"Of course, the downside of this closed ear design is that somebody or something requires your attention while you're listening to music, you probably won't be able to hear it." lol what downside? that's exactly why I wear these kinds of headphones
There is a downside if there is a medical emergency or somebody came into your house and you didn't know it. Or what if your significant other or somebody needed your help or attention. That's what he was getting at
That reminds me of a Video from Doctor Mix (The Mellotron: Famous Songs), i was watching with my cheap Behringer HPS3000 Headphones on. At some point in the Video, someone behind the Camera whistles and Claps and i almost jumped off my exercise ball* because i thought someone was standing behind me. They are cheap headphones, but this moment really felt like the sound was coming from behind me. *Note: I use an exerciseball as chair for my desk
@@RSOFT92 that's how you know the recording is well mastered and your system is fine enough. One day I was watching some movie, and there was a silent scene where the characters were entering their apartment, recorded from the inside of the room. The door clacked and I put the movie on pause and went to check who the heck managed to break into my house?! Then it hit me - my left/right connection was messed up, so even though the door opened on the left in the movie, it came out of the right speaker, which is where the hallway was, and that was close enough to pass off as a real door lmao
@@app0the Something like this happened to me yesterday. Heard a new song for the first time via Headphones and i thought "Who is talking so loudly outside?". Wasn't someone talking outside, was someone talking in the background of the recording which i didnt hear via loudspeakers previously. But youre right, the right equipment (on both sides) can make all the difference.
@@mercuryoak2 I live by myself on the top floor of a secured building. It would take a helicopter or being Spider Man to break in to my apartment. If I am doing serious listening like editing tracks (I'm a musician) I want TOTAL isolation.
They seriously are. I worked at a college radio station and the studio headphones took such a beating garbage like this is what was used for guests. Anyone serious had their own cans but most got stuck with these -- complete with other peoples' hair grease!
I was never a fan of that "Studio Sound for Pros" description. Companies keep throwing it onto their audio products, and all it really means is "Competent, Balanced Enough" at best.
I saw these headphones hanging on the side of a laptop/chromebook cart in a classroom yesterday, and I remember the older variant connected to old reel-to-reel players in my school library in the early 80s. They're a staple in education. Large, sturdy, inexpensive. They'll connect to anything with TR or TRRS jack. They're adjustable and the large cups sit comfortably on heads of any size. And, very importantly, they're easy to clean!
The ones we had in school were terrible. Terribly uncomfortable, sound quality was crap, noise isolation was non-existent. I used to just bring my own.
My kid (if 34 is a "kid", LOL) is a Language Arts teacher and "Califone" is to educational audio what "Kodak" once was to film. It's an OMNIPRESENT brand in schools. And has been for decades. "Cheap" but rugged enough for use by -the little bastards- er, students. LOL
Comfortable? I have no idea how people came to the conclusion that these are comfortable. my ears always rests against the grill and it hurts after 10 minutes. They felt and sounded like shit in elementary school and they still do in high school. I have to angle them so the pads rest on my ears, sacrificing audio clarity for my own sanity and comfort.
I just remembered: Sony were the first to introduce headphones with rare-earth magnets - the BBC TV show Tomorrow's World demoed it in 1980 (there's a clip on the BBC Archive channel if anyone's interested.)
@@Ray_of_Light62it’s not hard to research before stating nonsense. From Sony corporation, “…but in the 1970s, highly magnetic rare-earth magnets and ultra-thin polyester film led to compact, 23-mm drivers - the prototype of current headphones, offering sufficient audio quality even from amp output powered by a dry cell battery. This was the MDR-3”
@@sonicbro6446 Smartphones with one speaker use only one channel of sound, not the sum of L+R. I have had several smartphones over the years, all of them had this drawback.
Holy crap. I work at a local news station, and I was editing a story yesterday that used footage from a school, and they had those exact headphones. You must be reading my mind, man. 😂
My daughter is a Language Arts teacher and "Califone" is to educational audio what "Kodak" once was to film. It's an OMNIPRESENT brand in schools. And has been for decades. "Cheap" but rugged enough for use by -the little bastards- er, students. LOL
@@williamjones4483 Califone equipment made before the turn of the 21st century though was MUCH more durable, and their old classroom phonographs actually sounded pretty good. Can't say they were good on records, with their 8 gram VTF, but their 6X9 speaker would crank out some pretty nice sound
Very similar UK late 60s 70s in our school language classroom we all sat in rows with them on our heads all connected to the same circuit, we had a prank in the silences one of us would say a rude word into their earphone and whole room laugh hear it in the other earphones same time.
I always sell Nova 45s on ebay for $50 and under on purpose to screw over the scumbags over-pricing them due to the Stranger Things tax. I also sold multiple WM-8 Walkmans (model she used which was considered extremely basic and cheap, back then) for similarly low prices. Never sold one for more than $100. Vultures on ebay are ruining walkman and audio sales.
Those crappy Califone headphones... My high school (in a large Ecuadorian city) had them in their English language labs, as they call them. Their audio quality was horrid. Very uncomfortable to wear, some of my classmates switched to their Discman headphones if they had the adaptor. Some headphones, even without one year of use, had issues with one or both speakers and even the 1/4" jack. That was between 2000 and 2003, and worn-out cassettes played with boomboxes of questionable fidelity were the norm. Eventually, I learned a bit of English by myself.
Ahhhhh, those later model caliphone ones look very familiar. My high school used those quite a lot in the computer labs. We had a system where some classes were taught digitally. So each student would have headphones so they could hear the lecture without bothering anyone else. It was a great system because we could all work at our own pace. This would have been some time around 2010 or so. Nobody knew this at the time, but I snuck an album of The Ventures onto my computer, so I could listen to surf music while doing the non lecture parts of the class.
13:46 The acting here makes it seem like whatever he's listening to is progressively getting worse and worse, and he's trying his best to act like he is enjoying what he's hearing. xD
When I was in high school during the late 80s, my mom bought me those types of headphones from Radio Shack because I kept blasting my rap tapes too loud. As a teen I balked at the size and 70s style compared to the "modern" marshmallow headphones I use for my Walkman...but once I used them the required bass, for hip-hop , sounded much better than the mini stereo speakers which were cheap. So I kept using those types of headphones eventually moving up to the Koss brand. Even now I use an expensive wireless headset to block out outside noise and immerse myself into the music and games on my PC.
Porta Pros are the only headphones I can wear comfortably with glasses. It amazes me that most headphone manufacturers create ear torturing devices with poorer sound for more money.
I like the SportaPro headphones even more. I guess the sound isn't as good as with the PortaPros (although I can't tell the difference) but I find the SportaPros to be even more comfortable.
Ugh, my first headphones were like that. Branded by a local department store. The reason they can be used as speakers is because that's exactly what they had in them. Like transistor radio speakers. Oh, you covered that This reminds me of my graphics history. Years after those i got some Q-10 it was it 15? Open back. They were ok. Have no idea who made then. Then some Audio Technica that sat on ear. They were actually pretty good. Then, at the time, really nice ones were the Sony MDR V6. Those were fantastic. Then back to some open backs, Grado SR60. Where i discovered how the 'sound stage' opens up with open back headphones. Those were great but don't last. Back to the you're cheap but sound good for the price Monoprice $20 specials. They will not last though. Cable and glue issues. So finally found out the MDR V6 is still sold and got another pair of them. And now for the first time i have 2 pairs of headphones. As i now have the very good sounding and comfortable Audio Technica ATH-M50X. Finally detachable cable! Oh, in this history I've had some rear buds but few were good sounding. Wow, after typing this i didn't realize how many is gone though.
