Just got the kph40 in, straight out of the box I find them to be rather muffled sounding. Running off of a questyle m12 dongle for now. Will give them a try on the desktop gear later today, and try some burn in.
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The USB-C cable for the KPH40. Itās as good for buttons and operation as Zeos says. Howeverā¦ it doesnāt sound as good as the BTR by a mile or 20. Butā¦ I think it sounds better than some of the headphone jacks Iāve heard on many phones and laptops so that is something.
It may suck but Iām glad to have a nice inline feeling āheadphone jackā feeling again. The DFC is too bulky to be used and the microphone works well enough in a pinch.
But as far as sound quality, everything sounds less intimate and even more vague. But I can say if you miss some sound signatures of cassette decks, this dongle + KPH40 brings that sound signature (I think) and without the hiss.
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Happy listening! When you say muffled you mean like the Porta Pros? 
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I would say itās quite noticeably worse than the Porta pro.
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I also have the GL2000s and Iām going to have to disagree and say they are far and away superior to the KPH 40s. Iām running a Liquid Spark DAC and a Singxer SA-1, so can also drive them both at the same time. For $40, the 40s are for sure amazing and put a smile on my face when listening. But the GL2000s (only mod is Brainwavs gel pads) have so much better soundstage, imaging, literally everything other than maybe sound quality (the KPH 40s are a tad more muffled in the mids though imo), it isnāt even really a fair comparison.
I do also have a pair of modded 30iās to compare them to, but Iām going to let these 40s burn in a bit more before I do that.
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These just showed up today.
Even over the first hour of listening Iāve noticed some significant break-in (Iāve heard enough change that I suspect thereās going to be quite a bit of part-to-part variation in sound until thereās enough break-in). So Iām not going to comment too much on sound, other than to say my observations are generally in line with @DagoRed - least favorite of the Koss lineup, and something odd in the ~5k range.
Something very noticeable is with regard to the USB-C DAC cable. Playing from the Qobuz app sounds 'meh. Not horrible, but nothing really great. Switching over to UAPP app is an entirely different story. Depth, detail, tonality, all much better (the ~5k issue is tamed as well, making me wonder about DSP). The sound is closer to what Iām hearing on my desktop setup (Jot2/BF2 and G111/Revolution). The flavor of those setups comes through for sure, so not an apples-to-apples comparison. But with the USB-C DAC cable, running on UAPP, itās respectable - on par with the ddhifi TC35b running from UAPP. From the stock Qobuz app it sounds much worse than the TC35b. It must need the ābit-perfectā magic 
The addition of the in-line controls / microphone make it a nice āside gradeā to the TC35b.
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Got my set yesterday as well. Break in is for sure a thing with these.
I thought they sounded decent after a night of playing music through them.
My verdict is still out on the sound, but I think for $40 they arenāt bad.
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Iām super impressed by them for what they areā¦ surprisingly good for the price.
Only complaint I have is the usb dac cable doesnāt push the headphones hard enough.
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I let these run for just over 18 hours, constant playing, to try and burn them in. Listening again to them today, Iāve reached my end. They really arenāt anything special.
- Burn-in is definitely an improvement, no more weird treble harshness. The sound is fine, but no Koss magic. The lower mids are still very muddied, everything overall sounds flat.
- They do respond to various signal chains, taking on the flavor of the source, which is a cool trick at $40.
- Overall these are my least favorite Koss: #1 is KSC75, #2 is KPH30i, #3 (distant) is KPH40 Utility
- The USB-C DAC cable is fine, nice feature with the inline controls. It is much better on UAPP, but Iāll still take the ddHiFi TC35b over it any day. So this DAC cable is going back to Amazon.
- The best takeaway for me on these headphones is this:
(my KSC75ās now have a slick metal headband)
- Iām not sure what Iāll do with this:
(it is light weightā¦)
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Been listening and burning in my KPH40s for 3 days now. Unfortunately, Iām going to have to agree with all the negative opinions posted so far. They really are nothing special, and my least favorite sounding of the Koss lineup. I personally rank the lineup as KPH30i > KSC75 > PortaPro > KPH40.
The KPH30i has been my daily driver for 2 years. They blew my ATH-AD1000X out of the water, and they rival my HD58x only in soundstage and clarity by a small margin. I love the KPH30i for its clarity, natural-sounding timbre, and instrument separation.
