performance, but they might want to take some lessons on comfort from their cousins that make those other headphones that start with an “S”. Funny that wearing a hat does make them more comfy, but I can’t see that being a realistic solution.

Pros