If you are asking me to compare both without touching your sound preference, I would say both are in equal position. They have their own ups and downs. The superlux surely won't have the smoothness of the Shure but the superlux might win back on the technical side or even musicality side. To me superlux really is one super brand that is hard to match even against pricier range.
So if base on your sound preference, then the Superlux HD660 is better.
However you also have to consider about whether if you want a smoother sound or you are fine with it in exchange for a higher sound quality. On clarity both are equally good with taking a different way of producing it only.

I'm not surprise as well.

It's simple. Its the mind set of the people. Basically it has the same principles as the monster beats vs audiophile product in normal people viewpoint. Most of us are still being lock with the mind set that expensive stuffs are good. This include me as well. I use to be like that until I have already purchase some high end equipment to compare with those budget stuffs. And I notice that there are differences but they are not as big as what other have said. What you are looking for is budget performer products and not cheap stuffs therefore price is irrelevant for comparison. Second thing is similar in principles as the previous example as well. The shure have a better market than compare to a superlux which only serves a niche market and lacks of advertising as compared to shure. Third, how many of us recommending Shure SRH440 over here have actually heard a superlux and even the possibility of hearing them at the comfort of their home where most disturbance or distraction are removes.
I think this will answer all your question about if superlux can fight with shure then y people are buying shure.
I'm same like you and are in no relation with superlux in anway but just only wanted to share good music for budget users and even midrange users. I remain neutral in all my reviews and I don't overhype the new things or new technology or even certain technology on headphone/IEM that I have tried. I even complain and talk about the cons of high end heaphone/IEM as much as the lower end headphone system. I try to keep my bias level to minimum.

You are right, basically they wont have the comfort, looks or even the smoothness of the design compare to other company. But do mind, they are build like a tank and can withstand much better than many known brand. The plastic is not smooth but they are hard enough to withstand torture.
Superlux themselves also agrees that although they didn't put much effort or money in designing the headphone but they put no compromise in their speaker driver. So most of their money went to the driver instead thus the high quality sound. In the end we are listening to music not looking at the headphone, so why spent so much money on design.

Mike from headfonia is one of my favorite reviewers and we share the same thought on both superlux performance and also expensive audiophile product vs cheap audiophile product. (This include amp and headphone)

I'm much more daring than Mike because instead of comparing it to the AD700 which is about two to three time more expensive. I actually compare them to two headphone/IEM in 1k range or about 10X its price. The model that I'm comparing to is DT880 250 ohm and Shure SE535. I find that although the smoothness and the refinement still hands up for both the headphone but I find that they does not have the genre bandwidth nor the musicality that you can get from them. So for music listening on an everyday situation, the Superlux are still more preferable. Superlux are in no way going to replace them as I said in other post before, but they are enough to give them a scare after listening to them.

Against shure, shurely you won't get the clean sound or the smoothness of the shure but in the end you are listening to music and not analysing your music. But superlux against mid range headphone, I don't really think they will really loose in the technical side and the musicality. I think the musicality of superlux will be much better while technicality might have take a different tune so they have their own pro and cons for both headphones.

Oh I just notice that you are going to buy fiio e6. If their improvement over the E5 is not that big enough I will suggest getting JDSLabs Cmoy stock build instead by adding a bit of money especially if you are powering the Superlux HD660 if you choose to buy it. Fiio won't have the power to drive it properly and they also won't have the same sound quality that you can get from the cmoy.

Source: My own experience with Superlux HD668B and HD681 at the comfort of my home with various amp, cheap to expensive.

Seems like you do hate treble. Me too. But using the light years ahead thing is way overstatement of the performance of the Shure SRH440. Actually most of your point I already have written down in my previous post. They do looks like RM10 stuffs but their plastic can withstand torture better than more expensive stuffs. Shure is not as bad in looks but they still feel plasticky.

I will not be direct comparing the 440 to 668B because I do not have them but I'm comparing the HD668B to all my range of headphone available. Just like what I did point out, they won't be as smooth sounding or as refine. But the hd668B balanced are so good that I think that is the most ideal balance for a sound. Of course their lack of smoothness of those higher end will show the effect you have stated. With the right combo, the sibilant or sharp treble may not be as noticeable. For me the mids are not that bad at all and very good for such price. And the soundstage though is available it is not big enough for me. (Many in this price range doesn't even have a proper soundstaging) The bass is more emphasize on the midbass punch and though they can produce the low bass they still don't have enough for it.

And both 440 and 668B are monitoring headphone hence the piercing highs you hear on HD668B (although not all are tune that way but some are being tune like that) HD668B are highly used in monitoring in their home country, taiwan and if I remember correctly they are sold more expensive in there than here. Sorry I'm just trying to remain neutral in here.

