Koss clip-on 'phones hack.

[k brown]

Not sure if this is the best place to post this; mods, feel free to move if there's a more appropriate one.

Long a fan of the Koss Porta Pro headphones, but preferring the convenience and comfort of the clip-on KSC75s, I just realized that the KSC35 have much less obstructed (from behind) driver mountings than the '75s (even less obstructed than on the Porta Pros). This obstruction will reflect more sound to the backside of the drivers.

I remember having a pair of the '35s long ago and the ear clips were way less comfortable than those on the '75s. Since the Porta Pros and both KSC models all have the same snap-on driver design, one could replace the ear clips on the 35s with those from the 75s, and have the best of both worlds.

I've owned all three models, and the only difference I've seen on the drivers themselves is that the diaphragms on the '75s are silvery and supposedly coated with titanium. It's odd that the '35s are not titanium coated, but cost almost twice as much (?). Sound-wise the only difference I could hear is the the titanium ones sound a smidge more and extended and/or brighter; but to an insignificant degree to my ears.

___________

Pricing on these is real a mystery - they brag that the 75s have titanium-coated drivers and neodymium magnets, and don't mention either on the 35s, but the 75s are only about half the price 35s. Surely the 35s also have neodymium mags, nearly all modern (especially small ones) phones are made with them. Simply supply and demand, I guess.
https://koss.com/collections/ear-clip-headphones

https://www.amazon.com/Koss-Headphones-Pivoting-Design-Lightweight/dp/B084GWPG1Q

 

[k brown]

Forgot to add; the ear clips of the 75s are not only inherently more comfortable, they are also much more robust, being thick metal wire covered in a soft-ish plastic.

Therefore, the 75 clips are also bendable to adjust optimally for your ear shape; the 35 clips are solid hard plastic, so would need to be heated to be bent to a different shape (hardly worth the effort).

Some may also prefer the slightly thicker pads on the 75s; those can also be carefully removed and transferred to the 35s.

Here some interesting tests:
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/koss/ksc35/

You can see in the 35/75 comparison graph the approx 3.8kHz peak likely caused by the more reflective covers over the backs of the 75's drivers. It would also appear then the added mass of the titanium coating causes more fall-off in the top octaves.

 

[k brown]

Also forgot to add; these little Koss' reproduce the realistic imaging of binaural and quasi-binaural recordings better than any I've heard - and I've heard a lot!

The Sony cans that have become a 'standard of the industry' mangle binaural more than anything else I've tried.

As much as I like the Audio Technica M30s for many things, they're useless for binaural too.