[cire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsportline43 Also available at Circuit City for a regular price of $19.99.

price match the ratshack price for a buck 50 discount

 

[kramer5150]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jagorev For me, the magic of the KSC75 is partly due to it being a clipon. They hang next to your ear without exerting pressure, which creates a nice sense of airiness and space. This leads to impressive soundstage, tames the bass, and lets all the layers of the music shine through. I just tried pushing them in by the clip, and it was a very different presentation. Much more front-row and in-your-head, with boomier bass. I'd guess the headband style works better with rock, but the clipon airiness just kicks ass with my classical listening. PS: We need a Koss smiley.

Correct... Thats where the dremel mod and socket mod come into place. It allows the highs to shine through more and balance the scale. Also the KSC12 earpad foam is about 3x thicker than the OEM KSC75. The thicker foam places the driver out away from the ears farther. I also had to bend the headband so it only applies gentle pressure.

Garrett

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jagorev The equipment I plugged this into cost around $400 - yet in no way does it feel like the $14 transducer is letting down the rest of the gear. And I have never heard such a significant change going from unamped to amped on any headphone. They sound okay with the PCDP, but brilliant with the PCDP line out + PIMETA.

Yep, the Koss 60-ohm drivers are a *huge* improvement amped. I got a rather large improvement going from a Go-Vibe to Pimeta (dual stacked buffers) as well... these cans need some serious current to sound good. Pity that most built in headphone jacks don't provide it, but they do sound decent directly out of portables.

P.S. I have the Portapro2 and not KSC-75, but I do have to say that DT880 is still a major improvement over my Portapro2s when both are amped at the same level... so IMO it's still worth it and fully justified to pick up a pair of high quality full-size cans (at least for unamplified acoustic music).

 

[Lsportline43]

Hmm... it's odd that there are many people in this thread that believe the Koss KSC75 improve a LOT with an amp. I've read a couple of threads that say the improvement is not noticeable or barely noticeable. Well either way, I now really want to hear the KSC75 amped!

 

[sonic_rage]

they sound sick when amped..

i use the pa2v2 to push my koss.

 

[jagorev]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch Yep, the Koss 60-ohm drivers are a *huge* improvement amped. I got a rather large improvement going from a Go-Vibe to Pimeta (dual stacked buffers) as well... these cans need some serious current to sound good. Pity that most built in headphone jacks don't provide it, but they do sound decent directly out of portables.

I don't think Koss really knows how good their driver is. If they did, you'd think they would release a nice higher-end version. I would pay quite a bit of cash for a woody or metal Koss with better cabling, damping, lower distortion, closer driver-matching...and velour pads!

 

[LaBreaHead]

Well, I got home, and tried out the Koss PortaPro 2's I received today -- these things are ridiculous.

For the price (and the look and absence of, for lack of a better word, "heft"), they are almost like having sub-woofers on your ears. They're about half the size of what I envisioned, even lighter and more comfortable, with every bit as much sound as most people claim.

After four songs on my Rio Carbon (using the plastic spacer for the earphone plug), I can't stop laughing: "This," by Brian Eno, and "Weather Storm," by Massive Attack, have a lot of bass, and right out of the box, they sound "big" and "fun" coming through these crazy folding headphones. For a change of pace, and more age-appropriate for my advancing years, I played the somewhat gently folky "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?," by Fairport Convention (nice Richard Thompson guitar, from many years ago), and then Ian Hunter's rocker, "Once Bitten, Twice Shy," with Mick Ronson, from the mid-70's. The PortaPro's handled them all.

These weird 'phones sound great! I can see why people transitioning to IEM's, with which I'm a lot more familiar, can find them (IEM's) analytical, "polite" and underwhelming, especially at first. Two very different approaches to portable audio ...

What strange, fun little toys ... and if the KSC75's sound better than the PortaPro's, they ought to be illegal.[insert Koss smiley here]

 

[mektarus]

I just popped my KSC75 drivers w/ modded pads onto my sportapro frame and it's absolutely ridiculous how good these sound. They are super lightweight and comfy and just when I thought I couldn't like these drivers anymore...I do!

