Rating: Summary: Portable Sound Par Excellence Review: I tried out several headphones including open air and other earcupped designs. I found the best results with this set. Also with the price that [they are offered] for, I found that this was also the best deal for the sound quality that I was in search of. The two seperate 8 foot cords are both useful. The Phase II cord gave me the best results for use on a home system which provided the extra umph to make the headset sound incredible. The ability to customize the 3D surround sound is a great option and sounds very nice when used on a decent home stereo system. Using the Phase II cord didn't yield the same results on any of the portable CD players that I used. The volume was noticeably lower and the bass quality was substantially decreased as well. Better results were produced using the regular cable for use on portable devices and low-end stereo systems. I received higher sound volumes and better bass response using the regular cable. Lightweight, comfortable, high-quality sound, and low price ..., you can't find a better set of headphones than these.
Rating: Summary: Good clean sound Review: If Amazon is still selling these phones for $40, snap them up; you are getting an excellent deal. The sound is crisp and clean and full-bodied. The closed earcups let you hear bass far better than open air designs, but even so you will occasionally have to raise the bass level a little bit to compensate for the small headphone speakers. The speakers _are_ large enough to harm your hearing, so be careful with volume levels. I've found that I can listen to music at comfortable levels and almost no sound leaks out of the phones. The isolation provided by the earcups is quite good.The headphones come with two coiled cables, only one of which is needed to use the phones. This is nice if one cable gets yanked or stepped on. Both cables have a modular headset plug on one end (same as goes into the handset of a telephone) and a mini-plug (walkman style) on the other end. An adaptor is included so you can use the headphones with equipment that requires a 1/4 inch plug. One of the cables has an inline control that lets you invert the phase of the left/right signals and send them to the opposite ear, which yields the "wide stereo" effect that some boom boxes offer. You have complete control over how much or how little of this effect you want, and you can turn the effect completely off. For reasons unknown the headphones do not have "left" and "right" marked on them, so I'll save you some trouble and tell you that the left earcup is the one the cable will be hanging out of. The bad things about the product are about what you would expect. The closed earcups are comfortable but will inevitably make your ears sweat. The phase inverter controller is cheap; expect some scraping static as you move the sliders back and forth.
Rating: Summary: Good clean sound Review: If Amazon is still selling these phones for $40, snap them up; you are getting an excellent deal. The sound is crisp and clean and full-bodied. The closed earcups let you hear bass far better than open air designs, but even so you will occasionally have to raise the bass level a little bit to compensate for the small headphone speakers. The speakers _are_ large enough to harm your hearing, so be careful with volume levels. I've found that I can listen to music at comfortable levels and almost no sound leaks out of the phones. The isolation provided by the earcups is quite good. The headphones come with two coiled cables, only one of which is needed to use the phones. This is nice if one cable gets yanked or stepped on. Both cables have a modular headset plug on one end (same as goes into the handset of a telephone) and a mini-plug (walkman style) on the other end. An adaptor is included so you can use the headphones with equipment that requires a 1/4 inch plug. One of the cables has an inline control that lets you invert the phase of the left/right signals and send them to the opposite ear, which yields the "wide stereo" effect that some boom boxes offer. You have complete control over how much or how little of this effect you want, and you can turn the effect completely off. For reasons unknown the headphones do not have "left" and "right" marked on them, so I'll save you some trouble and tell you that the left earcup is the one the cable will be hanging out of. The bad things about the product are about what you would expect. The closed earcups are comfortable but will inevitably make your ears sweat. The phase inverter controller is cheap; expect some scraping static as you move the sliders back and forth.
Rating: Summary: Good Sound, Awful Documentation Review: Phase II cord and straight through cord are not thoroughly documented. When I finally realized what was going on, I was able to get great results. Loud rock typically should have the straight through cord. Soft music or classical must use the Phase II cord. Sound from computer games MUST use the straight through cord or else it is so soft as to be almost inaudible. I wish Koss had invested 25 cents more in a good paid of headphones to give it a user manual.
Rating: Summary: Good Sound, Awful Documentation Review: Phase II cord and straight through cord are not thoroughly documented. When I finally realized what was going on, I was able to get great results. Loud rock typically should have the straight through cord. Soft music or classical must use the Phase II cord. Sound from computer games MUST use the straight through cord or else it is so soft as to be almost inaudible. I wish Koss had invested 25 cents more in a good paid of headphones to give it a user manual.
Rating: Summary: Nice sound, but fragile Review: The headphones sound fine and are comfortable, but the Phase 2 cord that came with mine was shorted out, so the sound only came out one ear. I called Koss customer service, and they told me it could be repaired under the lifetime warranty. They instructed me to send the Phase 2 cord in along with $5 for handling expenses. I also had to pay $3 to ship it to Koss. Two weeks later, I received what I thought was a repaired cord. After testing it I found out that it still had the same problem and there was no note explaining why it hadn't been fixed. When I called Koss and told them what had happened, the lady on the phone tried to tell me that there wasn't a lifetime warranty on these headphones. I told her that I was holding the box and it said that there is a lifetime warranty. At this point she started to get angry with me and in a demeaning tone (as if I were stupid) tells me that I should have sent in the whole headphone set. How was I supposed to know that? The instructions on the box did not say that I had to send everything in. So I spent $8 to have nothing repaired and there's not a chance for refund -- some lifetime warranty.
Rating: Summary: Good headpones, but poor customer service from Koss Review: The headphones sound fine and are comfortable, but the Phase 2 cord that came with mine was shorted out, so the sound only came out one ear. I called Koss customer service, and they told me it could be repaired under the lifetime warranty. They instructed me to send the Phase 2 cord in along with $5 for handling expenses. I also had to pay $3 to ship it to Koss. Two weeks later, I received what I thought was a repaired cord. After testing it I found out that it still had the same problem and there was no note explaining why it hadn't been fixed. When I called Koss and told them what had happened, the lady on the phone tried to tell me that there wasn't a lifetime warranty on these headphones. I told her that I was holding the box and it said that there is a lifetime warranty. At this point she started to get angry with me and in a demeaning tone (as if I were stupid) tells me that I should have sent in the whole headphone set. How was I supposed to know that? The instructions on the box did not say that I had to send everything in. So I spent $8 to have nothing repaired and there's not a chance for refund -- some lifetime warranty.
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