Specs
- Frequency response: 15 – 25kHz
- Impedance : 60-ohm
- Sensitivity : 101 dB SPL
- Weight: 75g
Design
The first thing that struck me about the KPH30i is just how familiar it looked and felt. I don’t mean that in the sense of it looking or feeling like something totally generic…but rather how that retro design made it feel as though it has been in my collection forever. Maybe it’s because my very first pair of headphones back in the 90’s would probably have been something rather similar to this.
There really isn’t a great deal to say here as we’ve got an essentially all-plastic design with the exception of the foam earpads, the silicone suspension strap, and of course the drivers themselves.
Using so much plastic in the construction was obviously done to keep the manufacturing cost to a minimum, and as a result not a single person will ever mistake these headphones for something more premium. But then again, plastic tends to be more durable than more premium materials such as metal or wood. Plastic is forgiving, and as a result you don’t need to baby the product. Sennheiser uses plastic on a lot of their headphones, even some of their most expensive ones…so if it’s good enough for Sennheiser, surely it’s good enough for Koss.
The other advantage is that the plastic construction makes these really light-weight, and that leads to better comfort when wearing them.
The headband adjustment system is a little on the flimsy side as it can require very little force to actually make some adjustment, so ‘locking in’ your preferred setting isn’t really an option. It does have a pretty broad adjustment range though, and the KPH30i should fit everyone from young kids all the way to fully grown adults…even the ones who find themselves to be on the, errm, larger side of the size spectrum.
The silicone suspension strap isn’t something particularly innovative, but I really can’t say that I’ve found it to be uncomfortable in any way. It’s a simple solution and it does the job it’s intended for.
Sound
So, whilst I really liked the retro charm of the design on these headphones, nothing could really prepare me for the pleasant surprise that I was to find in how these sound.
Usually, I don’t pay much attention to hyped products, but in this case I’m all packed and ready to get on the hype train. I just kept asking myself, “how on Earth do these cost $30?”.
The sound character overall leans on the warmer side, but not so much so as to have an overly negative impact on the clarity and/or detail retrieval, and certainly not enough to make it seems like it’s overly colouring the mids. The mid and upper-bass is a little prominent, but as a whole it still manages to sound reasonably well-balanced…actually surprisingly so.I did try to do a frequency response measurement, but the trouble with these types of on-ear headphones is that their signature can be influenced quite a lot depending on the exactly placement on the measuring rig and how much pressure is being applied to them. So, what I ended up doing was to do a couple of measurements and altering the position slightly as well as manually adding some pressure to the earcups. This gave me a few different responses which I then averaged out. Looking at this average, I’d say that it’s at least pretty close to how I perceive the sound signature to be. I’m not sure if that large dip at just beyond 4kHz is due to the measuring rig or perhaps some resonance from within the earcups, but I can’t say that this is something which I could pick up on when listening to them.
As we can see, the signature is surprisingly well-balanced and it’s only really in the upper treble frequencies that I think the KPH30i would have benefited from a bit more energy.
Comparing the KPH30i to my modified HD58x, we can see that the 58x has a more balanced response along with some more energy in the upper treble regions. It’s when I compare these two measurements that I feel the KPH30i measurement is reasonably accurate as it does come across warmer and a bit more bassy than the 58x.
There’s also a certain sense of smoothness to the KPH30i which I find to mask some finer details, at least in comparison to the 58x.
But now would be the time to remember that the 58x costs more than 5 times the price of the Koss, but the difference in sound quality really isn’t anywhere close to that. To some extent the 58x kinda just feels like a more refined and reference version of the KPH30i. And that’s where the Koss really shined for me.
Let’s face it, the 58x isn’t exactly what we would really call a portable headphone. It’s large and somewhat obnoxious. It’s not as bad as something from HiFiMAN, but still it just doesn’t feel like it’s appropriate for portable use.
In that regard, the KPH30i just makes way more sense, and given the very respectable sound quality that it has on offer, this has quickly become my go-to portable headphones.
When I’m at home and listening to the 58x, sure, I can then appreciate the sound of the 58x more, but when I take these, it’s not like I’m constantly thinking to myself “ah man I really wish I had the 58x with me”. On the contrary, I’m perfectly content with the KPH30i.
Value
So, I think at this point it’s no mystery as to what I think of the value of these headphones. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the best thing about the KPH30i is just the raw value it brings to the table. Seriously, for $30 these headphones have NO business sounding this good.
As I said, generally I’m a person who tends to shy away from product hype simply because I have hardly ever found a hyped product to truly match that hype or my own expectations. But, the KPH30i is one of those rare unicorns that genuinely did blow me away. The hype is absolutely warranted with these, and they have very quickly become the only headphones that I could personally and without hesitation recommend under the $100 mark.
They are especially great for using on-the-go as you don’t have that additional worry in the back of your mind that you would have if taking along some more expensive headphones. Of course, the only downside would be that these offer practically zero isolation so they might not be appropriate for public transport, but for everything else they are pretty damn good. I even ended up taking them on a morning jog and they remained perfectly secure on my head. I’m just not certain on how well they would hold up to sweat and other forms of moisture, so using them during exercise routines might shorten the life of the drivers and almost certainly the earpads.
So, if you have a store near you that carries the KPH30i and you can demo it, I really recommend that you do. But hey, even if you can’t demo them, at $30 they really aren’t going to break the bank, and I feel confident enough to tell you just go out and buy them if you like a slightly warm but still balanced sound signature. Worst comes to worst, if you don’t like them you can always pack them neatly back into the box and use it as a stocking filler for the holidays, but I think very few people will hear these and not like the signature.