Koss PRO DJ 100

I've tried about two dozen pairs of headphones and I'm always looking for the absolute best pair for vocals. I also want forward sounding mids, but not too bad. My preference is also for highs that are not harsh or fatiguing. Being somewhat rolled off is ok. I find the SRH-840 is what I like in this area.

 

The best thing about this headphone is the quality of vocals. It just sounds amazing with both male and female vocals. This headphone is absolutely perfect for Jpop, Cantopop, Imogen Heap and Radiohead. The strange thing about this headphone is that the sound feels like an IEM. You feel like you're right there.

 

The highs are somewhat rolled off, but not as badly as the HD-600, but slightly worse then the k240 (55om) and SRH-840. This and the overall sound signature makes them a VERY non fatiguing headphone in every way.

 

Overall, this is a very neutral souding headphone. The only exception is that the mids are slightly forward, but not too badly. About the same as the Grado SR-80 or a tad more.

 

Here's the strange thing. Koss labels them as having "extreme" bass. They sound like they have a lot more bass out of the box, but after burn-in it gets reduced. I don't find these to be bass light or anywhere near that. The bass is VERY well controlled and perhaps people mistake them for being bass light because of this. It has just slightly less bass then my burned in k240 on an amp. Don't buy these if you like a ton of bass. Overall I find they have about the same amount of bass as the SRH-840 or maybe slightly less.

 

Second best thing about these is how natural and accurate everything sounds. Basically, everything sounds pretty similar to what they sound like on my HD-600. These are extremely picky about the source quality. They're VERY revealing of lower bit-rate and poorly mastered CDs. With my HD-600 I feel they can make anything sound good.

 

Soundstage is very good for a closed headphone, but not great. What really impressed me is the imaging of these headphones. I basically feel as if I can pinpoint every single tiny thing. Even more impressive then my HD-600. I think it has to do with the closed design, but i'm not sure. My k240 has fairly poor imaging and that's semi-open. Instrument separation is also very good.

 

The problem with these headphones is that they NEED an amp. I use them with my E5 and Nuforce mobile and they don't sound as good. Despite the low ohm rating I don't suggest them without a GOOD portable amp. I use them with my Total Airhead and they sound great! With a good amp they also have a bit more bass, but not much.

 

Another negative is that my first pair broke due to my own fault. I bought another and they sounded bad out of the box. The mids were very recessed and they just sounded wrong. The mids are nowhere near being recessed normally. I burned them in and after the 1st night they sounded better, but not quite. On the 3rd night they were perfect and just like my last pair. My first pair didn't seem to need burn-in to sound good.

 

I also found out these work with the Pearstone Velour pads. They need to be stretched out though and they look a bit goofy, but not too bad. They're now extremely comfortable. Out of the box I gave the comfort a 7.5/10, but now it's a 9.5/10! Luckily they don't degrade the sound quality.

 

Another nice thing about these is that they're extremely small. I think they're only 6.5oz without the cable. The build quality is also excellent. The cups are 50% metal along with the internal band and one other part.

 

Two other headphones sound very similar in some ways. These sound almost like the Maxell DHP-II, but those are far less neutral and have more bass and mid-bass. The vocals and mids on the DJ100 are far better. The build quality on the DHP-II is also not good. I'm almost positive they share the same drivers or something close. For anyone that cares, Koss has told me that they drivers on the DJ100 are titanium. They're 40mm when I checked my pair.

 

The Koss Pro3aat also sounds similar, but has way too much bass for me and too much clamping force.

 

These headphones are not for everyone. If you focus on vocal quality and good mids, get these. If you want sparkly and very bright highs or massive amounts of bass, look elsewhere. If you love any kind of Jpop or Cantopop, these are an absolute 100% must have. I would also skip these for rap, classical or metal. Classical isn't bad on them. My k240 are far better for classical.

 

My 2nd favorite is the k240 Studio. Those are better for more genres, but the vocals are not as forward and clear. The overall level of detail is also just not as forward. For me, the DJ100's level of detail is a step down from the DT-880 and AD700, but not by much. The mids are like my Grado SR-80 in some ways but without the fatiguing highs (un-modded). The DJ100 has far more bass though, but less mid-bass.

 

So, as you couldn't tell, this is my favorite headphone i've ever owned!

 

I have about 12 hours into this set of phones and I am impressed they do just about everything well not great. I have used them on my PS3 playing BFBC2 and I can hear things I have never heard before. I am able to locate where bullets are coming from and when someone is coming up the stairs. They are not the best for gaming but they will do the trick if you are on a  budget and want something well balanced in all areas. I have tried Rock, Metal, and Rap and the DJ100 seem to take them all really well. I have watched a few Blu-Rays though them too and they seem to do a good job wish there was just a little more bass in them for the explosions and when tanks drive by same when I was playing BFBC2

So, I bought these after reading a really long thread on the forums along with a new Fiio E7 as suggested, as well as new M50s pads. At first I must say they were pretty terrible and I thought that the people that loved them were retards, but as stated somewhere in that long thread, I've waited for them to burn in (even though I didn't believe that at first). Now, a month later I cannot leave my home without them.

The clarity, the quality and the overall design is just superb. Probably the best paid £50 over a long time. There have been a lot of people that have been complaining how the bass sucks with these, but I truly cannot understand them. They really perform great with bass orientated music.

The thing that most hit me is that they started performing well (at least how I expected them to do) after around 4-5 days from using them constantly, then now I listen again and it feels like it's totally different from before, better in many ways.

