Koss KSC75 Portable Stereophone Headphones
by Koss
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List Price: Our Price: $10.40 You Save: $9.59 (48%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Koss KSC75 Portable Stereophone Headphones
Customer Review: Sounds great... while they last!
Summary: 2 Stars
When people say they sound about as good as a pair of portable or street Sennheiser they're not lying. These headphones are very satisfying. The bass is good, the sound is pretty balanced. It does not have that deep environment warmth, mid-size or full-sized phones have but for the price I don't expect it too.
The problem is the construction is deliberately designed to cause problems. The clips that holds the phone onto your ear will probably break off within the first two weeks you own them. The good thing though is that it's easy to pop it back into the groove on the phone so it's not broken, broken but you will become conscious of how much pressure is placed on the phone after that happens.
The biggest problem I've had is that the cord area that goes into the jack is extremely weak and will tear on you quickly. After that happens, it's not much time before only one side of your headphones is working. You meant think that it's me but after the clip came off the phone I've been very careful with these phones. The plastic around the jack area is just weak! It's designed to fail quickly. I checked their warranty policy and it requires you to first call them to register your phones then you have to send the phones to them with a check for $6 in order to get them to do something. Now the shipping cost is probably going to be like $2-3 dollars + the $6 fee. That's more than half the price of the phones! Needless to say, I haven't gone thru the process cuz it's too expensive and too much work.
Would I buy these phones again, probably not. I've had phones that's lasted nearly a year without needing replacement. I simply can't stand using phones with only one speaker working. I've tried many brands (Sennheiser, Beyerdynamics, Sony, AKG) and I have found AKG to be the reliable thus far. I plan to go back to them right now.
JUST A WARNING, THESE PHONES SOUND GREAT BUT THEY ARE NOT DESIGNED TO LAST!
Customer Review: For the price, these are downright incredible!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are looking for a good pair of cheap headphones, look no further. A friend of mine spent some time scouring the web for some nice headphones he could wear while rollerblading and he came across these. I was looking for something to replace my horrid earbuds that came with my mp3 player, so I had him order a pair for me too. I was instantly impressed- excellent, accurate highs and midrange, good bass. They require very little juice to power so if you have a player that always seems too quiet, these will help. The other bonus of this is that you can run your player at a lower volume to conserve battery life while still retaining full sound.
One downside is that these are not very "private." If you tend to listen to music in a very quiet setting, say a library, I would probably recommend something else (probably an around-the-ear model) as people in close proximity might not be too happy.
Prior to owning these, I had never had any clip-style headphones. It took a little getting used to but the style has it's advantages. They stay on, almost too well. It is painful to just yank these off, instead you need to rotate them on and off around your ear. If you are in a situation where you tend to take your headphones on and off a lot, this gets to be annoying. As someone who wears glasses, this is even more bothersome (I tend to take my glasses off before putting these on, and then put my glasses back on). The flip side is that you would be hardpressed to find a better pair of "work-out headphones." My friend, the rollerblader, agrees. They stay in place, are very durable, and if they do break, at this price no tears are shed.
Basically, if you have $300 to spend on headphones, go ahead. The fact that you would be looking at $13 pairs is silly. Otherwise, these hold their own against much more expensive sets. I think even the most stringent audiophiles would agree.
Customer Review: Sound is good, but the design is kind of aggravating
Summary: 4 Stars
The sound quality of these headphones is pretty good! You'll get good audio from your audio player while still being able to hear ambient sounds around you, which I think is important if you're outside working/jogging or if you're inside and have other things you need to be able to hear (kitchen timers or whatever). You shouldn't have any problems keeping these on your ears while you're working out or jogging, and I haven't experience the problem that some describe with other headphones where you get the sound of the speaker rubbing up against your ears as you move about. Once these things are on, they're pretty secure.
