[lazuline]

airplane headphones in black plastic... but less comfortable.

 

[Raguvian]

Quote:

I cannot agree that they are worse than current iBuds.  I've been using a year-old pair of buds that came with my iPhone, and have a drawer full of them of varying vintages.  I've bought the V150 a few times prior to starting my Head-Fi journey, and even once after starting.  They are an upgrade from stock buds in my opinion.  Check my profile, I've had some good purchases and some bad ones, and I keep the bad ones in there to demonstrate that I'm not one to dismiss headphones unless I've really given them an intent listen.
 
I'm not here to tell you you're wrong; if your experience is the opposite of mine, let it be known.  I just want the opposite experience to stand in this thread so anyone searching the forum for opinions can see there's some subjectivity.
 
I do agree that due to the design and build, they can break without much effort, but short of a metal yoke or gimbal piece, what else could one expect?  I've had a pair last forever in and out of my backpacks, and I've had a gimbal piece snap in two just wearing a backpack from point A to point B.  Because I like to tinker, I'd really like to explore a tubular metal gimbal to withstand abuse and to carry the right side wiring into the headband for single entry.
 
I do suppose I'm always going to have a pair of these because I like wearing them; maybe it is no longer a rational sort of attachment but an emotional one.  Perhaps the biggest favor I could do for the sound is a driver transplant and some acoustic mods so they are enjoyable to listen to.

Well, to be honest it's been 4 years since I've used the V150 but I remember trying a pair of newer ibuds recently and thinking that they weren't too bad, so it's hard to compare them directly. I just remember the V150 being very, very muddy with a huge amount of uncontrolled bass that bled over pretty much everything else. The buds, while veiled and also muddy, were at least more clear than the V150.
 
Back when I didn't know better I got the V150 because the ibuds I had broke after about two months and I wanted something cheap but durable. To be honest, I wouldn't mind getting the V150's again and then trying to do a KSC75 transplant into the cups.

 

[Lurkumaural]

Quote:

To be honest, I wouldn't mind getting the V150's again and then trying to do a KSC75 transplant into the cups.

Don't forget to vent or otherwise fully open the cups, unless you really want the lower-range characteristic people hate about the V150 acoustics to negate the comparatively free sound of the Koss.
 
Other than the occasional V150/KSC75 thread, I'm very surprised that people aren't trying to do more experimenting to get a decent 40mm driver in these things, especially Sony.  I mean, have you looked at the driver?  It's this tiny little thing sitting in a walkman-headphone frame that itself is driver-sized.  Someone who's willing to dampen their nicer headphones many times over should be all over this thing.  The knockoffs are <$10.

 

[Raguvian]

Quote:

Don't forget to vent or otherwise fully open the cups, unless you really want the lower-range characteristic people hate about the V150 acoustics to negate the comparatively free sound of the Koss.
 
Other than the occasional V150/KSC75 thread, I'm very surprised that people aren't trying to do more experimenting to get a decent 40mm driver in these things, especially Sony.  I mean, have you looked at the driver?  It's this tiny little thing sitting in a walkman-headphone frame that itself is driver-sized.  Someone who's willing to dampen their nicer headphones many times over should be all over this thing.  The knockoffs are <$10.

Yeah I'd definitely drill some holes into the back of the cups to vent the drivers. I'm just not sure how to free the drivers from the stock KSC75 cups without damaging them.
 
All in all though, if done correctly, it shouldn't cost more than $30 for a knockoff V150, genuine KSC75's and other materials needed for the conversion, and in the end you get a great sounding phone in a fairly durable plastic frame.
 

 

[Lurkumaural]

From what I remember reading, you don't remove the drivers completely from the KSC75 plastics.  I think the best you can do is remove either the front or the back plastic, and after that one piece you leave well enough alone.  I think going further is possible.  I also think it's not at all worth it.

 

[JamesHuntington]

I think my problem with buds is the wire and it's position. Anything pulls them out of my ear, the sheet, air, the weight of the wire, they just don't stay in while I'm in bed. I do enjoy the sound of good ear buds and swore by some Sony MDR-EX51LP buds I had. Shure is a good brand too. I'm using some Philips SHS5200 wrap around phones for outside activities now. They were reviewed as one of the best jogging phones. The build is cheap and I've had to glue them and add tape, but they stay on. My Sony buds were quite nice sounding though, maybe better than the V150. I have really tried to put these 150's to the test in the last 2 days to see what they are really good for. I bought mine when they first came out for friends to use when we recorded music at my house. I didn't know what was good then and only had a $20- budget. Maybe they have changed something on the newer ones to make them break more easily. I feel they are best sounding at lower volume levels with a normal powered stereo headphone output and playing easy listening music. Bumping or music with heavy distortion is not happening on mine. My pads were wearing bad, so I flipped them around. I found that they are better that way anyhow. As a base for some better drivers would be a great use for them too. These have tons of potential.    

 

[burnliff]

$30 for a knockoff V150? When I bought them they were $15 for a real pair..

 

[Raguvian]

Quote:

$30 for a knockoff V150? When I bought them they were $15 for a real pair..

No, $10 shipped for a knockoff pair, and $15 for a real pair of KSC75's.
 
They were also $15 for a real pair back when I bought them as well.

 

[KoninK]

you guys know why the v-150 suck so much right?
try and open them up, inside the small cups are even smaller oldstyle walkman cups. with an 25 or 30 mm driver.
it looks like sony still had millions of those lying on the shelf when the white earbuds hit the market and needed to clean out their storage, and thus created the worst headphone in recent history.
maybe they sound better(less worse) if you attach the inner cups to an oldtimey  headband and place some foam pads on them.
can find any pics on the web to show you and i don't feel like finding my pair just to make a point.
 

 

[RaymondLeggs]

I dont't think they sound bad at all, especially after you run them in with loud music for a few days..

 

[HPuser9083]

I still think you must've gotten a bad batch or something because I've had V150s for almost three years, and they've always sounded great for $20, and aside from the headband separating at one of the yokes (fixed easily with a lot of strapping tape, with more on the side that didn't break for safe measure), they've held up really well over that time period, and that's with the daily abuse of use on a bus commute too.

 

[TrollDragon]

After you have heard the Koss Porta Pro's, the V150's go right into the trash where they belong.

 

[HPuser9083]

Of course I wanna recable my UR40s, and then get some KSC75s and do both the headband and earpad mods on them for use as portables, since from my understanding, UR40s are just KSC75s in a bigger housing.

 

[RaymondLeggs]

I had vintage AKG 145's once, but they broke. havent found another set though. The Electrets came apart and the wires coroded green.

 

[Selenium]

I recently lost everything. Almost everything I own, including all my high-end 'phones. Really bad time in my life. But I did find these headphones in a parking lot, and they're all I got for the foreseeable future. There are a couple pairs of "throwaway", "came as a free prize in a box of cereal" earbuds kicking around, but these are way better. Which I suppose isn't saying much. I really can't tell just how bad these are since I no longer have my Etys or EX-1000s laying around to compare them to, but my knee-jerk reaction was that you guys were being tough on them. But I suppose you're probably right as I have no frame of reference.

The cable is too long, and they're a bit flimsy. I've had to apply super glue in a couple places, but again, I did find them in a parking lot.