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Bottom-Feeder 'Phones - The Cheaphone Thread

I see several mentions of Porta Pros... I bought a pair to go in my gym bag back when I was in high school, now they must be 30 years old. They're on my desk at work today. A truly good investment!
 
Mamrak1 said:
For a long time at work I used the Sennheiser HD212 Pro headphones. They were cheap and if someone stole them I wasn’t out a ton of money. They are discontinued now by Sennheiser but you can still find them on the internet from time to time. These were gentle on the ears and pocketbook.


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Agree completely -- my one complaint about my pair... the pleather ear cushions and head band (cushion) have disintegrated. I think the former may still be available; I don't think that the latter is. They still feel OK, but after wearing them, one has little bits of pleather in one's (remaining) hair and facial regions. :(
But they were/are nice, neutral sounding, and comfortable, headphones.

Sort of back on topic. I know zero about these (mentioned in the OP, too, I see) -- except that they're cheap and, on the strength of one data point (EDIT: two data points, one of which I realize full well would be controversial) they look promising.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/9-headphone-review-sony-mdr-zx110.19484/
 
auy81 said:
Found my old pair of koss ksc-75 lying around, the foam pads had long ago disintegrated. Bought some cheap vinyl pads from China to try out, but they made them sound like dark mush, with horrible bass. I decided to try drilling holes in the grill, but ended up cracking the grill instead, making them useless. Not only that with the pads it didn't help with the sound anyways.

Since I didn't want to have the drivers to be unprotected, I ended up buying 50mm speaker steel mesh grills e.g. (https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Pcs-50mm...tective-Cover-Decorative-Circle-/223026361493). After gluing them on with a hot glue gun, they surprisingly sound decent without any pads. I think it's because they make the headphones sit further from the ear by .5 cm, it tames the treble despite not having the original grills anymore. The bass is pretty tight, and the headphones themselves sound pretty laid back and nice.

Perhaps this may work better for some instead of doing a kramer-mod or cutting a hole in the foams.

Edit: As some may know, if you take off the grills, the treble becomes unnaturally high/harsh and brittle. Some like to drill more holes into the grills to let out more treble, e.g. the kramer-mod.

Anyways after putting on these mess grils, the treble becomes natural again, rolling off naturally. After having listened for a few hours to all sorts of music whether classical, jazz, acoustic guitar, electronic, instruments sound natural, and best of all these phones have really become non-fatiguing, and you can listen to them for hours without having to take a rest.

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You really should have called Koss. Their products have a lifetime warranty. Others have posted about how Koss with a very few exceptions supports and repairs all of their products free of charge. I dropped my Porta Pro's and one of the speakers detached itself. I ordered a new set and when they arrived I read what it says on the box. I called Koss and was told to send the broken one in for free repair. They'll be traveling via UPS on Monday.
 
JoeESP9 said:
You really should have called Koss. Their products have a lifetime warranty. Others have posted about how Koss with a very few exceptions supports and repairs all of their products free of charge. I dropped my Porta Pro's and one of the speakers detached itself. I ordered a new set and when they arrived I read what it says on the box. I called Koss and was told to send the broken one in for free repair. They'll be traveling via UPS on Monday.
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Hmm. I forgot that Koss gives lifetime warranties. I also don't quite remember what the original ksc-75 sounded like, having not used them in probably more than a decade. Other than that the attaching a new grill has been a pleasant surprise as it actually works and sounds decent and balanced. I don't own extremely expensive headphones, but with the attached grill, the ksc-75 sounds just as good as my other headphones in the $100+ range. The sound signature may be different from those phones, but the fact that they are comfortable, non-itchy from the foam, non-fatiguing, have a pretty open soundstage and a decently balanced eq, makes me think that my accident is actually a good one. For $3, people can try it out, and if it doesn't work out for them, they can rip off the hot glue put back on the original grill with foams with no harm done.

Perhaps though if I can find my old ksc-35s I will try the warranty.
 
I picked up a pair of KZ ZS10 Pro IEMs recently. I got these for $25 new via Drop with my $10 gift credit.

4 Balanced Armatures + 1 Dynamic driver in each ear piece.

Fairly bright on digital audio players (iPods, phones etc) with a V sound signature. They scale well with higher end DAC/AMPs that have low impedance output. Running them with my Grace m9xx DAC/Amp at moderate volumes they sound quite good, and better than I expected ( less V shaped -better mid presence and less bright with good bass output). I believe the output impedance on the Grace m9xx is rated at a super low 0.08 ohms. KZ ZS10 Pro are listed as 30 Ohm impedance. I think this is an extreme example of how amp / headphone impedance matching changes the sound signature, damping etc.

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My favorite cheapo cans are the OneOdio pro-30. I got em for 38.99 on Amazon. Cheap as chips, so comfortable that I regularly fall asleep in the chair of doom with them on (my favorite chair in my living room) and then forget I have them on and drag my Fiio M6 to the floor when i get up. And they really do sound great to my ears. They are no Senn HD6xx but are also only 40 bucks.They also have something I've never seen on another set of headphones and that is the ability to hook another set of cans up to the OneOdio's so you can share your music with someone.
 
