[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by bangraman Clearly, building good budget closed phones is a major art and it isn't just about blocking holes in phones. The open Senn PX100 sounds great for the money, the closed PX200 much less so.

It's also a matter of personal taste, as your post illustrates -- a good number of people prefer the PX 200 to the 100

 

[GanChan]

I just did an out-of-the-box comparison of these two phones, using my computer jack as the source, so this is preliminary and just my opinion -- but the Koss UR29 is better than I thought it would be. I never heard its predecessor, the UR30, but the 29 sure sounds better than the UR20, which I owned for about 10 minutes once. I don't know for sure whether this model uses the same drivers as the KSC35/50, but I sure wouldn't be surprised from what I'm hearing. It's still a little muddy and bassy, like all the Koss closed cheapos, but at least this time I can hear lows, mids, and highs. The 212, by comparison, sounds like a bass drum with a tweeter strapped to it. I get the sense that there's a pretty good headphones inside the 212 somewhere, but the bass is keeping me from hearing it. I much prefer the UR
29's sound! Imagine the HP170 with a little less treble and a little more bass, and that's my impression of the UR29.

Both the UR29 and the HD212 isolate about the same, as far as I can tell. A little less than the V6. Not much leakage.

The UR29 folds, but in the weirdest damn way I've ever seen. First one earcup pivots to 3 o-clock, and the other pivots to 9 o'clock -- then the earcups swing inward so the pads lie on top of each other. It doesn't really hold this position very well -- build quality is kind of cheap, for one thing -- but they could be easily placed in a bag in this "ball" formation.

I don't know if Headroom will review these, or sell them, but in my opinion they sound better than the UR20, HD202, or HD212 -- and they're only 30 bucks.

 

[bangraman]

Clearly, building good budget closed phones is a major art and it isn't just about blocking holes in phones. The open Senn PX100 sounds great for the money, the closed PX200 much less so. The open HD497 is one of my favourite budget headphones. The closed 212, presumably based on the same driver, is probably one I like the least. If Koss has got it right that's quite something.

 

[GanChan]

Well, there's still room for improvement in the cheap closed phone world. The UR29 definitely has its faults, but they struggle up into the approximate territory of the HP170. So while by discerning standards they are mediocre, for budget price I'd say they are good. They fill a niche in their price point, IMO. I was looking for something in the class of the HP170 only with more isolation. I found it!