The difference I hear between the KPH30i and the KPH40 is really noticeable. Like some of the others posted above, there is some weird shrill harshness going on around the treble 5k region; itās not sibilant, but cymbals and Sās sound really thin and tinny. Vocals are forward like in the KPH30i but arenāt separated well from the rest of the mix. Everything under 1k sound muffled, flat and mashed together. Bass is muddy and lacks texture. Sub-bass is there, but not very prominent. Playing around with EQ didnāt fix the treble timbre or the bass muddiness.
I was excited for a KPH30i successor, but these arenāt it. Which is a shame, because they look really nice, I love the detachable cable and the new metal headband, and they are so freakin comfortable. They are decent headphones for $40, but I think the KPH30i and KSC75 are much better, more technical-sounding headphones. When I saw Zeos put his personal stock of KPH30iās out on the yard sale I was immediately sold on the KPH40, but after actually listening to these, and then going back and listening to my old KPH30iās, Iām thinking heās making a big mistake. Today I returned my KPH40 and bought another KPH30i to hoard.
I really appreciate that Koss is listening to its customers and trying to give us what we want, but I really wonder if the Koss engineers actually understand what they got. The sound of the KPH40 in my opinion is a huge step backward compared to the KPH30i and the KSC75.
(My setup: Foobar > Topping D30 > JDS Atom > KPH40 regular TRRS)
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I did a quick check The Jack is a 4 pole but not standard TRRS. from the tip it goes left + ā Right + ā Left - ā right -. I donāt have a way of non-destructively checking the USB C cable.
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I wonder what are the chances Koss listen to all these negative comments and just strap the 75ās drivers on the beautiful metal headband and re-issue the KPH40ā¦ Or just sell the headband as an accessory??? 
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I would love a ksc75 utility. I know I will be getting the porta pro again.
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Mine (KPH40) hasnāt arrived yet, but the head band swap is exactly what I was planning to do with my KSC75
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Well, got my Guardians of the Galaxy mod going on my KPH40s. These are little donut pads I picked up from Aliexpress. I have them on over the top of the stock pads. Much more comfortable, and I think improved the sound (better seperation, slightly more bass, eased the top end just a touch).
I donāt have my Porta Pros on hand, but I think these are taking my top spot for the little Koss headphones.
Link to the pads if youāre interested:
Look about a month to get here (I ordered them for KSC75s).
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BALANCED SOLUTIONS!
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build your own - some soldering/jank required - https://www.amazon.com/Fancasee-Replacement-Connector-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B07ZT85PN7/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=2.5+mm+trrs&qid=1638063278&sr=8-3
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pre built - expensive but works - https://www.amazon.com/NewFantasia-Balanced-Sennheiser-Headphone-XDP-300R/dp/B075C9HXW5/ref=sr_1_14?crid=3W0SCXS654UDO&keywords=hd+599+cable&qid=1638063365&sprefix=hd+599%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-14
I already had the sennheiser cable and it TOTALLY works, im planning on getting the connectors from amazon to make my own shorter cable but thats a while down the road
i have NOT tested phasing on the new fantasia cable but that MAY be an issue
The system auto silenced your account due to posting multiple links (at least I think thatās why, which is configured that way to prevent bot accounts, but it shouldnāt have done it here), nobody reported/flagged you, it was an error of the forum software. An admin corrected it as soon as they noticed it happen, sorry for the inconvenience it may have caused
Edit: itās because your first posts contained multiple links and posted the same content multiple times in different threads in a quicker timeframe. That accidently tripped the system into thinking you were a bot/spam account. It shouldnāt happen again no matter what you do
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That makes sense, thank you for explaining. i guess i was just triggered that is said it was a ācommunity flagā instead of an auto moderator. I just want people to know that this can be done because zeos has said so many good things about a local company and i want them to be successful especially because of the shenanigans they dealt with on wall street.
UPDATE: phasing with prebuilt cable is good, true balanced!
I think thatās because the system has its own account at the highest trust level, but it acts like a normal user account. So when it decides to flag a post, itās treated as a high level user, so it shows as community rather than something descriptive. The developers of the platform should really change that tbh
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I agree, and i was fuckin pissed at first but i understand. I mean this forum is pretty good but i doubt it has a whole team of like 100 engineers. Hopefully they make that small tweak to ease user frustration
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