I think my newest pair of Koss Porta Pros are broken. They sound pretty bad.
Sorry to hear that.
"What did you do?" They are still under warranty, are they not?
If I can remember correctly, my newest set of modern 600 series Sennheisers were purchased only about two months or so before you bought your new set.
I was amazed at just how "broken in my son had gotten them (he listens at a tiny whisper - very sensitive ears!!)" just in about a month. I was totally expecting to have to continue breaking them in for a few more months but he got most of it done for me while we waited for HIS set of phones to come in.
Your only comment was along the lines of restating the axiom that "break in is very important."
Hard to imagine you breaking them, unless someone plugged them into an AV receiver with the LFE channeled through the mains. That actually happened to my old pair of Koss vintage treasures - I still miss them.
I think my Porta Pros have a mechanical issue, actually.
Break in is very important indeed. The AKG 712s I bought a year ago sound a lot better now than when they were new. The sound now is wonderfully detailed and perfectly balanced. They punish lesser recordings to some degree, but that is to be expected.
Been a while since I heard a pair ( sorry, not quite sure WHY the fact that they require "two sides" in order to work qualifies them as a pair, but I seem to follow blindly into use of the popular nomenclature, kind of like when one says they just bought a "PAIR" of jeans, when they only bought one jean
) of upper grade AKGs, but I can mainly remember thinking that "THESE WORK FINE! I WANT SOME!!"
Anxious to hear your experience with Koss' warranty. I already dug mine up and plan to send them in on my dime just to see what happens.
I have exactly "zero cubed" expectation that any modern company will support an ancient warranty. I have only a small investment to find out. Either way, I will come out ahead. Either with more knowledge or with some version of their attempt to honor a warranty that was offered so VERY long ago.
OH and my year old (plus a bit) Sennheiser cans sound way better today than they did a year ago, by far. It would be impossible to prove, due to the horrid phenomenon of psycho-acoustics being such an elusive bitch, but they no longer fatigue me after hours of listening as they did when they were new. Probably means I have gotten used to them, right?
Interestingly, about four months ago, I bought my wife an exact same pair of 'phones as mine ...
(yeah, a bit pricey for someone with "tomato can and string" ears, but I did so for a number of reasons. First, I knew they would never hurt her. Second, I was curious as to how much pleasure she could experience, as a non listener, using very high grade cans as opposed to the shit crap shit she might choose from the "Dollar General Store." Third, I wanted to have another "duplicate" set with which to compare MY set of 'phones. There are more reasons, but I think by now, you understand why I bought my "tin eared" wife a set of three hundred $ headphones)
... and if I had not marked them, it would be difficult to tell the difference, now. In fact, with my old Rock-N-Roll deadened ears, I might not be able to.
Now I can instantly tell whether I have mine or my son's set. Easypeasy! They sound different. These two sets which are "the same" sound so close to "the same" that it is honestly difficult to tell them apart.
They both sport a well balanced, very detailed, flat- "ish" sound. NO complaints.
