HD681 Semi-Open Studio Headphones, Wired Over-Ear with 50mm Neodymium Drivers, Single-Sided Cable, 10-30,000Hz, for Monitoring, Recording, Mixing, Podcast, Music

Out of box they sounded very good, FAR better than other similar $ headphones. I would not say "hi-fi" but WAY better sound definition than most headphones under $100. They are not bass-heavy, rattle your noggin cans. They are more in the lane of "reference" or neutral. I thought they had slightly forward highs, occasionally sibilant, perhaps ... but that's a big word and hardly fair for headphones we paid <$40 for!!! Bass was there and controlled but recessed a bit on some tracks I listened to. For example, a cello won't sound booming, but will sound very real, and right there. For classical or critical listening, that's great; if you want to feel the bass from pop, R&B etc in your gut, these aren't for that. If you can afford over $80, sure, there are better options for critical listening, for example Phillips 9500 which are an amazing deal for the price, and you can sometimes score an audiotechnica M40 on sale or refurb for just a bit more. My son bought these to replace some skull candy and originally missed the bass those had. But, over a couple weeks he says the superlux are so much clearer, cleaner, and spacious sounding, he doesn't like the skull candy anymore. He says he can hear all sorts of detail in music he never heard before (and he likes it...). My experience lines up with that from the few tracks I listened to with these (though I don't put his skull candy on my head ... ever). Everyone will be different.... so look up more details elsewhere. But $ for sound, these surprized me in a really good way. Build quality doesn't look exceptional. They don't look fragile, just like they are "just adequate" and not more. My son usually tears things up pretty quick, headphones not withstanding. Hence he paid for these himself ... 2 pairs from dad in <2years and you're on your own, Jack. So far, a couple months of frequent use (he uses them every day, several hours per day ... some days I think he has these on more than he doesn't) and they are holding up okay. My son listens to them with a generic MP3 player and they sound fine, so no amp needed ... but if you add a little juice, they do perk up and shine. But so do most good headphones. I let him listen to these on a class A solid state and then a tube headphone amp, and his jaw dropped. He tried his skull candy on those and went "meh, yeah, better, but ... not like the superlux" The point is, these are surprisingly good headphones for "cricial listening" if it's not blasphemy to say such about a sub $50 headphone, but you get out of them what you put into them. On a marginal source, you may not notice a big difference between these and a typical $40 set but as the source improves, they start to really separate from other similar priced cans. Be aware, if you aren't familiar with semi-open/ open, that means they leak sound - in and out. You can still hear things around you AND others can hear YOUR music even if it's not cranked up. The tradeoff is, again if you are not aware, is that the design makes them sound really spacious. Open/semi-open headphones are rarely this cheap, so in case you wondered into reviews of this Superlux looking for a "cheap but decent" pair of cans to wear on the train while commuting ... hmmm ... think on that a bit. I have a lot of far better headphones ... but for the money, I've not heard anything this "good." It looks like these bounce up and down in price. If these were $70 you could do better for a couple bucks more and would be well to do so (phillips 9500 again). We scored these for less than $40. At that price I'd buy them again any day!! 5 stars for VERY good sound at a CRAZY, CRAZY low price. If $50, I'd say 4 stars because there are other competitors at that price that have better build quality better comfort, and better sound. Hit $75 and I'd drop to 3 stars - too close to Phillips, Sennheisser, and Audiotechnica options that edge these out.

So, I'm finally in a position to write a review of the Superlux HD681 headphones.. I've purchased 2 sets of these headphones over the last (nearly) 6 years. The first set was for myself. The second set was for my mother (4 years ago). After 6 years of regular use, sometimes upwards of 8 hours, my almost 6 year old set is still in "like new" condition, as is my mother's 4 year old set. Durability is not an issue in the slightest, if you don't abuse them. If you abuse them, yes, they will eventually break. However, when treated properly, they will last for years. Even after 6 years, the audio is very clean. The bass is not overbearing by any means. I do enjoy reading reviews from others regarding these headphones. After 6 years, I've only heard static, distortion, etc from low quality audio files and streams. When playing FLAC files, the sound is crystal clear through the entire volume and gain level. I'm running these from a FiiO E10K DAC/AMP. I'm not an audiophile by any means, and it appears neither are most posting reviews. Most of the reviews here appear to be written by people who are more impressed by price than actual experience or by people that listened to a brand new set for a few minutes before posting a review. Sound quality is heavily affected by source. Low quality audio chipsets, low quality audio recordings, etc. If you're listening to Spotify, Napster, Youtube, etc, expect distortion, hissing, popping and crackling. If you're using Realtek or VIA integrated audio, expect distortion, crackling, popping and hissing. That is the fault of the audio stream or audio device and not the headphones. As I said earlier, FLAC files played through a FiiO E10K outputting to these headphones are crystal clear, even with the volume and gain turned all the way up. Yes, these headphones WILL make your ears sweat....but after nearly 6 years, my ear pads are in near perfect condition. For those looking for 100% perfect sound reproduction. You're going to be looking forever. Your perfect product does not exist. For the rest of you. IF you want good sound quality with a wide sound stage for a reasonable price, and don't want to invest several hundred or thousands of dollars in audio equipment, these are well worth the cost. You'll have to invest thousands to actually hear the difference between these and the more expensive headphones they compete with. The only people that can truly hear the difference between these and the more expensive "brand name" headphones, are those that think cost and quality and directly proportional.

