Jan 31 2011, 10:02 AM, updated 8y ago
Superlux HD381
As a newbie in IEM, and a seasoned ICE player, i was very specific with sound detail and how bass was pumped around me when i was in the car, so i was expecting the HD381 to perform to meet my expectation of my ICE audio clarity and bass power..
When i first got the HD381 which had 3 IEMs, I first of all tried the HD381 with trio (the seller) told me it had the most balance bass and treble.
the HD381 IEM, from 1st impression, the ear piece was abit awkward not the standard IEM look, but im guessing that the design had it purpose. The box seemed high quality to me, and in the box was the IEM itself, extention cables with gold plated male and female port and jack, 3 different sized of the ear piec and a cable wrapper to organize the length so that it does not look messy. The IEM cables was rubberized with a gold plated end. Extention cables was quite high quality as well as the ports and jack are all gold plated, the IEM was abit plastic to me but what the hell, it does perform, when i first pluged in the IEM into my laptop standard realtek soundcard, played some hardstyle to test out the bass, i instantly was
when the bass kicked-in. why? the bass was pounding hard and it felt like my 2.1 altec lansing sub woofer was pumping right in my ear. 
mouth open wide wide. After that i tried some jazz as i wanted to try how soft and how hard can the bass go, as of my knowledge, if a speaker is bassy, if you put on any kind of music the bass will still be noisy, but when i put on some Jazz music, the IEM performed just nice! the bass was not annoying, it was like it had its own mind, When the bass is a need, it will appear, when it needed a mild bass, it appears, when it does not need too much and a touch of bass, it still comes out perfect, I myself is a ICE SQ player, so how the bass perform is a very important point for me because bass to SQ players its like something that give u a certain music pleasure just outside ur ears, so precision on bass control is very important and as for me i extected these IEM to perform to standard.As for sound insulation, i can say its amazing, 50% volume on ipod and i cant hear my own hands clapping, best to ignore ppl when it becomes annoying, just plug in, on some music, tadaa no sound. but as for higher piched sounds like car alarms,car horns, etc can be heard. Insulation i give a 7/10 as its not a total nill noise.
As for confort, i can definately say, after 20hours on this IEM alone, i felt abit pain on my ear bones, maybe because of my ear shape which is, some people call it to be air-scooping ears but 20hours of joy, abit pain, worth!
Confort i give a 5/10
HD381 i give 10/10 thumbs up, not comparing to any products tho. FYI, ive been on this IEM for more than 20 hours, yes i even wear it when sleep and when im driving it because its just so awsm!
the HD381B IEM, for this external looks and everything in the box is just standard from the HD381, gold plated jacks and everything, all totaly the same with the HD381, only the exterior was grey. but this IEM performs differently from the HD381, i didnt test it puch but i manage to test out the differences of this HD381B and the HD381. The main difference is the treble which was obviously higher than the HD381. My guess was this IEM was made for higher treble and lower bass like jazz, blues, electro music etc. i tried on some Japanese anime OST which had alot of space-aged sound effects and the effects was again out of my expectation. High pitched sound effects played with minimal distortion, i tried the same song on some lousy RM50 Sony IEMs and i could straight away tell the distortion, at the highest point of the treble, the Sony RM50 IEM straight away played some weird noise like distortion while the HD381B played it smoothly like it was ment to do it! This IEM i suggest it to be played for soft music, not so bassy music, for example, Jazz, Blues, Soul, Japanese Anime OST which is not so bassy ( as i know some are extremely bassy) for some anime fans, it HD381B is perfect if you love may'n from macross frontier.
For less bassy and more concentrated on vocals this is the IEM you would concentrate on, 8/10 for it deduction for the bass is not very solid even when its soft, abit too loose for me.
As for sound insulation, and confort its pretty mush the same with the HD381 because its the same design
HD381B over all a 9/10, just tested it for few hours becuase i just love the HD381, couldnt resist going back to it
the HD381F IEM, for this, everything is pretty standarf from the HD381 and HD381B, if you are comparing this to the HD381 its the total opposite. This IEM was White in colour tho.. It concentrated 80% on vocals and 20% on bass, means u can barely feel bass but the vocals are awsome, I tried some rock and roll with insane guitar skills and drums and it gave me goosebumps. It had the best vocals effects simply for celine dion, faith hill, christina agulera, opera singing etc etc high note vocal singers. I was very satisfied with this HD381F because of the maximum vocal satisfaction it gave me, bass was tuned to the minimum because u want to hear the crazy vocals of these singers.
For the HD381F i give a 6/10 not because it doesnt perform to my expectation, just simply because im not a pure vocal person, i like abit of bass in my daily music dosage.
As for sound insulation and confort, again, its the same with all the HD381 models and its a good thing to prove consistency!
HD381F overall a 7/10, again tested it for few hours and cant resist going back to the HD381, its my current favourite.
Some Tips to potential users of the HD381,
1. please learn lip reading, you will need it because the insulation cause me to not hear what my colleagues is tell me
2. get a hard case for the HD381 because its not provided.
My future plans would be getting a portable headphone amp and try to push the limits of this IEM.
1st IEM and it gave me so much satisfaction, im wearing the HD381 now when im typing this review 
This post has been edited by 1st: Jan 31 2011, 10:18 AM
Quote
i will add it in to the collection later. I didnt recommend wrongly rite? 
The HD381 really tempts me. Got some stuff I want to purchase (amp, iems, DAP) 
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