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)
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.
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.
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???
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.
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
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
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
I must have gotten a bad pair because I think they are horrible. All the vocals goto the right channel the 2.5mm connection is crap you have to mess with it to get a two channel audio. I connected to both Apple and Android devices and got the same results, For sound and comfort the KPh30i and a set of Yaxi pads kill the 40ās at least my pair.
Agreed. The amount of confirmation bias around here is wild. These are in a different league than older koss drivers, especially with a handful of amps that have good synergy.
Ehmmm, good morning from Greece guys! A message to those who somehow donāt like their KPH40s and return themā¦ Would you mind help a fellow koss-ling and send a couple this way instead? Looks like this out-of-stock situation will keep happeningā¦ Me need my 40s! I can pay in FH3 as wellā¦
Which amps are you getting particularly good synergy with? I fully agree that these take on the flavor of their signal chain, maybe more so than previous koss drivers.
Iād like to know too! I really want to love the KPH40 more than the KPH30i and the KSC75, but for me the KPH40 sounded worse on my setup than the other Koss offerings.
I avoided this thread for a bit as to not taint my opinion when I saw new koss hype It was instant buy for me. looked like a 30i and I broke my 30i so I needed a replacement
Here is my quick review of the kph 40 utility. Been listening to these for a few days. My main test tracks. Cover my favorite genres which tend to be hip hop, indie rock, alternative rock, hip hop, and R and B with a splash of indie J rock. I am also a owner of the kph 30i, KSC 75, and porta pro ksc 75 being my favorite of the classic 3 koss headphones.
Test Rig: PC (Musicbeee) ļ Schiit Bifrost 2 ļ Schiit asgard 3
To: start with are my initial first impressions.
Overall smooth sound signature. Pretty forgiving,. Definitely not the same as any of the other 3 sound signature wise. I really want to see someone measure this as I cant seem to nail down the sound signature quite yet and I think measurements might help me out decode what Im hearing.
Build quality: solid, light , much more durable than the 30i for sure, looks like it can handle a bit of abuse. I hate flat cables but still the best koss cable,
Bass: Bass so far is the most disappointing, I was kind of hoping for a kph 30i replacement as I hate the build of the 3oi being so fragile. The 3oi to me has the best bass response of the 3 tight and pronounced with authority. The kph 40 I am finding it to be tight fairly neutral present with some detail buut lack impact and any authority. Drums tend to sound pretty average and probably has the most middling performance bass wise compared to the other koss headphones
Mids: one of the strong points of this headphone. Male vocals have some nice detail and presence. Guitars sound great, female vocals are good but a bit meh for the most part, trumpets sound great and most brass sound very good. Pianos sound pretty great.
Treble: this is the hardest part for me to pin point. Itās smooth but I can detect a few peaks not enough to bother me but I detect a slight bit of sibilance and a bit of shout at certain spots. Overall treble resolution is decent cymbals sound great. Not a lot to really complain about here. Treble I find is comparable to the ksc 75 but I prefer how the KSC 75 dopes treble over this.
Technicalities: this has by far the weakest soundstage of all the big ones , much more narrow nearing on earbud staging which to me is a bit disappointing, imaging is just ok. Separation at times is actually bad though. Especially with with busy or badly produced music. You may argue itās the musicās fault but these are track the ksc 75 , and 30i donāt have much trouble with the porta pro has issues with busier tracks though. Iām going to try and find some pads and attempt to fix the soundstage on this thing and maybe that will improve the separation issues.
Conclusion: All in all not a bad headphone Its just not for me. Who I think would really appreciate this is for people who listen to soft rock, Country music , American style folk music, and older indie rock form the 90ās to early 2000ās as I really enjoyed my favorite album, In An Aeroplane over the sea, by neutral milk hotel on this headphone. If you are into more modern Genres stick with the KPH 30i, and porta pro, if you like your neutrality and are into a slightly warm slightly bright. and like your soundstage while saving money stick to the ksc 75. Is it worth the Hype? IMO not really, the build is nice but Im probably gonna pop the headphones on and stick some ksc 75ās on the headband and call it a day.