And one more thing HD668B does require amp to shine in which Hifiman HM601,602 are unable to provide. Besides that I also find that HD668B does scale up with higher end equipment very well which I doubt the 440 can scale up as well as 668B to higher end system. Then again those cons of superlux will still brought out but at a lesser degree.

It's best for TS to bring your source to match with both the headphone and see which has the best match/synergy with your system and which one suits your taste. If you really want to analyse song then the 440 is hands up but if you want to listen to song then I recommend superlux. Its like how Mike said though the the higher end have better refinement and smoothness, that does not neccessary translate to musicality for you to listen in everyday life. We are listening to music and not analyzing our equipment. If you can, ask someone with HD660 to meet you in Jaben to test it out can help you better in making your choice.

To end it in most simplest form, 440 for smoother and refine sound, superlux for musicality.

Yup we started off to listen to eq a lot. After a while only we start to listen to music as a whole instead of finding faults from the headphone or headphone system. Basically I'm in the the listening to music as a whole state right now. That is why I emphasize a lot on musicality of the system. Not enough detail, not enough smoothness or the balance is off, never mind. It is the music that is the most important to me.

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Added on November 29, 2011, 11:41 pmSoundstage part definitely 440 will win when compare to superlux (HD668B) Clarity I would say both should be in equal stance with just different way of presenting it.

I also forget to add that, mike did a review on HD660 is not tuned to have as much treble as HD668B so you should definitely give it a try.
Source: http://www.headfonia.com/the-new-superluxe...-and-the-hd660/

If you really did find HD660 to test with both the HD668B and 440, please retain yourself from looking at the price tag and the designs or poor quality plastic/Not smooth cheap looking but they are hard enough. If I remember correctly Superlux uses ABS plastic. The benefit can be found from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylonitrile_butadiene_styrene
Just remember don't look at the price tag and focus on the music instead. I myself sometimes also find myself to look at the price tag when auditioning in Jaben to buy my headphone. Try to find the one that suits you the most and not price tag.

This post has been edited by Akuma no Hana: Nov 29 2011, 11:41 PM

Don't worry about that i'm fine. Everyone have a personal taste and may give different opinion. But please try to keep it positive and give it as a second thought. Don't need to flame.

I'm in no position to comment 440 because I did not own one, and I only tested it for a short time. I'm just comparing it to the higher ends headphones with the 668B at the comfort of my home where all distraction are kept at the most minimum.

The power of 601 does not differ much in power as 602 which I use. Amplification or drivability is also another topic which I'm having a hard time to explain just like producing the ideal bass. There are way too many common mistakes about it out there which it is impossible to correct. Using a speaker amp to compare may sound amateurish in the sense that you have used the wrong example. Using a similar range of power headphone amplifier such as high current amp that can drive orthordynamics will be a better example. Nobody is going to use speaker output to drive their low impendance, high sensitivity dynamic headphone, but there are some cases that drive their high impendance and low sensitivity headphone such as HD650. But anyway amplifier have two types just like a headphone. One is current feedback which and another type is voltage feedbacks. We can't generalize this thing based on specs alone because what come out at a paper may not be the same in real world usage. For example, certain low impendance headphone are suppose to be current sensitive but in the end they require more voltage instead. And another headphone having the same ohm ratings may requires more current to push it than requiring more voltage. It is hard to find this specs because most headphone amp are rated in current instead of having both.

Anyway back to the topic again, you can drive the HD650 to certain loudness does not mean you can give it a proper controls on the drivers. This is what i'm touching and not the common mistakes of loudness or volume part. For me all headphones with the exeception of orthodynamics are very easy to drive in the sense that they can get enough volume even out of a headphone output from pc. Does that mean a a pc output can drive it well when they can power them. No, because they do not have the proper controls on the driver of the headphone. Ok, so in 601/602 case I find it that I can drive the HD668B on high settings with a volume of two or less but having an additional 8 volume of headroom does not mean I can still push it to drive it. Basically you can push the volume up by a large degree but you are not going to improve the proper controls of the drivers. For me the hifiman does not have the ability to creat a proper control to those headphone that are very current sensitive even down to both dynamic and balanced armature IEM or those higher ohm headphone that requires lots of voltage. They just work better in between. (then again I cant generalize it because all headphone reacted differently when they are fed to different headphone)

Using an expensive amp to represents something is also a mistakes with most people in audiophile world. For example I can use a JH16PRO with a Hippo amp (RM260 AAA battery powered version) and get a better sound/ matching than JH16PRO with SPL Auditor. The price differences you count yourselves. The match with the hippo amp is also much better than with the JDSLabs Cmoy which is suppose to have better techinicality than what the hippo amp could produce and in a level that is almost light year ahead. And I have tp emphasize this over and over again because in the end you are listening to music and not your setups.

