UR20 Over-Ear Headphones, Flexible Sling Headband, Black

I've had a bunch of these over the years. Soft, comfortable, top band doesn't press on your head, clear sound, simple, and I've never broken the connections between phones and straps (unlike some other headphones). The cord is thick enough, though it sometimes kinks, and it's really too long to use with my ipod nanos. (I strap these to my biceps, or stick in a pocket--phones are awkward for this. Remember I'm very early GenX, so Word is the only tech I'm go at.) Over time, the plug will probably get bent (or I step on it) and lose volume on one side, so I do replace every 2 years. But worth it for the price, if you hate earbuds and don't want to mess with another Bluetooth. I have bought several other headphones, but never found a better value for price. (They will all have that plug bend issue--that's the nature of hard tech if you use it a lot.)

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!

Koss sub-$20 phones. Well constructed, comfortable phones, but noticeably weak mid-range and treble that is fixable by boosting upper frequencies with an equalizer. For me, headphones have basically two value-related components: sound quality, and physical construction. In my experience, most low-price-point phones, such as these, produce an acceptable sound but have poor construction, weak chord attachment, flimsy plastic adjustment points, etc., and are ready to fall apart very soon. With these Koss phones, that typical situation is reversed: the construction is good, the sound not so much. The construction is way better than the competition. These are sturdily made and should last a good while. The earpieces are plenty large and the headband works with my large head without being too tight. One reviewer dinged these phones because the over-head support is cloth/plastic. But I see this as a big plus because a very common problem with budget phones is that the foam on the earpieces and headpiece disintegrates quickly leaving a sonically functional set of phones that is nevertheless useless. This set won't have that problem on the headband, but the earpiece coverings are standard foam with cloth/plastic covering so it remains to be seen how long those hold up to being pulled on and off, and subjected to the inevitable skin moisture and oil. But, basically a well constructed set of phones. Sound-wise, though, it’s a different story. While the bass is good, and there’s plenty of it, the mid-range and treble are weak and the sound is flabby, as if heard through a wall. I don’t expect miracles in budget phones, but these have unacceptably weak mid-range and treble out of the box. The treble roll-off is very pronounced and the sound lifeless and flat without enhancing the mid and treble with an equalizer. This is a flaw in the way the phones are set up at the factory, not a limitation in the drivers, because I can get them to produce a very good sound with the equalizer. Though I was able to get a good balanced sound by fiddling with the equalizer settings on my source, that's got its own set of problems: you have to do it every time and with every device you use these on. Final note, some reviewers complained that the chord was too short. I was expecting something 18 inches long, but it’s three meters; plenty long enough for me. So, four stars: much better construction than the competition, capable of very good sound for the price, but you have to tweak the EQ.

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?

The sound is clear with nice treble but the bass isn’t there. Now they are very comfortable and sits over the ears good for the price they are good.And they handle the eq I have them on.After listening to them for a while and comparing to other brands these are some really good headphones. I’m changing my stars from 4 to 5 specially, for the price cannot lose with these.

I first purchased a pair of these headphones around a decade ago at a supermarket because they were cheap and looked like they'd just do what I needed for a little bit of time until I was able to purchase better headphones (I used them for practicing guitar. I needed headphones that would be able to handle the tonal range I'd be using). I never ended up purchasing other headphones because these were simply outstanding. They always had a very clean, super crisp, warm sound to them. Needless to say, I was impressed. I unfortunately broke them one day and just used a pair of headphones a friend gave to me. They were higher end phones, but they just didn't sound the same. Fast forward to present day- I was thinking about these things so I decided to give them another go. I couldn't have been happier. To put it in perspective, I have a pair of Shures that I paid 5 TIMES as much for that simply doesn't sound as crisp, tight, warm, and clear as these Koss headphones do. I use these headphones for gaming, listening to music, watching TV, watching movies, etc. They work extremely well in all these applications. And, lest we forget, these headphones are less than $20.00... you just can't go wrong. A balanced sound where the mids are most prominent, the highs are crisp but not tinny, and the lows are very smooth, but definitely not overpowering. These headphones are also comfortable. They has a canvas-type band that goes over the head, which is very comfortable and keeps the headphones in whatever position you want. They seem to have just the right amount of tension around the ears. The ears are padded with adequate foam that doesn't slide around too much. The best feature, however, in terms of comfort is the fact that they can so easily be used with only one ear by twisting the other ear around your head a bit more. It's difficult to explain, but just think of how a live DJ has one ear covered with headphones and the other ear open. When you do this, the removed side stays firmly on your head and is somehow still quite comfortable. So in all- Are these headphones are great as a pair of $200.00, high quality headphones? Not quite. But they most certainly will give them a run for their money. I'm not sure how Koss managed to pull this one off, but I really wish more companies would follow suit.

