Superlux HD381

If you search Quora for “what headphones are good,” you’re bound to come across a brand called Superlux.

I’d never heard of this brand before, and probably nobody else had either, but there are just a ton of people on Quora hyping it up. Most importantly, it’s cheap—only 78 yuan, and shipping is fucking free.

A while back I stopped even going on blind dates, felt empty inside, and just started buying shit. I’d sworn off buying audiophile-mysticism products, but I just wanted to see whether Superlux was all hype or not.

Ordered on JD.com, said it ships from JD, but it still got third-party treatment. Anyway, it arrived. I listened to it for about a week, on and off. Not long, but I basically get it now—why people hype this thing, and why it’s so cheap.

The thing is cheap, but it comes with a decent amount of accessories (relatively speaking). The stock cable is very short, but the extension cable is very long, and there are ear tips too. The build quality itself is crap—the rough kind of crap. One look and you can tell this is a 78-yuan product.

So the build and packaging live up to the 78-yuan price. What about the sound?

After a quick listen, I’m positive about the sound. That positivity is based on what this product is actually positioned for.

The Superlux earphone has a monitor-style sound—no coloration, completely plain and direct. Zero character, with shortcomings in every area, but the overall sound signature is monitoring. A monitor made at the 78-yuan price point—that’s exactly what this is.

If you’re talking about using this earphone to listen to music, I think that at least depends on what you’re after. Personally I wouldn’t recommend it. At 78 yuan, you’re naturally better off buying something that colors the sound, or going the Taobao-mod route for better value. At least under 100 yuan, a sound with a bias might count as having character, but chasing balance under 100 yuan basically makes you an outlier that pleases nobody on any front.

Still, I roughly get who the Superlux earphone’s audience is. Simply put, it’s not being sold to you music-listening audiophiles at all, whether you’re broke or not.

So who is it sold to?

Scenarios that require bulk purchasing and large-scale deployment, where lots of music production or industry people are involved—that’s where the Superlux earphone is needed.

For example, big concerts, TV station galas, and music program production and the like.

Superlux’s advantage in these scenarios is obvious: the sound is pure monitoring, suitable for musicians and music people to wear. When they’re doing concerts and music production, what they need is that monitor sound. As long as the job gets done, it’s fine—extra coloration just interferes with other people’s work. Superlux’s biggest advantage is that it’s cheap. At a concert, there are at least a bunch of musicians and singers, plus backing vocalists, even more. Everyone needs an earphone, and a monitor earphone at that. If you buy other brands like Sennheiser or AKG, a set will run you 300+ each, while the Superlux is only 78 each, and probably less in bulk—under 50 a piece. The job gets done, no money is wasted, and most most most importantly, at this price you don’t feel bad if you lose one. Put on a concert and hand everyone a UE900—I don’t think any organizer is that rich, and I doubt you’d even get them all back.

Superlux doesn’t have that problem. Its sound is “usable” for music professionals, and it’s “cheap,” so it can be bought in bulk—break it or lose it, no heartache. Maybe that’s exactly what its product positioning is. Look at how short the stock cable is, plus the super-long extension cable included—that says it all. Music professionals probably need exactly these two lengths.

A brand and product that gets bought in bulk all the time but hasn’t made any impact in audiophile circles—that’s probably what this is about. After all, Superlux isn’t positioned for that.