Another cheap but very decent set I forgot about until I saw them mentioned on a music production forum are the Status CB-1s.

They physically look like the ATH-Mxx series. They are slightly less robustly built and they sound pretty great.

It's been a while since I listened but in general, I preferred their upper frequencies to to ATH-M40x and M50x. Their mids and lower frequencies seemed more open. They still have an elevated bottom. Plump, I'd call it. Or fun. Not bloated.

That's basically how I'd describe the M40s and to a lesser extent, the M50s. The M40s sound better to me than the M50 or the M50x.

The Status are in that ballpark, bit inthink they went for more detail in the upper mids and treble but I'd imagine if listening to questionable recordings, the ATHs would be less fatiguing.

Om pretty sure I still have mine. I might have given them away. They were t poorly built at all, but Audio Technica has had a lot of years to tweak their weak areas and some of their materials and I would assume will last longer.

I think I paid $30 or $35 for mine. I think they are now around $45 or $50. Half the price of the ATH-M40x. Similar bass, better upper frequencies, slightly lesser build quality, half the price.
 
It's been a while. I bought them for my kinda son. I didn't really burn them in like I usually do but I remember thinking they weren't quite as full sounding. Not bad by any stretch, but I'd try to ante up for the M40s. I usually try to find them used or Amazon returns. I think my M40s were about $40. I bought the M30s for maybe $35 or $40 new at a guitar shop on sale.
 
Instant Koss Porta Pro fan.
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Jammin with my new to me Sony WM-10II. The Yaxi pads are much better than what comes standard.

Gonna try them with my Schiit Fulla and Spotify later.
 
Put me in for the AKG K240s. Under a hundo and very nice detail and soundstage. I also had a pair of Pioneer SE-A1000's that rocked my world, but those are regrettably discontinued. And just above that price point, the Hifiman HE-400i's are kicking it with some insanely expensive cans on this effort to quantify and measure soundstage. https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tests/sound-quality/passive-soundstage. The entire thing about the sound game is that it gets very marginal in a hurry, but that's especially true with the inherent limitations of headphones. A $12 pair of headphones will get you about 80% of the available sound quality. An $80 pair will get you up to %90. $170 will get you up to 95%, and the dollar to quality ratio gets incredibly thin in a hurry from there. And anything over 98% is idiosyncrasies, confirmation bias, and measurements well beyond perceptability. Now, those idiosyncrasies can be incredibly fun to chase and I don't begrudge anybody who wants to throw around some cash. DACs and headphone amps are fun too, but I also really appreciate people who recognize it for what it is.
 
Got my Koss KPH30i's today. I like them, not as comfortable as the Port Pros. A little off in sound quality from Porta Pros but still good.
 
SchweinHaus said:
Put me in for the AKG K240s.
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My 240's are my favorite headphones. Have been for awhile now. If you ever get a chance to see the documentary "The Sound Of My Voice" about Linda Ronstadt, pay attention to a couple of clips of her in the studio. What headphone is she wearing? The AKG K240.
 
Everyone shoulg get a pair of Porta Pro.
Got them 30 years ago and eventually discovered what headphones should sound back then.

But beware!
If you ain't bald already, these will slowly help you towards getting there.
In a painfull way...

Other than that, simply unbeatable value.
The AT3600L of the headphone world.
 
faber12 said:
I bought these based on an AKer's review and they sound excellent:

https://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/ho-5960/full-size-dj-headphones/dp/52W8580

They are cheap, ($18.19 + ship) cheapest I have seen them yet right now.

I have posted about them before but no one seems to be willing to believe that they can be good for that price.

I have JBL L300 and when I say that these headphones sound good, you should know that they really, really sound good.

What is it about this hobby that makes more expensive sound better than less expensive no matter what to some of us?
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I have a pair of these too, and I'm pretty impressed. Especially considering what they cost. I think I paid $25 for mine 4 or 5 years ago and they are still going strong. The ear pads feel cheap so comfort-wise they don't stack up to my more expensive ($100 to $150ish) headphones. They don't sound quite as good either, but it's surprisingly close IMO. I usually recommend them to anyone looking for their first pair of "better sounding" headphones.
 
I've liked the Superlux HD668B for a inexpensive phone. Very easy to listen to and seem very neutral and clean, work well even for extended listening times. I don't have much to compare them too, my best and most expensive phones are the Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO'S and they aren't super expensive or audiophile grade either. For 39 and change on Amazon I am pleased with the Superlux.

I'm looking at the Porta PRO'S too. They seem to be well liked.
 
Dunno if this the place for this but for the price, these bluetooth/wired phones are quite impressive.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TQM2FTD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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My current daily drivers are the newer AKG K361's and I think they're one of the best in the sub-$100 range. I think you can get for about $84 shipped. Great, comfortable, nice Harman-curve 'phones.
 
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