UPDATE: 7/16/13 ** I've been using these almost daily for two years, and the headphones continue to function as if new. All in all, the sound performance with these is above average, and the affordable price makes this a great deal. The Superlux HD 681 wear comfortably on the head, fitting with cushions over the ears and molding well to the head. Sound quality shouldn't be compared to top-of-the line headphones, but these provide reasonable, above-average depth and sound clarity. I use these casually, listening to a full gamut of genres (rock, jazz, classical, hip hop, audiobooks, etc.) and find the headphones work well with the characteristics of all these audio genres. The only negative is the occasional slight distortion at louder volumes; the bass isn't superb, but that could be the Ipod version I'm using with these. The only other point worth noting is their relative bulky size, but the solid construction and notable sound quality overrides this point for me. Overall, two years in and I would continue to recommend these to casual audio listeners. ** The price of these headphones gives them a great value. Overall quality is pretty good. The headphones are comfortable on your ears; however, occasionally the headphones can irritate the top of your head, but with a little readjustment comfort is restored! Sound quality is good. I'm not an audio expert, but I definitely enjoy these. Appearance is one area where these are slightly lacking. The top of the headphones (as the image shows) stand out, so if you are trying to look "fly" in your 'phones, these might not be the best unit. But, I have not problem with it. All in all, I would recommend these to a casual or beginner headphone connoisseur...

Sencillos pero buenos. Por ese precio, cumplen su función perfectamente. Además son cómodos y aíslan bastante bien

