Ultrasone PROline 650 Headphones
A huge amount of time, effort, and thought goes into the decisions as to which speakers, amplifiers, processors, mixers, and/or microphones will be used in any given live sound system in a house of worship, and an accompanying recording system will likely get as much or even more attention One item that lamentably doesn’t get much thought, at least in my experience, is headphones. And although they are pretty much a necessity, it seems to me that they’re nearly always glossed over, at least until the last minute, typically when the budget is already demolished by all the other “more important” items. Nevertheless, it also seems to me as though every individual engineer has a preference when it comes to headphones, and there are definitely a couple of brand names that are heavily represented in the world-wide pool of headphones in use.
In my estimation, the choice of a good pair of headphones can make a substantial, noticeable difference in the overall quality of a church’s sound. The front-of-house engineer will certainly want a nice pair through which to check gain on the PFL, and/or an individual signal’s overall integrity on the AFL. The monitor engineer is surely going to want to hear, individually, the various mixes he or she is providing to the musicians, vocalists, and pastor. And headphones are not only indispensable in sound reinforcement, but also in recording. Even if a single engineer is charged with the responsibility for mixing front-of house, monitors, and providing a recording split with sufficient levels, he or she will want a quality pair of headphones to hear what they’re doing. The German company Ultrasone offers the PROline 650 headphones, one model among several. I got to spend a lot of time with a pair, and here I report my findings.
On the Surface
Physically, the Ultrasone PROline 650s ($299.99) are a very handsome pair of headphones. Formed of navy blue plastic, they seem a little large at first glance, but once I put them on, I realized that they simply must be that big in order to accomplish an effective seal around the ear. The box in which the headphones ship opens out to reveal an extra pair of earpads, which are quickly and easily exchanged by just turning them.
The other side of the open-out box contains two cords, one coiled, the other not. The cords connect to the headphones in a screw-in fashion, eliminating the possibility for the cord to disconnect once it’s in place. I like having the choice between coiled and straight for different applications. The box also contains a quarter-inch to eighth-inch TRS adapter for use with mini-jack-equipped devices. Finally, the box contains a nice nylon bag for transport and a demo CD.
Ultrasone’s marketing touts “S-Logic Natural Surround Sound,” by virtue of placing the drivers off-center and non-parallel with the eardrum. The openness inside the headphones’ seal plays into this, I’m quite certain, and does indeed augment the perception of openness in the mix. Strictly speaking, this uncommon driver placement causes the sound to strike the ears’ pinnae at an angle that seems more natural to the brain. And in reality, it does make a positive difference. Ultrasone also makes the claim that this altered driver placement results in the perception of higher loudness at lower SPLs-specifically 3 dB to 4 dB. Although I don’t have the sophisticated equipment to measure this, I found these headphones to be far less fatiguing than others I’ve used, lending some credence to this claim.
Into Action
When I first put these headphones on, they seemed a bit bright, but upon pulling them back off and hearing my studio monitors, I realized that it was really more the result of having the drivers closer to my ears. I compared with my old headphones and realized that my brain had just grown accustomed to expecting a duller high-end response from headphones. After listening for quite some time, and moving back and forth from headphone to studio monitor, it became quite clear to me that these headphones are actually very honest in the high end.
The low-end response of these headphones is, in a word, excellent. Again, in listening to them I discovered I had grown accustomed to my old pair of headphones, and the Ultrasones clearly revealed the low end in mine and other mixes. The published frequency range is 10 Hz to 25,000 Hz, and I decided to test the low end with one of my synthesizers-discovering that the 10 Hz figure is not an exaggeration. To be sure, the response is down more than 3 dB at those super-low frequencies, but once you get up into the musical notes above 20 Hz, it’s all there.
Speaking generally about the sound quality of these headphones, the key word is openness. There is indeed a strong perception that mixes are very open. The frequency response is very smooth-I could not perceive bumps anywhere. The high end, in particular, sounds very clean-no harsh or spitty transients. Overall, the openness and smooth, flat representation of the entire frequency range yields a much stronger sense of definition than in any other headphones I’ve ever heard. On numerous occasions I have caught myself listening to the PROline 650s for hours, lost in the exceptional definition. I have never encountered headphones that didn’t fatigue my ears even after an hour or so. With the Ultrasones, I was literally able to listen for hours and hours on end. On occasion, I’ll produce a lengthy podcast that requires me to edit for several hours. Not only was I able to edit, fatigue-free, for hours at a time, but the headphones’ resolution vastly improved my editing, revealing more flaws in voice recordings than my high quality studio monitors could ever hope to. Frankly, I plan to use these headphones for the editing of voiceover or anything else critical from now on. The improvement was simply astonishing to me.
Bottom line, the Ultrasone PROline 650 headphones are excellent. The sound is very good and very honest, and the product also feels solid, accompanied by useful accoutrements. Good headphones will help improve both live sound reinforcement and the recording process-do yourself a favor and consider these.
Quick-links
PROline 650 Headphones
