Firstly, a little about my situation before I purchased these amazing little gadgets. I will be the first to admit, I'm not friendly to my headphones. They get dragged around, trodden on, bashed about in my bag, and put through far too much torment for each pair to last long, and so I normally ... Read review
Advantages: Amazing Bass Response, Comfortable Fit Disadvantages: Amazing Bass Response, Large Size, No In-Line Volume.
Firstly, a little about my situation before I purchased these amazing little gadgets. I will be the first to admit, I'm not friendly to my headphones. They get dragged around, trodden on, bashed about in my bag, and put through far too much torment for each pair to last long, and so I normally find myself having to fork out for a new pair every few months. When my last pair fell apart and, despite my efforts with a soldering iron (doing far more ... ...on the 'net for a new pair. It was the first time I had done this, and upon searching amazon i found litterally thousands of choices. By a combination of clicking randon links and looking at the most popular tags, I came across these, and they caught my attention.
I bought my pair for £7.27 from discountdics, a marketplace seller on Amazon, and paid about £3-4 p&p. They arrived quickly, and packaged well, and this is what comes in ... more
Firstly, a little about my situation before I purchased these amazing little gadgets. I will be the first to admit, I'm not friendly to my headphones. They get dragged around, trodden on, bashed about in my bag, and put through far too much torment for each pair to last long, and so I normally find myself having to fork out for a new pair every few months. When my last pair fell apart and, despite my efforts with a soldering iron (doing far more harm than good!), completely stopped working, I decided to look on the 'net for a new pair. It was the first time I had done this, and upon searching amazon i found litterally thousands of choices. By a combination of clicking randon links and looking at the most popular tags, I came across these, and they caught my attention.
I bought my pair for £7.27 from discountdics, a marketplace seller on Amazon, and paid about £3-4 p&p. They arrived quickly, and packaged well, and this is what comes in the box: 1 pair of headphones with fitted ear buds, and one spare pair of ear buds. From reading other reviews I see some people bought packs with different sizes of ear bud in etc, but I couldn't find these anywhere. My first impessions of the headphones were that they were 1, quite a bit bigger than I expected ("will that really fit in my ear!?") and 2, nice and stylish.
The headphones look big because only the black rubber part actually goes in your ear, the speaker is hidden in a white housing which sits outside your ear, and its large size is what allows the immense bass response these headphones boast. I found them to be quite comfortable when they are in place, but they do require more effort than ordinary 'phones to get them there, with rolling and squashing the pads between your fingers before you insert them a must. One thing I don't really like about the design is the white cord, which always reminds me of ipod headphones, but well, it's just a colour really.
Now, on to the sound. As said before, these headphones are renowned for their bass response, and in reality the sound they produce really is quite amazing. When I first plugged them into my mp3 player, the music was so bassy that it almost sounded distorted. However, with a quick flick to the equaliser, lowering the bass and upping the treble, everything was dandy and the sound is great! But, this does mean that if you have a CD player or mp3 player with no equaliser, I wouldn't recommend these headphones unless you like really bassy music (like hip-hop fans... you sick puppies!). The loudness of these headphones is pretty cool too, as I have found that I can now keep my mp3 player on a lower volume setting, but still hear everything with the same loudness. Another good feature is the noise reduction, which means that ambient noises around you can hardly be heard. Not so good if you're crossing roads, though! The headphones also don't leak as much noise as many models do.
There are only a few problems i can see with these 'phones. I'm pretty sure the design is safe, as someone else mentioned in their review, but i'm not so sure in terms of putting the ear buds in your ear canal when they've been on the floor, or in a bag, or whatever, which i often do. i would imagine theres a greater risk of picking up an ear infection with these headphones. i mean, the risk is there with all headphones, just exaggerated, or emphasised, with these. For this reason they would benefit from some sort of carry-case. Other than this, overall they are a great product, perfectly suited to the way i like my music.
Advantages: Good Bass, Noise Reduction Disadvantages: no carry case, need to be cleaned often
Product & Packaging
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Koss Spark Plug Stereophone with spare set of ear cushions.