Edit: I've had these for a while now, and I'm dropping a star. Why? Sound quality. It's not as good as the $16 monoprice cans. Sometimes, these Koss UR-20 sound barely acceptable. Detailed review of them, compared to a few other models, below, unedited. I have four different sets of cheap-ish (Sub-$30 on Amazon) over the ear cans. (Cans are headphones, BTW!) This review compares the Koss UR-20 to the other three. I focus on things I can easily measure, but don't dwell much, if at all, on "quality of sound". Spoiler alert: The Koss takes second place! The contenders: Monoprice Premium Headphones Hi-Fi Over the Ear (far right in picture) Koss UR-20 (Middle right) Sennheiser HD 202 (Far left in picture) Audio-technica ATH-T22 (Middle left) What they all have in common: ------------------------------------------------------------------ - 1/8" plugs (Some come with 1/4" adapters) - Over the ear - Adjustable Pros and Cons of each: -------------------------------------- ==Monoprice== PROS: -- Strongest signal of the bunch. -- Removable cord -- Comes with two different cords -- Has the longest cord of the four -- Best isolation of the bunch -- Top of head padding CONS: -- Crappy name: Monoprice Premium Headphones Hi-Fi Over the Ear Pro DJ Style With Gold-Plated Adaptor Plug -- Ear-surrounding chamber could be a little bigger. These had the second-smallest internal/ear area of the bunch. ==Koss UR-20== PROS: -- Huge cans. Big enough for any ear. Biggest of the lot.Won't even touch your ears. -- Good isolation. (2nd best) CONS: -- Shortest cord, by far. -- No top of head padding. Just a cloth strip. -- Heaviest, by far. ==Sennheiser HD 202== PROS: -- Second-longest cord -- Decent top of head padding -- Easily removable ear cups, if that's your thing. -- Lightest headphones CONS: -- Poor isolation -- Smallest ear chambers -- Each can has its own wire lead -- models HD202 and HD202 MK11 are the same headphones and only the packaging differs. Sketchy. ==Audio-technica ATH-T22== PROS: -- Decent sized ear chambers -- Second lightest CONS: -- No top head padding. -- The worst isolation -- Each can has its own wire lead

Update: I am just about 4 years into these headphones (3 months left). They finally broke. The sliding part of it just detached. I was able to reattach it, but in the process broke the little strap that goes on top of the head (my fault completely). I still use them (new ones haven't come in yet) because you can still put them on like normal, just there is no head strap thingy, which is minor really. I will be keeping these as backup after I get my new headphones (this time I spent a little more to get ones with a mic). Think about that for a second. What broke is the mechanical part of these headphones. I have not had and still continue to not have any issues with the sound quality whatsoever (static, interference, bleed over). To the point that these will be kept in storage for any emergency needs or for sharing if a friend comes over. This is just ridiculous. I spent 16$ and got almost 4 years worth of use and they still haven't actually stopped working. I can't reiterate how great these have been for me. Not saying they didn't have issues (the sliding thing would never "stay", it would always reset see previous review), but for 16$, minor issue in my opinion that's easy to get around and they still work. This entire time, they stayed at home with my desktop and were used for gaming and music. Can't recommend enough! Great job Koss! Older review I did at 6months in, still stand by it: Really great headphones! Have had these for about 6 months now. Sound still clear, no distortion, and work pretty well. They block out most of the outside sound. Great headphones for the incredibly cheap price. They are fairly light for their size, adjustable. They are a bit large, so as long as you don't go around dropping them, they should be fine! I will say that I have a big head and these are pretty much the right size for me. For someone with a small head size or a shorter person (below 5') these may be a bit too large. On me (5'11'') they cover my ears completely and stay on my head regardless of movement. Pros: -Light Weight even though bulky -adjustable, the top of the headphones being cloth/fabric and rubber tubes is much better than giant metal/plastic band on your head! -clear sound and block outside sound pretty well -the wire input into the headphones has a little covering on it so you can't bend it too much and risk breaking the wires inside (have had this problem with other headphones) -wire on one side only,so easy to slip off and on without entangling your head in wires or needing two hands (those who have had headphones with wires on both the ears know what I mean) -So friking cheap!!!! These are so great! even if they last me till tomorrow, 6 months of use out of 15$ for these is an amazing steal. Cons: -Bit bulky. I am 5'11'' and these are great fit for me. Anyone 4'6'' or something around there will probably feel ridiculous with these on their heads.. -the adjustable sides will not stay in the position you set them. they will always close back up and you'll have to re-adjust almost every time you wear the headphones.

Very good value for the price. The mid-range is clear and the Bass though not deep is quite present. Was pleasantly surprised at the sound and build quality, compared to many higher priced products including Koss.

These are exceptionally good headphones for the money. They are big and look a bit stupid (though I think they look quite cool) but they are very comfortable for extended use. Very well cushioned and cover the ear nicely. The cord is straight and not too long, but of adequate length. The only problem with these is that they sound so good, that you end up using them more than you should. I have a pair of Sony MDR-7506 that cost over a hundred quid and a couple of pairs of cheap Sennheisers, to compare them to, and these sound fantastic. They are 32 ohms, so that means they are quite loud compared to other headphones, so no complaints there. They are a closed back design which means that you can blast them out as loud as they go and people around you won't be able to hear. This also means they block out sound from outside too as a bonus. There really isn't anything in this price range that compares with the comfort, loudness and sound quality of these cans. The bass is full and pronounced but not over emphasized, giving a truly wonderful listening experience. They are also solidly built and can take a lot of punsishment, again, for the price. Mine gave up and fell to bits after 2 years of wearing them to bed at night whilst sleeping! I have just bought my second pair. If there is a better pair of cans out there for the money, I'd like to know about it.

Auriculares robustos, buena calidad de sonido, muy cómodos, cubren toda la oreja, tienen el cable largo además de ser bastante grueso, estoy muy contento con la compra.

Machen was sie sollen. Etwas leise und rcht klobig. Sehen aufgesetzt merkwürdig aus aber für den Heimgebrauch ok.

Sound great and comfortable for price