Koss Porta Pro headphones are something of a rarity in the world of audio gear: they’re widely regarded as sounding great, but don’t cost an exorbitant amount of money. Since the line was introduced in 1984, they’ve been the go-to headphones for those who don’t subscribe to the idea that you should have to take out a loan from the bank just to enjoy your music.
[Jake Bickhard] is a confirmed Porta Pro disciple, owning enough pairs of them that he’s cagey about confirming how many are actually kicking around his home. The only thing he doesn’t like about them is the fact that they’re wired. As it happens, Koss just recently came out with a Bluetooth version of the venerable headphones. But he thought he could do just as well combining a pair of his with a water damaged pair of Bluetooth earbuds he had lying around.
The Porta Pros are easy to take apart, and removing the old wire was no problem. He then cut the “buds” on the Bluetooth earbuds he had, with the intention of just striping the wires and soldering it up to the pads on the Porta speakers. But things didn’t quite go as expected.
What [Jake] hadn’t realized was that the battery for the Bluetooth earbuds wasn’t in the main housing, the power comes from a tiny battery inside each bud. That meant he needed to keep the batteries connected even though the Porta Pro obviously doesn’t have a spot to mount them. In the future he says he’ll address the issue properly, but for now the two batteries hang from the headphones: making it look like he’s wearing the world’s ugliest earrings. But at least he’s happy with the performance of the finished modification, saying they’re even louder now than when they were when wired.
This is a perfect project if you’re cursed with a mobile device that had enough “courage” to take the headphone jack away from you. Though you might first want to study the fine art of soldering headphone wires.
Been through midrange Sennheiser HD205 and AKG K77’s before, as well as Koss Porta Pros, but when sound is the top priority, nothing came close to Grado SR60’s. About twice the price, but very durable and, believe me, there is not a detail to be missed when presented with Grados. Absolutely worth the price. Don’t get discouraged by the fact that SR60 is the lowest Grado model – most of their cans share the same drivers. Don’t make my mistake and waste your cash on pair upon a pair of cheaper models.
The Grado SR60 has been discontinued.
The Koss Portapro cannot be beat for price. Unfortunately every one eventually breaks the plastic slide on the headband.
Grado’s headphones have a definite “sound” (harsh highs, distorted mids and missing lows), and they all succomb to the “grattle” when some piece of hair or lint gets lodged in the a driver’s diaphragm and refuses to leave. You can get much more accurate headphones for what Grado charges. The right music on them sounds like it’s coming out of an old guitar amp in the best of ways, but they’re not known for sound quality.
That’s supposed to be “Stripping” the wires, right? Or is “striping” actually something else entirely?
Why have anything dangle and have that choker wire. Put it all into the headband. Still bluretooth is a curse. I will avoid it at all cost.
So I’m not alone on that.
I’ve invested hundreds and hundreds, never to get anything with blue tooth to work properly.
Me I think Blue tooth is a myth to get our money and People were payed to give good reviews.
I mean my bluetooth audio gear works just fine.
‘Scuse me, I have an unrelated check to cash. Later.
B^)
It looks like the headband on these is just a strip of metal, so nowhere to put anything “in”, Though I guess you could at least attach the wire to the outside so it isn’t hanging.
But the official BT version of these headphones are setup the same way with the dangling wire, so could be he just wanted to emulate the real one.
It’s probably just what he’s used to from using the old, broken bluetooth headphones that were stripped for this application.