On my ears, the pieces that go around the back of my ears are a little harder plastic than I thought they would be, and it doesn't take too long for discomfort to settle in because of it. Most annoying is that it's difficult for me to get these things on. There's not a lot of space between the end of the earpiece and the speaker housing, so it's tricky getting the earpiece over my ear so I can put the thing in place over my ear. In addition, it doesn't take much force (for lack of a better word) to pull apart the part where the earpiece connects to the speaker back (in the picture of the product, that's the part where you see the "Koss" logo printed). So, if you're fighting with getting the earpiece onto your ear, it doesn't take much for the earpiece to separate from the speaker. Then you have to gather it all back into your hand and snap it back on, then try again. I've had to go through that as much as four times just trying to get one earpiece over my ear. Just a little more flexibility in the earpiece would probably have avoided much of that hassle.
I gave this 4 stars instead of 3 because the sound is very good, and it stays secure on my ears. Koss is also generally a pretty good brand; they usually have solid products.
Customer Review: Koss KSC75 Portable Headphones
Summary: 4 Stars
Near full size headphone sound in a portable package! The sound quality of these headphones is much closer to that of my full size audiophile grade Grado SR225's and Sennheiser HD600's than that of the stock ear buds that come with most portable media players. Very neutral from top to bottom. Solid, but not over-exaggerated bass. Bass freaks may feel they are a bit lean sounding. Smooth highs that only become a little harsh and etched at very high volume (higher than most people would regularly listen). Excellent mid range detail. Good soundstage.
They are also exceptionally comfortable. I wear them for up to 5 hours at a time with virtually no discomfort (less discomfort than the average pair of glasses worn for several hours). Much more comfortable than any other on ear phone I have worn, including my Grado's. They also stay put without feeling tight. I've never had them pop off my ears even though I'm quite active while wearing them.
They are just a little tricky to get on and off quickly, though I don't find this to be major problem.
The build quality is reasonable for a product at this price point. It's actually better than I expected. They are a little larger than you might expect, and kind of stick out from your head a bit, but again, it doesn't bother me at all. I'm more interested in how this type of product performs than how it looks.
It might have been nice for a small case or pouch to be included for safer transport, but a large eyeglass case or camera case can work nicely in this capacity.
Overall, highly, highly recommended as an inexpensive portable headphone and a replacement to stock ear buds. Heck, with a stereo adapter plug and an extension cable, these would even be a great cheap backup to your primary cans.
Superb value product!!!
Customer Review: Internationally Famous Listening Enjoyment, Brand-tarnishing Cost Cutting
Summary: 1 Stars
Update 12/30/2010: I cannot currently recommend these headphones until Koss does something to correct the horrendously redesigned stereo min-jack on these headphones that have obviously been engineered for early failure and cost reduction. Three months moderate use before shorting is NOT acceptable life for even a value item.
Of Porta-Pro and KSC 35 lineage, Koss brings you the best kept secret in affordable portable audio. If you're listening to your mp3 collection on the go, these will deliver outstanding fidelity and a fairly spacious virtual acoustical stage & channel separation for hours of quality, non-fatigue inducing listening. The driver in this incarnation, as others have mentioned, is more balanced than some older model porta-pros, with only a slight bias toward high and lower frequencies; these cans are timbre neutral overall-always a plus for listening to a wide variety of music.
Koss has changed the mini plug on latest model KSC75 to be compatible with ipods--to inline from the old 90 degree angle. I fear this might affect the longevity of the plug, causing shorts to occur more quickly with extreme use; so I put a few dabs of superglue gel in the gap between the wire and the plug to eliminate any play. As always though, Koss warrants all their headphones for life, so buy two pair for the money and start rotating!
Final thoughts: clips are comfortable and malleable, so you can easily adjust them to fit. Expect to get 2+ years out of each set depending on your usage and care: my last set just went for 3 years with abusive workouts and bike riding.
Don't shy away from these based on the insanely low price; they ARE quality headphones that sound better than headphones costing 5 times as much. Happy listening.