The highs does pierce abit so getting a warmer amps to tone it down will be better. The mids, yes to many they are recessed, maybe its because my comparison is against DT880 which has much worse than the HD668B and the Shure SE535 that have a bit of problem in its driver limitation. (But the mids really is good in Shure SE535 so I'm putting the Superlux's mid in between) The bass is nowehere flat at all because they are boosted at midbass area. Whatever you are comparing with you at that will give you a different response to your thoughts.

Then again the sound impression you are hearing on 668B might be because of two possible factors. First is the comparison that you are using at the times of doing your reviews. Second, it could also be a sign of your 601 is under power or does not have a good synergy with it just as stated above. Just touching on the bass alone, I find it to be hardest frequency to produce over any other range. It is so hard that it is almost impossible to hear the best bass or the most ideal bass. I'm a bass addict but not those booming type but the high quality type of bass. For me I still haven't found the ideal bass yet.

Yes some monitor engineer do prefer flat frequency over other types. But to me the most ideal type is the one which is neutral because in the end you down want to tone down your frequency when monitoring. Flat frequency headphones tends to artificially tone down the frequency into an ideal flat just like an eq. So in the end I don't really like to compromise my music by toning it into a flat frequency but instead a more musical type.

There are many type of monitor headphone so the ideal sound still have to depends on the person or the tracks that they are producing. For example DT880 also sounded bright but the smoothness of the sound helps it tones down a bit. Some wanted the treble because they want to listen to the details in the song because using a microdetail are harder in design than boosting the treble itselfs. That's why most of the headphone around labeled as detailed cans are hot in their treble especially for mainstream pop song.

Yup that is what a lot of people said about the treble because headphone does not have enough time or space to tone down the treble before it hits our ears. And lots of mainstream pop songs are recorded with trebly sound that's why they are good on speaker but will sounded piercing on headphone use especially something as bright as HD668B. But most of my songs don't really have boosted treble so i'm fine with it.

Sometimes it is very hard to explain on the highs or even other frequency range. We still haven't develope enough vocabulary to fully identify a certain sound. For example just the highs alone (not touching other frequecy range yet) will have many different type and level of refinement. Even when we hear piercing highs. there are still so many type of piercing highs in which some are more smoother, some are more refine, some are a side effect for better details some piercings high are annoying. So basically most of us just generalize the tone into piercing highs and end it that way without truly identifying it. So you might like a certain type of highs but hated others while other people might like the type that you hated. So sound preference plays a role here.
Besides that matching also plays a very important role and so far I find that mathcing is more important than the price range or reading a general impression of the sounds. For example a bright headphone with a bright amp match together might have a different results as in better refine highs if their synergy matches each other. And other headphone put on it may sound ovely bright. So matching is as important as sound preference beauce it is hard to generalize the final outcome of the sound. We can only guess.

Anyway TS, if you can try to contact a few forumer and ask them out for a small TT session to try out the headphone you mention. You might be able to learn a thing or two in the process.

P/S: Sorry, no offence though. I'm just trying to correct some common misunderstanding which I find it to be plaguing the audiophile world and not meant to be against you alone. It is similar in concept to photography where you own an expensive nikon camera or a canon high end series and that means you are a better photographer than an experienced professional who uses low to mid ends camera. That's why I don't like to put what I'm using in my siggy to identify my experience because owning many headphone does not mean he is a good audiophile. I only use them when making comparison and is by no mean of stating my experience level. The best audiophile are those that try to find the best sound in both sound quality and matching sound preference for them within a certain budget level. In other words, poor people might be the best audiophiles because of their budget constrain forcing them to choose the best one. (I'm just making a generalization here) So owning one of the best entry level priced headphone does not mean you are not an audiophile and owning the most expensive headphone does not mean you are an audiophile. It is the search for best music reproduction is the main thing in audiophile world and not represented by the gears they own.

Sorry bout that. I think it is most probably the songs that i'm listening to is not so prone to sibilant or hot treble so I'm in not position to recommend you. Definitely not JDSLabs Cmoy standard built if your want to tame the highs. Maybe you can play around with cable and use an amp that tone down the highs or super warm amps.

Actually you are right in some point and wrong in certain. It is hard to explain but to keep thing short it have to depend on two main factors. 1. Your headphone must be able to scale up or have enough resolution/revealing to detect changes. 2. You need to have the right match to get the right changes. The first one already is achievrd in hd668b but the second is most probably ur problem. May i ask what is ur setup including ur cable.

This post has been edited by Akuma no Hana: Dec 1 2011, 02:44 PM