Still have and use my MDR-V600 with the anti-booming mod that basically makes them into V6 (take the foam out of the middle of the magnet, it eliminates the artificially boosted bass). I master on them, along with a pair of Tannoy SRM-12B speakers.
12:07 As a longtime radio listener in the Washington, DC area, it makes me happy when you play the WRQX-FM/Mix 107.3 tape. We sadly lost it with the Cumulus-EMF deal in 2019, where it was turned into a K-Love affiliate.
I loved my Nova 45 headphones when I was in college. Wore them while walking to my classes listening to my Aiwa portable cassette player. wore them out, and ended up replacing them with PRO25's and was amazed at the sound of them...been using them since, and bought the Koss version of them a few years back myself
I literally have 10 pair of Koss Porta Pros. That's what I always used on my Walkmans lad. Bloody brilliant sound reproduction that does not need to be equalized.
We've all used them I'm sure, the Nova 28/57 kind I remember in school music classrooms hooked up to the Casio keyboards, I don't recall the brands we had being in the UK (that and I finished school in 2001), but I do recall those volume knobs and the Stereo/Mono switches, and them not being very good quality, I think my dad even had some pairs of both kinds for metal detecting for a while too... :\
8:44 No, "putting the left channel on all ears" is the correct way to connect it to mono device with mono TS-plug. Trying to plug these headphones in mono in a mono device will cause a short-circuit.
9:20 Bravo! I've got to pay that one - and yes, I was listening on headphones. I remember growing up we had a pair of the 'Nova-10' style headphones with K-Mart branding, they were just as bad as all the others.
I like the designs of the Walkman earphones more than the modern earphones (then the little earbud with little to no protection are garbage!). The modern earphones are ones I've been using for a large part of my life, and they feel pretty good.
They were bought because of being cheap. The Koss high end Radio Shack headphones suffered from tubby bass, and my neck muscles hated them. Which is why my radio career began with a pair of Sennheiser HD-414 cans in 1973. (my boss bought me a pair when he saw my neck in the position it was in). The Sennheisers still work great (I have a newer pair as well).
I personally just buy Shure and Sennheiser at this point. I've had the same Shure e2c ear buds for more years that I can remember, and the only reason that I am onto my second set of Sennheisers is because I got fancy and didn't want that screw that I had to insert due to me messing up the adjustments. Spend the money on a decent set and it'll probably last many decades as the sound quality is about as good as they're likely to ever achieve. Upgrading made me reencode my MP3 collection because what had been tolerable quality isn't with better listening equipment.
i can't stand the in-ear earbuds, so a decent pair of headphones is a must. Beats headphones are decent but good to know the Koss are a cheap alternative. Using Panasonic RP-HT21s now, they are decent enough.
How far we’ve come since those days. After hearing records and tapes on subpar components like this for years, it’s no wonder that when CDs were released, how amazing they sounded and how records and tapes took such a steep dive.
Great video, always like seeing Radio Shack products. Have you ever done a video showing all of the different in store brands that Radio Shack offered? Seems like each line of products had their own name, like Nova, Realistic, Optimus. Btw - I still use a large over the ear pair of headphones at work because that is the best way I have found to keep people from bothering me.
I remember having a pair like those in the early 90's. A giant pair of cheap plastic Sony branded ones, they cost $39.99 But they were Sony. Back then that was a very prestigious brand. 3:36 No highs, no lows, they must be Bose! Kidding, even though I still have my Bose 301 speakers from 1995 which I like, I remember that quote from the so-called gullible and easy to scam audiophiles. And dang! I still remember seeing that Garfield comic from 1987. I was a 14-year-old kid then.
I have the legendary DT770 Pro 32ohm that i bought on amazon Black Friday and Amazon cards for 56 dollars. The competition would be a HIFIman Sundara which is electrostatic, Sennheiser HD600 and 650 (legendary as well).
yep, had these in elementary school in the late 2000s/early 2010s. They were in the computer lab, but teachers normally had like 10 pairs of those on ear koss sets
Those black headphones are exactly the same as the ones I got around 1982. Mine were Philips branded. The sound quality was very low and they started hurting your head after just a short while, so I didn't use them much, but the stereo-mono switch made them perfect for checking the azimuth on my tape and cassette recorders.
Man, stop. I LOVED these headphones!! Back in the 80s and 90s these are the headphones I used to use with my Walkman because I hated the little cheapo headphones that came with the Walkman. My father would let me use a pair of his headphones because he was a musician and had about 6 pairs. Riding the subway to and from school, blasting music into my brain. Good times. The only thing that sucked was using the adapter to turn the huge jack into a small one.
I believe the Koss KTX-Pro1 "Titanium" headphones are the world's champion underrated headphones. They sell for near the bottom and I think they perform like $200 headphones. The one drawback you them is of course their build quality which is just cheap plastic. But they're very well designed; comfortable and reasonably durable considering their price. There very easy to drive, and they sound great on good equipment!
Yeah I think I'll stick to my 20-year-old HD650s. Btw, I'm fairly sure those "new" Novas were released in the mid-80s, not the 90s. My dad brought a pair of Philips-branded ones from the UK in 1987 (Philips SBC 487). Unless the Novas were a rip-off of those headphones, maybe?
@@kumarp3074Funny thing I acquired some 1980s Sennheiser and Beyerdynamics off eBay and the Sennies were brighter and the Beyers warmer, the companies have done a total flip-flop.
I appreciate the little stereo mic recording of the headphones. Personally, I've retrofitted a couple of these older headphones with some nicer modern (but still cheap) chinese speakers of brands like Superlux.
Those big black ones really were everywhere. I bought one as a kid in a supermarket in Germany. They are great headphones... to take apart and see how they work. That's what I did, because even back then, I hated the sound and was thinking I could improve them by messing with them 😅 Now I just bought another pair of big black headphones that won't go away even after being produced for almost 40 years. But which sound great. Guess which 😁
@@mechadeka Some of the more recent designs have a charger built into the case. You put the ear buds into the case, and a small battery starts to charge them. Get home and plug the case into the charger and everything stays charged.
Ah, yeah, these bring back memories. The school I went to as a kid actually used these, and for voice they were 'just fine'. And oof on the ReviewTech clip. What a self-destruction he had.
You do realize that VWestlife touches grass and doesn't care about UA-cam drama and only cares about a clip being relevant, informative or otherwise useful?
@@fungo6631 Pretty sure 200 bucks on a reputable brand (even Beats, so almost anybody) gets you a better sound than those cheapos. This is measurable through testing freq response with lab instruments. Serious reviewers do measurements. Don't trust old near-deaf feelings from audiophiles full of placebo effects, otherwise they may convince you to buy some overpriced vintage equipment or fancy new gadgets.
I had a pair of Pro 25s when I was growing up. They were really good headphones. I used them all the time and, if I remember correctly, it had a inline volume control. Never could find anything that sounded that good. I couldn't wear them at the radio station, so I never looked for another pair when they got lost.