Anyways, the design is great, build quality is probably the best you can get at that price tag, sound quality just gets better with time and comfort, well.. With or without the M50s pads it gets sweaty after long listening hours. Though, you only feel that sweat after you take them off, so that's good I guess.

Anyways, looking for something cheap and good? Take em!

These are my first purchase of head-fi recommended headphones. I do not have ANYTHING to compare them to since I'm a novice audio enthusiast. This really amounts to a bit of babbling by someone who does not know very much about his new hobby. However, I will offer my proverbial 2 cents. Here goes nothing:

 

I've had these for about a month and have approximately 40 hours use on them. They may still be burning in at this point.

 

Build Quality: The build quality is quite good for the price point. I think we have all seen the plastic-clad hideousness that sells for 3 or 4 times the price of these. The cups are machined aluminum and most other parts are metal as well. Durability doesn't appear to be a future issue, nor have I read any reports of this being a problem with this model. There's just not a lot of plastic to be found on these.

 

Comfort: The earpads are okay for comfort, but not the best in the heat here in Saigon. I find my ears get quite warm even when I'm in an air-conditioned space. I've read that the pads from Audio Technica M50s are ideal for these - I haven't yet tried that route. I would like to try replacement pads with an oval shape that create a little more space between the ears and the drivers and apparently that's exactly what the M50 pads do, enhancing not only the comfort but the soundstage as well. The cord is a bit heavy, with a good portion of it being coiled. I guess that's part of what makes it DJ-specific. The earcups do swivel around to make it easy for DJs to listen to the room and what they're setting up/mixing on their equipment. That being said, not many people on head-fi buy these for their "DJ-ness." These are good sounding headphones for listening pleasure regardless of the intended target market.

 

Audio Quality: As I've said, I'm a novice here, but we all have to start somewhere. My source is a rockboxed ipod video and I use flac files. With this source and these headphones, the music that sounds best to me is acoustic music, regardless of genre. I've been listening to Fleetwood Mac's Rumors while writing this, and Lindsey Buckingham's guitar sounds fantastic on "Never Going Back Again." The midrange frequencies are pretty forward in these headphones as others have mentioned, but not excessively in performances with acoustic instrumentation. Another album that sounds stellar with these headphones is Tone Poems by David Grisman and Tony Rice. It's all acoustic music being played on fine instruments, and for me, this is where I really enjoy these headphones the most. I do find that there isn't great seperation in amplified music or even in orchestral pieces, especially in the mids. This can be remedied somewhat by tinkering with equalizer settings in Rockbox, but there are limits. I won't say I am put off by this, but there are areas where it doesn't shine as brightly - this is to be expected for this price. As far as the low end is concerned, I think these handle them quite well and I don't get a muddy sound in acoustic instrumentation at all. I don't think they are bass-heavy headphones even though they are marketed as such. To me, they sound fairly neutral in the bass department and do a good overall job with the low end. Once again, with Rockbox, you can tweak it a bit to your liking. A track like "Lush Life" by Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane is a pretty good showcase for the detail it can give in the low end as you listen to Hartman's brilliant baritone. John Coltrane's tenor sax does come out a bit heavy, once again showing a tendency to be mid-forward. A track that reveals some muddiness is "Chubb Sub" by Medeski, Martin, and Wood. It has a bass line that Bootsy Collins would be proud of, but this track reveals some bleeding between instruments/frequencies and general muddiness. If you have a set of cans that are able to handle this track, you will not be disappointed - it's Hammond-organ goodness, a filthy bassline, and syncopated drumming pounding away. The DJ100s come up short with a track like this - it just demands a little too much for these cans to shine in my opinion. That's not to say the experience is ruined, but I can really hear the boundaries imposed by some amped music. Perhaps it has to do with how a track is mixed in the studio...I'm not really sure. There may be albums that are mixed in such a way that sounds terrific with these headphones. My experience has been that amped rock and roll does not allow these headphones to reveal the detail and seperation the way acoustic music does. I do tend to listen to classic rock, so perhaps the recording techniques employed in that era make these headphones work a little harder. A song like "St. Tropez" by Pink Floyd is much better suited for these headphones. The nice seperation is present and the overall quality is more lush and evened out.

 

Final Thoughts: It's awfully difficult to convey such a subjective experience to an audience that is much more experienced than I, perhaps impossible, even. This review may be more instructional for myself than most all readers, as well - I think it's pointing me toward what I'm actually looking for, as well as revealing what I don't want in a set of cans. I think I may in fact be a freak for detail and seperation - that seems to be my bag. I guess that's part of the fun, too - the experience of discovery. The best summary I can give is that, as a new participant in this fantasmagoric hobby, the Koss DJ100s are a very good entry-level set of full-size headphones for a new, budget-conscious hobbyist who wants to dips their toes (and wallet) in the water to see what all the fuss is about, rather than dive in for a set of big boy cans that cost a small fortune. If you find that you're really not all that passionate about the pursuit of hifi bliss after all, than starting out with a pair of these will not leave you with feelings of buyer's remorse - you'll walk away with something you can still enjoy, pass along to a friend or relative who'll enjoy them more, or just sell to somebody else for most of what you paid - I don't think these will depreciate much at all in value. On the other hand, if you're like me, you'll A) be pretty happy with your purchase, B) use these to teach yourself what it is you're really looking for in a set of cans while still enjoying them, and C) surely become quite eager to discover other well-crafted products out there that can bring you ever closer to your ideal music listening experience.