Coby CV-160 great for bad source/material!

[VR6ofpain]

So I picked up the Coby CV-160 from JR.com for $7.99 (I was already buying some CD's, so the minial $5.95 shipping charge wasn't a big deal for a pair of headphones and some music.

My original plan was to take these "wannabe eggo's" and try to shoehorn my KSC75 drivers into them, to make a custom can. They are already an open headphone (unlike the real eggo's). I also figured I'd be willing to cut them open more if necessary. The $8 investment wasn't anything to sweat about in the least.

So anyway, I listened to them...and wow do they suck! I mean this is hilarious. The top end is simply sliced off. Imagine laid back...but then keep leaning till the fricken chair falls back and you slam you head into the carpet. That is about how these sound. I noticed something cool though, they don't reveal anything with the source. I am listening to some 32kbps steaming music from Blue Note's web site and I can barely hear the extreme compression artifacts (well this might be a little bit of a lie...but you get the point). They also have bloated bass, so even at low volume there is a decent amount of bass.

Now I am thinking I might just keep these around to listen to feces quality music off the net that is super compressed and/or streamed. Though I have to admit the sound of these baby's is just plain rancid when listening to these low quality tracks off the net. Still I can't do it with my good can's because you feel like someone is ripping apart your ears with a fork.

Did I mention these cans really suck, sound quality wise? Though for $8 that is expected. The whole 'eggo' comfort is very interesting. You have to sort of 'slide' you ears into the cups, through the elongated openings. Though they are comfy and light. The headband kinda sucks, but again these are crap cans. Oh and I finally found a 'real' can that sounds worse than the HD-202. These Coby's sound worse than my crap earbuds that came with my Sangean pocket radio...though they have about 10x the bass (not necessarily a bad thing).

Pics for the hell of it:

WHY THE HELL DID THEY PUT A VOLUME CONTROL ON THE CORD????? Ridiculous.

 

[AdamP]

Are you sure yours aren't defective?

 

[cwuzer]

what are you talking about...

those things are SWEET.

 

[kramer5150]

team Polished turds and fart cannons
V700
V600
triport
CV-160

 

[Sinwerm]

How's the build quality ? did'nt see that in the review.

 

[mektarus]

C'mon, you know you want to gut 'em and turn them into KSC75 Eggos.

 

[VR6ofpain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mektarus C'mon, you know you want to gut 'em and turn them into KSC75 Eggos.

The process will begin tonight.

Tried to post last night, but this site was failing...I half expected double, or triple posts, since I kept trying to submit my message:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sinwerm How's the build quality ? did'nt see that in the review.

Lots of plastic, some metal screws here and there, more plastic, and some pleather.
Definately a fart cannon. Strangly I took them apart and found the behind the grille was only a port with a diameter of about 1/4". So I opened it up to about a 3/4" hole (no more port tube). They actually sound better!

I am getting ready to put in my KSC75 drivers. I think I am also going to grab two small 'grips' of poly-fill from my car sub and put it in each cup. It sort of acts like a 'false/pseudo' larger enclosure, by slowing down the air inside a box...well at least in acoustic suspension setups. Not sure how it will work with an open setup, and with cans, but I want to keep the visual look of them, but help the KSC drivers have a more 'open' setup than being inside a plastic egg with a 3/4" hole in it, behind the driver.

Do the Sony 'eggo' cans also have the driver angled toward the back of the ear?

 

[nsjong]

Finally, another heavy mod begins!

Let us know how it goes... TAKE PICS!!

 

[VR6ofpain]

Damn I wished I had listened to my KSC-75's mounted in the housings without the cups on them before I bolted them up. I am convinced the sound constrained. That being said they sound WAY BETTER than the stock drivers obviously. The high frequencies finally made an appearance, though there seems to be some sort of reverb/bloat thing going on in the midrange...no doubt caused by the egg. I'm going to see about using some polyfill. If that doesn't work, I'll open up the grille more.

Definately a fun mod to say the least. I really get tired of the clip-on's weight on my ear, but I love the sound of the Koss drivers for daily use. If I can get these to sound right, the will definately take over for daily use, because the Coby 'egg' shell is very comfortable. I love these little pleather pads!!

Pics of my Kosby KSC-175's!

 

[VR6ofpain]

The Kosby's getting ready to play some music:

The "High Performance 40mm Samarium Cobalt Magnet Drivers":

[size=xx-small]They sound like a turd dripping down a wall, after that person chimp threw it...[/size]


The conversion process:

[size=xx-small]Only simple hand tools required![/size]

 

[VR6ofpain]

I find it interesting that with these Kosby's the driver sits about 1/2" from the ear, instead of directly on it, but since your ear is in a semi-sealed cavaty the bass isn't lost (as it would be if you just held the bare drivers about 1/2" from your ear, 'floating'). I noticed some extra sparkle out of my portaPro drivers when I did this, though using a reversed HD414 pad as the spacer. Enclosing the KSC75 driver in the cups seems to change the midrange only. THe bass is about the same as before, and the highs maybe a little lighter actually. The can sounds very laid back, with no harshness...though it does have a midrange reverb/bloat thing going on. What to line the eggs with???

 

[nsjong]

Hopefully, you can scratch off the horrible Logo and put your own name on it. >

 

[VR6ofpain]

Currently opening up the cups. They added a strange reverb effect to the sound. Not good.

Oh and with the bigger holes, there is no more Coby on them!

 

[Pibborando]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VR6ofpain

"...easy ways to stay hard" indeed.

Cool mod BTW!

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VR6ofpain I noticed some extra sparkle out of my portaPro drivers when I did this, though using a reversed HD414 pad as the spacer.

Hey, how do you "reverse" an HD414 pad and get it to fit on? You have to cut a hole in it? I'm still getting too much bass from my KTX Pro1s and would like to distance them further from my ears.