Totally agree about the Koss titanium lightweights! Been using those since they first came out. They are very comfortable and very accurate and don't get so loud that they destroy your ears instantly. Can't think of any product that is a better bang for the buck! Are there ones out there that are 30% better? Sure, but they cost 10 or 20 times as much!!!! I'll stick with these👍🎷🎹🎸✌️
interesting video. One of the problems I've had with headphones recently is chinese knockoffs. I used to love the Sennheiser HD202 and was gutted when they discontinued it. I then saw some on Amazon, sold by amazon, and thought they must be leftover stock. But it turned out they were very convincing Chinese knockoffs that sounded absolutely awful. Physically it was hard to tell them apart - even with a pair of genuine Sennheiser headphones to compare them to, but sonically they were actually worse than teh first set of heapdhoens you showed here. I've also seen knockoff audio-technica headphones that again were almost perfect physical replicas of teh real thing but are totally unlistenable. I'd be interested in hearing that infinity promo in full.
Weirdly, the cheapest and supposedly worst headphones in the comparison give the best speech legibility (quite good actually), and the supposedly best headphones sound very much lacking in this department (very muddy sounding speech, despite much wider frequency range and response). If you ask me which ones I'd choose for non-music, talking content, I'd choose the first ones without any hesitation. Yes, they are not as good for music obviously, because of a narrow frequency range, but because they have quite decent resolution in the middle, they are much better for talking programs and won't make you feel tired after listening for 10 minutes. I'm saying it, because it's not as simple, when it comes to what you want from your headphones.
Oh god we had these at my elementary school for listening to books on tape and language learning tapes. They taught me at the age of 6 how big headphones don’t mean good sound. The only thing I liked about them was that it was my first exposure to 1/4” jacks. Definitely used to turn the volume up and use them as speakers lol😂
I love listening to your voice. By the way, I think we have a pair of the Realistic Nova 10! We use them to listen to audio coming in from an Audio Interface Recording Device while recording (mostly) nature sounds (rain, frogs, thunder...). They are definitely comfortable. They work well enough, and I don't have much to complain about them. Thank you for the interesting video!! :)
I used a pair of Koss Porta Pros for a couple of years, and later switched to Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro (the 32 ohm version) for travelling and DT990 Pro 250 ohm for home use. 5 years ago I got myself a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 IIs because my phone didn't have a 3,5mm jack socket anymore.
Even if I've got better headphones for home use and iems/earphones for portable use, I still keep my PortaPro Communication in case i ever need a headset with a mic on the go. It's the best headset mic ive experienced so far, damn near rivaling the desktop mic i typically use. Koss definitely makes some good stuff for the price (KSC75 also comes to mind).
@@joshuaford4460 I remember modding my pair of PortaPros with replacing the cable with one from an Apple headset, so I'd have an inline remote control and microphone as well.
Great vid and some fun history! I couldn't agree more on the notes at the end about good cheap headphones. If I'm not using my Sennheiser HD set with a pretty beefy amp... I'm using Koss Porta-Pros... and for what they are, they are amazing. And I got em for like $30. They even made some cool beige limited edition ones! I end up using the Koss as much if not more than the Sennheiser! (btw, i'm NOT saying they sound better.. but they sound great and are infinitely more usable, and easy to drive off anything)
@09:09 The speaker in your right hand is wired incorrectly. Unless it's some sort of oddball speaker, if you place the speaker terminal down, red should always go to the left.
Vintage headphones were something else, I remember my childhood and my dad still had his 20+ years old (back then) Realistic Custom Pro [made by Koss] listening to Tommy by The Who (when your name is Tommy, you like Tommy).
In amateur radio, we use the "reverse" smiley face. We also have a "phasing"/switch on our Heil Headphones, and you should try/review some Heil headphones! When mowing the lawn, you can use regular earphones with hearing protectors... It's the "poor man's" method. 😂 All the Best! 73 DE W8LV Bill
11:37 I liked how you did NOT say "and UA-cam's compression algorithm", since given the rest of the variables, that could obviously never make any discernible difference (blushed face for stating the obvious).
Going by your test as a comparison, the modern Peerless drivers I put in my Nova 10s have indeed improved the sound quality a lot, but the design of the casing itself still reduces it quite a bit.
Those big headphones like Califone weren’t too bad for just listening to audiobooks in elementary school, I remember we were in the library and listening to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, group of eight students with those headphones in the listening station.
I had a pair of Philips headphones when I was a child in the early 80s. Identical to your black headphones with the stereo/mono switch and volume controls. Around 1988 or so I had got hold of a pair of Pioneer SE-205 'coconuts' and although they were still budget headphones (and very heavy) I liked their tonal quality. At the time, around 1991 or so, I had bought a pair of headphones branded 'Pro Luxe Digital 2000' and those, I remember, had incredibly good sound. These days I have quite a few headphones to choose from, but I find myself going back to Grado SR80e when I am at home, Sennheiser Momentum OE2 when I am outside. Thanks for the interesting video & the trip down memory lane!
Quite some time ago, I made the mistake of buying a pair of vintage Koss K6 headphones to use with my stereo. Their beefy appearance had me fooled... right up until I plugged them in and heard how bad they really were. Also, because of their absurdly high clamping force, they were some of the most uncomfortable headphones I had ever worn. I don't recall having ever thrown them out, but I really should've. I've since learned not to be fooled by the majority of those vintage style "serious looking" headphones that typically sound worse than a landline phone. I had even considered replacing those Koss headphones with a pair similar to those Realistics--good thing I didn't!
Instantly recognized the califone ones. Saw these all throughout elementary and high school everywhere, and they were always garbage. If you were lucky both sides would work and the audio wouldn't cut in and out, but that's probably because of how much they were (ab)used by other students.
How you can make a video about headphones, and it keeps me glued to your video the entire 15 min. Lol. It's hard to find decent affordable headphones these days. I always liked the Sennheiser HD 202s no longer made.
Great work! I picked up a pair of vintage B&O Form 2 headphones for the full 1986 experience on my WM-F100 and they really did the job beautifull. I recently picked up one of those Surfans lossless portable players and they sound absolutely incredible on that too. But, bear in mind I really wanted something that didn't cut out all my hearing when walking to work, which isn't very fashionable apparently with all the noise cancelling technology these days.
I had a pair of Nova 40 headphones... I think a lot of people were put off my the beige color and hard plastic... but I thought they sounded great for the time (around 1986). I used them everywhere for a decade. They really took a beating, including one night I accidentally dropped them into my aquarium for a few hours... while I dried them out, the hard plastic warped a bit... but they kept working and I used them regularly for another few years. I still have them... but the plastics got icky. They sit in my box of old headphones and broken headphone parts waiting for the day I just chuck it all... with my Skull Candy Bluetooth units working well enough and sounding well enough, I'm probably not going back to cords. It was only because I found replacements that were more comfortable and lighter that I stopped using them... but the trade-off was the newer units broke and fell apart in short order. It probably wasn't unit 2004 that I found a pair that I actually preferred the sound of.
Those Pro-25s were made by Koss. My pair had Koss embossed on the 3.5mm jack's rubber molding. But the volume slider was pretty bad and always had a slight imbalance in the left/right until you wiggled it a couple times.
In 1984 when I was 14 years old , I bought a pair of headphones from Kmart (the big studio type) for $25. They sounded great! I used the smaller pair with my Walkman.
