Towert7
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2005
- Posts
- 5,853
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- 38
Hello.
These are my impressions regarding the Koss KSC75 clip on style headphones. I have owned these for about 2 years now, and used to use them for portable use. A quick check online shows they can be had for 16$us at amazon.com. My version does not have the built in volume control.
My impressions are based off the KSC75 being sourced by my Mhdt labs Paradisea+ NOS dac with WE396A and a WooAudio WA6 headphone amp with 274B. On occasion I will also mention how they sound out of my ipod nano.
Sound Quality
If there was one headphone that could make me a believer in “source first”, this is it! There is no way these headphones can cost 16$us. They sound amazing out of my setup.
The mids are wonderfully lush sounding. It’s a sweet sound. Vocals sound full bodied and natural. At no time do I find any brightness throughout the frequency range. The bass is also full bodied having a fair amount of weight to it to make it sound natural. The bass never sounds overbearing, which I am very thankful for. The mids progress down to the very low bass with ease and the bass seems to roll off slowly. The highs are present, never sibilant, and have a little punch to them though not as much as my HD580 for example. Now, I have heard these compared to the grado house sound a million times, but out of my setup I am getting a very close resemblance to my HD650 headphones. When properly sourced, these headphones have a wonderfully smooth sound that is very easy to listen to for extended listening. I would not even think about EQ’ing these even the slightest bit.
I am blown away by the sound I’m getting out of these headphones when properly driven. I remember when choosing between the Sennheiser PX100 and these KSC75 for portable use with my Ipod nano. The KSC75 did present a more aggressive sound. Plugging them into my home setup though, these have become the baby HD650. Simply stunning!
The biggest thing going against these is the way they sit on my ears. They do not sit snugly on my ears and do not trap in the sound, so I am missing out on a fair amount of soundstaging. I get very little depth to the soundstage, and practically no vertical separation. It does have a pleasing left-right separation; without much focus. It also means that I am missing out on subtle detail. This is in absolute terms. If we now consider the price of 16$us, these are probably above average.
Build quality
They are plastic, so I would not want to crush them. The driver housing detaches from the ear clip, and back in the day that I used them for portable use they would sometimes pop off and I would have to reattach the clip.
Comfort
Sitting down at home, these are neither comfy nor uncomfortable. They rest on my ears, but they don’t push against them. They remain cool which is nice. The metal rod inside the rubber clips can be bent to adjust how they fit on your ear, but I have trouble getting the pressure I would prefer.
When I used them portably, I was unhappy with how loose they were on my ears even after adjusting the clips. Looking around would shake the headphones loose. I found that I had to keep pushing them back on my ears to keep them from falling off. This was the biggest complaint I had with them, and was the main reason why I opted to use the Sennheiser PX100 for my portable setup back then. However, the cable was very comfortable and never annoyed me. They also do not suffer from ‘microphonics’ in the cable.
Misc
To be honest, these headphones do not look very stylish. If you are conscientious about such things this might not be the best choice.
In terms of loudness I never had a problem driving them from my little Ipod nano.
They also do not attenuate much sound at all, so I would not get these for use in noisy environments.
When properly sourced, the KSC75 sound the best to me out of the Koss KSC75, Senn PX100, and Senn HD201 by a large margin in terms of musicality. For portable use out of a junk source the KSC75 can sound bright and harsh in which case other headphones such as the PX100 might be a better option (and for me it was).
The KSC75 are VERY source dependent!
Conclusions
The Koss KSC75 are a strange headphone. They are very picky about what equipment you pair them with. Driven right out of my Ipod nano they sound bright and harsh, very reminiscent of the Grado house sound. Pair them with a very smooth source/amp combination like I have done today and they are very reminiscent of my Sennheiser HD650.
Assuming they are paired with a nice source, they sound wonderfully smooth and very musical! Never in a million years would I have expected anywhere near the sound quality out of 16$ headphones. NEVER! If it wasn’t for the dimensionless soundstage and the lack of subtle detail, these headphones would be a serious competitor in the 150$ price range, if not higher.
Unfortunately, due to their clip on design they might not be the ideal choice for a portable setup in which you will be moving around a lot. I find this funny, because that is the exact audience these headphones are targeted at.
A picture
As always, feel free to post any questions or comments.
