Cloth earpads that produce lint and drivers with no dust covers. What could possibly go wrong?

I wonder how the warranty would work on these. Do you send them in to Koss in the usual way or do you have to go through Massdrop? If there is the usual lifetime warranty it might not be that bad... I still wouldn't though, until they get some dust covers.

14 minutes ago, catscratch said:

Cloth earpads that produce lint and drivers with no dust covers. What could possibly go wrong?

Interesting, but would not it be a bit stupid on Koss's part?  Those guys are supposed to have something already experienced with electrostatic.

I repeat that I am asking because I have no idea. ?

 

1 hour ago, jose said:

Do not you think it's a good purchase? ?  I speak from ignorance. For $ 500 it does not seem that they are bad. 

Koss usually will have a Black Friday sales at 50% off.  I bought my ESP950 for $500 with full accessories a few years back.  

Well I bought one but then again...I have issues.    The cloth earpads, yeah dust is an issue but isolation is more of a problem.  You need an infinite baffle with electrostatics and these can't do that. 

Well from what I remember Koss hasn't changed the original ESP950 since it was introduced, which was in the early 90s. A few years ago they were hit with a massive embezzlement crisis where a high ranking employee stole millions from the company. They're not exactly the world's biggest headphone manufacturer either, and I'm guessing that must have hurt. Considering that the 950 is a low volume marginal product, and everything else that has happened to them, spending R&D time fixing the original's issues or developing a thoroughly optimized new version is probably not high on the priorities list.

Still, if you want one, I second Purk's suggestion to get the original, and I've seen them retail as low as $400, though that was some years ago too. The price will fluctuate and if you're not in a rush to get one now, there will certainly be a good deal to be had. That is, if you don't want to buy an L300 instead.

Edited September 18, 20187 yr by catscratch

weren't we talking about leather replacements at one point, with the medical version

I'm not in a hurry to buy it, I was just surprised by Birgir's comment and Massdrop's offer.  If I remember correctly, the last time I looked at the prices of the ESP950, these were arround 900 ~ 1000 $.  By the way, the standard version comes with leather (or similar) pads

The stock pads are terrible in every way.  That nasty thin vinyl shit so horrible...  These are probably an improvement in terms of comfort but the main issue is isolation.  So electrostatics have one fundamental need, the baffle needs to be as large as you can make it.  With speakers this is hard to do but one great example would be the custom made room the founder of SME made.  The room was split in half with a wall in the middle and several Quad ESL's fixed to that wall.  The back wave was free to enter the back half of the room but could not bounce back and cause cancellations on the other end.  The performance of that system must have been sublime... 

Now with headphones, we have a simpler solution...sealed walls on the earpads.  That way the sound coming from the front of the drivers has no way of affecting the backwave and vice versa.  Now as to why Koss did this, no doubt that anybody working there now had no hand in a 30 year old design so perhaps they just don't know any better.  Massdrop could also have a hand in this but it doesn't really matter, it is a stupid idea to do this. 

My solution, just get a set of the Vesper pads or those cheapo pleather ones off ebay. 

Well, better than someone in the Koss technical service know this information because I'm afraid that soon they will have a lot of work.

It´ll be interesting to read the comments on this headset in a few months. 

 

I will certainly post my impressions.   

22 hours ago, jose said:

Well, better than someone in the Koss technical service know this information because I'm afraid that soon they will have a lot of work.

It´ll be interesting to read the comments on this headset in a few months. 

 

They aren't bad but I prefer my Lambda Pro  and definitely the L700 to it.

Interesting. I also have some Lambda Pro !

If you do not mind. Could you describe the sound a bit in comparison?

57 minutes ago, jose said:

Interesting. I also have some Lambda Pro !

If you do not mind. Could you describe the sound a bit in comparison?

I don't have them any more but I found them a little laid back and airy.  However, they don't have much bass or sense of impact even from better amplifiers such as the BHSE or T2 or the Aristaeus.  Still a very good sound, just not to the L700 to my ears.  

Thanks purk !!!

 

The issue with the ESP950 though is the damping.  The design is very much still stuck in the 80's so all the damping has to be removed for them to sound the way they should. 

On 8/2/2018 at 11:51 AM, spritzer said:

I have plenty of the 5 pin plugs but no 6 pins. 

Amphenol plugs above.

Would it work having a common bias for L/R connecting Beyer ET1000 to a Stax amp? And does anyone know the pinout for the Beyer?

With only a handful of exceptions (koss ESP, 6,7,9 and 10 mainly) the bias pins are tied together at the back of the amplifier socket so that wouldn't matter. 

I might have the ET1000 pinout somewhere but it's been years since I had one here.  I'll have a look... 

Thanks. Let's see if I get them running with an adapter. 

Few days ago I bought two pairs of stax esta-4u Extra speaker and I am planning to play them two speakers per channel. I heard that Stax ESL speakers are amp-picky. Do anyone have any experience with stax ESL speaker ? I think my firstwatt f6 doesn't have enough power for even one pair of them......

Hifimans news letter has a pic of the new Jade II. 

 

Looks like you have more crap to buy Spritzer.

 

Looks like they have given up on the v2 thing and over saturating the market is thier new strategy. 

With that price it´s difficult to saturate the market except in the case of the fanboy.

I recently saw an ad on ebay of a Jade and it literally says "The Best Headphones Ever" ... crazy world.

19 hours ago, bwck2000 said:

Few days ago I bought two pairs of stax esta-4u Extra speaker and I am planning to play them two speakers per channel. I heard that Stax ESL speakers are amp-picky. Do anyone have any experience with stax ESL speaker ? I think my firstwatt f6 doesn't have enough power for even one pair of them......

All of the Stax speakers are insensitive (the F-81 was something like 73db) so you need a lot of voltage swing to drive them.  I've never used those but I do have the kit here which uses the same drivers. 

6 hours ago, SeaWolf said:

Hifimans news letter has a pic of the new Jade II. 

 

Looks like you have more crap to buy Spritzer.

 

Looks like they have given up on the v2 thing and over saturating the market is thier new strategy. 

Nope...I'm out.  I haven't even gotten the Voce yet as I don't want to waste more money on something mediocre.  Plus I'm spending wayyyyyyyyyy tooo much on having a new custom kitchen built. 

Custom kitchen eh? Sounds like a woman is interfering with your priorities

 

Edited October 1, 20187 yr by SeaWolf

^^ Could be....but the baked goods will be awesome I'm sure!

^^ maybe he has found his true calling..