A relative newcomer to the high-end headphone market, German manufacturer Ultrasone is making waves in the industry with their competitively-priced offerings that deliver excellent sound quality and value. We take their HFI-700 headphones for a spin, and find plenty to get excited about.

In the past, when I’ve been asked to name manufacturers of high-end headphones, several names would immediately spring to mind - among them AKG, Sennheiser, Grado Labs, and Audio-Technica. Recently, however, I’ve added another ‘name to know’ in high-end headphones to my list - the German maker Ultrasone.

A relatively new company as compared to the other four I mentioned, Ultrasone’s offerings range from the relatively Spartan HFI-15 on-ears to the opulent Edition 9, trimmed in brushed aluminum and rich high-gloss plastic, with sumptuous Ethiopian sheep’s-leather earpads. What does $1500 sitting on your head feel like? Like Ethiopian sheep leather, I suppose.

For our first review from their product line, Ultrasone kindly sent along their $249 (MSRP) HFI-700, an elder sibling of the HFI range. The HFI-700 headphones feature around-the-ear design and closed earcups, as well as the company’s proprietary ‘S-Logic’ technology, which is said to enhance the listener’s perception of a three-dimensional sound field, like one experiences when listening to a pair of high-end stereo loudspeakers.

Other than that, these headphones are fairly ordinary - only two channels, without any crazy multi-driver surround effects (which, I find, generally tend to backfire from a sonic standpoint). Simplicity, however, can be strength, and more than that, it can be a sign that real attention has been paid to the details.

At the $249 price point, the Ultrasone HFI-700s rub shoulders with the Beyerdynamic DT 770, the Sony MDR-7509, and the Grado Labs SR-225 - some very stiff competition from respected names in the business. However, as we’ll see, the HFI-700 headphones bring quite a bit to the table sonically as well, with some characteristics that make them especially appealing for music listening and home studio use.