[wallijonn]

anyone have any experience with these?: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...950048495&rd=1

 

[ooheadsoo]

Hrm, no experience here, but if I had the money, I'd snatch them up for a peek

 

[wallijonn]

well, they went for $120. so that's a little out of my price range for unheard phones.

 

[gloco]

if your curious about buying an old pair of Stax, check these out:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...t&BasicSearch=

Hope that helps, best of luck!

 

[gloco]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=1949848025

Another pair of those Koss...damn...it's so tempting...gotta....hide...my...wallet....yes my precious....

 

[austonia]

hmm that last one looks very clean. I don't think Koss was ever famous for thier electrostatics but for ~$100 you can't go too wrong. if no like just resell them here

 

[gloco]

Indeed, how bad can they sound anyway?

 

[elrod-tom]

I've been curious about Koss' electrostatics for some time. A few years back, one of their newer models was on the Stereophile list (I think as Class A accessories). Does anyone have actual experience with them?

 

[mkmelt]

I had a chance to listen to a pair of Koss electrostatic headphones at the Koss outlet store at the Koss factory. These phones which had a suggested retail price of $900 as I recall, were being sold through the outlet store for $500.

I only gave a brief listen, but they sounded very good, like other electrostatics I have tried. I once found a thread that mentioned a problem with the Koss electrostatic phones, evidently they can arc when you are wearing them and one of the hairs from your head gets inside the diaphram. Maybe it was a design problem. Probably not fun to hear your headphones arc while you are listening.

Maybe the design engineers were bald

 

[elrod-tom]

arc???

 

[Number9]

mkmelt, where is there a Koss outlet store? I'd like to go there!

$500 - seems like a pretty good deal when you think about it (cheaper than most dynamic headamp combos). Stats are stats in my mind ...a big jump over dynamics.

All the posts I've seen on the Koss ESP-950s (going way way back on Headwize) relate to a "squealing" problem with various guesses as to the cause, including possibly hair. Someone once suggested it was due to arcing, but it sounded like a wild-guess more than anything.

Koss offers a lifetime, no questions asked gurantee to the original owner. They would be out of business by now if arcing was the issue and not resolved by now. Seems like only two to three people ever owned these. Maybe a sleeper?

Mind you, Kevin Gilmore has reviewed the 950s before and said that the cans are pretty good, just the amp/energizer was crap. At $599 they push the price point at which you can get a get a Stax 3030 and 303 combo for approx $779 at Audiocubes, which is likely better.

Or, just pick up the 3030s for $319 and have a Gilmore SSES amp built for you - not sure how much that would cost. But still, seems a hell of alot better value than forking out big, big bucks on $1K headamp and $700 Grados.

 

[jpelg]

Quote:

$500 - seems like a steal when you think about it

J&R still has these brand new for $599:

http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.p...Id=18748&Sort=

I seem to remember some old posts about problem batches of these cans. Don't remember if J&R was involved or not. Do some research first. Maybe the refurbs are a better option since they've probably been fixed if there was an original problem.

 

[kelly]

I think I read some reviews of these on HeadWize and they weren't all that favorable.

 

[kelly]

http://headwize2.powerpill.org/ubb/s...h=Koss;ESP950;

http://headwize2.powerpill.org/ubb/s...h=Koss;ESP950;

Ah, not so bad after all. There are other threads there but those two are pretty relevant.

 

[Vertigo-1]

There's also a short blurb on the ESP950 contained in this review:

http://headwize2.powerpill.org/ubb/s...=5117&fdays=20

I think the concensus was that the ESP950s weren't nearly as revealing enough as Staxs.