Those old giant headphones bring back memories! My parents had a set of them in the early to mid 80s. I used to love to plug them in to the giant Montgomery Ward branded console stereo they had. Even though the sound quality was poor it was the only way to listen to music really loud! In the early 90s I saved up and bought myself a good Sony Walkman, model WM-FX 43, and with it used multiple sets of Radio Shack Realistic PRO-25 headphones. The headphones were $39.95 each at the time and I loved the awesome sound they had. I used them everywhere and usually ended up having to buy a new set about once a year for a few years. These days I still prefer over the ear headphones. I have set of JBL branded ones for music listening while I use my computer and an inexpensive bluetooth set for when I do yard work with the mower or string trimmer.
Got something similar - a pair of '70s/80s Tonsil SN60. Made in Poland, they were really good quality, no deterioration through all these decades. I could experiment with out of phase headphones for the fun and curiosity, haha. You talking about Nova 45 phones almost makes me wanna give Hounds of Love a spin again. Man, do I love that album!
I'm a massive headphone user, got through a lot, wires are a pain in the ass so nowadays I'm wearing Bluetooth headphones, much much more convenient especially when I'm painting art as i like to listen to some sensational '70s sounds when I paint, i prefer over the ear cups for comfort and cancelling out background noise
It was the mylar drive units and the fully enclosed design that let them down. But they were bomb proof.However since covid i WFH and i'm on teams/zoom meetings all day i use something not too desimilar but with a built in microphone so they are headsets rather than headphones often i use only the microphone part and use speakers as well and only wear they when i am speaking. I use they because they are more robust and with only 1 wire they get in less of a tangle.
I remember the second one, our school had a language lab installed in 2002 or so. Really comfortable to wear as you mentioned, but didn't sound Hi-Fi for sure, and they had microphones.
I bought four of these two years ago when headphones were on the school supply list, they were Califone 2924-AVPS in translucent blue. No mono switch and one volume knob. Two made it back home at the end of the school year (guess the other teachers kept them.) My oldest daughter blew her pair with her mid-90's Optimus/Soundesign stereo. One is still hanging around.
I ran a pair of Nova 10's directly from the SPEAKER outputs (I modified the cord with RCA jacks.) of a modest (10 watt/channel) amp and they LIVED. LOL. Edit, I 100% Agree, The PRO-25 were damned nice cans. Once I heard them, I gave them out as Christmas gifts to my music loving family members. (At least I got them at an employee discount, LOL).
I found a picture (actually in the thumbnails to some of my videos) reminding me that not only did I record with Realistic Nova's in the 90's, but also MIXED- and even used the left earcup as a makeshift MICROPHONE on the drums 🤦♂️
The Radio Shack versions were usually everyone's first set of "Cans" many many years ago. Sound was improved by placing a sock inside the headphones behind the speaker to dampen the sound and slightly improve the low end. Next we moved up to the Radio Shack LV-10 headphones that actually were OEM by KOSS, (HV/1) and the plastic molded headphones actually still had the name KOSS on them even though they were badged LV-10 and sold by Radio Shack. The LV-10 and HV/1 response was 20 - 20,000, very good, but the big brother to them in the same form factor, same looks, was the KOSS HV/1A with the superior driver with a response of 20 - 30,000. While no one can hear 30,000 hz, the accuracy of all of the audio frequencies that you can hear, is quite clear and will really surprise you. We're not talking newer CDs, mp3s or FM radio here, those all lack real audio definition. And not just Classical, but vintage Rock like Yes, Pink Floyd, Procol Harum and many others. Never accept what other opinions are regarding headphones as everyone has different ears, ear canals, and interpretations of how things should sound. Some like a Boom Boom Boom sound where a real audio purist wants to hear every instrument. And notice that no longer do they provide actual printed test specifications, just unscientific opinions.
i had these as a kid in elementary school from kindergarten to 5th grade, all throughout that time those headphones were still extremely uncomfortable. i also managed to half blow one of them out and a lot of times kids would tear the decal off the side/rip off the foam pads
A long time ago, i ripped apart some very old headphones that could just be the ones in the video. They didn´t even sound good to my ears when i was a little 4 year old kid. There were literally two cheap little papercone speakers inside. Just like with yours. The mass of the cones and the hard suspension won´t allow for deep bass at what is like maybe 1-10mW input power, which is typical for headphones. Btw. the price tag for the Nova-45 is absolutely nuts and anyone who tries to rip off people like that should be ashamed of themselves...
Optimus made some good quality audio equipment. My father had an Optimus mini stereo receiver (STA-300 if I remember it correctly) and it performed just as well as the higher end brands.
"Of course, the downside of this closed ear design is that somebody or something requires your attention while you're listening to music, you probably won't be able to hear it." lol what downside? that's exactly why I wear these kinds of headphones
There is a downside if there is a medical emergency or somebody came into your house and you didn't know it. Or what if your significant other or somebody needed your help or attention. That's what he was getting at
That reminds me of a Video from Doctor Mix (The Mellotron: Famous Songs), i was watching with my cheap Behringer HPS3000 Headphones on.
At some point in the Video, someone behind the Camera whistles and Claps and i almost jumped off my exercise ball* because i thought someone was standing behind me.
They are cheap headphones, but this moment really felt like the sound was coming from behind me.
*Note: I use an exerciseball as chair for my desk
@@RSOFT92 that's how you know the recording is well mastered and your system is fine enough. One day I was watching some movie, and there was a silent scene where the characters were entering their apartment, recorded from the inside of the room. The door clacked and I put the movie on pause and went to check who the heck managed to break into my house?! Then it hit me - my left/right connection was messed up, so even though the door opened on the left in the movie, it came out of the right speaker, which is where the hallway was, and that was close enough to pass off as a real door lmao
@@app0the
Something like this happened to me yesterday. Heard a new song for the first time via Headphones and i thought "Who is talking so loudly outside?".
Wasn't someone talking outside, was someone talking in the background of the recording which i didnt hear via loudspeakers previously.
But youre right, the right equipment (on both sides) can make all the difference.
@@mercuryoak2 I live by myself on the top floor of a secured building. It would take a helicopter or being Spider Man to break in to my apartment. If I am doing serious listening like editing tracks (I'm a musician) I want TOTAL isolation.
"Professional Studio" - but nobody said it was audio production studio, maybe professional hair styling studio.
They seriously are. I worked at a college radio station and the studio headphones took such a beating garbage like this is what was used for guests. Anyone serious had their own cans but most got stuck with these -- complete with other peoples' hair grease!
that's because -"hair styling studio"- sounds like an example of Orwellian New Speach
I was never a fan of that "Studio Sound for Pros" description. Companies keep throwing it onto their audio products, and all it really means is "Competent, Balanced Enough" at best.
I don't like your chances of getting a decent haircut with these on.
Or 8-square-meter "studios" marketed to "young professionals" in my city. Only 200k euros, batteries not included, but at least it has a water faucet.
I saw these headphones hanging on the side of a laptop/chromebook cart in a classroom yesterday, and I remember the older variant connected to old reel-to-reel players in my school library in the early 80s.
They're a staple in education. Large, sturdy, inexpensive. They'll connect to anything with TR or TRRS jack. They're adjustable and the large cups sit comfortably on heads of any size. And, very importantly, they're easy to clean!
in grade 8, my school had a pile of these awful things and literally all of them had a non-functioning right ear cup
The ones we had in school were terrible. Terribly uncomfortable, sound quality was crap, noise isolation was non-existent. I used to just bring my own.
And for that, they did a pretty good job.
