Did you know that headphones were invented almost by accident? Back in 1958, John C Koss Sr was selling phonographs, and needed something portable to play the sound through when he was demoing the turntables so he didn’t have to lug speakers around too. He found a way to hook up the sound to run through what was essentially a pilot’s headset. The first time used them in a demo, the person he was showing them to said forget the phonograph, I want the headphones! In the 51 years since, the company known simply as Koss has continued to innovate and Mr Koss was happily showing off his latest masterpieces in headphone technology at the Koss booth at CES.

I was told that his favorite headphones are currently the Koss Porta Pro. Interesting, I thought, because they look very plain. They are a slightly nicer version of what you used to get with a Walkman. They are small and round over your ears with a metal headband to hold them in place. Very non-technical looking. I’m used to fancy earbuds these days or claims of a headphone blocking out an airplane’s loud engine. But, the story continued, these are what Mr Koss uses as a gift whenever he needs a present. Hmm, ok.

Skeptically I walked over and put them on. Wow. This instantly shot to near the top of my list of imbalanced perception vs reality - right next to cheesy crust pizza, man, what a disappointment that was. But this was the reverse- they were nothing like what I had thought- in a good way!.Clear, deep bass, loud mids and highs- just great sound. Coming from these plain looking headphones? I was amazed. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, right? I’ll have to remember that. They fold up nicely for portability, too. So I was now ready for a steep price tag. I walked over to inquire, and was again shocked when the answer came back- $49.99. All this for $50 bucks? Nice. Mental note- must grab a pair of these immediately. Anyone with white iPod ear buds, make sure you check these out, it’ll improve your listening experience many times over.

But, if you prefer your headphones in the ear bud variety, the Koss CC_01 Custom Fit Earbuds are for you. They look like regular earbuds, but after you slide them in your ear, your turn the dial at the back and they expand to fit your ear canal perfectly. No more sliding around, or hoping 1 of the 3 tip sizes fit your ear. These mold perfectly to your exact ear, sealing in the sound and also, as an added treat, sealing the outside world’s ambient noise out. They go for $149.

They even have another earbud that separates bass & treble. On the Koss KDE250, the bass comes from a small unit that stays outside your ear, while the part that slides into your ear provides mids & trebles. Another nice feature of this one is the hook that sits over your ear is adjustable by turning the knob on the side. A great touch for making sure it fits you right. Price for these is $249. I wasn’t as impressed with the sound on these as I was with the others- interesting only because it shows that price isn’t everything. But test them out, I can guarantee you all 3 offer greatly improved sound to whatever came with your iPod/MP3 player.

If you like the headphones that fully surround your ear, but wished you didn’t have to carry around an MP3 player to hook into the headphones, Koss has solved your problem. The Tugo MP3 Stereophone puts the MP3 player into the casing of your headphones. You’ll get 8-15 hours of battery life (that’s quite a wide range) and some amazing sound quality. Price is $199, and comes with 512MB of built in memory. Sadly, there is no shuffle mode, so make sure you arrange songs in the order you want to listen to them. There is a forward & back button, though, so you can skip songs.

Oh, and a nice touch in all of these headphones is they have a cloth cord. Wraps around your MP3 players a lot easier than the rubber cords.

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Labels: CES coverage, Koss, PortaPro, Stereophone, Tugo

This entry was posted by Amber, on Monday, January 12, 2009. You can leave your response .