What were your first set of headphones, and let's hear the story behind them.

David Clark..early 70's I think. Saw chopper pilots on tv wearing them and thought they must be good.
 
Koss Pro 4AA--which were made just of few miles from my house.
That was my first headphone, too, bought in the mid to late 1970's while in high school. I shared a house with a couple of roommates right after college, and those headphones did not survive the multiple users. I later bought another pair (can't remember the year, late '80's at a guess), and I still use that set almost every day. I love the isolation from external sound and use them on a noisy Schwinn Airdyne exercise bike. They let me hear with perfect clarity the soundtrack to the DVD sets of old television programs I like to watch while pedaling (going through episodes of Frank Cannon again at present).
 
My first headphones looked similar and I think they were Pioneers, with volume control on each side. Bought when in the army in Germany, 1972. About 15 years ago, I checked them and found a lot of noise when adjusting the volume control knobs, so I threw them out. Probably just needed some cleaner, but , at the time I just didn't know.
I remember the Pioneers with volume controls. Mine were most likely bought from the BX from one of the bases. I don't know what happened to them.
 
Koss K6 with a sliding volume control on each ear cup. Heavy, hot, sounded like crapola. Soured me on headphones for years, till I heard my first set of Stax.

I had a pair like that when I was a teenager. I don't remember the brand, but I remember them being big and having the sliding volume controls. I rarely used them. It was a long time before I tried any other headphones.
 
I had a pair like that when I was a teenager. I don't remember the brand, but I remember them being big and having the sliding volume controls. I rarely used them. It was a long time before I tried any other headphones.
Radio Shack had a version, too. Brown plastic. They weighed as much as my whole head. Didn't dare use them during the summer, way too hot. Like you, I seldom used them. About six years later, I heard the Stax SR-44 and had to have them.
 
I worked at Radio Schack in high school and college. At some point, a pair of Realistic Nova-20's was returned with a bad cable and exchanged. Bound for the dumpster, I asked if I could have them...I bought the rather expensive (at the time) 20 foot headphone extension cord, lopped off the jack, and installed that as the cable which was much better than the original, though heavy...

Wearing them now...my son says the phone plug is scratchy...not seeing it and dreading having to take off that molded on connector...
 
Pioneer SE 505 was looking at these around 1975 and a pair of Koss the Koss were a lot more comfortable but i thought the balance and volume controls were cool so i got the pioneer. always wished i had gotten the Koss as the control went bad after a year and a channel would keep dropping out unless i jiggled it a bit.

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Like aveguytx, I think my 1972 open air Koss were the HV/1A's; they look like the Grado SR - 60 of today. It would be instructive comparing them to my Grado's.
 
If I don't count the little mono earpieces that came with all my Made in Japan transistor radios, my first pair was the Koss K/6 stereophones purchased at Olson Electronics on Gratiot Ave. in Detroit when I was about 16. I think I wore them out after many hours of listening to King Crimson, Nazz, Procol Harum, Stooges, MC5, CSN&Y, Spirit, Chicago Transit Authority, etc.

At a recent estate sale, I found a mint-condition pair in the original box with hanger tag, owners manual and warranty card.
Paid $20 which was the original retail price but I had to have them.

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First real pair of quality headphones that I heard up until that time was a Sennheiser HD 414 that my girlfriend`s brother had in 1973.
I instantly fell in love with them, as they sounded great and could be worn for hours with no discomfort and I really liked that they didn`t completely isolate you from the outside world, and I purchased a set in a year or two.
When in 76/77 the HD 424`s came out, I tried out a pair at my local HiFi store, and had to buy a pair.

I really also liked their larger ear frames and foam.
They seemed even more comfortable to me for extended use, both in stereo and shortwave listening.
I still have them, but the foam has rotted, already replaced once in the mid 80`s, and wonder if I can get replacements.

In the early nineties I bought another pair of Sennheiser headphones HD 540 ref. I`s that are a traditional style(isolation type) and still own them too.
I remember reading some time in the seventies that NASA had chose the HD 414`s for use on Sky Lab.

Also, I`m puzzled about the claim of their 2000 ohm impedance being difficult to drive to desired levels ?!?!
I don`t recall having any problems with that issue, using them from a ~ 1 watt SW radio`s output all the way to a 1000 watt Metron A- 4000 rack mount power amplifier that actually had a headphone jack, and I cranked that amp up to such incredible high levels that the bass notes seem to compress my friend`s and myself`s head, but remained clean, and being such high impedance, there was little likelihood of burning out the transducers..

Anyway folks, that`s my experience with Sennheiser headphones.

Kind regards, OKB
 
When I was sophomore in high school on Okinawa, a friend who was senior, gave me some Pioneers similar to these below. Because I saved him from drowning. One of the first albums I listened to was Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. I thought it was entirely instrumental and when a voice said glockenspiel, it freaked the crap out of me. I had just recently saw The Exorcist.

