Koss UR20 Over-Ear Headphones, Flexible Sling Headband, Black

I have had these headphones for about a month. Excellent sound quality--unbeatable sound quality for this price. I paid under $20, and shipping was free. I found these phones after finding other positive feedback on the internet. Of course, I was searching for decent headphones but I did not want to spend hundreds of dollars.The headphones are also very comfortable (the leather or leather-like padding is very soft), and they are adjustable and seem like they would fit almost everyone. The ear pads fit entirely around your ear and isolate most outside noise, so you can listen and enjoy without excessive volume. The headphones are large, so I would not consider them to be completely portable(they don’t fold flat, so they take up a lot of room in your carry-on). I have used several different iPods and a computer without any problems.I love the "one-wire" design: one wire from the jack to the phones. You will agree if your other "Y" headphones and ear buds are always tangled.2019 update: everyone has Bluetooth headphones now, but dad is looong for cheap headphones since dad just purchased Bose Soundlinks for the kids. I’ll tell you—I am still impressed, the sound on these Koss headphones, in my opinion, rivals the Bose. I know that some folks will say I’m crazy, but, the Bose May be better, I’m not sure it is $200+ better.I used the ‘phones regularly for years, so I will not deduct a star for this: the leatherette ear pads started to literally disintegrate. I know they offer a lifetime warranty, but I’m sure I didn’t register the product. Things wear out, of course, so I wouldn’t even mention this seemingly normal wear and tear. But, they started to turn to dust as they disintegrated, leaving a black powdery residue on everything. This mess was annoying, as my clothes, furniture, hair, desk, etc. had ‘crumbs’ until I realized that the headphones were the culprit.Anyway, highly recommend. I am shopping for another pair. I may look for a Koss model with the detachable wire, or maybe even go wireless. But, wireless just means one more thing that needs to charge with a wire, so I may just order these again because of the amazingly reasonable price!

PRO-s:- Perfectly fine sound quality if you're just looking to enjoy music like most people.- Good sound isolation if the muffs fit over your ears. They fit over mine easily, but I suppose it's possible for a person to have ears bigger than 2 inches wide by 3 inches tall.CON-s:- Adjustment clip may be relatively fragile, as I explain below. (I don't have other headphones to compare)I don't consider myself an audiophile in the sense that I don't think I have a good enough reference with regards to what constitutes high-quality in terms of headphone build quality, nor the highest in terms of audio quality. I haven't tried flat-response headphones that are used in recording studios, so I have no reference to compare these headphones to. However, I am quite happy with the audio quality that these headphones give me as a casual listener to many different types of music, podcasts, and YouTube videos.The computer lab at my college has a pair of these at virtually every workstation, and having used them at school for over a quarter, I've been able to compare them very favorably to my Sony MDRE9LP/BLU earbuds.I want to note, if you find yourself with a pair of these headphones, be attentive to the relative fragility of the tension clips that enable the headphones to adjust and hold form while accommodating different head sizes. If, while adjusting the size, you pull too hard and too swiftly, you might end up breaking an critical nub of plastic that holds the tension clip in place, and the headphones will end up being unable to fit your head with a nice seal without support from one of your hands. I'm not proud to admit it, but I've accidentally done it to a pair at my school's computer lab, so I just want to pass on this knowledge to future users of these otherwise wonderful headphones.Quite a significant number of these headphones in my school's computer lab have been damaged as previously described, unfortunately, so if I found myself at a station with such a pair, I would just unplug them and use my earbuds to substitute. I didn't notice the difference in audio quality at first, but eventually, it dawned on me that there were a whole bunch of audio details that I was missing completely because my earbuds really don't have much in the way of bass.The most significant example of this for me is when I was listening on YouTube to the soundtrack of "A Hero Never Dies". Normally I'm pretty happy with the sound that I get from my earbuds, because they seemed to get most of the important details to my ears. I just assumed that any of the sounds I didn't hear were a result of such details being too low in the mix, but when I found a station with a decent pair of headphones that didn't have the tension clip nub broken, I put on the song and it dawned on me that I could hear the deeper bass of the string section, along with little short dog howls and barks that I didn't notice at all when I listened with my earbuds!All in all, I'm really happy I went with the headphones that my college uses. They offer great sound quality at a very economical $14, while only suffering in terms of resilience to abuse. I also purchased a pair for my sister, and she's pretty darn happy with them too. Let's say I haven't seen her use her earbuds at home since I got her these.If I could change anything with these headphones, I would definitely make the adjustment mechanism more resilient to accidentally excessive force. I wish they could be more comfortable to use when I'm laying in bed to listen to some music before going to sleep, but I suppose that's an inherent quality of having around-the-ear headphones, so I just take them off and go to bed. It's probably for the better not to have my ears covered as I sleep, right?

Let me start off with a disclaimer ... I am a Koss Fanboy. I loved my original pair of PortaPros, and bought SportaPros for both my kids & my mom. I even ended up using those after accidentally breaking my beloved PortaPros. But I eventually broke the SportaPros too & dabbled with other headphone brands & types. But a few years ago I was missing my good old Koss Headphones & started looking again. About 2 years ago I bought a pair of UR 40's for their portability & I haven't looked back. So when it came time to get some inexpensive headphones I can leave at work, I came looking to Koss again and found these. A decent looking, chunky, over ear Koss headhone for under 20 bucks ? Yes, please ...Okay, I got these last week & while it took some fiddling to get them comfy, I am pleased. They are not AS Comfy as my UR 40's. The clamping force is a bit more, & they don't sit quite as nicely on my ears ... but they are good enough for work. As for the sound, well if you have ever owned Koss headphones before, you know what to expect. They are generally very balanced. Not overly bass-y, not too much High's or Mids. It's a sound I have grown to love over the many years. I will say these have a little MORE Bass, than my UR 40's ... but they are going to be used at work for conference calls on my MacBook, so that REALLY doesn't matter.Overall, I am quite pleased. I've got good, comfy headphones I can wear for extended periods of time that aren't SO expensive, I am afraid to leave them unattended if I walk away from my desk. All this for under 20 bucks ? Koss comes thru again ...