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Koss PortaPro. They leak sound like crazy and look like they came out of a time machine from the 1980's. But they're cheap and they sound great.

darkstar999 11y ago
Also Koss KSC75's. They are $15 on amazon right now and I swear they sound better than most $100+ cans. The self-proclaimed audiophiles over at head-fi.org love them. I wonder if they use the same speaker/driver as the porta pros?
brandall10 11y ago
That's a popular Head-fi recommendation, as well as their sibling the KSC-75 (same drivers). The great thing about headphone audio nowadays (as opposed to just 10 years ago) is there are quite a few low cost options that sound great. Unfortunately they're not well known unless you do some research. That said, if you want top-tier audio out of something extremely portable that isolates to a degree, I cannot recommend Sennheiser's IE800 highly enough. I've spent many a kilobuck over the past 15 years and these are some of my favs. Not cheap at $800 retail (used in the $500-600 area), but totally worth it if you listen often while working. I have other IEMs that cost 2-3x as much and prefer these. Most of time I use these in conjunction w/ Roon audio player and a Tidal sub straight out of the headphone port of my 13 rMBP - total audiophile bliss.
- andrewblossom 11y ago
  How do you find Roon? Worth the money?
an_ko 11y ago
I've owned 3 pairs of these. They're great for walking around in traffic or when you otherwise need to hear everything around you, and really do sound excellent for the price. All of mine died really fast though! The cable is so thin and the connector tail bit so short and inflexible, that plugging them into a phone and putting the phone in a trouser pocket daily is a 6-month death sentence tops.
- darkstar999 11y ago
  Search images for "portapro cable mod", it looks like it's pretty easy to replace that cheesy cable.

darkstar999 11y ago

Also Koss KSC75's. They are $15 on amazon right now and I swear they sound better than most $100+ cans. The self-proclaimed audiophiles over at head-fi.org love them. I wonder if they use the same speaker/driver as the porta pros?

brandall10 11y ago

That's a popular Head-fi recommendation, as well as their sibling the KSC-75 (same drivers). The great thing about headphone audio nowadays (as opposed to just 10 years ago) is there are quite a few low cost options that sound great. Unfortunately they're not well known unless you do some research. That said, if you want top-tier audio out of something extremely portable that isolates to a degree, I cannot recommend Sennheiser's IE800 highly enough. I've spent many a kilobuck over the past 15 years and these are some of my favs. Not cheap at $800 retail (used in the $500-600 area), but totally worth it if you listen often while working. I have other IEMs that cost 2-3x as much and prefer these. Most of time I use these in conjunction w/ Roon audio player and a Tidal sub straight out of the headphone port of my 13 rMBP - total audiophile bliss.

andrewblossom 11y ago
How do you find Roon? Worth the money?

an_ko 11y ago

I've owned 3 pairs of these. They're great for walking around in traffic or when you otherwise need to hear everything around you, and really do sound excellent for the price. All of mine died really fast though! The cable is so thin and the connector tail bit so short and inflexible, that plugging them into a phone and putting the phone in a trouser pocket daily is a 6-month death sentence tops.

darkstar999 11y ago
Search images for "portapro cable mod", it looks like it's pretty easy to replace that cheesy cable.