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NewYawker
7
Apr 6, 2018
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I purchased the Porta Pro SE in beige from amazon 11 months ago. They sounded horrible so I returned them immediately. I decided to go for the Massdrop Porta Pro X drop and received them this morning. What a difference! These phones sound quite good even compared to several of my very much more expensive phones. As a believer in breaking-in headphones, I look forward to how much better they will sound in a 100 hours or so from now.
chuckolatte
171
May 2, 2018
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OCBobYeah, I'm curious about that as well. I was actually considering getting the beige instead of these, but now I'm not so sure...
NewYawker
7
Jul 15, 2018
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chuckolatteSorry for the delayed response OCBob and chuckolatte. I cannot objectify something that is—at least partially—subjecfive. The pair purchased from amazon.com just sounded awful. Little bass and harsh treble. The Massdrop version sounds cleaner. Deeper bass and less simbilance. What accounts for the difference? I truly don’t know. Perhaps Koss hand selected the drivers used for the Massdrop version? Given the outstanding reviews on Amazon, maybe I did receive a defective unit or, as OCBob suggested, a pair of counterfeits. Realistically, do not lose sight of the fact that the Porta Pros are a pair of 1980s open air/on-ear headphones intended as an upgrade to the headphones that came packaged with the massively popular portable stereo cassette players of that era. Koss never marketed them as a pair of audiophile-grade headphones. All I can say is that the Massdrop version simply sounded better to me.
OCBob
526
Jul 15, 2018
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NewYawkerI purposely purchased a known set of counterfeit PPs a couple years back and they they sounded as you described (I was curious and they were cheap). I own both pairs of the current special edition models (the beige, and the black/gold) that I purchased directly from Koss and they are, for all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from the PPX's. Overall I own more than 20 pairs of PP's I've collected over the years in different configurations and colors and they all sound the same (The Bluetooth model is a bit different in a way I like, but sill very, very similar). When you purchased from Amazon was Koss the seller with Amazon fulfilling the order? I was under the impression that these were only available from Koss either on their own site or sold by Koss and fulfilled by Amazon. If it was a Koss/Amazon transaction it could be that you received a bad pair (probably something to do with the remote/mic/volume... I never had a pair of PP's with a bad driver in over 32years of using them). If it was a 3rd party sale it could very well be that you got some fakes. I am glad that you're enjoying your Massdrop PPX's I just purchased my 5th pair (I give them and the KPH30i's away to customers/clients/friends), and my original pair is running strong after 7 months of daily use. I really like the quality of the mike too (no complaints from my wife about sound quality).
NewYawker
7
Jul 15, 2018
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OCBobHey OCBob. They were sold by Koss through Amazon. Not for nothing, the Limited Edition version I purchased DID have a marginally lower star-rating than the other PP models being sold. Keep in mind that it was Massdrop that identified the PPX as a ”new model“ with a “reinforced cable“. Ultimately OCBob, I cannot account for the difference I heard.
OCBob
526
Jul 15, 2018
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NewYawkerProbably a defective pair. The PPX is a great value. The Koss version with the new cable/mic/remote in the classic color scheme is $22 more. I don't care for the remote or the volume control on the SE models either. I much prefer just the remote and the mic. That volume control makes all kinds of noise and I have to scrub it back and forth a bunch of time to quiet it up if I haven't used it in a while.
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