My kid (if 34 is a "kid", LOL) is a Language Arts teacher and "Califone" is to educational audio what "Kodak" once was to film. It's an OMNIPRESENT brand in schools. And has been for decades. "Cheap" but rugged enough for use by -the little bastards- er, students. LOL
Comfortable? I have no idea how people came to the conclusion that these are comfortable. my ears always rests against the grill and it hurts after 10 minutes. They felt and sounded like shit in elementary school and they still do in high school. I have to angle them so the pads rest on my ears, sacrificing audio clarity for my own sanity and comfort.
The difference of quality between these three is very noticeable on a built-in speaker of a cheap smartphone.
The pair I had sounded very good. I think there may have been a lot of variance based on which brand made it.
same here on dell chromebook latitude.
I just remembered: Sony were the first to introduce headphones with rare-earth magnets - the BBC TV show Tomorrow's World demoed it in 1980 (there's a clip on the BBC Archive channel if anyone's interested.)
Those used samarium and cobalt. Neodymium arrived in the audio sector much later.
@@Ray_of_Light62it’s not hard to research before stating nonsense. From Sony corporation, “…but in the 1970s, highly magnetic rare-earth magnets and ultra-thin polyester film led to compact, 23-mm drivers - the prototype of current headphones, offering sufficient audio quality even from amp output powered by a dry cell battery. This was the MDR-3”
@@Dingleberry1856 samarium-cobalt is a type of rare earth magnet
@@puppable I know, and you know but I was letting Ray_of_Light62 in on the secret.
I have my "Samarium Cobalt Supermagnet" Ross RE-278 headphones from around 1982. They still sound surprisingly good. But they weren't cheap.
That out of phase demonstration was 🤌🏻
I know, right? VERY good demo!
The only problem is for those who are watching this on a smartphone or in mono, they won't get any sound due to the inverted signal
@@sonicbro6446 Smartphones with one speaker use only one channel of sound, not the sum of L+R. I have had several smartphones over the years, all of them had this drawback.
9:57 - here in Germany this is called the "bathtub" setting 😊
The "V" 😄
Holy crap. I work at a local news station, and I was editing a story yesterday that used footage from a school, and they had those exact headphones. You must be reading my mind, man. 😂
I remember using those headphones when we had state testing. Another reason to hate them
Califone made A/V equipment aimed primarily to educational and institutional use. Don't expect great sound quality from them.
My daughter is a Language Arts teacher and "Califone" is to educational audio what "Kodak" once was to film. It's an OMNIPRESENT brand in schools. And has been for decades. "Cheap" but rugged enough for use by -the little bastards- er, students. LOL
@@williamjones4483 Califone equipment made before the turn of the 21st century though was MUCH more durable, and their old classroom phonographs actually sounded pretty good. Can't say they were good on records, with their 8 gram VTF, but their 6X9 speaker would crank out some pretty nice sound
Very similar UK late 60s 70s in our school language classroom we all sat in rows with them on our heads all connected to the same circuit, we had a prank in the silences one of us would say a rude word into their earphone and whole room laugh hear it in the other earphones same time.
I always sell Nova 45s on ebay for $50 and under on purpose to screw over the scumbags over-pricing them due to the Stranger Things tax. I also sold multiple WM-8 Walkmans (model she used which was considered extremely basic and cheap, back then) for similarly low prices. Never sold one for more than $100.
Vultures on ebay are ruining walkman and audio sales.
I love it when idiot sellers say "Stranger Things" and multiply the price by 5. Their items don't sell
You’re doing god’s work.
You can buy Sony Pros for that price.
@@mramisuzuki6962 Why would you use Sony pros with vintage hardware, though
@@DavidWasman they are vintage hardware.
Had a pair "sound-quality" resembled being underwater.
Okay the out of phase audio bit at 9:20 was really cool and appreciated. Even on desktop speakers the effect was, as you said, disconcerting.
Those crappy Califone headphones... My high school (in a large Ecuadorian city) had them in their English language labs, as they call them. Their audio quality was horrid. Very uncomfortable to wear, some of my classmates switched to their Discman headphones if they had the adaptor. Some headphones, even without one year of use, had issues with one or both speakers and even the 1/4" jack.
That was between 2000 and 2003, and worn-out cassettes played with boomboxes of questionable fidelity were the norm. Eventually, I learned a bit of English by myself.
Ahhhhh, those later model caliphone ones look very familiar.
My high school used those quite a lot in the computer labs. We had a system where some classes were taught digitally. So each student would have headphones so they could hear the lecture without bothering anyone else. It was a great system because we could all work at our own pace. This would have been some time around 2010 or so.
Nobody knew this at the time, but I snuck an album of The Ventures onto my computer, so I could listen to surf music while doing the non lecture parts of the class.
Such a bad boy
13:46 The acting here makes it seem like whatever he's listening to is progressively getting worse and worse, and he's trying his best to act like he is enjoying what he's hearing. xD
"Stay calm and don't say anything if you want to see your loved ones again. Instructions to follow..." 😬
Good call. I definitely wouldn't be one to delve into the circumaural vs. uncutaural debate either.
Intactaural thank you very much :P
@@bens1343 🤣 Lol. Not judging either way. Looks like I ended up in the debate after all.
Shirts vs. Skins of audio
The WHAT
When I was in high school during the late 80s, my mom bought me those types of headphones from Radio Shack because I kept blasting my rap tapes too loud.
As a teen I balked at the size and 70s style compared to the "modern" marshmallow headphones I use for my Walkman...but once I used them the required bass, for hip-hop , sounded much better than the mini stereo speakers which were cheap. So I kept using those types of headphones eventually moving up to the Koss brand.
Even now I use an expensive wireless headset to block out outside noise and immerse myself into the music and games on my PC.
Porta Pros are the only headphones I can wear comfortably with glasses. It amazes me that most headphone manufacturers create ear torturing devices with poorer sound for more money.
I like the SportaPro headphones even more. I guess the sound isn't as good as with the PortaPros (although I can't tell the difference) but I find the SportaPros to be even more comfortable.
I love how comfy they are, no feeling of being clamped whatsoever.
Ugh, my first headphones were like that. Branded by a local department store. The reason they can be used as speakers is because that's exactly what they had in them. Like transistor radio speakers. Oh, you covered that
This reminds me of my graphics history. Years after those i got some Q-10 it was it 15? Open back. They were ok. Have no idea who made then. Then some Audio Technica that sat on ear. They were actually pretty good. Then, at the time, really nice ones were the Sony MDR V6. Those were fantastic. Then back to some open backs, Grado SR60. Where i discovered how the 'sound stage' opens up with open back headphones. Those were great but don't last. Back to the you're cheap but sound good for the price Monoprice $20 specials. They will not last though. Cable and glue issues. So finally found out the MDR V6 is still sold and got another pair of them. And now for the first time i have 2 pairs of headphones. As i now have the very good sounding and comfortable Audio Technica ATH-M50X. Finally detachable cable! Oh, in this history I've had some rear buds but few were good sounding. Wow, after typing this i didn't realize how many is gone though.
Still have and use my MDR-V600 with the anti-booming mod that basically makes them into V6 (take the foam out of the middle of the magnet, it eliminates the artificially boosted bass). I master on them, along with a pair of Tannoy SRM-12B speakers.
12:07 As a longtime radio listener in the Washington, DC area, it makes me happy when you play the WRQX-FM/Mix 107.3 tape. We sadly lost it with the Cumulus-EMF deal in 2019, where it was turned into a K-Love affiliate.
