Are Koss headphones the best available?

Good day folks, Up here in Brisbane we get a magazine delivered free fortnightly called bmag. In it I saw a headphone advertised for $448 brand "Bose" sold in "Videopro" shop. Most of us probably wouldn't outlay that much for our headphones, but for the similar cost of a good coil they might be the edge we need. I'm not very electronically minded & I don't know if these headphones are compatable with our detectors setup, ie correct frequency etc. but for the expensive outlay these could be the difference in picking up those elusive sounds that we all are chasing that maybe the Koss headphones might sometimes miss. Just a thought! P.S I don't work for this Company. What are your opinions & how much do you outlay on your headphones, regards David

I have some hugely expensive head phones that we use at work.... mostly top end Sennheiser , and some cost over 1k....

I also use some pretty flash headphones in one of my many other hobbies Amateur Radio.

I was going to do a Contest on the radio a few months back where hearing faint signals was imperative , so I brought home a pair from work.... I also brought a set of "Heil" brand ones from a Local "Ham" Radio shop that were considerably cheaper the the work ones.......
To my surprise the Heils where better....much better for the audio from the radio.
The Sennheiser's might be the best thing for full range music, but the Heils were best for the restricted bandwidth audio from the radio.....
You need to take a look at the range of audio frequencies that come from the detector , and get a set of headphones that are optimised in that range....
Most headphone will work with the Detector...... just as long as the plug is wired correctly.

Thanks for that Harb. Over a grand now thats top quality. Still would like to know if they are better than Koss ones for our detectors. Maybe a field test would be interesting, ie identical detectors, coils with different phones, don;t know if it has been done before? Cheers david

G'day David,

I think the problem with most of those audiophile type headphones, is that although they are providing great sound, they are not designed to be worn on heads dripping with sweat.

I purchased a pair of Airheadz detecting headphones from the USA a couple of months ago. The first time I tried them was on a winter trip to Tibooburra last year. The Airheadz, like a lot of audiophile speakers, fitted flat against my head and did not touch my ears. They were incredibly comfortable the clarity of the signals was the best I have ever experienced and I was able to continue detecting in wind which was so strong, that I was worried the gold would blow out of the scoop - so the they cut off external sound out brilliantly.

BUT, after three days, my ears were nearly filled with a gooey mixture of sweat and earwax - yuk. If I had continued to use them, I am sure my ears would have been totally blocked up and I probably would have got an infection.

After that I ordered some cloth covers from Airheadz for each earpiece. These were meant to fix the problem, but I found them uncomfortable.

So I went back to my old Ratphones which I have always loved. The sound was not quite as good, but this may have been because they do not seal so completely against my head - but because of that, I can detect in hot weather without a problem.

I guess I can alter the Airheadz ear covers so that they let a bit of air circulate, or I can keep them for cold winter days - especially windy ones where wind noise becomes a killer.

Anyway, it is definitely something to keep in mind when choosing your next headphones. One thing I can say, is that I find both the Ratphones and the Airheadz better soundwise and a lot more comfortable than the Koss supplied with the Minelabs.

I have just purchased a pair of Sennheiser (spelt ?) noise cancelling headphones, that do not sit around my ears, but on them. They may not work as well as the Bose noise cancelling which fit around the ear and seal against the head, but they are definitely worth a trial run.

I don't get to go detecting as much as I would like, so I play around with new gear a lot - keeps me off the streets !

All the best,

Jig.

Airheadz http://www.airheadzwireless.com/

Ratphone went broke in the USA and you cannot buy them for love or money.

Sennheiser I bought at JB Hi Fi.

Your Head seems to have changed Jig....maybe thats the problem

I am stoned in that photo.
Jig.

One ear is lower than the other as well

Yep, I had some sun spots cut off.

Hi Jigalong, just a belated thanks for your ideas on a few headphones that you have tried, cheers yibidavid