Ok, WTF. I got my KSC75Xâs today and thought theyâd be a nice fun beater pair.
Tried them for a couple of minutes, swapped in Yaxiâs due to discomfort.
Then it hit me. These are too good. Plugged in them to my MacBook and the sound was great. Went to the desktop and put them in the amp. These are just awesome. What the.
This phenomenon is well documented.
Thought it was one of those community jokes, that are common in enthusiast circles. Bought a pair for the laughs and got proven that it was no joke.
So uhh this is fucking endgame boys, girls, and non binaries, Iâve found it. Itâs the most comfortable thing once you bend the pos hooks to fit your ears. Sounds very balanced to me. Oh yeah and I got the red/blue yaxi pads. Iâm loving it. Itâs sounds so⊠light and balanced yet it makes all my music come alive. Thatâs how I can best describe it. Thereâs detail on this thing too. Godlike phones for 20$.
Havenât got the KPH30i yet so weâll see if those are as good but without the earhook fudgery. PortaPros arenât even close, those are way too boosted in the bass to me.
@Out_Here_In_Poorland My ksc 75âs are my most often used headphones, lol.
I too use yaxi pads and also have put them on the oft mentioned parts express
headband. I am always impressed by their presence and soundstage, as well as
vocal/mids clarity and a decent amount of bass (not as boomy as the porta pros.) I have given away many pair of these modified kscâs and people are always wowed. I do have pricier phones, but these are what I grab when I just want to ck out new music or concert videos (youtube etc.) PS they sound great
on my Asgard 3. 
I would say my kph30i (stock) and the ksc 75 with yaxi pads and parts express headband are my two most used headphones. Mostly because they both are so light and comfortable, and they are easy to drive so i donât have to rely on my Magni3 to drive them. Also, with the kph30i in stock form, they do have slightly different sound signature.
Koss X Retrospekt P/21 headband + KSC75 Drivers + Orange Yaxi Pads
Pretty darn comfortable. Never had the Parts Express headband, so I canât compare.
Works fine when wearing glasses. The clips didnât work for my particular frames.
I miss the touch remote control, so will switch the headband to my KSC75X someday (which I still have on their clips).
OhâŠI didnât even try the P/21. Reviews were not good.
The KSC-75 with the little fiio btr3 is my killer outdoor active system. I use them when out riding my bike. The open back design doesnât cut off my situational awareness as much as IEMs would. They sound flipping great and are cheap enough I donât worry about getting caught out in the rain with them.
I donât have any real issues with stock comfort but I do want to try some Yaxi pads on them soon.
I was wrong to doubt these. I was mostly worried about fit.
Bone stock out of the package, I think these may be my favorite of the 60 ohm Koss both in terms of fit and sound. Hopeful they will work out well on my bike, which is why I finally grabbed a set.
I just got my KSC-75 X and I feel like Iâm missing something. I was really impressed with the KPH30i and I guess I expected these to sound more similar since itâs the same driver, but I donât like them nearly as much on an initial listen.
I dunno, Iâll give it a bit longer and see if they grow on me.
EDIT: I ordered the Porta Pro Yaxi pads, hereâs hoping!
I didnât like the KSC75 until I got the Parts Express headband and Yaxi pads to get a proper seal. Since then I prefer them over the KPH30i.
I swapped the pads for Yaxi pads and it makes a big difference for the better. It also helps with the fit, I think, since the Yaxi pads are larger than the stock pads and it does a better job of holding itself against my ear (though the fit is definitely still weird).
Iâm pretty sure I still prefer the KPH30i, but yeah, the Yaxi pads help a lot!
If you got smaller ears like me, the yaxi pads are actually way too big and causes a very negative change.
Both of my girlfriends have smaller heads/ears, so thatâs really good to know! I still have the original pads, so hopefully swapping them back in wonât be a big deal if thatâs needed.
As for me, I bought the KPH30i, KSC75X, and Porta Pro X all at once just because I wanted the fun of comparing them and trying out the mods and stuff, and in that regard, Iâve had a lot of fun for what I paid!
Unmodded, I wouldâve ranked them KPH30i >>> Porta Pro > KSC75 for my preferences, but with all of them pad swapped, I would probably say KPH30i > KSC75 > Porta Pro, so the KSC75 was the one that gained the most from modification to my ears. To be fair, itâs also the one I have the most difficulty physically wearing, so it probably has the largest margin for error in terms of how I was using it.
ehm, BOTH? 
No problems swapping them for me, just be careful to not damage the âpinsâ on the cups/drivers.
Itâs a bit off-topic, so if youâre interested in actually chatting about polyamory, we can move it to another thread or PMs or something, but yes! Both! <3 <3
So I did end up tearing the pads when removing them from the KPH30i, but I still have two good sets (one each from the KSC75 and Porta Pro), and Iâm pretty sure I didnât damage any of the pins on any of them.
I feel like the Porta Pro, modded or not, doesnât have the chops to pull off the bass elevation that itâs going for, so it sounds bloated, which the pad swap doesnât really help with. Whereas the stock KSC75 had the opposite issue of sounding too thin and was missing a body/fullness for me, which the Yaxi pads actually did help quite a bit with, though I would certainly believe that the change has more to do with the fit than the pads. But the KPH30i still strikes the best balance for what Iâm looking for, I like the KPH30i quite a lot.
My ranking (as can be seen in my database):
Porta Pro <<< KSC75 <= KPH30i
I see youâre on iPhone. Iâm just curious, do you see any benefit in sound quality with your setup, streaming AAC bluetooth from your iPhone to the BTR5? Versus straight-up plugging in your headphones to the iPhone with the lightning dongle? This is something Iâve been wondering about for a really long time.
