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Customer Rating:      Summary: The BEST On-Air Headphones, PERIOD! Comment: I've been an on-air personality for more than 28 years. When I started out, almost all of the people I looked up to in the business used the Koss Pro4AA headphones. They were solid, well-built, sounded great on AM or FM, and did not feed back (very important, as most radio personalities crank their headphones!). Someone gave me a pair years ago that had one side not working, so I took them apart and got it working again. I used these until they just didn't want to be repaired anymore (this was before Koss put a lifetime warranty on them--more on that later). Over the years, I've used Sennheisers, AKG 240's, Pioneer and, most recently, Sony MDR-7506. When I arrived at my current stations, everybody on staff was using the Sonys exclusively. I also got a pair, and after a couple of years, one side quit working. I got another pair, with the same result. The Sony's are not made to be repaired, but can cost up to [...]! I decided I wasn't going to spend that much money every couple of years for new headphones, so I started looking around.
I was so happy to see that Koss was once again marketing the Pro4AA's, and was even happier to see I could get them through Amazon for more than 20% less than anywhere else! I ordered them, and they arrived within a week or so. Yes, they are heavier than the Sonys, but still comfortable, and sound as good as I remember them! PLUS--Koss now covers them with a Lifetime Warranty! If anything should go wrong, I can ship them to Koss, and for around [...] bucks (shipping), they will repair or replace them, no questions asked!
So, they may be "old school," but sometimes the tried-and-true products are still the best!
Customer Rating:      Summary: Like a suit of plate armor Comment: I've had two pair of Pro-4AAs in the past ten years or so. My first pair belonged to my dad and were used by him for technical purposes. I'd been using them for music and I assumed that the Pro-4AAs had the best, cleanest, most accurate sound. I've since learned that the best, cleanest and most accurate sound probably doesn't exist, and even if it does, you won't get it with these headphones.
Don't get me wrong here. On my rating scale, a 3 is pretty good; think of it as one standard deviation above average. I definitely wouldn't call these cans bad, but they are seriously flawed. They are *very* heavy--uncomfortably so. Wearing these headphones for an hour caused serious pain for my ears, neck and scalp. Two hours wearing them gave me a headache for the rest of the night.
As for the sound... I got the distinct impression that their sound reproduction quality and accuracy was excellent, but the sound from any source for any kind of music felt intensely confined. These are the most closed headphones I've ever used. Because they are so tightly sealed by such heavy material, you *will* get some serious bouncing, so don't expect a soundstage larger than the inside of your skull. The general effect is crowding, claustrophobic and at high volume, overwhelming.
For some kinds of music (dense, droning, broad range of tones--my examples are Nadja and Jesu) these cans actually add to the effect. For other music (lighter, more empty space--essentially anything made before 1975 and most music made since) the closed design of these headphones condenses and "cheapens" the sound, collapsing some music into an unsubtle mono mush.
On the plus side, these phones are amazingly well-built. There is a lot of substantial metal involved and any plastic parts are made from the highest quality, super strong types--no cheap, brittle plastic here, just dense and flexible. The coiled cord is a godsend and more or less indestructible. The only structural weakspots I could find are the holes where the wires enter each headphone. I once dropped my second pair far enough to actually loosen one of the wires, resulting in the right channel cutting out intermittently, but with the shockingly generous warranty plan offered by Koss, I mailed my pair in and received the same pair, fixed in a few days. Quality-wise, these phones easily outstrip any model in the same price range and many models that are more geared for serious music listening (my chintzy, but liquid butter-sounding Grados come to mind).
Overall, this review's title says it all: like a suit of armor, these headphones are powerful, but have limited uses. If you absolutely need noise attenuation without active cancellation, no sound gets in or out of these headphones, period. But if you really want to get lost in your music, try an open design--you can get lost in the sound the Pro-4AAs provide, but you'll be running around a pretty small block.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Plug End Comment: These would not fit in my computer tower. But they look really nice. Had to send them back.
Customer Rating:      Summary: does what it says Comment: I use these for mixing church services and on field shoots. They isolate well, are comfortable, take a ton of abuse and still sound good. They're fairly easy to steal, though, so try to attach them to something heavy and unwieldy.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Where Is The Treble? Comment: Maybe I am exaggerating, but these are fine headphones except the treble seems muted. These are also lacking in imaging somewhat in the midrange on an absolute scale. I don't know if you've ever heard of the Marathon DJ Headphones, but they are just about as good without as much bass on my initial report on them. In fact these Koss headphones seem a bit boomy in the the bass or midbass to be exact. The Marathon's made by Audiovox are also easier on the wallet. This Marathon model 1100 that I am talking about. There is also a 1200 model that I know nothing of.
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