KOSS A250 from KOSS eBay thread

[ghingus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VR6ofpain after about 75 hours of burn in (well a good 10 hours have been "on-head") I think these A/250's are starting to ease off on the top end. I thought they were very bright during earlier listening, but they seem better (or I am getting used to them). Definately not as smooth as my K601 or as easy/rolled off as my HF-1 w/ Flats, but reasonable. After more use, I changed my mind about comfort. The lack of rotating cups make them kind of annoying after a while and they pleather pads make you sweat. With the weather in the 100's (average indoor temp in my place is between 85-89F) the last few days, I have noticed that headphone listening in general causes sweaty ears, but the A/250's are especially bad. I almost feel like I should see if someone would want to trade these for their K81DJ's, but at the same time I am not sure I want to let these go. I know I could really use a sealed can, but maybe I should just get them separately...though I already feel like I own too many headphones (might not be normal for a HeadFi-er).

Yes, I had the pleasure of listening to the K601s for a few days and they are incredibly smooth and defined - wide open soundstage and you could hear everything. I thought they were a great can for the money, but I needed something more portable and can only afford one expensive headphone purchase at this point, so I returned them to HeadRoom. By the way, I had heard that the K601s were too bassy, and my conclusion is that this must be a source issue, because running them out of my D250 PCDP (no amp) they were just about perfect, if not a little light on the bass. Overall a great headphone and when my life is less "portable" I would love to snap one up...

 

[mektarus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VR6ofpain after about 75 hours of burn in (well a good 10 hours have been "on-head") I think these A/250's are starting to ease off on the top end. I thought they were very bright during earlier listening, but they seem better (or I am getting used to them). Definately not as smooth as my K601 or as easy/rolled off as my HF-1 w/ Flats, but reasonable. After more use, I changed my mind about comfort. The lack of rotating cups make them kind of annoying after a while and they pleather pads make you sweat. With the weather in the 100's (average indoor temp in my place is between 85-89F) the last few days, I have noticed that headphone listening in general causes sweaty ears, but the A/250's are especially bad. I almost feel like I should see if someone would want to trade these for their K81DJ's, but at the same time I am not sure I want to let these go. I know I could really use a sealed can, but maybe I should just get them separately...though I already feel like I own too many headphones (might not be normal for a HeadFi-er).

WOW!! Frankly, when the average indoor temperature is 85-90F doesn't pretty much everything suck?!?

 

[Sladeophile]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mektarus WOW!! Frankly, when the average indoor temperature is 85-90F doesn't pretty much everything suck?!?

Answer = YES!

 

[craiglester]

wow.. that kind of indoor temperature would be intolerable to me.. talk about balmy.. I cant abide anything over 80 indoors.. and i prefer a good few degrees below that..

I'd imagine the A/130's are a little hotter long term than the A/250's purely based on the ventilation..

I found my K240's to be much hotter in long term use than the A/250 by the way.

 

[Sladeophile]

I keep my castle at 75F and I still have to retreat downstairs. Yikes...

 

[daveDerek]

Quote:

Originally Posted by craiglester wow.. that kind of indoor temperature would be intolerable to me.. talk about balmy.. I cant abide anything over 80 indoors.. and i prefer a good few degrees below that.. I'd imagine the A/130's are a little hotter long term than the A/250's purely based on the ventilation.. I found my K240's to be much hotter in long term use than the A/250 by the way.

how do the k240 and a250 compare?

 

[craiglester]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveDerek how do the k240 and a250 compare?

I won't go into too much detail as I'm at work..

but..

K240s to me has more bass, but it's not as defined, there's less sparkly high end but the mid range seems more solid.

The A/250's however are lighter, just as comfortable but my ears get warmer quicker.

The K240s is semi open and isolates a massive amount more than the A250 both leakage and sound isolation wide.

The A250 is by far the best audio value i've ever gotten.

I like them both, but for this month it's the A250's

 

[VR6ofpain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghingus By the way, I had heard that the K601s were too bassy, and my conclusion is that this must be a source issue, because running them out of my D250 PCDP (no amp) they were just about perfect, if not a little light on the bass. Overall a great headphone and when my life is less "portable" I would love to snap one up...

Ya they are not bassy by any means. With my setup [Rega Planet -> Gilmore Lite], they have enough bass, but it sometimes seems lean. I think they have gotten more bass over time though. I would say it was just me getting used to it, but if I switch back and forth between my HF-1 w/ Flats (master of midbass punch) and my K601, the bass drop isn't as bad as it seemed when I first got the K601.
Quote:

Originally Posted by mektarus WOW!! Frankly, when the average indoor temperature is 85-90F doesn't pretty much everything suck?!?

It is currently 89.8F (@ 9:30pm PST) in my bedroom...but hey it hit 109F today. Welcome to Northern California...(personally I like the heat more than the cold). I can deal with sweating...now when it is so cold my hands are cramping up trying to type, I am misreble.

From earlier today (5pm):

It gets up to 89 indoors because my place has tons of single pane windows...which sucks.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Well, my luck ran out. My second pair of A130s seems to have a blown out driver. I sent an email to the seller about getting them sent in to be fixed

 

[ghingus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiGHFLYiN9 Well, my luck ran out. My second pair of A130s seems to have a blown out driver. I sent an email to the seller about getting them sent in to be fixed

Hmmm...blown but still making noise, or blown and silent? My right driver is out and I was going to mail it back, but today I plugged in my SR225s and the right driver was silent on those. I switched to a different 1/4 to 1/8 adapter, and they worked fine. Then I took the A130s out of the box and low and behold, they worked as well...for a while, then the right driver went silent again. Now I really confused. I think it is probably that 1/4 to 1/8 adapter that is the problem and not the drivers. I'm going to plug it into my guitar amp tomorrow (1/4) and test to see for sure. I don't want to mail it back if it is just a faulty adapter.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Blown but still making noise. Tried it on a few different amps, it's definitely the cans. Anything in the midrange to lower frequencies is all whacked out in one of the drivers.

 

[VR6ofpain]

AKG is moving in on KOSS' massive bass territory with TURBO BASS!

 

[dave al'orange]

Ah man, TURBO BASS?! Why didn't I find this out before blowing all my cash on the MASSIVE BASS?

Incidentally, some of you might be interested to know that I took my blue-taked A130s out on the town yesterday running straight out of my iPod mini and they still sounded damn good.

 

[Sladeophile]

Hope that bass isn't as laggy as a saab turbo... funny that they would use the word turbo since the sound of a turbo is generally a high pitched whine...

 

[TheSloth]

I still prefer 'massive bass'. 'Turbo bass' is just trying too hard. Everyone still enjoying their a250's? I'm wondering how people's impressions have changed now they have had some time with them - mine were completely destroyed by my dismantling effort, so I don't really remember what they sounded like except for 'very good'.