It is often believed that audiophile gear can be very expensive, sometimes too expensive for what they offer. It is true that it is an expensive hobby, but you can end up with decently priced and sounding hardware if you know exactly what you’re looking for. Certain gear is built for a certain type of listener, some prefer bass heavy sounds while others prefer the sound to be at its purest form without anything “coloring” the sound.
Before I start talking about what in my opinion are the best wired headphones for $20 and under, I would like to clarify that this isn’t really a review. A lot of my readers and friends are people who aren’t sure what to find in good headphones and speakers, they tend to gravitate towards Bluetooth headphones but somehow still are curious if there’s more to audio than just tinny earphones (I’m looking at you, Airpods). Friends sometimes would come over (this was before the Coronavirus pandemic, mind you. Stay at home, folks) and try playing music on my setup and sometimes ask me for headphone recommendations, this article is for those who want a nudge in the right direction without breaking the bank— it could be you, it could be a friend, it could be anyone who just wants a good cheap pair of headphones.
There were many factors I’ve put in consideration to narrow down what were the most ideal headphones for this and I focused on four things:
- Price
- Comfort
- Portability
- Sound
Price:
The Koss KSC75 comes in two flavors, the silver one without the mic that is usually sold for around $12–$15 on Amazon, and a black mic version on Drop that will set you back $20. If you’re feeling a little adventurous, Koss has a bundle on their official page that sells the silver KSCs alongside a pair of Porta-Pros and KPH30is for $100, I could be wrong, but I think all three headphones have the same driver but different form factors. Which gives you more choice in terms of comfort. If you’ll be using the headphones for retro devices (CD players, cassette players, etc) I would suggest the silver mic-less version as the connector would be better fitted for their antiquated headphone jacks.
The KSC75s are cheaply priced but also look and feel cheap, it’s what you’d expect from headphones priced at $20 and/or under. But they do make up for it with everything else.
Comfort:
Headphone comfort is an absolutely tricky thing to measure, no two ears are exactly the same and people have very different preferences. Some people are sensitive towards IEMs and find them painful, I am fine with IEMs but find apple earbuds very painful to hear and to wear. It is going to be a different answer to whoever you ask, different strokes for different folks.
From my testing the KSC75s feel like a middle ground, you don’t need to stick anything in your ear. They have hooks that you twist around your whole ear, leaving the speakers hovering above them. This may sound like an unusual for those who never tried them, but this form factor is very comfortable once you get use to it.
The KSC75s are open-back headphones, meaning you will hear the outside and people around you can hear what you’re listening to if it’s loud enough. It may sound like a deal-breaker to a lot of people now that active noise cancellation is popular now(maybe I should write about how ANC isn’t the most important feature people should look for in headphones), but there are benefits to an open-back pair of headphones which I’ll get to in the sound quality portion of this article.
Portability:
Portability was definitely a tricky one for this, I mean the KSC75s are larger than airpods and nearly every IEM in existence but they are still pocketable and lightweight. For their price they didn’t come with any sort of pouch so I had to get one from a discount store, it’s a snug fit but they work. The mic-less version has pretty robust looking wiring, but the Drop version’s wires seem worryingly thin so I do suggest to be careful while tying them.
Sound Quality:
The Koss KSC75s do not have a wildly colored sound signature, they have good highs and mids, with adequate bass. They sound like what good headphones should be, but the level of quality and detail surpasses a lot of headphones double sometimes triple its price’s punching weight. That’s in thanks to its sound stage.
I mentioned earlier there are benefits to these being open-back headphones, they tend to sound wider. What I mean by that is that while IEMs tend to sound more intimate and in your head, open backs sound closer to how speakers do and sound around your head. This makes these headphones more ideal for games as it gives you a better and clearer sound separation than any IEM would.
These headphones don’t require amps to sound good, but still have the impedance to play nice with an amp. 60 ohms is nothing to sniff at, but even without an amp you’ll still get good sound off your phone or already good enough DAP. However, there are some who took making the KSC75s sound better a bit further.
KSC75s have a very active modding community. They have improved in its cosmetics, sound quality and make them wireless using Bluetooth modules (I would hazard a guess they sound infinitely better than the KSC75’s official Bluetooth counterpart, the Koss KSC35s, more on that in a future article). You can find Reddit and forum posts of various mods people have made of the headphones.
So is the KSC75 the perfect pair of headphones? Not really. They do look cheap and a little goofy on your ears. The biggest flaw they have however is that every once in a while a stray hair would wriggle into the diaphragm and make an annoying muzzing sound whenever bass is playing. It is in fault to the open-back nature of these headphones, but it is a small flaw that is fixable by just pulling that stray hair out.
I leave my KSC75s in my car’s glove box, while I always do have a pair of headphones either in my bag or in my pocket, these are always available wherever I go. Sometimes you do need a good pair of headphones, especially when what’s available isn’t good enough.
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