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The first set I got was Lafeyette brand, but they looked almost exactly like these, Carl! I always suspected they were made by Pioneer. Sounded great to me at 15 years old.
 
First real pair of quality headphones that I heard up until that time was a Sennheiser HD 414 that my girlfriend`s brother had in 1973.
I instantly fell in love with them, as they sounded great and could be worn for hours with no discomfort and I really liked that they didn`t completely isolate you from the outside world, and I purchased a set in a year or two.
When in 76/77 the HD 424`s came out, I tried out a pair at my local HiFi store, and had to buy a pair.

I really also liked their larger ear frames and foam.
They seemed even more comfortable to me for extended use, both in stereo and shortwave listening.
I still have them, but the foam has rotted, already replaced once in the mid 80`s, and wonder if I can get replacements.

In the early nineties I bought another pair of Sennheiser headphones HD 540 ref. I`s that are a traditional style(isolation type) and still own them too.
I remember reading some time in the seventies that NASA had chose the HD 414`s for use on Sky Lab.

Also, I`m puzzled about the claim of their 2000 ohm impedance being difficult to drive to desired levels ?!?!
I don`t recall having any problems with that issue, using them from a ~ 1 watt SW radio`s output all the way to a 1000 watt Metron A- 4000 rack mount power amplifier that actually had a headphone jack, and I cranked that amp up to such incredible high levels that the bass notes seem to compress my friend`s and myself`s head, but remained clean, and being such high impedance, there was little likelihood of burning out the transducers..

Anyway folks, that`s my experience with Sennheiser headphones.

Kind regards, OKB

One of my friends has the open HD 414 at the time that I had the Koss Pro 4AA. I remember being very impressed at the sound from what looked like a cheapy set of cans.

These Senns must have delivered a high sensitivity rating. In fact their 2000 Ohm cans delivered more volume at the same amp/receiver output levels than did their 600 Ohm cans. See (including manual link):

https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sennheiser/hd-414.shtml

Of course the amps/receivers in the 70's delivered real power (and generally good quality) from their headphone out jacks, unlike most of the same stuff from the mid or late 80's to date.
 
We had headphones in the family (I'm thinking they might have been from Lafayette--they were grey, and we had an adapter to wire to the Magnavox console's second speaker output so we could use them properly), but the first pair of my own were the Koss Pro 4X. These had the air-filled cushions that hardened within a few years, and not only that, they had this weird high frequency sound that was the result of the piezo "tweeter" they used in the 'phones. They never sounded right. The bass was decent, though. I wish I'd gotten them a year sooner as it would have been a Pro 4AA or whichever number of A's were the generation directly preceding the 4X.

The best ones by far are my current Oppo PM-3s, a closed-back planar headphone (since I want external noise blocked out). Nicely balanced and very detailed sound, lightweight and comfortable, what's not to like? :) I had some Sony phones I liked also, but can't recall the model. I think it was the MDR-V600, which I've seen many places rip apart and hate on (probably headphone snobs), but I always found them to be a nice listen. The earpads rotted, so they're in a box somewhere. But still, fully functional.
 
Somewhere around 1965 or so, a pair of $12.00 Lafayette headphones to go with my new Lafayette LA-224A amp. Dunno a model number but they were all beige (or grey, dunno) plastic and they sounded horrible but they did shut the parents up from my playing the stereo too loud. I did replace them eventually* but the first ones that I remember really impressing me were a pair of Sennheiser HD 414's I picked up when I got out of the Air Force in the early 70's. I did make a brief detour for the Koss Pro 4 phones due to all the positive press but quickly reverted back to Sennheisers. I've pretty much been a Sennheiser man ever since.

* I vaguely remember a pair of David Clark headphones somewhere in there that really weren't too much better.
 
My first headphones were likely from Radio Shack in the 60s, but I can't swear to it. Closed-back, dull and lifeless I came to realize, but at the time I thought they were great because they sounded better than the Lloyd's speakers in my Lloyd's eight-track receiver. My dad would come turn it off sometimes when I listened to tapes late at night and the clunk every ten minutes kept him awake.

In the 70s I bought what became my headphones for a couple decades, almost. AKG K-240. Still like the AKGs okay, but the HE-400i is what I grab now. However, I also bought a pair of Monoprice closed-backs (8323?) very similar to the Shack's offering, which I seldom use, but serve to provide another perspective, albeit flawed, into the music. Besides, sometimes other noises are going on in here and they isolate better.

I think of the AKG as my first good headphone.
 
The original Pro 4AA ear pads were liquid (gel?) filled. Sometimes they leaked. Eventually they got hard.
I had 5 pairs of the Pro4AAAs' for my studio. The cushions were filled with air, which eventually leaked out. Solid phones. Excellent isolation, especially good for studio use with a wide frequency response, but they are heavy, about 18 ozs. Still have them.
 
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