Oh yeah, baybeh!
Superlux 668B in da house!



Not very comfortable at first. So I rolled some tissue paper and insert it in between the pads and the cups, and it's much better. A Head-fier dude claims that this increases bass or whatever-the-heck which I couldn't be bothered with.

Burn-in til now approx 10-20 hours.
I let my friend who owns an IE8 to test it out. He mentioned that the separation is very good. I agree after listening to Andy McKee-Art of Motion and Kings of Convenience-Mrs Cold: both of which has multiple guitars being finger plucked.

I've never heard any headphones beyond RM30 crap from Lowyat Plaza, so I'm in no position to say how good it is. As far as I'm concerned, it's got good clarity and more detail than Sony NC22 IEM (the NC22 is already a pretty good IEM, IMO). Low bass still sounds a tiny bit boomy for my liking.

For RM130 (after nego with the sales staff), you can't go wrong with it. Apparently it's not a popular model in Instraco, because the salesperson took a quite bit of time digging through the inventory to locate it.

Maybe I should replace Superlux logo with AKG & bring it to Jaben gathering, and see what the big-shots think of it.

Now, time to build a CMOY to go with it. w00t!

This post has been edited by iamyuanwu: Aug 9 2010, 01:33 PM

Quite a few dudes have asked me where I bought Superlux headphones in KL. Jazzy939 mentioned the name of the shop in another thread. I'll repeat them here:

Shop name: INSTRACO
Location: 115 Jalan Pasar, 55100 KL. Near Esso station, towards Jalan Tun Razak end. Tel 03-92218327
Listed price: RM180
What I paid: RM130 (nego with the sales staff)

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Added on August 9, 2010, 1:41 pmP.S. Jazzy, for RM130... you can't be wrong! GO GO GO! If you guys buy in bulk, maybe even cheaper.
They are not 'best bang per buck'; they are ' best KABOOM! per buck'.

This post has been edited by iamyuanwu: Aug 9 2010, 01:41 PM

Mods available to stretch the RM130 further:

Tissue mod (Timar from Head-fi) for comfort (and slight bass improvement):
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/485039...15#post_6686675

Earfonia Foam removal mod (Audiophile-Indonesia forum):
Remove the foam covering the driver to increase aggressiveness & detail. I have no idea what that dude is saying most of the time.
http://www.audiophile-id.com/index.php?top...22599#msg222599


Heliharris mod (Rockgrotto forum)---aluminium ring and end cap mod for HD681. I guess it would work for 668B too.
http://rockgrotto.proboards.com/index.cgi?...iew&thread=5378
http://rockgrotto.proboards.com/index.cgi?...4559&post=57092

PinkFloyd's 4 Pence mod (variations: 4 Euro mod, RM0.40 sen mod, SGD 1 dollar mod). For "sweeter highs and have others have said, more air around instruments. Bass seems a litte tighter [...]"
http://rockgrotto.proboards.com/index.cgi?...4769&post=59472
I just used a knife tip to pop off the Superlux logo cap, applied some paper glue onto a 20 sen coin (I don't want to make it permanent yet), stick it onto the end cap with a tape over it to prevent it from falling out. Perhaps slightly less boomy bass, I guess.

Clausdk fish tank filter wool mod For crazy details in HD681. I will try later with cotton or whatever I can find at home.
http://rockgrotto.proboards.com/index.cgi?...4769&post=65101

This post has been edited by iamyuanwu: Aug 9 2010, 07:21 PM

Removing the foam disc and the damper sticker increased the bass and boominess. The foam disc and damper are actually some sort of bass port.

And after about a week of burn in and poisoning friends, the bass is getting a bit overwhelming for me (I cannot tahan any bass that is boomy).
So I got some blu-tac and cotton. Put a big glob of blu-tac behind the driver magnet, and stuffed a bit cotton---which turned out to be too much---into the outside chamber (Clausdk fish tank filter wool mod).

The bass has tightened up by A LOT, too much in fact. Snare drums sounds crazy tight and sharp... I could hear the metal wire snares! Woahahahahahah!
But some bass at a certain frequency got eaten up. I think around 100hz and it starts to roll off, under 70hz it's all the way down a cliff. Walking bass of a double-bass could get cut off as the player plays lower & lower; kick drum sound weak and lacks impact; rock songs lacks the oomph.

But heck, vocals sounds so good and transparent... it's too easy to get too loud.

I must've insert too much cotton. LOL!

This post has been edited by iamyuanwu: Aug 10 2010, 07:28 PM

For the truly cheapskate: get the Superlux HD681 for around RM 70-80 and mod the heck out of it.

Rockgrotto forummers mentioned that 681 has more bass and treble, like a V-shape equaliser. More 'fun' sound, and it's audio characteristic allows for more room to mod.
Some find the 668B too clinical and flat, not fun enough.
----------
Jazzy,
HD-668B... RM120 if buy in bulk of 3 (3 friends kena poisoned).
Are you more tempted now?

Da poizon is spreadin' amongst my friend's friends.
Resistance is futile.
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This post has been edited by iamyuanwu: Aug 13 2010, 04:39 PM

5 min walking distance from Pudu STAR LRT.

Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=instraco+jal...97&z=16&iwloc=A

Dunno.
668B is RM130
681 is RM85. (in fact, there are 3 version: 681, 681F[orward], 681B[alance])

Different character sound. Both sounds good according to reviews.

There's also the 669 and 660 which are closed headphones. Why not check out http://www.superlux.tw
They describe the character of each headphone by comparing their own headphones to other brands (Senn, Shure, Beyer) with frequency response charts.

This is what it says about the 668B:
"Both the HD668B and DT990 have a similar frequency curve. The HD668B delivers a natural and excellently balanced sound, presenting the crystal clarity and high resolution demanded by professional users."

LOL!

This post has been edited by iamyuanwu: Aug 13 2010, 01:35 AM

Cannot judge lah...
The graph only tells you what characteristics it has. It doesn't tell you the transparency, sound stage, clarity, detail, hiss, etc...

It may sound like DT990, but maybe it doesn't have the same level of detail, or sound stage, or etc. I don't know, i've never heard the DT990 before.
In all honesty, I wouldn't believe that it would be on the same level as the DT990. 668B is very-very good, but it's not magic.

Get one and compare it with your DT990 lah. Then let us know what you think.
I'm curious to know how close it can get, compared to DT990.

This post has been edited by iamyuanwu: Aug 13 2010, 03:06 AM

I whole heartedly agree that cheap things are not good.

But..
but...
but....
but.....
but......
but.......
but........
but.........
but..........
but...........
but............
but.............
Superlux is anything but cheap. Inexpensive, yes... cheap, no.
If it's no good, 3 of my friends wouldn't have bought it after listening to it.

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Added on August 13, 2010, 1:51 pmOh lawrdy... I'm turning into a fanboi...

This post has been edited by iamyuanwu: Aug 13 2010, 01:51 PM

Jazzy939,
Since the DIY cable thread is in permanent coma...

What cables would you recommend for headphone (specifically 668B) re-cabling? I'm thinking of doing it myself.
-Canare L-4E6S?
-Canare L-2T2S?
-the braided cables PCwork uses for Koss KSC-75 recabling? (Where can I buy the cables he uses?)-any other cables?

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Added on August 13, 2010, 4:40 pmBonchi,
I bought 1, my friends bought 3, Buzz probably bought 1, you bought another 2.

The sales staff didn't even know this model existed when I asked. Took him 15 min to find the stock. It's not a popular model, I guess... hence the low stock.

I think I need to get some commission from them for free advertising. Woahahahaha!

This post has been edited by iamyuanwu: Aug 13 2010, 04:40 PM

Nope.
The one claimed to have V shape is 681, by Rockgrotto forummers.
668B apparently is more neutral. Superlux's website compares it's 668B to DT990 and claims that it has similar sound signature.

Didn't realise it's trade secret. =D It looks like it is possible to easily acquire the cable he uses. That's why I was wondering if I can buy it from Jalan Pasar or somewhere.

I have huge respect for him & not dissing him or his products. Just that I wanna try my hands on DIY-ing my own cables. Even if he divulge the information about the cable, I don't think he would lose any business... there will be lots of people who would pay for the quality the PcWork's work, & lots of people who would rather pay to have it done than to DIY themselves.

Oh yeah hor.... good point. Forgot about this.

Hitman,
Nice one. Canare cables.... here I come!
I took the foam disc + "damper sticker" out and put them back again. More detailed (I think, but I couldn't really be sure with my sucky hearing ability). I found the bass getting a bit over for my taste without them.

Let see how much Jaben is selling the pad. LOL! It could even cost as much as the headphone itself. LOLOL!

Do the Blu-tac mod. Stick a glob of blu-tac to the back of the driver (right on the back of the magnet). It adds weight to the driver unit, and the blu-tac probably absorbs some of the reverb too. The bass will be reduced and tighten up by a huge margin.

And if you add wee bit of cotton/wool around the outer chamber, the bass will be reduced and tightened up further. Anything more than 'a bit of cotton', and you won't hear any bass at all. LOL!

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Added on August 15, 2010, 10:17 amEh?
According to its website, there's no HD-668.

There's the HD681, HD681F, HD681B.
But there's only the HD668B


This post has been edited by iamyuanwu: Aug 15 2010, 10:17 AM

Would it be better to recable it all the way into the driver unit, or just up to the short plug?
I am thinking: if I were to recable, might as well go all the way on both left & right sides... since opening the 668B is super idiot proof.
And it uses the 2 steel wires over the head as cables to the right... not exactly desirable, IMO.

Eh damn paiseh lah, go Jaben with this. But it could be fun. Maybe we can try it on the Lavry DA11 as a stupidly impossible pairing.

BTW, the blu-tac mode took me 15-20 min to complete. Pop the "Superlux" & "HD 668B 2x56ohms" caps off, unscrew 2 screws, stick a glob of blu-tac without breaking the cables, add a bit of cotton around the outer chamber, screw everything back.

Good for modding.
Spoil it also won't feel so heartbreaking.

This stuff is super poisonous. And easy to get poisoned too. All you need is a good song, play it, and tell them the price.

LOL!