Warning: This is a lot but I've included some TL;DR sections.
This has taken roughly 5 days to put together. I think I might have learned some things?
The following are headphones I've used enough to compare. Consider them all burned in:
Sennheiser HD 280 Pro
Uncomfortable! Isolating? Of course, but they’re still uncomfortable. I noticed some weirdness in songs which might be cup resonance? Sounds seemed to be stepping on each another. Bass seemed bloated. Mids/vocals seemed recessed and distant. There also seemed to be some kind of higher frequency shouty-ness. Maybe these are best left for editing vocals from voice overs or readings, which was their use for a work assignment.
Koss UR40
Super light and super comfortable. Before this 3rd or 4th replacement (Koss Warranty, $9 S&H) I was using cheap white IEMs in the interim. When I switched from the IEMs back to these I thought they sounded veiled or muddy. These are connected to my laptop without additional amplification.
After reading about modding these to have more clarity by removing the foam that sits between the grill and driver, I decided to actually do it. It took about 1 minute. It’s a subtle difference but noticeably clearer, less veiled, less muddy. I still consider the sound to have an almost closed-back sound.
The fullness of these may be due to the cups reinforcing the drivers. Even with the mod they still isolate more than the KSC75. The change after the mod was subtle. The clarity and sound opens up a bit. It's not drastic and I didn't notice any negative effect on the low end.
Koss KSC75
~$10 through Amazon or from one of the *Marts. I convinced a co-worker to get these and I use them more than her. They isolate less than the UR40. Comfortable? Definitely. Note that these are used through the 3.5mm jack on the speakers connected to the work computer.
Koss Sporta Pro
I bought these for my dad. Is this the Porta Pro sound? The bass seems bloated and they lack clarity because of it. I wonder if this is fixed with a proper amp.
A-B Testing follows:
Koss UR40 vs. Koss Sporta Pro (A-B through my laptop)
TL;DR: I didn’t notice a difference in volume when switching between the two. The UR40 was more resolving, clearer.
The Sporta Pro seemed to have a bloated low end extending into the other ranges hiding the vocals and other details.
So although more than a few people say the UR40 headphones are veiled and muddy, here, they were better.
Some songs used for A-B’ing:
Tomorrow by Silverchair
Heartache by Relient K
Royals by Lorde
Tennis Court by Lorde
Team by Lorde
Trouble Man by Marvin Gaye - In the closing section of the song the high hat comes through on the UR40 as a clear 'tih'. The sound from the Sporta Pro is more of a 'chih' sound. The sound from the UR40 is also more spacious compared to the Sporta Pro's congested low end.
Angel by Massive Attack - And just when I thought the UR40 headphones weren’t doing the low end right... Everything seems clear with deep, plentiful bass without overpowering the rest of the track like the Sporta Pro.
Out of curiosity I removed the pads from the SportaPro headphones. Holy piercing highs! Again I A-B'ed the same songs. I even A-B'ed the SportaPro with and without the pads up and down they went so I could hear a difference immediately. I loved the clarity in the highs and vocals but they were overpowering. Why/how do the pads kills all of this?!
Koss UR40 vs. Koss KSC75 (A-B through my laptop and 3.5mm jack in Cambridge Soundworks Creative GCS300 speakers at work)
TL;DR: Noticed a volume difference between these that I couldn't seem to really match by turning the volume up. Maybe this is due to a difference in isolation. I lean more toward the KSC75's clarity over the full but closed sound of the UR40.
Through AudioCheck.net I noticed a big difference in the sound between home and work. When doing the bass sweep with both headphones, the low end starts off with a "flappy" sound as if the drivers are trying to produce a frequency they can't actually play so it just makes something up until the frequency increases into their playable range. However, at work, plugged in to the speakers, the full range is played. The UR40 seemed to extend further than the KSC75 in both directions by a small margin.
So are the headphones getting amplification through the speakers or is this difference due to the sound card/onboard audio?
With
Baalbek by Trifonic the UR40 the bass is full, deep, and punchy. The KSC75 sounds like a headphone that's trying to do that.
I got my co-worker to listen to the difference between the two and she said the UR40 sounded more like being in the studio and so she preferred the less full but more detailed sound of the KSC75.
With the UR40, Trouble Man by Marvin Gaye seems dominated by the by the low end and mids. The sound is full but too forward whereas the KSC75's presentation is spacious. After listening back and forth, I decided I preferred the sound of the KSC75 because of the space.
Simply based on the way the two perform on Trouble Man, I would suggest the KSC75 over the UR40. I’m okay with sacrificing low end for clarity.
Conlusion and Bonus Stuff:
Ultimately, not as conclusive as I would like because I like the KSC75's clarity and space but also like the fullness of the UR40. I feel like there's still something to be found with the Sporta Pro because of those bright highs with the pads off and deep lows with the pads on. There's gotta be a balance somewhere. There's probably a mod somewhere to make them more balanced, open and revealing. The UR40 have a fullness and probably the most balance of any of them barring the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro which I simply do not like because they're uncomfortable. I find it tough to choose between the UR40 and KSC75. I might lean to the UR40 just barely over the KSC75 for the more balanced sound even though lows and mids seem to encroach on clarity and space. The padding on the UR40 is too shallow. If it were twice as thick, it would probably help a lot with the sound. My ears touch the top and bottom of the inside of the pads, and practically rest on the drivers. I can see where my ears rest on the material that covers them.
I'll continue using the UR40 at home and I'll enjoy their fullness first and detail second and I'll continue using the KSC75 at work and enjoy their detail first and the low end that takes a back seat to the clarity and space.
I’m now more curious about the ProDJ100, SP540, and/or Pro4S sounds. They also have lower impedance so if the bass issue I mentioned earlier is an amplification thing, maybe they'd be easier to drive from the laptop.
Bonus and/or other mentioned songs from the A-B sections:
Love Reign O'er Me (1996 Remastered Version) by The Who
Tiger by Paula Cole
Baalbek (Hecq Remix) by Trifonic - Crazy electronic song that I found through Isosine's Nine Inch Nails mashup.
Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory Unmastered album for download in FLAC and MP3
