oh ive been using koss like forever. back when i was a kid. great stuff for portable use if you dont want to stick anything in your ear. porta pros about a year.
Have you tried them with Yaxi Pads?
no, i doubt the pads are gonna make much of a difference. I did a sound test with all my headphones one after another and found the koss rated the lowest. i dont have the porta pros right now so they didnt make the list:
I think it is a bit foolish to call something that cost less than $30 overhyped.
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lol, you may be right. i got mine for 20$ they retail for 40$ i just kind of find it funny that on a audiophile forum koss headphones like these are discussed so much
Because they are affordable and sound good. Easy to power, accessible to anybody in multiple countriesā¦pretty easy to understand imo.
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But arenāt you in a pad conundrum with your beloved helios? The number of pad options for those say otherwise.
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No not really. I already tried a bunch and found the stock where the best for me on the Helios.
But pads for the koss is just foam really. pads for full sized headphones create a chamber the music plays into with different materials and perforations. big difference. the only thing i think pads on the Koss can do is reduce treble a small amount
Not all replacement pads for Koss is foam.
So they should or might change the sound as in normal headphones with pad swaps.
Iām just laughing out loud every time someone plugs portapros in their new 1000$ amp and are like āman these scale really wellā 
Obviously theyāre not endgame stuff but wow lol
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It might be the Present endgame but not The endgame. 
Stillā¦ some might still have them as endgame?
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Endgame doesnāt exist. End wallet does.
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The Koss stuff is a great place for people to start in my opinion. The Porta Pro and the KPH30i have close to a consumer tuning so people arenāt turned off by lack of bass or treble that is too bright. But it is done well! They are so cheap and are such a great entry point into the wide world of audio. They are often the first thing I rec if somebody doesnāt need isolation from IEMs or closed back headphones.
Also, I can mess around in the yard and throw them into the passenger seat of my car and not worry about babying them because if they breakā¦ Iām out $20-30 and Iāll go get another pair. (Or see if I can take advantage of Kossā LIFETIME WARRANTY).
I think my Helios might be endgame
Now that you put it that wayā¦
It does seem reminiscent of a hip flask container. 
@Antpage2 i know youāve probably already stated but what phones in your opinion are worth passing on for these? that;s a great price
its a crazy price. should be twice or 3 times that price. Thing is the Helios is so different. The only headphone ive heard that come close to the presentation of it is the Arya. but the Arya is nuetral bright. I like V shape. so i would pass up the dt770, 990. pretty much every V shaped headphone ive heard. I prefer them to the Elex. Aiva. Arya, Auteur lol.
I dont think Zeos opinion is anything to take lightly. He compared them to the Sundara. Thats a big compare cause the Sundara is awesome. I dont think my opinion should be taken lightly too lol. but I love exciting fun big sounding detailed headphones. so most people wont feel the same. i think most like neutral or warm.
I think the Helios has 4 things going for it. 1 The presentation. that big driver sound. 2 the Treble, very well done. though its become a problem for me since i got the Bifrost. 3 Its 10Hz to 40kHz range. which i think makes it suitable for hi res music listening. such as the music on Amazon Ultra HD. I really notice when those files are played vs CD quality with the Helios. 4 its timber/tone. I think that steel cap is doing something to the sound.
I did a listening test of all my headphones and it just sounded different than all of them. theres just something about themā¦
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Thanks for the detail, i have Beyer 770 80 and 250 ohm, 880 600 ohm and just picked up the 990 600 ohm after you posted, should be here today, Senn 600, 58x, 6xx, i dig the V shaped fun sound outside of production, and that price is hard to not even try. Was on the fence about the Sundara based on the horror stories so hopefully this will be a nice alternativeā¦
I too love Amazon Music HD, i can really tell the quality differenceā¦
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My Schiit stack (Modi2, Magni3) i think is pretty good for its price, but the problem is that this is my first proper āsetupā for headphones so its hard for me to āreviewā due to the lack of experience with dedicated headphone amps.
I did get an Fiio E10K olympus 2 before i advanced to the stack, but it is a bit underpowered for the Hifiman HE4xx i have. The volume gets high enough but there just is something lacking compared to the Schiit stack when it comes to power. For my Sennheiser HD58X Jubilee the Fiio is powerfull enough, but i still prefer the Schiit stack. The Magni also sounds better than the headphone amps in my speaker amps, and compared to my Onkyo receiver the sound a bit more organic and less processed, if that makes sense.
As for the dac i find the Modi 2 to be very good. Have hooked it up to a few speaker amps, and compared to the built in dac in those it just gives a āfullerā sound. Hard to describe, but i prefered it over the dac in my Onkyo receiver and my Yamaha Stereo amp (they where first feed optical from my computer, then hooked up to the modi 2). There is less difference between the Fiio and the Schiit compared to the buildt inn dacs in the receivers though.
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how do you like the dekoni blues? been thinking about picking them up in the future.