(I'm in Canada, so factor prices accordingly) Some quick background: I am NOT an audiophile (at least when it comes to my wallet), but I do consider myself a "budding enthusiast". I've been through a bunch of dollar store earbuds and headphones, a few sub $15.00 headphones and a pair of "Onn" brand bluetooth headphones from Walmart (those sub-$30.00 ones I'm sure you've seen). With a budding interest in more critical listening at home, I got the bug again to splurge on a set of headphones for home use. After reading a bunch of reviews both here and other sites (rtings has great objective data if you're a data-driven nerd like me) it seemed like these were going to be untouchable in the price class. Although this is my only set outside of "cheap chinese headphones" in the past 25 years, from what I can see the reviews are right. I've only been using them for about 45 minutes or so trying to critique them and here are my findings. My point of reference are the "Onn" brand $25-ish bluetooth headphones which seem to be better than all the dollar store headphones/earbuds I've tried. I'm playing these either via my computer with a Gigabyte motherboard circa 2016 and an FX8300 processor or a mid-tier smartphone. First up was "Ants Marching" by Dave Mathews Band (streamed via amazon music) as I felt the percussion and overall "brightness" of the song would be a good opener. The first thing that struck me was the clarity and detail of these headphones. The music is very vibrant with a great balance between the bass, mids and treble. The Onn's were "muddy", lacked the same clarity, and leaned toward emphasizing the bass too much at the expense of the mids. Next I wanted to delve into the classical realm so I went to youtube'd "Emma Kirkby Rise Glory Rise" a classical piece composed by Thomas Arne. Emma Kirby is a fantastic soprano and I have to say this song sealed the deal for me on these headphones. She took center stage as I listened and was absolutely amazed at the clarity of her voice, the orchestra, and the amazing interplay between herself and the instruments. If you go to youtube (so you can make the same comparison with the same kind of input source) listen to the vocal run she makes starting at about the 2:15 mark. They absolutely blew the Onn's out of the water in terms of clarity and this is a great place that demonstrates how my cheaper headphones allow the instruments to compete for the attention. Another point that amazed me was around 6:11 when she goes to hit that note near the top of her range. I don't know how to describe it but in the cheaper headphones it sounds like she is really straining to hit that note (distortion?) but with HD681's it was more like "yeah, you heard what you heard, and I STILL got some range above this!" thanks to the clarity and lack of distortion. Finally, using foobar2000 I tried to see if I could tell the difference between a 192kbps MP3 and a 24 bit, 192kHz FLAC of the same song: "The Spirit of Radio" by Rush. These HD691's do tease out differences, but its subtle. The MP3 was slightly more silibant on some words and the MP3 seemed to invoke some dynamic compression as the MP3 had a hint less subtlety and "warmth" than the HD FLAC recording. The cheapie Onn headphones couldn't tease this difference out. Again, it was subtle but I heard it. I imagine with a better DAC you could hear more of a difference (the inexpensive LiNKFOR DAC I ordered could not versus my PC, FYI). From a comfort point of view, they feel light on the head with a reasonable clamping force to keep them in place. You know they're on your head, but they're not annoying or intrusive to your experience. As I was analyzing Emma work her magic the fact I was wearing headphones moved to the background as I enjoyed the responsiveness of the headphones. When not actively listening to music through the headphones you can have conversations with others in the room thanks to the semi-open nature. Being semi-open there seems to be enough dampening that when the music is on external noise seems adequately attenuated. I had the better half turn on the tv at a comfortable listening volume in the living room and I was able to enjoy rock music without the TV interfering. Classical lovers may need less background noise but I never took advantage of my listening opportunity to compare. The cable is about 8' long and a step up in quality versus cheaper headphones. Its long enough that I can swivel and lean back in my chair as I enjoy music, but not so long I risk a tangle or tripping. I was out of the headphone game for a good 25 years (as a point of reference, the last good set of headphones I had was from the Radio Shack pro line at a time when they were just rebranded quality headphones (pro-25 or pro-35? I forget, they were lost to history long ago) so for all intents and purposes I was a noob looking to get into the quality headphone game. The subjective reviews said these were incredible value for the money and the objective benchmarks showed these were the best under $50USD headphones out there. For the comfort and sound quality these are a steal at $58.99 (Canadian Dollars). I could absolutely believe they can compete with headphones at 2-3 times the price. If you are new to critical listening (like me) and you're just not sure if your ears have the training to appreciate those m50x's you're drooling over (like me) you absolutely WILL NOT GO WRONG using these to start your acoustical journey.

Qualidade do fone e duração muito boa.

took a chance on these ...... but unfortunatly the single cable for right side stopped working after 3 to 4 weeks use.

Bought these as I was looking for a good pair of headphones to couple with a mod mic setup I was looking in to. I am not an audiophile by any means so super high quality wasn't what i was looking for. The key was comfort and durability. The build of the headphones themselves are very solid and sturdy, no part feels like it's about to "break off" or snap suddenly if a stiff breeze comes over it.The headband which rests on the top of your head is comfortable and secure without applying painful or discomforting amounts of pressure. So it doesn't hurt with extended sessions (10 hours+) or leave that classic "Headphone" look at the top of your head. The noise cancelling is superb, it takes out most background noise when I am listening to music or watching something, but I can still know when someone is trying to get my attention in the house. The cable and jack (Standard 3.5mm Jack) is also sturdy and well made. There have been no issues with the sleeve for the wire or the house for the jack itself. After a year of constant use (and being rolled over by my chair) the wire and sleeve are still perfect and I have no issues with it. The Jack itself is also in perfect condition despite several trip incidents pulling it from the Jack slot of my PC as well as pulling it out and placing in back in when I change machines. That being said, that is the one downside (Or positive depending on how your situation is) - The cable for this headphone set is *quite* long - so for those at a desktop quite close to their setup, you will end up running over the cable and sometimes tripping over it ripping it from the connection slot on the PC. I would highly advise cable mangement or consideration of where you thread your cable to avoid this. Since the long cable issue can be easily avoided and not that much of a con, it doesn't merit reducing the 5* review for this. Overall Pros - Comfortable for many many hours. - Solid build quality with no issues after almost a year of use and abuse. - Easy to attach a Mod Mic setup due to the design of the headphones. - Long cable with good sleeving can reach all but the stupidest of places and will survive the classic chair rollover and trip Cons - Super long cable that without management or good location can cause chair rollover or tripping