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I bought a couple pair of Koss KTXPRO1's recently... one for my brother and one for myself, strictly for portable use. Since buying them, I have been disappointed -- IMO they do not live up to the standard of the older Koss non-titanium drivers. Also, they don't have the soundstage of KSC-35 or Portapro, since they're "semi-closed" with earcups and a mesh screen in back. They still sound better than typical "free" headphones that come with portables, but they are flimsy and I don't expect them to last. In particular, the cable is awful, thin and plastic-y rather than having a rubbery feel like many headphones in its class. There's also an inline volume control which I just keep at its highest setting, as it's bound to fail within weeks if used regularly. Overall build quality is just cheap junk.

Appearance wise, they don't look as good on the head as they do in pictures. A very modern look, but the headband just looks strange when actually worn. I'd go so far as to say these are less attractive than the Portapro.

Do yourself a favor and avoid these headphones. They don't live up to the usual Koss standards. I wish Koss hadn't gone in the direction of the mass market -- these are at the upper end of what I would consider lo-fi, and won't serve as an introduction to good sound like the KSC-series and Portapro. 'Nuff said.

WHO AND WHAT IS KOSS? :

Koss is a known manufacturer of "studio" headphones here in my home town of Milwaukee. They have been arund for 40+ years and mainly make headphones. Though overall most of their cans have mixed SQ which varies from great to horrendous. Some of their cans are pretty well known and are supposedly used by many studio applications. Though I can't see why as the vast majority of them are even analytical sounding.

I have been to the Koss HQ a few times and it only a 10 minute walk from where I live, so I'm always checking out their newer designs. So far they have been pretty mixed...

ME AND KOSS :

I have mad tons of koss cans over the past 6-7 years and most if not all have dissapointed me. There have been only a few exceptions (PortaPro) that actually sounded good, but the rest all sounded really sub-par for a "renowned headphone manufacturer". Now I'm not bashing Koss, it's just I feel they put all their money into advertising rather than R&D. Don't go by frequency responce with their cans, that stuff means nothing if the can doesn't sound good. I know the PRO4AAT sounds horrible. The PRO4AA sound incredibly thin, lean mids, and hissy with no bass at all. Almost like listening to a bad AM radio transmission. Now the PRO3AA isn't actually that bad sounding at all, but it's overly bright/simblant with very recessed mids with a tad of boomy bass. Kinda think that the PRO4AAt's would actually sound better, but it's all hype with no meat. So you can see why I had very little hope for the KTXPRO1 when I bought it, but oh was I wrong! This little $19.99 portable headphone is in the "great" category and is great bang for the buck.

WHAT IS THE KTXPRO1? :

The Koss KTXPRO1 is actually a small supra-aural portable headphone with an in-line volume control. Like I stated above, due to my past experince with Koss, I have had little to no hope left for these guys. But a few years back when I was attending a local "loading dock sale", I found a little set of cans that I haven't yet listened to, but at the low price of $15.99 what was there to loose? So I bought them and came home. I immeditaly skipped the FR chart on the back as you can not get how a headphone sounds just by the chrt alone (their response is 15-25000 Hz). So Ipoped them and plugged them into my CD Player. WOW! They sound great for $19.99 MSRP! Below is my exact impressions of the cans after around 700+ hours of play time.

- Treble: Treble in these cans is actually really clean and smooth with no shrillness at all. Though there a little bit of simblance in there. Most headphones in this price range have very bad reputations for attrocious SQ, but this one is a pleasent supprise. It was a little brighter than most, but not shrill or overdone. These are nowhere near Grado bright, more like the Sennheiser sound, just a tad mellowed out. The higher frequencies sound nice and from what I can hear, there is no treble roll-off. Quite nice indeed!

- Mids : Whoah! The mids in this can are present, though not as strong as the Sennheiser's. I would highly reccommend these for rock/metal/alternative/punk music. The mids are full though maybe a tad bit raw souding in spots. Mids make the vocals sound smooth and natural without bloating the sound. This stuff you need to look for in a can of any type. I would say this headphone would also be suited to classical as well.

- Bass : For a small headphone as this, it sure can muster up some nice bass. The bass has a decent ammount of extension and punch but seemed to be rolled-off. Bass in the lower mids was also verry good and added an extra layer to the can. And when I mean roll-off, I mean that lower notes seem to just fade out rather than fully extend. And as such these would not be suited for rap though as they lack the nessecary extension and punch that rap requires..

- Neutrality : These seem to be a tad slightly forward and warm, but ever so slightly. Not entirely bad though as I tend to like a warmer sound.

- Transparency/Clarity : Transparency of these is about average at best. At least you can hear more music than a bloated sound. These have prety good clarity as well and can be used for very light analytical listening, but absolutely nowhere close to the HD600/DT880 in terms of analytical listening. But it's kind of pointless in a can this size as most commercial users won't be doing any sort of critical lstening while jogging. Though the added clarity is a nice tough here.

- Soundstage : This part of the can is actually almost nothing. Ocasionally you can tell where people are, but mostly it's Left/Middel/Right. To me, the SS isn't really all that important unless your going to do analytical listening.

- Comfort : These tend to fall into the Grado comfort category. Since they are supra-aural, they rest on the ear and can cause ear fatigue/pain. The headband is rather iffy too. It's just a rubber strap that rests upon your head.

+ After a few years of use, the volume control on mine become very wonky and doesn't properly function. Guess it's time to either cut the control out or go back to Koss with it and get a replacement.

CONCLUSION:

In the end I would highly reccomend these as a portable can. They have excellent SQ for the price and Koss has a lifetime warranty on these. So for only $20 bucks you get a great protable with great sound. If your okay with a little discomfort then go for them!