Superlux HD681 (2013) vs Philips Fidelio X2 (2014)

The Superlux HD681 (2013) makes for a good, if unremarkable, Open-Back Headphone for people with a $85 budget.

The Philips Fidelio X2/27 (2014), however, is merely mediocre at its $148 asking price, when compared to similarly priced products, and won't satisfy the needs of most people.

In either case, we suggest that you first take a look at some other options at the $85 and $190 price points before committing to one of these - it's likely that you'll be able to find some better alternatives.

If you're still interested in learning more about the Superlux HD681 (2013) and Philips Fidelio X2/27 (2014), however, we wrote a summary of what we could find about them:

The Superlux HD681 (2013) was loved by reviewers at Rtings, a highly trusted source that performs reliable in-depth testing. It did great in its "The 7 Best Studio Headphones For Mixing And Recording - Winter 2021" roundup where it was named its "Best Budget Studio Headphones", which, in itself, makes it a product worth considering.

Moving on to the Philips Fidelio X2/27 (2014): it was unable to reach the very top of any roundups from sources that conduct reliable and unbiased testing. Nonetheless, it still managed to impress reviewers from a number of such sites, like Techradar, Expert Reviews, What Hi-Fi?, Head-fi, and Rtings, enough for them to include them on those lists.

When we thoroughly analyzed their review scores, we learned that all of the sources that tested both Open-Back Headphones, including Head-fi and Rtings, preferred the Superlux HD681 (2013) over the Philips Fidelio X2/27 (2014).

We also took a look at which sources they managed to impress the most. The Superlux HD681 (2013) was liked best by Head-fi, which gave it a score of 9, while the Philips Fidelio X2/27 (2014) got its highest, 10, score from Techradar.

Lastly, in order to better compare them to the rest of their competition, we averaged out their review scores. The Philips Fidelio X2/27 (2014) managed to get 8.7 out of 10 - considerably better than the 7.8 review average of Open-Back Headphones in general - whereas the Superlux HD681 (2013) earned 7.7 points.

It should be said that doing a direct Superlux HD681 (2013) vs. Philips Fidelio X2/27 (2014) comparison might not be entirely fair due to the difference in their prices - some sources don't put much weight on value for money and thus tend to give better review scores to more expensive products.