[Sasaki]

Behind the news of Edition8, Ultrasone brought their first electrics to the show, that is a balanced headphone amp.
Here is a CES report of Japanese distributer. (in Japanese but you will see some pictures)
ULTRASONE | ULTRASONE@CES2009

The amp is called as 101h. The 101h amp employs one normal 1/4 and one XLR 5 pin plug for balanced output, against the ordinal two XLR 3pin plugs.
They brought stock PRO900 and modded PRO900 to be used with the amp. modded PRO900 has a detachable cable connector as well as 5 pin XLR terminated plug, so they are able to hook up to 5 pin XLR plug.

This is a proto-type model, they aim to launch around the middle of 2009.

 

[Richter Di]

That is interesting news. It seems that more headphone companys move this way (e.g. Beyerdynamic).

 

[apatN]

Do you know why a 5p. XLR was chosen and what is wrong with a 4p XLR? It's not getting more simpler.

 

[Sasaki]

I have no idea ..
I will ask them when I get a chance.