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Sound Quality
Here's where this product really shines. The sound with the gray filter is very detailed and articulate without being strident or harsh. They sounded amazingly clear to me, quite unusually so; they easily handle complex music without confusion. The sound is balanced and very coherent bottom to top, but the bass does lack a little weight to my ears. (This is very typical for an IEM without a bit of extra bass boost.)

The black filter does bring a bit of balanced bass heft into the picture, but does cause the midrange to withdraw a bit. The green filter goes a…

A classic in the world of professional and enthusiast headphones, and probably the world's most popular DJ headphone, the HD 25 has remained in the Sennheiser line-up in a small variety of incarnations since 1987 ... and deservedly so.

When I first heard them about 15 years ago there were very few expensive headphones available, so they seemed pricy at the time. They sounded great, though, and were a solid recommendation. In today's world of high-priced fashion headphones, and even higher priced high-end headphones, these very…

Sound Quality
The HD 25-1 II has a lively, articulate, and well balanced sound. Bass extension is good for headphones of this type (as long as the seal is good), and the bass is tight and clean. The mids are well proportioned and nicely integrated with bass and treble. The upper mids and treble are slightly forward, and the highs can be somewhat grainy and hard sounding at times, though not excessively so. I would characterize these cans as having a very good "pro" sound.

The dynamics are excellent with these headphones; soundstage and coherence are good. I was pleasantly…

Enthusiasts recently mourned the death of the Denon AH-D1001 --- a really good sounding sealed headphone at just above $100. Lament no more. This Foster OEM design (model 443741) has found rebirth as the Creative Aurvana Live!

The very good news: it's even better than before.

Creative Aurvana Live! ($99)
It's obvious from the look and measurements that the Denon AH-D1001 and Creative Aurvana Live! are definitely variations of the same product. But measurements and listening also show different, and markedly improved…

Sound Quality
Dayum! The Creative Aurvana Live! sounds great! Overall these cans have a warm tilt with a bit of excitement up top. The bass extension is very good, though could be a little bit tighter sounding. The bass is tastefully accentuated, but not bloated or wooly in the least. The mids connect very naturally to the low notes and would call them excellent but for being slightly overshadowed by the happy highs. The treble, though a tad prominent is very well controlled and articulate, and only slightly edgy…

A goodly amount of forum chatter has been focussed on these two very inexpensive Superlux headphones. (Superlux is a Taiwanese maker of professional audio gear, and is distributed in the U.S. by Avlex.) I thought it would be fun to have a listen and see if the headphone enthusiast community has stumble upon some giant killers.

(C'mon, how much can $30 really get you?)

The Superlux HD 668B and HD 681
Looking rather like an unwanted love child of an AKG and Audio Technica drunken trist, the Superlux HD 668B (~$30-$40)…

These cans use 50mm diameter drivers, which is about as big as dynamic drivers get. It seems to me this is likely one of the reasons for such surprising bass and mid-range performance, and the sense that these headphones perform…

Kabeer - "I am located in UK, and I have some orthos. Im not sure if its very viable for me to get anything measured?"

Tyll - "I really can't spend too much money on this, so I've limited DIY Ortho testing to the U.S. to keep the shipping costs down. Sorry."

Kabeer - "Id really like to send my Aiwa to you to get measured. I think its pretty great :). Wualta wants to see their measurements too and has kindly offered to pay you the postage back to UK for them."

Tyll - "Okie Dokie. If Wualta wants to see the…

Tyll's Notes
First of all, the old school audio geek in me wanted to obsessively fondle the all-metal earpieces of these fine cans. The mix of stainless, chrome, silver metal flake paint, and burnt-orange anodize finish were attractive beyond baring. My lusts welled strong with the Aiwas.

These are a fairly heavy headphone, with modest headband and earpad padding. You know how those red spaceport chairs in "2001: A Space Odyssey" looked really cool, but not very comfortable? Yeah, kinda like that.…

I can't tell you what a treat it is to measure and listen to the unusual headphones I get from enthusiasts. This time, rythmdevils from Head-Fi has sent in a couple of vintage AKG cans.

He's also a photographer, and has kindly allowed me to use his sweet pix of these two cans for the article. Very nice! Thanks!

The AKG K240 "Sextett"
Rythmdevil's Notes - These are the EP (early production) versions which are said to have the most bass, and least treble. They have the stock cable and the stock pads, and I haven't even…