They arrived in a cardboard backed blown plastic. The cardboard is purply blue, with instructions on the back on how to insert the ear piece diagrams also help to show how to do this. The earphones are displayed inside the plastic so you can see what they look like before buying.
Price
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mydogandbone.co.uk £11.95 + £3.93 p&p
ipodworld ... ...silver band around with the Koss logo on it in black.On the end of these is the soft expandable foam in black and cone shaped.
You can put the foam on either way depending how much noise you want to block out from the outside world. They work well enough the way they come in the packaging.The foam comes off very easily you just pull and they slide off.
Inserting
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To put them in your ears roll the foam between your thumb and forefinger ...
oldwasp 18.03.2006 (18.05.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Koss Spark PLUG
Advantages: Really deep bass, full rich amazing sound for earbuds Disadvantages: Hard to put in, especially when in a rush
...long these last for but Koss says they should last a life time (as if). However, if they don't, I won't be going back to conventional phones again as they only cost £5 and are impressive in my book. These have slightly better foam seals than the 'Plug' version of these phones, as it expands to fit the shape of your ear canal.
I definately recommend to everyone who wants their music to be heard in detail, who needs more bass, who wants to enjoy their ...
lea20 10.07.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Koss Spark PLUG
Advantages: Good sound quality. Good sound isolation. Disadvantages: Ear pads wear away after a few months, are easily lost and too expensive to replace
...ear pads wear out, but Koss provide a number of spares in the same pack which should last for a number of years.
One word of warning - the sound isolation provided by The Plug really is effective, so watch out for traffic as you probably won't hear it coming ! NEW - Well I thought I would provide a quick update on The Plug. I have now completely used up the spare ear pads and have had a great deal of trouble finding replacements. I visited the difficult ... ...replacements can be ordered from Koss in the USA for $15 plus postage. Whilst I still think they are great earphones, I decided that it would probably be cheaper to buy a new set from a UK supplier. Luckily, I found a supplier of foam earplugs (intended for motorcyclists !) which provide a cheap and adequate alternative (£5.00 for a box of 50) to the official Koss ones. To summarise, The Plug is excellent - shame that Koss don't support it very well. ...
naffcaff 17.03.2004 (31.08.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Koss Spark PLUG
...a white base,silver middle with Koss logo on it,(subtle adverising eh?)with soft ear cushions,shaped like a cone, which are supposed to adapt to your ear size,when fitted properly,,sound is then supposed to be crystal clear and any outside noise should not be heard.they come with 2 spare cushions just in case you loose them
2)What you do with them is roll the soft ear cushion--like you would a earplug--------,put in your ear, they should then adapt ... ...bit uncomfortable at first,this did not last long
3) So I did all that and hey presto it works beautifully for Me anyway,its probably cos I have worn earplugs for years so am quiet good at it who knows,all I can say is these are brilliant.
4)a
The one thing I will say though is the bass is just to much,at first anyway,the sound just boomed in my ears when I first used them,but with a quick adjustment on my ipod's equaliser I soon fixed that.
...
paul1958 05.08.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Koss Spark PLUG
Advantages: Size, Weight, Sound. Disadvantages: Difficult To Get In.
What do I want to go with my MP3 player so that I can enjoy my music - I know some earphones, I think I'll treat myself, spend a bit of money, so what am I looking for. I want them to be small and not very visible - let me browse - what's this 'The Plug' - let me have a look.
I guess 'Koss' are good make, they sound familiar, but I'm not too sure where I've heard of them before.
These earphones have a good earbud design, which fits directly into ... ...so obviously visible or bulky. They come with a lifetime warranty, and also 4 different sized 'ear sponges', which fits onto the main 'bud' the actual workings of the earphones. I've had them a few weeks, and they are very good.
The only obvious problems is the difficulty in actually getting them into the ear - you have to squeeze the sponges together, and then put them into the ear quick enough so that the sponge, then expands and fits snugly into ...
samcabal 23.11.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Koss Spark PLUG
