12 November, 2024

ZSA Loves: Koss Porta Pro

by Erez Zukerman

ZSA Loves Stamp

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  • Just good things. We review these because we truly love them, and we want to tell you why. The internet has enough negativity elsewhere.
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  • One surprise per review. A surprising thing we learned only with actual use and with time.
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  • Read more here.

I want to start by saying that I am not an audiophile. For the longest time I was using a pair of Sennheiser HD 579 headphones and I was happy with the sound — but at some point I noticed they were really squeezing my head, especially when I wore them for longer durations.

I started looking around for more comfortable solutions and reading reviews online. Of course I considered AirPods and other fancy and expensive solutions. Then, one morning I realized I already had the perfect pair of headphones just sitting in a drawer.

Koss Porta Pro
My cat is into these, too

That perfect solution is my Koss Porta Pro. I got my original pair maybe 15 years ago and I'd use them occasionally. A couple years back I noticed there was a problem with one of the sides. I got in touch with Koss, and they just had me send the headphones over and then shipped a new pair my way. No proof of purchase necessary — just a serious, no-nonsense, real "lifetime warranty".

So now let's talk about the actual headphones.

First of all, they just sound excellent. If you're looking for noise isolation or if you don’t want other people to hear what you're listening to, these are not the headphones for you: They are fairly open and rest lightly on the ear. But if you just want headphones with great sound, the Porta Pros are hard to beat (especially in "bang for buck" terms, the quality you get for how much they cost).

They don’t aggressively clamp down on my head, nor do I feel any sort of cumbersome weight after wearing them for a while. One of the reasons they are so lightweight is, of course, that these are wired headphones — so you also avoid a whole class of issues by eliminating the battery and Bluetooth.

Koss Porta Pro folded
They fold down for travel

Now, obviously, one part that’s going to wear and tear over time is the foam pads. But because the Porta Pros have been around for so many years, there is a vibrant market for third-party pads—both the ear pads and the "side pads" that sit right above them. I recently replaced the stock ear pads with more cushiony ones I found on Amazon. The new pads fit perfectly, and they’re really comfortable.

ear pads
Here you can see the new ear pads, as well as the little mod I describe below

All in all, the Porta Pros are just hard to go wrong with. The quality of the sound and the level of comfort you get, combined with the for-real lifetime warranty, make this a no-brainer in my opinion. Even if they’re not your primary headphones, they're worth keeping around as a backup (or until you suddenly feel inspired to make them your main pair, like I did).

The Surprise

They bend, don't break.

comfort fit
The built-in pressure adjustment feature, which doesn't work so well for me

Specifically, I was surprised to discover you can bend the metal bow. While the Porta Pros do have a built-in feature for adjusting their clamping force, that’s one feature I don't actually love. It never quite worked for me, and they often snapped back and became just a bit too tight when worn for long.

Finally I just grabbed the metal bow and gave it two good bends "outwards", one on each side. Just using my massive brute force, nothing more. Seriously though, it’s just a thin strip of metal, so you can simply bend it. There are no wires running through it, and of course no batteries in there. Just metal.

After putting those two bends into mine, the clamping force was finally perfect for me. Gentle to the point of almost falling off my head, which is what I was going for (since I just use them sitting down, I don't go running with them or anything like that). And if I do want to make them tight again, I can always just bend them back.

This is definitely not something I could do with my previous Sennheiser headphones, nor with any other kind of headphones I’ve had. It’s very satisfying to be able to literally bend technology to my will — another side effect of having such a simple, reliable design.

Erez Zukerman

Erez Zukerman

Erez Zukerman is the CEO and Co-Founder of ZSA Technology Labs.