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Koss ESP/950 electrostat thread


deepak

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Well I emailed Koss and they emailed me back with an update. Pretty excellent customer service turn around time for an email. The only email based customer service that I have dealt with was more impressive/responsive was the Canadian passport office :eek: I know, I know an responsive/helpful government....

They claim that they will have them back in my hands in 2 weeks. Neato...

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  • 2 weeks later...
Did you send up sending everything back?

Yup, they didn't want to honor the warranty otherwise because they said the problem might be the amp. Still, I'm quite happy of how it turns out, the headphones I sent had no cable attached and were defoamed and what I got back is a brand new set.

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The question still remains - what will they do if you send an APS modded ESP950 with the Stax PC-OCC cable and the stax-koss pigtail adapter, along with the amps and stuff?

Can you request they return the Stax cable and pigtail, in the event that they have to replace the headphone? Then one could just send it back to Alex to be un-dampened and re-cabled but save on the materials costs.

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The question still remains - what will they do if you send an APS modded ESP950 with the Stax PC-OCC cable and the stax-koss pigtail adapter, along with the amps and stuff?

Can you request they return the Stax cable and pigtail, in the event that they have to replace the headphone? Then one could just send it back to Alex to be un-dampened and re-cabled but save on the materials costs.

Is there anything special done by APS other than the recable? If it's just the cable, desoldering and resoldering is an easy procedure, even for a DIY noob like me. When I installed the Stax cable last time, it took me longer to find the which pins had to be connected together than doing the actual job. :)

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Is the ESP/950 the only "quality" cans Koss has?

I find it strange that a company whose main line of business is headphones has such a generally low end product line.

Koss are cool people to deal with ( I bought some headphone holders) but I can't help wonder if they're a sleepy little subsidiary of some giant industrial giant that's completely forgotten they exist.

It's not like Koss really hustle.

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Is there anything special done by APS other than the recable? If it's just the cable, desoldering and resoldering is an easy procedure, even for a DIY noob like me. When I installed the Stax cable last time, it took me longer to find the which pins had to be connected together than doing the actual job. :)

APS (1) removes the dampening behind the driver

(2) installs PC-OCC cable

(3) includes koss-stax pigtail adapter to listen to Stax headphones (and re-cabled 950) on the E/90 amp.

The drivers, as noted before, have always taken approx 5 minutes to fully charge up for me, when not used for a couple of days. And now Blutarsky who traded me a PS Audio Digital Link III for the 950 says he may want to send it in for repair because it is taking even longer for him with the E90 or the SRD-7 Mk2 that I found for him. There may be a small channel imbalance off his SRD-7 Mk2 that wasn't there when driven off my GES or SRD-7 Mk2 just 4 weeks ago. I bought them from Spritzer with the APS mods already done, so there is no Koss cable. I do have a spare cable off a Sigma normal bias, so I suppose if we swapped it onto the Koss and sent it back, we could put the good cable back on upon return.

Can anyone here tell me the step by step to disassemble the 950 and access the cable connection, without destroying pads or baffle or anything? I don't have them here to see how the pads to come off, and whether there are simply some screws under the pads, etc.

Thanks!

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Is the ESP/950 the only "quality" cans Koss has?

I find it strange that a company whose main line of business is headphones has such a generally low end product line.

Koss are cool people to deal with ( I bought some headphone holders) but I can't help wonder if they're a sleepy little subsidiary of some giant industrial giant that's completely forgotten they exist.

It's not like Koss really hustle.

KSC75, PortaPro? :P

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Is the ESP/950 the only "quality" cans Koss has?

I find it strange that a company whose main line of business is headphones has such a generally low end product line.

Koss are cool people to deal with ( I bought some headphone holders) but I can't help wonder if they're a sleepy little subsidiary of some giant industrial giant that's completely forgotten they exist.

It's not like Koss really hustle.

Koss is a publicly traded corporation, but AFAIK, their prospectus indicates they're still essentially a family business ... a family with the last name Koss.

They still pursue the Pro 4 line: the Pro4AAAT with ventilated cans, titanium coating, and swiveling cups is the latest achievement in that venerable series. If they'd just get rid of the pnuemalite cushions in favor of some up-to-date velour, maybe they'd have something. Meanwhile, they own the low-cost, <$50 market with the KSC's and PortaPro's.

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Can anyone here tell me the step by step to disassemble the 950 and access the cable connection, without destroying pads or baffle or anything? I don't have them here to see how the pads to come off, and whether there are simply some screws under the pads, etc.

Thanks!

Rip off the pads and there are 4 screws underneath. Remove those and the baffle is loose so proceed to remove the cable. I wouldn't put any other cable instead of the Stax one and send them in like they are.

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Well, once the ESP950 has been charging/running for about 10 minutes or so there is no channel imbalance and both drivers are at full volume. The sound is great at that point. The question is whether to live with the long charge up time to get equally loud drivers, or remove the cable and send it in for repair and then have to reinstall the Stax PC-OCC cable when it comes back (and maybe remove the dampening again). I'll see what Blutarsky wants to do, and help him out with the return if he wants.

To get the repair, the Koss website says it needs to have the ESP950 registered through their website. I don't know a date purchased or where, but all I have is the S/N.

1. Is this true about registration, or can I feign ignorance and ship the ESP950 without registering it, and just include name address phone email and description of the problem - "Slow charge up with left taking longer than the right".

2. How do I explain the missing cable? I know it says "no questions asked" limited warrantee, but it's like, how do I know the drivers take a while to charge if there is no cable? Shouldn't I explain something like, "the old cable had a short so it was replaced last year with a Stax cable and adapter to use with the E90 which could not be returned with the ESP950".

Spritzer, can you tell me when and where this ESP950 I got from you was originally bought?

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\

1. Is this true about registration, or can I feign ignorance and ship the ESP950 without registering it, and just include name address phone email and description of the problem - "Slow charge up with left taking longer than the right".

I have no comment about #2 but I just got back a spanking new pair and had not registered anything.

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