The first headphone set I purchased was when I was working at Radio Shack, the Realistic/Koss Pro-60 and used them for more than 15 years.
Former Shackers UNITE! 👍👍
I loved my Nova 45 headphones when I was in college. Wore them while walking to my classes listening to my Aiwa portable cassette player. wore them out, and ended up replacing them with PRO25's and was amazed at the sound of them...been using them since, and bought the Koss version of them a few years back myself
I literally have 10 pair of Koss Porta Pros. That's what I always used on my Walkmans lad. Bloody brilliant sound reproduction that does not need to be equalized.
We've all used them I'm sure, the Nova 28/57 kind I remember in school music classrooms hooked up to the Casio keyboards, I don't recall the brands we had being in the UK (that and I finished school in 2001), but I do recall those volume knobs and the Stereo/Mono switches, and them not being very good quality, I think my dad even had some pairs of both kinds for metal detecting for a while too... :\
8:44 No, "putting the left channel on all ears" is the correct way to connect it to mono device with mono TS-plug. Trying to plug these headphones in mono in a mono device will cause a short-circuit.
9:20 Bravo! I've got to pay that one - and yes, I was listening on headphones. I remember growing up we had a pair of the 'Nova-10' style headphones with K-Mart branding, they were just as bad as all the others.
I like the designs of the Walkman earphones more than the modern earphones (then the little earbud with little to no protection are garbage!). The modern earphones are ones I've been using for a large part of my life, and they feel pretty good.
They had no bass response though.
yes it’s just hard to come across that type of design but i have found new ones like that w the old design but a bit cheapo (from office depot)
Basically, on-ear headphones? You can still find new cans with a similar design, like a lot of Koss headphones.
They were bought because of being cheap. The Koss high end Radio Shack headphones suffered from tubby bass, and my neck muscles hated them. Which is why my radio career began with a pair of Sennheiser HD-414 cans in 1973. (my boss bought me a pair when he saw my neck in the position it was in). The Sennheisers still work great (I have a newer pair as well).
I personally just buy Shure and Sennheiser at this point. I've had the same Shure e2c ear buds for more years that I can remember, and the only reason that I am onto my second set of Sennheisers is because I got fancy and didn't want that screw that I had to insert due to me messing up the adjustments.
Spend the money on a decent set and it'll probably last many decades as the sound quality is about as good as they're likely to ever achieve. Upgrading made me reencode my MP3 collection because what had been tolerable quality isn't with better listening equipment.
i can't stand the in-ear earbuds, so a decent pair of headphones is a must. Beats headphones are decent but good to know the Koss are a cheap alternative. Using Panasonic RP-HT21s now, they are decent enough.
thank you for that unannounced demo of out of phase audio, i almost thought the voices had come back!
Anyone who went to public school in the 80s ought to recognize these suckers. I remember them being plugged into old Voice of Music record players.
How far we’ve come since those days. After hearing records and tapes on subpar components like this for years, it’s no wonder that when CDs were released, how amazing they sounded and how records and tapes took such a steep dive.
"Lección tres, ejerciccio dos. Listen to the model, and repeat the phrase when prompted..."
Great video, always like seeing Radio Shack products. Have you ever done a video showing all of the different in store brands that Radio Shack offered? Seems like each line of products had their own name, like Nova, Realistic, Optimus.
Btw - I still use a large over the ear pair of headphones at work because that is the best way I have found to keep people from bothering me.
I remember having a pair like those in the early 90's. A giant pair of cheap plastic Sony branded ones, they cost $39.99 But they were Sony. Back then that was a very prestigious brand. 3:36 No highs, no lows, they must be Bose! Kidding, even though I still have my Bose 301 speakers from 1995 which I like, I remember that quote from the so-called gullible and easy to scam audiophiles. And dang! I still remember seeing that Garfield comic from 1987. I was a 14-year-old kid then.
nice skycorp cameo
Smithers O'Neil FTW
I recently bought a new pair of Koss Porta Pro's. They're still the best cheap headphones you'll ever get!
neodymium magnets have improved headphones so much since then
I have the legendary DT770 Pro 32ohm that i bought on amazon Black Friday and Amazon cards for 56 dollars. The competition would be a HIFIman Sundara which is electrostatic, Sennheiser HD600 and 650 (legendary as well).
@@saricubra2867 Hifiman Sundaras are planar magnetic, not electrostatic.
yep, had these in elementary school in the late 2000s/early 2010s. They were in the computer lab, but teachers normally had like 10 pairs of those on ear koss sets
Those black headphones are exactly the same as the ones I got around 1982. Mine were Philips branded. The sound quality was very low and they started hurting your head after just a short while, so I didn't use them much, but the stereo-mono switch made them perfect for checking the azimuth on my tape and cassette recorders.
Man, stop. I LOVED these headphones!! Back in the 80s and 90s these are the headphones I used to use with my Walkman because I hated the little cheapo headphones that came with the Walkman. My father would let me use a pair of his headphones because he was a musician and had about 6 pairs. Riding the subway to and from school, blasting music into my brain. Good times. The only thing that sucked was using the adapter to turn the huge jack into a small one.
I believe the Koss KTX-Pro1 "Titanium" headphones are the world's champion underrated headphones. They sell for near the bottom and I think they perform like $200 headphones. The one drawback you them is of course their build quality which is just cheap plastic. But they're very well designed; comfortable and reasonably durable considering their price. There very easy to drive, and they sound great on good equipment!
Yeah I think I'll stick to my 20-year-old HD650s. Btw, I'm fairly sure those "new" Novas were released in the mid-80s, not the 90s. My dad brought a pair of Philips-branded ones from the UK in 1987 (Philips SBC 487). Unless the Novas were a rip-off of those headphones, maybe?
I still use my HD580 I purchased back in the 90s. Best pair of headphones I've ever owned.
@@kumarp3074Funny thing I acquired some 1980s Sennheiser and Beyerdynamics off eBay and the Sennies were brighter and the Beyers warmer, the companies have done a total flip-flop.
Surprisingly, even on my Pixel 7smartphone speakers I got the gist pretty well of the difference between the three pairs of headphones.
Unsurprising considering that most of them lack bass.
9:20 🤣🤣🤣 "...the sound come from inside your head..."
I was wondering how he knew they were out of phase..and then "oh".
I appreciate the little stereo mic recording of the headphones. Personally, I've retrofitted a couple of these older headphones with some nicer modern (but still cheap) chinese speakers of brands like Superlux.
Those big black ones really were everywhere. I bought one as a kid in a supermarket in Germany. They are great headphones... to take apart and see how they work. That's what I did, because even back then, I hated the sound and was thinking I could improve them by messing with them 😅
Now I just bought another pair of big black headphones that won't go away even after being produced for almost 40 years. But which sound great. Guess which 😁
I'm a big headphone enjoyer. The amount of times i lost those stupid earbuds i'm never going back to them
Moreso with the modern earpods wireless designs!
@@LapisandHamtarolover ??
You put them in the charger when you take them out.
@@mechadeka No you dont. You only do that if they are dead
Same. Headphones usally have better sound quality, plus they stay on much better than earbuds
@@mechadeka Some of the more recent designs have a charger built into the case. You put the ear buds into the case, and a small battery starts to charge them. Get home and plug the case into the charger and everything stays charged.
nice cameo of SkyCorp Home Video!
