On Headphones: Part 1 – Koss Portapros
It is no secret that I am something of a technology slut. I like gadgets and gear, particularly stuff that relates to audio. I have a few iPods and I love listening to music on them. The experience is mediated by the quality of the headphones you plug into them and the quality of the encoding of the music —I use variable bit-rate AAC @ 256Kbps, which I find to be a reasonable compromise between sound quality and file size.
I have never used the white plastic earbuds that came with my iPods and usually throw them out. They are garbage. I don’t care if they “sound better than other earbuds” as some have said, they cost 10¢ to make and if you’re going to listen to those, you might as well admit to yourself that you have no taste and don’t deserve your shiny new iPod.
For the past 10 years or so I’ve been using a pair of Koss Portapro ‘phones. These headphones are a workhorse for listening. They look like crap but they sound great. A friend once asked me what was with the “ghetto ‘phones”. So I let him try them out. And he said, “Oh”. They really sound good, but don’t just take my word for it. There are a ton of reviews out there extolling their virtuous sound. The review on goodcans.com in particular is worth reading to give you an idea of just how good these are and how much people like them. I love them. But unfortunately, they’re not perfect for mobile listening. For one thing, they’re an open design so sound does leak out of them fairly prodigiously. That can be annoying to those nearby. They also allow background noise IN. Which makes them unsuitable for listening in loud environments. Like airports. And airplanes.
After ten years of frequent use, the foam pads on mine were shot, the plastic speaker sections of the phones peeking through and scraping against my ears. Fed up, I started researching replacement headphones and came to the conclusion that there were no replacements. Nothing could match the sound quality, portability and durability I’d come to apprecaite, despite the flaws of the open system. My experience with Sennheiser has never been good, and I have yet to listen to a pair of those that doesn’t sound muted and imprecise. All Sennheisers I’ve used (dating back to the late ’80s when I used to sell Sennheisers at an audio shop) have had efficiency problems and seem to require a ton of effort to get any sound out of them. So I went to a store in Ottawa that sold Koss (Bleeker Audio on Merivale) and asked them if they had any Portapros. The sales guy informed me that they were out of them so I then asked what I should have asked first: if they had any replacement foam pads for the ear-pieces. That’s when he told me about the lifetime warranty on the Koss headphones.
A lifetime warranty. If there is something wrong with your headphones, they will replace them. An idea so shocking and against what I have learned to expect from companies that it just kind of stopped me dead in my tracks.
Of course, this doesn’t apply to the foam pads, but if you look on Koss’ website, you can find replacement pads for them for 5 bucks. Which doesn’t work in Canada. So, I phoned their 1-800 number and talked to a nice lady in Milwaukee who shipped me a replacement set of earpads which arrived about a week later. It was a great customer service experience and it has made me appreciate these venerable phones even more. I *heart* them.
I made one fatal mistake with the replacement foams though. They Portapros have a pair of pads on the temples as well that fit just above your ears. When I got the replacements, I figured I’d replace those too, even though they appeared to be glued to the plastic. I ripped these off and a bunch of the backing from the originals remained stuck to the plastic, preventing the new temple foam pieces from sticking properly. Fortunately, the replacements came with two pairs of each type of foam so I have a backup set. I should be able to remove the gluey foamy stuff from the plastic with a bit of lighter fluid which hopefully won’t melt the plastic.
If it does, it might require another phone call to Milwaukee.
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