Greetings,
As I mentioned on the sister thread here, I just picked up a pair of brand new, in box Koss KDE250's for, $50 on eBay. Initial impressions:
- upon opening the box, I was struck by the very high quality feel of the entire unit - the leather case, the custom foam "wrapper" to place the headphones in prior to putting them in the case, the beautiful machining of the aluminum parts (ear hooks, screw-twisters), the subtle engraved text around the stainless ring encircling the larger driver, the fine quality of the textured plastic body offset by a single shiny black element on the larger driver - overall, it exudes a very refined feel in the hand and to the eye.
- they are a bit larger, and more complex than the pictures indicate (not a bad thing BTW) - there are two moving components to fit the ear, (1) the easily observable placement of the polished aluminum ear hooks, and (2) more subtle but no less important hinge joint between the earhook/screw mechanism and the main body - this is not obvious in any of the pictures but allows subtle angle changes affecting placement of the speakers once the earhooks are properly adjusted.
- the cables are the only underwhelming aspect of the kit, very slender and frankly a bit frail, although it does have a gold plated plug unit; they are wrapped tightly in the box, and take several hours of "hang time" to straighten from their annoying initial "curly" position, enhanced by the weakness of the wires themselves. For $250 I would have expected much better cables.
- after reading some of the previous listings here, I found it easy and quick to get the basic ear position right - someone mentioned the height of the drivers to your ear relative to the earhook is the single most important measure, and he's correct; however, even with that, you have a lifetime of fine tuning ahead to achieve the perfect balance of earhook angle/ driver height/ body hinge bend to chase the Holy Grail of sound; fortunately, it is darn worth it... which leads to
- Sound. Spectacular, in fits and starts. Analogy: I'm an amateur astronomer, and if you ever do planetary gazing, you quickly realize that the perfect image is quite elusive, dependent on atmosphere, focus, clouds, and eye position - but with patience you will get glimpses of planetary perfection which bring you back again and again. I feel it's precisely the same experience with the KDE250s - adjusting the driver position, your seating position, your head angle, and the musical inputs (in my case it's a FiiO X1 with an JDS Labs cMoyBB amp playing hi res FLAC) lends audio glimpses of true high fidelity sonic reproduction - crisp, lifelike forward mids, slightly recessed but accurate highs, and sharp, musical, bass with clear separation - but it all comes and goes for seconds or minutes at a time. The KDE250s are very sensitive to the quality of the recordings - most MP3 are lifeless - but give it a tight source (like J.D. Souther's 'Sad Cafe' from HDTracks) and you'll be in the room with him if the moment is right. To my ear the most accurate reproductions are piano, male voices, and acoustic guitars, in that order. Bass is the most susceptible to variations - a smidgin out of place and it either goes boomy/mushy, or disappears on a Jenny Craig diet, losing all it's weight. But when it's right it's also very, very musical and accurate.
- the forward mids can be quite fatiguing with the wrong music, and quickly, so plan carefully. I find I switch music more with this configuration, seeking what works. Lots of fun searching for the Holy Grail, though. And these things are really good looking, beautiful even, and as much of a conversation starter as headphones get.
I didn't address the ear comfort - they fit me easily, quickly, without any pain - just don't jam them in! if you set the earhook plus the body hinge right, there should be next to no pressure on the ear tissue - if there is, you don't have it right, and it'll also translate to crappy sound. (My ears are large, and relatively flat to my head BTW.)
- I haven't waited for any break-in as per other posts, but if I do hear some, I'll update. But if you like a challenge, have some patience, like a high quality headphone which nobody else has, and can feed these high resolution, amplified signals, you're in for a treat. At least, an occasional glimpse of one.
