[glTexcoord]

Verdict: HD 203 is overrated.
 
I was looking for exactly this comparison over the internet to decide whether I should by a HD 203 to replace my PortaPro, but founded no such thing, so I bought the 203 and do the comparison myself.
 
I have just bought these 203s 2 days ago, and to be honest, they are a big disappointment. The first impression is, the 203s' sound is somewhat unnatural to me, it is something I have never experienced before with all the speakers and headphones I have owned, could it be due to the closed nature of this headphone? The mids is too thin, highs is harh and muffled, sound stage is next to non-existent. THe 203s has decent bass though, and this bass is more reasonable for my taste than the ProtaPro.
 
After hearing some very positive reviews of the 203s, I decided to buy and expected these to replace my PortaPro because I don't really like the overwhelming bass and too dark sound of the PortaPro esp for long listening hours. The 203 does has a cleaner, more separated sound, but the PortaPro easily beats it in every other regards: more detail, more spacious, smoother, warmer and richer sounds, all for only 15$ more. I really wanted to love those 203s, I tried it with almost all sound tracks I have on all sources available at my home: PC, laptop, mp3 player, speaker headphone out-put, my cellphone.. but I couldn't find a combination with which I prefer the 203 over the PortaPro, I always feel a lack of "feeling", of sensing and enjoyment that I had with the PC loud speakers or with the PortaPro.
 
I only burned them in for 10+ hours and I heard somewhere that some Senn HPs need 100+ hours burn-in to get their full potential.That said, I don't think burn-in will help that much given the current performance of the 203s.
 
For now I think I will just stick with my PortaPro. If anyone can suggest a headphone with a more balanced sound without sacrificing detail and richness and not too much costly, that would be highly appreciated. Sennheiser HD 555 is under my consideration now and I would prefer Sennheiser ones because they are more available in my area..

 

[digaum1986]

I have one Sennheiser hd 203. When i received it i put some good music and thought the headphone is fake. Reading on the internet, i've found information about burn in the phone. I can certify that this phone need at least 70 hours to achieve a good quality. The difference is abysmal when you do the burn in. But i think the sennheiser hd 203 is not an upgrade of koss porta pro. They are very similar. The most important pro of sennheiser hd 203 is the isolation of the environment and i think is more durable too.