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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…

The AKG K340 Electrostatic-Dynamic
Rythmdevil's Notes - I bought these NOS (new old-stock) from Germany they only have about 10-15 hours of use. They fit a bit loose on my noggin, so I added some felt spacers to force the cups to swivel to their max (they don't swivel enough, an obvious flaw to an otherwise brilliantly engineered headphone), and I also put foam spacers in the earpads to make them thicker on the bottom. I didn't notice any changes to the sound because of…

I've spent a lot of time with good balanced armature monitors stuck in my ears. Mostly it's a pleasure --- there are some darn good headphones out there of this type: Jerry Harvey Audio JH13, Shure SE530, Etymotic ER4P, and Audéo PFE come to mind. I've also spent a good bit of time with in-ear monitors that use dynamic drivers. That hasn't been nearly as pleasurable.

Lately, that's begun to change, and with the Sony MDR-EX600 and MDR-EX1000 I'm thinking we've got a real horse race on our hands.

The Sony MDR-EX600 ($199)…

Sound Quality
The sound quality of both the EX600 and EX1000 is quite good. Other than the EX1000 being slightly faster and brighter sounding, both headphones sounded and measured very similarly.

Boy, it's such a pleasure to put on a pair of dynamic IEMs and not be flooded with a far-too-overemphasized bass. It's a fine line, however, and in-ear headphones that strive for neutrality can fail by seeming a bit too thin (Etymotic ER4S/P, Audeo PFE w/gray filter). The Sonys seem to strike a pretty good balance ... though I could have done with little more bass, these were among…