Koss PortaPro Headphones with Case

Also designed for comfort, these headphones have two adjustable temporal-comfort zone pads to shift the pressure and perfectly balance the ear plates on your ear. The open-earphone ear plates are multipivoting and, together with the adjustable headband, allow for maximum comfort.

The PortaPros are collapsible and come with a carrying case, so it's still easy to take them with you even when you're not wearing them. A 0.25-inch adapter is included to ensure they will fit with any system.

Koss offers a lifetime warranty on its PortaPro stereophones.

These phones may sound a little bass-heavy to some, but this unit has temple-pads that lift the elements away from your ears. This not only improves comfort, but also attenuates the bass, leading to a nice mix of comfort and sound quality.

Also, since I tend to be a bit rough on phones, the lifetime warranty has come in handy a few times.


Great for Travel   May 13, 2001
Elderbear (Loma Linda, Aztlan)
54 out of 56 found this review helpful

I've worn out two pair of these phones in the last decade. The sound quality was great. Wonderful bass--the only phones with better have been phones that fully cover my ears--and aren't really "portable." These stayed comfortable for the excruciatingly long flights from SoCal to northern Norway, even while wearing glasses. They fold up nice and small, easy to tuck away. They also performed adequately while watching airline movies ... more than saved the price of the phones over several trips!

I have two complaints: 1) hair easily penetrates the "speaker grill" and makes irritating noise against the actual speaker membrane. 2) The speaker, while reproducing sound well, can develop tears in the membrane easily. BE CAREFUL! Nothing is more annoying than a buzzing speaker at 33,000 feet (well, perhaps sudden cabin depressurization ...)!

My second pair wore out about the same time as my vintage walkman. I replaced the setup with a Nomad II MG & a pair of noise cancelling headphones--they make a _huge_ difference!

Five stars for sound quality. Five stars for comfort. Five stars for portability. Five stars for durability. If you're not going to spring for noise cancellation and you need a folding pair of phones, then get a pair of PortaPros.


Good where it counts   January 18, 2005
Andre M. Behrens (New York, NY USA)
71 out of 78 found this review helpful

The first thing that needs to be said about these headphones is that they are really ugly. There can be no denying it. The weird earpieces with the bar atop is just ugly, ugly, ugly. That said, these are easily the most comfortable portables I've worn, a situation largely a product of the very features that make the set ugly. Additionally, the sound is good. I don't feel the sound is as orgasmically supreme as other reviewers suggest, but the sound is very good. If you listen to a lot of Jazz or classical, some senns might serve you better. If you listen to more rock and hip hop, you'll be pleased with the portapros, if only for the comfort, which is truly exceptional. I use them with my iPod, and am well pleased.


Excellent set   April 5, 2000
oion (Boulder, CO)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

I've been looking for a good pair of supra-aural headphones under $50 - the problem is that circum-aural ones are too big, and normal supra-aurals hurt my ears after a while because I wear glasses and they pinch. These babies not only sound rich and full, they're so comfy with the extra stress pads. Very light. Highly recommended


My set is 15 years old and still sounds great   March 20, 2004
plug_it (Flagstaff, Arizona)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

After reading a few of these reviews which say these headphones are cheaply constructed, I had to post. As I type this I am listening to my set of Koss Porta-Pro I headphones which I purchased in 1989 and have been carrying all over the world with me ever since. They still sound awesome, and the only reason I logged onto Amazon.com to purchase a replacement is that the two large pieces of foam, which rest against the temples, have long since worn away and I thought it might be interesting to have that foam back.

While they might look fragile, I don't believe they are. When folded up, they seem to resist destruction very well indeed! Mine came with some kind of carrying case but I lost this over a decade ago and the headphones are usually just chucked in my bag and away we go. Or they are lying around my room, or tossed in a drawer full of junk with no protection. I use them constantly and the only thing I've done to them is to replace the ear foam numerous times over the years with earpiece foam from Radio Shack.

I have found that if one side or another begins buzzing, the problem has always been debris between the speaker and the inside of the foam earpieces. This begins to happen when the foam deteriorates and breaks up, but all that is required to restore sound quality is to remove the foam, vacuum the debris (crumbled foam or bits of human hair (gross)) out of the earpieces and reassemble with new foam for best results.

These headphones are awesome. People are always telling me they're the best sounding headphones those people have ever encountered, and it's a fact. You will not be the least bit unhappy with these.

BTW I do not listen to music quietly, I blare it. I suppose they are not as good as some other headphones at confining the sound to just the wearer, and for this they might not be the best choice on a plane or train. But as many times as I have overloaded them in 15 years of use, they have not blown.