I thought that was Smithers O'Neil
I noticed that as well, came down to the comments to see if anyone else did.
Ah, yeah, these bring back memories. The school I went to as a kid actually used these, and for voice they were 'just fine'.
And oof on the ReviewTech clip. What a self-destruction he had.
You do realize that VWestlife touches grass and doesn't care about UA-cam drama and only cares about a clip being relevant, informative or otherwise useful?
@@fungo6631How about funny? Because saying they're equi elant to $200+ headphones is certainly that.
@@nightbirdds Maybe they really are.
@@fungo6631 I can safely say, they are not. I think VW's choice of that clip was an ironic one.
@@fungo6631 Pretty sure 200 bucks on a reputable brand (even Beats, so almost anybody) gets you a better sound than those cheapos. This is measurable through testing freq response with lab instruments. Serious reviewers do measurements. Don't trust old near-deaf feelings from audiophiles full of placebo effects, otherwise they may convince you to buy some overpriced vintage equipment or fancy new gadgets.
I had a pair of Pro 25s when I was growing up. They were really good headphones. I used them all the time and, if I remember correctly, it had a inline volume control. Never could find anything that sounded that good. I couldn't wear them at the radio station, so I never looked for another pair when they got lost.
Totally agree about the Koss titanium lightweights! Been using those since they first came out. They are very comfortable and very accurate and don't get so loud that they destroy your ears instantly. Can't think of any product that is a better bang for the buck! Are there ones out there that are 30% better? Sure, but they cost 10 or 20 times as much!!!!
I'll stick with these👍🎷🎹🎸✌️
Great video, as always, Kevin. A pair of affordable Samson SR850 (Superlux OEM) sound way better than any of these.
13:53 Woah, is that Linus' (last name Tech Tips) Grandfather?
🤣😂🙃😉
It really DOES look like him!
😂 i'm a big fan of your channel, didn't expect you here
interesting video. One of the problems I've had with headphones recently is chinese knockoffs. I used to love the Sennheiser HD202 and was gutted when they discontinued it. I then saw some on Amazon, sold by amazon, and thought they must be leftover stock. But it turned out they were very convincing Chinese knockoffs that sounded absolutely awful. Physically it was hard to tell them apart - even with a pair of genuine Sennheiser headphones to compare them to, but sonically they were actually worse than teh first set of heapdhoens you showed here. I've also seen knockoff audio-technica headphones that again were almost perfect physical replicas of teh real thing but are totally unlistenable. I'd be interested in hearing that infinity promo in full.
I had a set of Philips branded Nova28/Califone some years ago. I thought they were alright at the time but a small child broke them - he's 23 now!
Weirdly, the cheapest and supposedly worst headphones in the comparison give the best speech legibility (quite good actually), and the supposedly best headphones sound very much lacking in this department (very muddy sounding speech, despite much wider frequency range and response). If you ask me which ones I'd choose for non-music, talking content, I'd choose the first ones without any hesitation. Yes, they are not as good for music obviously, because of a narrow frequency range, but because they have quite decent resolution in the middle, they are much better for talking programs and won't make you feel tired after listening for 10 minutes. I'm saying it, because it's not as simple, when it comes to what you want from your headphones.
Oh god we had these at my elementary school for listening to books on tape and language learning tapes. They taught me at the age of 6 how big headphones don’t mean good sound. The only thing I liked about them was that it was my first exposure to 1/4” jacks. Definitely used to turn the volume up and use them as speakers lol😂
Yep, they were in my language classes in the Netherlands too.
I love listening to your voice.
By the way, I think we have a pair of the Realistic Nova 10!
We use them to listen to audio coming in from an Audio Interface Recording Device while recording (mostly) nature sounds (rain, frogs, thunder...).
They are definitely comfortable. They work well enough, and I don't have much to complain about them.
Thank you for the interesting video!! :)
Send all of these over to The Headphone Show for B&K 5128C measurements immediately of course
I used a pair of Koss Porta Pros for a couple of years, and later switched to Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro (the 32 ohm version) for travelling and DT990 Pro 250 ohm for home use. 5 years ago I got myself a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 IIs because my phone didn't have a 3,5mm jack socket anymore.
Even if I've got better headphones for home use and iems/earphones for portable use, I still keep my PortaPro Communication in case i ever need a headset with a mic on the go. It's the best headset mic ive experienced so far, damn near rivaling the desktop mic i typically use. Koss definitely makes some good stuff for the price (KSC75 also comes to mind).
@@joshuaford4460 I remember modding my pair of PortaPros with replacing the cable with one from an Apple headset, so I'd have an inline remote control and microphone as well.
Great vid and some fun history! I couldn't agree more on the notes at the end about good cheap headphones. If I'm not using my Sennheiser HD set with a pretty beefy amp... I'm using Koss Porta-Pros... and for what they are, they are amazing. And I got em for like $30. They even made some cool beige limited edition ones! I end up using the Koss as much if not more than the Sennheiser! (btw, i'm NOT saying they sound better.. but they sound great and are infinitely more usable, and easy to drive off anything)
@09:09 The speaker in your right hand is wired incorrectly. Unless it's some sort of oddball speaker, if you place the speaker terminal down, red should always go to the left.
Vintage headphones were something else, I remember my childhood and my dad still had his 20+ years old (back then) Realistic Custom Pro [made by Koss] listening to Tommy by The Who (when your name is Tommy, you like Tommy).
In amateur radio, we use the "reverse" smiley face. We also have a "phasing"/switch on our Heil Headphones, and you should try/review some Heil headphones! When mowing the lawn, you can use regular earphones with hearing protectors... It's the "poor man's" method. 😂 All the Best! 73 DE W8LV Bill
11:37 I liked how you did NOT say "and UA-cam's compression algorithm", since given the rest of the variables, that could obviously never make any discernible difference (blushed face for stating the obvious).
Going by your test as a comparison, the modern Peerless drivers I put in my Nova 10s have indeed improved the sound quality a lot, but the design of the casing itself still reduces it quite a bit.
Those big headphones like Califone weren’t too bad for just listening to audiobooks in elementary school, I remember we were in the library and listening to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, group of eight students with those headphones in the listening station.
I had a pair of Philips headphones when I was a child in the early 80s. Identical to your black headphones with the stereo/mono switch and volume controls. Around 1988 or so I had got hold of a pair of Pioneer SE-205 'coconuts' and although they were still budget headphones (and very heavy) I liked their tonal quality. At the time, around 1991 or so, I had bought a pair of headphones branded 'Pro Luxe Digital 2000' and those, I remember, had incredibly good sound. These days I have quite a few headphones to choose from, but I find myself going back to Grado SR80e when I am at home, Sennheiser Momentum OE2 when I am outside. Thanks for the interesting video & the trip down memory lane!
Quite some time ago, I made the mistake of buying a pair of vintage Koss K6 headphones to use with my stereo. Their beefy appearance had me fooled... right up until I plugged them in and heard how bad they really were. Also, because of their absurdly high clamping force, they were some of the most uncomfortable headphones I had ever worn. I don't recall having ever thrown them out, but I really should've. I've since learned not to be fooled by the majority of those vintage style "serious looking" headphones that typically sound worse than a landline phone. I had even considered replacing those Koss headphones with a pair similar to those Realistics--good thing I didn't!
