koss porta pro

The Audiophiliac's favorite budget headphones

Great-sounding headphones have never been more affordable. Even the least expensive headphone model on this list, the Panasonic RP HJE 355 in-ear, has oodles of detail and decent bass punch. For me the most important thing when evaluating headphones is sound balance; no frequency range should call attention to itself, so I don't like overly bassy headphones, or ones that overemphasize treble. Headphones should sound clear, not muffled or fuzzy. I prefer spacious stereo imaging over sound that's stuck inside my head. Headphones that allow music's soft-to-loud dynamics to bloom are better than ones that constrict dynamics. … Read more

The worst-sounding audio product

I've heard a lot of really bad-sounding audio products over the years, but most of them were so awful they suffered a natural and well-deserved "death." Take for example the $499 Gateway KAS-103 home theater in a box system that debuted in 2003. I had the "pleasure" of reviewing this attractive system, but it sounded so bad I was duty bound to try another sample, which was equally dreadful. There was absolutely no blend between the sound of the subwoofer and the tiny satellite speakers, the high levels of background static were impossible to ignore, … Read more

My headphones are better than yours

Koss has a bad reputation for manufacturing terrible audio products, but it struck gold back in 1984 with one set of headphones, the PORTAPROS. They're still being produced with continued success after 23 years and are, in my opinion, the most underrated headphones on the market, and here's why:

Price: $35 with free shipping on Amazon. Maybe less on eBay. Sound quality: Best sound I've heard out of sub-$200 cans. Instead of telling you how awesome these are, I'll let these 249 people do the work for me:

CNET Review (Review on its way, but … Read more