I hope this was helpful,
~Drew
These are my impressions regarding the Koss KSC75 clip on style headphones. I have owned these for about 2 years now, and used to use them for portable use. A quick check online shows they can be had for 16$us at amazon.com. My version does not have the built in volume control.
My impressions are based off the KSC75 being sourced by my Mhdt labs Paradisea+ NOS dac with WE396A and a WooAudio WA6 headphone amp with 274B. On occasion I will also mention how they sound out of my ipod nano.
Sound Quality
If there was one headphone that could make me a believer in “source first”, this is it! There is no way these headphones can cost 16$us. They sound amazing out of my setup.
The mids are wonderfully lush sounding. It’s a sweet sound. Vocals sound full bodied and natural. At no time do I find any brightness throughout the frequency range. The bass is also full bodied having a fair amount of weight to it to make it sound natural. The bass never sounds overbearing, which I am very thankful for. The mids progress down to the very low bass with ease and the bass seems to roll off slowly. The highs are present, never sibilant, and have a little punch to them though not as much as my HD580 for example. Now, I have heard these compared to the grado house sound a million times, but out of my setup I am getting a very close resemblance to my HD650 headphones. When properly sourced, these headphones have a wonderfully smooth sound that is very easy to listen to for extended listening. I would not even think about EQ’ing these even the slightest bit.
I am blown away by the sound I’m getting out of these headphones when properly driven. I remember when choosing between the Sennheiser PX100 and these KSC75 for portable use with my Ipod nano. The KSC75 did present a more aggressive sound. Plugging them into my home setup though, these have become the baby HD650. Simply stunning!
The biggest thing going against these is the way they sit on my ears. They do not sit snugly on my ears and do not trap in the sound, so I am missing out on a fair amount of soundstaging. I get very little depth to the soundstage, and practically no vertical separation. It does have a pleasing left-right separation; without much focus. It also means that I am missing out on subtle detail. This is in absolute terms. If we now consider the price of 16$us, these are probably above average.
Build quality
They are plastic, so I would not want to crush them. The driver housing detaches from the ear clip, and back in the day that I used them for portable use they would sometimes pop off and I would have to reattach the clip.
Comfort
Sitting down at home, these are neither comfy nor uncomfortable. They rest on my ears, but they don’t push against them. They remain cool which is nice. The metal rod inside the rubber clips can be bent to adjust how they fit on your ear, but I have trouble getting the pressure I would prefer.
When I used them portably, I was unhappy with how loose they were on my ears even after adjusting the clips. Looking around would shake the headphones loose. I found that I had to keep pushing them back on my ears to keep them from falling off. This was the biggest complaint I had with them, and was the main reason why I opted to use the Sennheiser PX100 for my portable setup back then. However, the cable was very comfortable and never annoyed me. They also do not suffer from ‘microphonics’ in the cable.
Misc
To be honest, these headphones do not look very stylish. If you are conscientious about such things this might not be the best choice.
In terms of loudness I never had a problem driving them from my little Ipod nano.
They also do not attenuate much sound at all, so I would not get these for use in noisy environments.
When properly sourced, the KSC75 sound the best to me out of the Koss KSC75, Senn PX100, and Senn HD201 by a large margin in terms of musicality. For portable use out of a junk source the KSC75 can sound bright and harsh in which case other headphones such as the PX100 might be a better option (and for me it was).
The KSC75 are VERY source dependent!
Conclusions
The Koss KSC75 are a strange headphone. They are very picky about what equipment you pair them with. Driven right out of my Ipod nano they sound bright and harsh, very reminiscent of the Grado house sound. Pair them with a very smooth source/amp combination like I have done today and they are very reminiscent of my Sennheiser HD650.
Assuming they are paired with a nice source, they sound wonderfully smooth and very musical! Never in a million years would I have expected anywhere near the sound quality out of 16$ headphones. NEVER! If it wasn’t for the dimensionless soundstage and the lack of subtle detail, these headphones would be a serious competitor in the 150$ price range, if not higher.
Unfortunately, due to their clip on design they might not be the ideal choice for a portable setup in which you will be moving around a lot. I find this funny, because that is the exact audience these headphones are targeted at.
A picture
As always, feel free to post any questions or comments.
I hope this was helpful,
~Drew