Instantly recognized the califone ones. Saw these all throughout elementary and high school everywhere, and they were always garbage. If you were lucky both sides would work and the audio wouldn't cut in and out, but that's probably because of how much they were (ab)used by other students.
How you can make a video about headphones, and it keeps me glued to your video the entire 15 min. Lol. It's hard to find decent affordable headphones these days. I always liked the Sennheiser HD 202s no longer made.
The Nova 45s sounded much better than other 2 headphones. One of the best headphones of the 1980s and 1990s are the Sony MDR-7506.
Great work! I picked up a pair of vintage B&O Form 2 headphones for the full 1986 experience on my WM-F100 and they really did the job beautifull. I recently picked up one of those Surfans lossless portable players and they sound absolutely incredible on that too. But, bear in mind I really wanted something that didn't cut out all my hearing when walking to work, which isn't very fashionable apparently with all the noise cancelling technology these days.
Speaking of Califone, I'd like to get one of the old "built like a tank" Califone classroom record players, but they have gone up in price recently.
You have almost the same exact model stereo as my brother (in the day) which he had with the Nova 40 headphones.
I had a pair of Nova 40 headphones... I think a lot of people were put off my the beige color and hard plastic... but I thought they sounded great for the time (around 1986). I used them everywhere for a decade. They really took a beating, including one night I accidentally dropped them into my aquarium for a few hours... while I dried them out, the hard plastic warped a bit... but they kept working and I used them regularly for another few years. I still have them... but the plastics got icky. They sit in my box of old headphones and broken headphone parts waiting for the day I just chuck it all... with my Skull Candy Bluetooth units working well enough and sounding well enough, I'm probably not going back to cords.
It was only because I found replacements that were more comfortable and lighter that I stopped using them... but the trade-off was the newer units broke and fell apart in short order. It probably wasn't unit 2004 that I found a pair that I actually preferred the sound of.
I ordered a pair of Koss KTXPro1 headphones on Amazon just now, based on your recommendation. Thanks!
Those Pro-25s were made by Koss. My pair had Koss embossed on the 3.5mm jack's rubber molding. But the volume slider was pretty bad and always had a slight imbalance in the left/right until you wiggled it a couple times.
In 1984 when I was 14 years old , I bought a pair of headphones from Kmart (the big studio type) for $25. They sounded great!
I used the smaller pair with my Walkman.
Those old giant headphones bring back memories! My parents had a set of them in the early to mid 80s. I used to love to plug them in to the giant Montgomery Ward branded console stereo they had. Even though the sound quality was poor it was the only way to listen to music really loud!
In the early 90s I saved up and bought myself a good Sony Walkman, model WM-FX 43, and with it used multiple sets of Radio Shack Realistic PRO-25 headphones. The headphones were $39.95 each at the time and I loved the awesome sound they had. I used them everywhere and usually ended up having to buy a new set about once a year for a few years.
These days I still prefer over the ear headphones. I have set of JBL branded ones for music listening while I use my computer and an inexpensive bluetooth set for when I do yard work with the mower or string trimmer.
Got something similar - a pair of '70s/80s Tonsil SN60. Made in Poland, they were really good quality, no deterioration through all these decades.
I could experiment with out of phase headphones for the fun and curiosity, haha.
You talking about Nova 45 phones almost makes me wanna give Hounds of Love a spin again. Man, do I love that album!
I'm a massive headphone user, got through a lot, wires are a pain in the ass so nowadays I'm wearing Bluetooth headphones, much much more convenient especially when I'm painting art as i like to listen to some sensational '70s sounds when I paint, i prefer over the ear cups for comfort and cancelling out background noise
Hated using these back in elementary school in the 90s.. lol
It was the mylar drive units and the fully enclosed design that let them down. But they were bomb proof.However since covid i WFH and i'm on teams/zoom meetings all day i use something not too desimilar but with a built in microphone so they are headsets rather than headphones often i use only the microphone part and use speakers as well and only wear they when i am speaking. I use they because they are more robust and with only 1 wire they get in less of a tangle.
Never heard the term "donut" before. Now I reading a glossary of radio jargon.
Well, I had the Realistics that were rebranded Koss. And they sounded great, but had open cell foam earcups that disintegrated.
I remember the second one, our school had a language lab installed in 2002 or so. Really comfortable to wear as you mentioned, but didn't sound Hi-Fi for sure, and they had microphones.
Yes, thank you for not using that first term 👍😁 great video
I bought four of these two years ago when headphones were on the school supply list, they were Califone 2924-AVPS in translucent blue. No mono switch and one volume knob. Two made it back home at the end of the school year (guess the other teachers kept them.) My oldest daughter blew her pair with her mid-90's Optimus/Soundesign stereo. One is still hanging around.
I ran a pair of Nova 10's directly from the SPEAKER outputs (I modified the cord with RCA jacks.) of a modest (10 watt/channel) amp and they LIVED. LOL. Edit, I 100% Agree, The PRO-25 were damned nice cans. Once I heard them, I gave them out as Christmas gifts to my music loving family members. (At least I got them at an employee discount, LOL).
I found a picture (actually in the thumbnails to some of my videos) reminding me that not only did I record with Realistic Nova's in the 90's, but also MIXED- and even used the left earcup as a makeshift MICROPHONE on the drums 🤦♂️
The Radio Shack versions were usually everyone's first set of "Cans" many many years ago. Sound was improved by placing a sock inside the headphones behind the speaker to dampen the sound and slightly improve the low end. Next we moved up to the Radio Shack LV-10 headphones that actually were OEM by KOSS, (HV/1) and the plastic molded headphones actually still had the name KOSS on them even though they were badged LV-10 and sold by Radio Shack. The LV-10 and HV/1 response was 20 - 20,000, very good, but the big brother to them in the same form factor, same looks, was the KOSS HV/1A with the superior driver with a response of 20 - 30,000.
While no one can hear 30,000 hz, the accuracy of all of the audio frequencies that you can hear, is quite clear and will really surprise you. We're not talking newer CDs, mp3s or FM radio here, those all lack real audio definition. And not just Classical, but vintage Rock like Yes, Pink Floyd, Procol Harum and many others.
Never accept what other opinions are regarding headphones as everyone has different ears, ear canals, and interpretations of how things should sound. Some like a Boom Boom Boom sound where a real audio purist wants to hear every instrument. And notice that no longer do they provide actual printed test specifications, just unscientific opinions.
9:20 i see what you did there 🎉
i had these as a kid in elementary school from kindergarten to 5th grade, all throughout that time those headphones were still extremely uncomfortable. i also managed to half blow one of them out and a lot of times kids would tear the decal off the side/rip off the foam pads
A long time ago, i ripped apart some very old headphones that could just be the ones in the video.
They didn´t even sound good to my ears when i was a little 4 year old kid.
There were literally two cheap little papercone speakers inside. Just like with yours.
The mass of the cones and the hard suspension won´t allow for deep bass at what is like maybe 1-10mW input power, which is typical for headphones.
Btw. the price tag for the Nova-45 is absolutely nuts and anyone who tries to rip off people like that should be ashamed of themselves...
I wish reviewtechusa would review tech in the usa.
Just gave me flashbacks to using these in my elementary school's computer lab in the early 2000s.
Optimus made some good quality audio equipment. My father had an Optimus mini stereo receiver (STA-300 if I remember it correctly) and it performed just as well as the higher end brands.
Johnny Hates Jazz, excellent choice!