Koss Customer Service

[djbnh]

FYI - relatively new to these forums, but have time on AC and The Vinyl Circle. My audio gear is more hi-than-mid-fi, and I've been perusing these forums for research related to near future purchases of a headamp, plus budgeting $200-$350 toward headphones for the office and home use.

Anyway, I had a pair of Koss Pro75s from waaaaay back in my Army artillery days of being stationed overseas in Germany (1987-1991), for use with my then-modest-portable/home gear. Some years ago the cord connection to the phones cracked, which I temporarily resolved with electrical tape. Finally put the phones away after when I started upgrading to a more serious home audio system.

Pulled these cans out last month when my portable phones died, and of course the Koss phone repair promptly gave way in a few days. Sent them back to Koss last week for $6s/h fee + $5 priority mail, and today received a pair of r200s (which I believe are a discontinued model). I think it is commendable that Koss fulfills its lifetime warranty by providing me a model that, once burned in over the next few weeks, should be superior to my old cans. The replacements should tide me over until I can make up my mind on what amp and phones will work best for me with my gear, and with all those great posts, opinions, congruent and contradictory opinions, I'm sure it'll be "fun"

making up my mind.

 

[BowerR64]

Have you opened them up? there are 2 models of the R200, one model uses the older KSC 60 ohm driver, the new version uses a larger 50mm driver and i dont think they sound as good. They dont have the mids that the KSC driver has. I had a tan colored set that broke and i sent them back they sent me the newer black version and i like the older version better.

 

[djbnh]

They are the black ones. So far I've tested and put aside the "ambiance enhancement circuitry" cord/box (which I found drastically reduced the sound output, and I'm not quite sure what the circuitry is supposed to do anyway) in favor of the regular cord. I listened to them for a couple hours, and while not prepared to comment on their sound with so little time on them, I have found them to be comfortable so far. One nit is that the phone's I returned had a 1/4" plug; since the R-200s have a 1/8" plug, I haven't had a chance to run them from my Jolida JD-100 cpd headphone output yet, which is a much better source than my Dell.

I'm letting them burn in off of my computer as well with continuous simultaneous feeds, via Winamp, of tones (20 Hz, 30 Hz, 40 Hz), and an exponential sweep of 20 Hz - 16kHz. After the weekend and the purchase of an adaptor plug, I'm hoping I may be able to hear more of what they can do, don't you think?

I'm happy to have a basically free set of headphones for $11 to replace a pair of 1X-year old headphones, that will tide me over while I decide on what head gear to get. After that, my daughter will get the Koss phones. Then again, she gets all my older audio gear!

Thanks for your input regarding drivers and your findings. I'm sure the R-200s will be better than the foamy Sony and other Walkman-type phones out there, and at least, IMHO, that leaves me 2 steps ahead of having no headphones.

 

[BowerR64]

They are comfortable i will give em that, they dont look bad either. They kinda remind me of the senheiser HD600 series, that big open grill look. The driver has a nice thick diaphram i wonder if they can get loud compaired to the KSC drivers.

 

[djbnh]

At least now I can say that even though these cans are no where broken in, with a source like the Jolida JD-100 cdp, there's tons more detail to be found with the Jolida than being run off my computer. Definitely enough power to drive these from the JD-100s head jack, although the JD-100's output isn't the tubed output like the Eastern Electric Minimax cdp. More evidence to promote the idea that a good source in the audio chain almost always seems to make a significant difference...

 

[dan1son]

Hmm... I just packed up a pair of Koss Pro 4AA's from the mid 70's to be sent off for earcup replacement (they had the original liquid filled pads) and to have the headband replaced (the foam was replaced by my father probably 15 years ago, wire ties anyone?).

These were my dads phones and they haven't been used in at least 10 years since the pads are completely useless. They don't seal at all, not to mention the pads are so flat if you put them on your head your ears rub directly on the metal guard. I really don't want them to replace the phones... but I guess we'll see what happens when I actually get around to mailing them... knowing me that could be a couple of weeks

.

Maybe I should throw a small note in their showing the sentimental value they have.