 

[xtr3me]

That's the beauty in these ... they are extremely inexpensive and have a great sound. I don't really understand how one can hesitate to recommend this even if to someone who has a little more budget. I dare to say that under $50 it doesn't get any better than this...

 

[nickchen]

Never really understood all that raving about amped KSC75s. I really adore mine, but I dislike them when being used amped. IMHO bass is overdone and boomy then - even my DT770s sound thin in comparison. And I am basshead!

For me, the Koss really shine when being plugged into some weakish portable.

 

[sgrossklass]

Amped does not equal amped in those impedance regions. Something with fairly low output impedance (and buffered amps like the PPA belong here) would tame the boomy bass a bit. That being said, I never really liked my KSC-55s all that much either. They still have some kind of "cheap" sound, with boomy bass and this lower treble spike. However, I don't like the HD497 any more either, which sounds surprisingly "closed" for an open headphone and shows its recessed upper mids - among that kind of competition, the Koss stuff isn't bad at all. It'd be interesting to know how good the new low-end Senns (HD415, HD435) sound.

 

[nickchen]

Quote:

It'd be interesting to know how good the new low-end Senns (HD415, HD435) sound.

The 435 seems to be quite interesting - I've heared rumours about a mixture between the smooth HD485 and the Portapro bass as 435's sound signature.

 

[Knuckledragger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramer5150 IMHO theyre the best $16 value in the entire audio/sound reproduction consumer industry.

Amen, brother.

I have 2 pairs of PortaPros, a pair of KSC55s and I just got a pair of KSC75s for $15 @ Rat Shack last night. I am listening to the first time through my Gilmore Lite. They do sound kind of cold and distant, but like they have a lot potential. From what I remember when I got my 55s, when they were new they were arctic cold and so distant they sounded like they were on someone else's head. After 100 or so hours of white noise burn-in, they are my favorite portable pair. I think the 75s sound better out of the box than the 55s did.

The PortaPros sound similarly good, but they are kind of funny looking (worse, mine are branded "Radio Shack", I'm going to try to remove that particularly dubious demarkation with some rubbing alcohol). My first pair of PPs fell apart on me rather quickly. The right driver popped out of its socket, but thanks to Shadio Rack's generous return policy (and the fact that I have a friend who works there), I got another pair as replacement and got to keep the original.

I actually figured out how to fix my original PortaPros, but I'm keeping them apart for now. They are going to be my test mule for my first re-cabling job. The one serious weak spot in the Koss line of headphones is truly awful cables, which are made infinitely worse by the volume control most of them seem to have (the 55s blissfully do not). Moon Audio sells several DIY Cardas replacement kits, starting @ $35 (and going up over $100 if you want the upper-level Dragons). I'm actually a big fan of Moon Audio cables, my 650s use their Blue Dragon MK IIs, with vast improvements.

I'll probably end up getting a Blue Dragon DIY kit for my 75s. $75 cables for a $25 pair of headphones. If that isn't the head-fi way, I dunno what is.

 

[jagorev]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickchen Never really understood all that raving about amped KSC75s. I really adore mine, but I dislike them when being used amped. IMHO bass is overdone and boomy then - even my DT770s sound thin in comparison. And I am basshead! For me, the Koss really shine when being plugged into some weakish portable.

Depends on the amp. I thought it sounded boomy with the PA2V2. But with the buffered and low-output-impedance PIMETA, boomy is the last word I would use to describe it.

I expect the Portapro is quite boomy, since that's how the KSC75 feels when I press the drivers against my ears. When I'm not doing that, bass is quite controlled. It probably helps that my music isn't very bass-heavy to start with...so it balances out the headphone's sound signature.

 

[Dyoel182]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knuckledragger They are going to be my test mule for my first re-cabling job. The one serious weak spot in the Koss line of headphones is truly awful cables, which are made infinitely worse by the volume control most of them seem to have

What about the volume control dont you like? I dont notice any sound difference between my 75s with and without the control and I really like being able to scale back some of the hiss when I'm away from the amp.