Superlux HD-681

I bought these to listen to music and for playing PC games after reading online recommendations. I have them connected to a Monolith Liquid Spark headphone amp connected to my PC's onboard DAC line out.

My main decision was based on sound quality, imaging and price. I liked the noted sound signature listed on the Superlux website and from reviews I've read. I have to say I'm actually blown away with how they sound! These have a nicer sound signature than my old Sennheiser HD580s. Yes they are cheaply built, but look how much they cost. I'm sure if you look after them and treat them with respect they will last long enough. My biggest complaint is the clamping force and thin earpads. Very uncomfortable, I've ordered thicker velour pads from China to compensate.

Pros: Spacious sound with good clarity, depth and punch making them ideal for gaming. Gorgeously musical. Ridiculous price.

Cons: Treble forward. Not going to compete with high end headphones (but snapping at the heels of phones costing 5-10x as much). Clamping force is probably the worst I've encountered. Build quality fits what you pay for...cheap.

I needed a pair of headphones for work just to filter out some noise and helping to focus. I tried out couple cheap ones, but was very disappointed with sound quality every time. I already had a pair of Superlux HD-330's which I had been very happy with for about four years already. I checked back and forth between them and these (and HD-660) but decided to give these a shot.

Enough blabbering - these headphones are absolutely worth the price. The sound is pretty clear and the phones are comfortable to wear. They are a little bass heavy though so keep that in mind if you are considering between these and some other ones. But for my purpose, casual music listening while in work, they are just perfect. They are semi-open, but I'd be ready to call them open. It's good when someone tries to reach out from outside as they don't need to shout. On the other hand they are massive enough to be seen so other understand that they might need to raise voice — good perk compared to earphones.

Overall strongly recommended for casual use. Notice still that the given 5 stars is strongly quality-price ratio -based, so if you want the best sound quality I would recommend spending a bit more.

First, a quick shoutout to Thomann for handling the order perfectly and delivering the headphone to the Netherlands within two days.

This headphone is worth every penny and puts my much more expensive JBL E50BT to shame. Great sound stage and replacable earpads.
The earpads themselves are decent, but if room temperature is above 25 degrees your ears will start to sweat.

If you like bass you will need an amp and an equalizer for these cans. Without amp the bass distorts quite fast, even at low volume.
On a desktop pc I’ve used APO equalizer with 15 bands and the following settings to get the best results;

25hz +10
40hz +10
63hz +10
100hz +10
2500hz -5
4000hz -5
6300hz -5
10000hz -5
16000hz -5

Bottomline; I could never recommend these headphones enough!

I bought these as i wanted a cheap headset just to monitor things at night to not disturb the neighbors. Bought them specifically because i'm very used to wearing AKG headsets and love how comfortable they are, and these looked similar in construction.
I was not disappointed! Extremely comfortable like the AKGs, though not as well ventilated, my ears tend to heat up if wearing them for a while. As for the sound, i've seen some people complain about harsh top end, but i find the sound extremely pleasing! Bear in mind though: both the bottom and top ends are slightly to moderately hyped, so consider these more of a "hi-fi" type headset than any kind of monitoring solution.