Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on May 11, 2013 10:44:29 GMT
My old Koss earclip 'phones have been worn out tbh and they were a bit tired when finally, I snapped the wire.
So, on to Amazon for a new pair. £11.64. The must be the bargain of the headphone world.
Absolutely super and the most comfortable headphone to wear. No 'headphone hair', no sore ears - they just sit there.
But the sound at this price is just amazing. A slightly lively top, yes but they are seriously well balanced. (Actually, I think they have a bit of a peak somewhere in the treble tbh - I'll check.
Worst thing about them I guess is the silver colour. I'd personally prefer black but they just sound so good and you kind of feel a bit silly wearing such a cheap earpiece on your head and saying that you're into hi fi!!!
Just shows, it's in the design and perhaps some companies just rip us off.
There are certain pieces of gear that are just fantastic value for money really and we tend to move on to more expensive things and these get left behind and forgotten in a way.
The Koss KSC75 and Portapro (less forgotten) come to mind. Of course the Superlux headphones as well.
But £11.64 is the cheapest headphone I've ever known that sounds really good tbh.
Another thing - I have often wondered whether these drivers would sound better in a closed headphone!! If you cover them with your hands and so, seal them to your hears - the upper mids come forward, bass increases and they seem to have more presence.
Whether this could be an improvement or not, I'm not sure, but they do change quite dramatically when you do this.
To me, it's a great candidate for 'Build Your Own' headphone.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on May 11, 2013 11:43:22 GMT
Aha .... Found it Not too bad on FR, but the dip at 3/4 KHz is interesting since on the waterfall, it looks like a nice little bit of ringing......... Perhaps that's why I hear it as a 'bright' headphone?
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on May 11, 2013 13:50:47 GMT
They are great headphones for the price.
For an all black version the 3x more expensive KSC35 is available.
I have them both, 75 being more comfortable (ear hook is silicone) and the 35 less conspicuous (all black) I think they sound they same but due to a slightly different clamping force (35 cannot be adjusted, the 75 can) they could easily be perceived as different sounding.
Koss'es are easy to take along and sound great by themselves until you compare them directly in which case they show their flaws.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on May 11, 2013 15:29:42 GMT
Lack of really deep bass comes to mind and I think possibly distortion figures might not be that great but you can forgive quite a lot at that price, I think.
They both contribute perhaps to what I feel is a strong top end since they don't extend that far up in reality.
Funny thing is that I think I prefer them to the Portapro slightly. They're less humpy in the bass, although I do sometimes find them verging on quite sibilant with some material.
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on May 11, 2013 19:02:28 GMT
I don't have PortaPro and Sportapro anymore for the same reason. Also sold all my KSC50's (the predecessor of the K75) because they were too heavy in weight and really 'hung' on the ears. Only the KSC35 and KSC75 remained. One of those KSC75 is already gone as I accidentally destroyed the driver while shortening the lead. Purrins measurements also CSD and THD: www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,231.0.html also for KSC35: www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,393.0.html I measured the KSC35 as well but the measurements has uncertainties.;
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on May 11, 2013 19:19:51 GMT
The KSC35 isn't sold on the Amazon site, but I guess the KSC75 is better value. One's coated and the other isn't? (Whatever difference that makes) I wonder whether the theory behind the coating is to make the driver material stiffer without adding too much weight so that the ringing is lessened? It's not that bad for a cheap headphone. I hear that distortion figures might not be as good though. Still, it adds to the timbre of its sound!! (Like using tubes!!!!) Except there are probably loads of odd harmonics rather than even.
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on May 11, 2013 19:27:33 GMT
the 2nd harmonic distortion is rather high just above 0.1% peaking at 3% in the 4-5kHz region. The higher harmonics are below 0.01%
In the bass area the distortion is over 10% but a lot of headphones have high amounts of distortion there. The KSC35 is marginally better in the 6kHz region, slightly under 1%. This could be due to the coating, production spread, measurements. THD in the bass area is well below 10% so also better.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on May 11, 2013 19:29:49 GMT
Tyll's comparison with a Portapro: I guess that's the difference I hear between the two as well!! For me, they're better when pushed slightly more onto my ears and so work well on the Portapro headband. I've seen reports that the 35, 75 and Portapro use the same drivers.
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on May 12, 2013 13:05:42 GMT
heeey.... Headroom finally has accurate graphs... and you can even pick the scale ! In the 'old days' their graphs were 'corrected' incorrectly. This seems to be corrected now.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on May 12, 2013 16:02:36 GMT
Here's his comparison of Superlux HD681 and 668b. Maybe yours is similar?
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on May 12, 2013 18:32:28 GMT
I contacted Headroom about the HD681 graph where I suspect the headphone wasn't measured correctly by Tyll as the HD681 CLEARLY has more lows than the 668B. I even threw in many measurements of other 3rd party measurements and Superluxes which all clearly show more lows. They asked Tyll and he said... no mistake end of story. If you watch graphs take by others the HD681 definitely measures differently (way more lows) this is mine: BUT this one has a filter that lowers the bass significantly and has the 7kHz peak filter in it so not very comparable. The original one has MUCH more bass than this one. It is easy to see 20Hz is still 0dB (opposite 1kHz) where Tyll's plot starts to drop from 100Hz and at 20Hz it says -11dB ! My plot is more in line with those of Golden Ears. You can see what the filter does in my version it shaves off a few dB in the lows and drastically lowers the peak at 7kHz. I will be revising my filter (when there is time) and move the filter upwards in frequency lowering the peak at 13kHz while increasing the dip at 4kHz a bit. With the measurement kit this should be a piece of cake.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on May 12, 2013 20:19:27 GMT
Tyll's graphs do seem a bit curtailed at the bottom. The HD681 has quite a large bass and that doesn't really match with his graphs. What I don't understand is how could he miss it - to me the bass is really deep and strong. Yet what's shown there is more like a Grado!
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on May 13, 2013 6:43:56 GMT
GE HD668B looks more like Tyll's measurements of that type: [img src="http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=3301&scale=25"]
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on May 13, 2013 6:54:03 GMT
Because the thread is about the Koss KSC75 a comparison of the Superlux HD668B and KSC75 The Superlux only has a bit more highs up top...
[img src="http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=3301&graphID[]=1023&scale=25"]
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on May 13, 2013 13:43:18 GMT
The Koss doesn't look too bad for a cheapy. Bit of a dip at 4KHz and a similar hump in the bass to the Superlux which has a slightly more extended hump!!
I'm wondering whether Tyll put a new Superlux on his kit? Makes me think of the one I got that had no bass at all for half an hour or so. It was so bad, I thought there was something wrong with them.
Perhaps he just measured a new pair and left it at that?
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