Just ordered the new Ultrasound 8000's from crutchfield..

[JohnCWillis]

and I am silly excited. I have only owned a $100 pair of Able Planet noise canceling headphones and from the sound of it, I am going to melt when I listen to my instrumental music. Can any audiophiles on here attest to the quality of these? I am a student so my main focus IS to focus my mind in a quiet environment on campus. I have a beautiful pair of RTi12's and felt utter confidence ordering Polk headphones. I didn't wanna be another Bose fanboy >.<

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

I assume you're referring to the UltraFocus 8000? If so, check the headphones forum here, there's a thread and review on these there.

[JohnCWillis]

I appreciate the response. I have read all reviews I have found on the web. I've read two on here. I basically posted to express my excitement to the world like a child bragging about their pudding cup for dessert.

However, maybe someone could answer me this, if I plug in the headphones, which already have a built in amp into my Onkyo SR-876 receiver, would the sound improve or stay the same?

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Improve or stay the same vs what?

In my experience they sound just as good coming out of an iPod as they do out of even a high end headphone amp, so I guess either way the answer is they would sound the same.

[JoeBlow74]

I appreciate the response. I have read all reviews I have found on the web. I've read two on here. I basically posted to express my excitement to the world like a child bragging about their pudding cup for dessert.

However, maybe someone could answer me this, if I plug in the headphones, which already have a built in amp into my Onkyo SR-876 receiver, would the sound improve or stay the same?

These headphones have a built-in amp? I did not know this. Can anybody confirm? I know the 8000's have some good electronics inside making the noise cancellation and music stream work good together.

Anything is an improvement over a portable digital media player. Most Onkyo receivers have Burr Brown DAC's and quality power supplies in them, making them produce excellent sound. So, whatever you plug into the Onkyo will sound way better than using an Iphone or portable media player. I love my 8000's. They sound very good to my ears.

[JohnCWillis]

I have read more than one review online that claims the 8000's have a Polk amp built in. I am pretty sure this is why the headphones do not work in passive mode, because the "amp" must power the drivers. Every set of active noise canceling headphones have some sort of amplifier built-in in order to power the speakers. Noise canceling headphones have drivers that do a lot more work than the average headphones seeing as the more powerful the drivers, the higher the level of noise cancelation can be achieved. please correct me if my presumptions are wrong.