It's been a mixed bag in a lot of ways. I finally had to retire the set I've been using since about 2001. I've always thought they were great 'phones. 16Hz to 20,000Hz, negligible distortion, very comfortable over-the-ear phones. One of the plastic tabs that holds the left earphone onto its pivoting frame got busted off, so now it's very difficult keeping that phone in place. Honestly I guess I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did, being rather fragile and all.

So I did some research and I found myself attracted to a set very similar to one I bought new back in 1971 -- the Koss Pro4AA phones. The set I bought in 1971 were the Pro4As, basically the same thing. I can still recall being stunned by the fidelity of those phones first time I put them on, and it was deja vu all over again when I put on these Pro4AAs. 10Hz to 25000Hz frequency response. Essentially zero THD. Over the ear, same as the Pro4As. Heck, they look virtually identical to the Pro4As. Come to think of it, I still have those old Pro4As in storage somewhere. That's the "good."

So anyway, I donned the phones and proceeded to listen to several tracks I'd just mastered and burned onto a CD -- and was immediately troubled. The mix just didn't sound nearly as good as it did with my old favorites. But that's because, among other things, I'm hearing things now that I didn't know even existed when I was mastering the CDs with my old phones.

So that's the "bad." Now it's looking like I'm gonna have to go back over every single tune and listen to each one with these new Koss phones, see if I think I can hear room for improvement. And I suspect I'm gonna hear that necessity with just about every tune I recorded. Three CDs worth of material. Jeesh.

For the most part, with the Koss phones, everything just sounds too hot, and I'll admit, I was pushing the limits when I recorded the tracks. But now I'm thinking I probably pushed a bit too hard. I'm hoping I might just be able to dial the levels down slightly this will be all that I'll need to do, but I know right now that, with a few of them at least, the mix is gonna need rebalancing.

So I'm curious. Has this ever happened to you? You get new better phones and suddenly everything's different?

Last edited by cooltouch; 06/05/18 10:14 PM.
Best,
Michael

My Music:
https://soundcloud.com/michaelmcbroom/albums