Price Paid:  $25.00 from koss.com

Summary:
I purchased these headphones over 12 years ago for my 7 year old son to use while practicing his electric piano. He and my husband also use the headphones on the computer for gaming. What impresses me most is that these phones have held up for so many years. The sound quality is still there and they don't short out after a few months or days of use as does the more cheaply-made stuff you get nowadays. The cord is heavy and durable. The covering on the padded ears has worn badly, but what can you expect in 12 years of use?? Today, I went back to Koss.com, after looking for something for myself and becoming totally disgusted with the lack of a heavy-corded headphone, and I bought two more of the same, exact headphones (the UR-20), one for me and a replacement for my son's computer, even though his set is still working fine.

Strengths:
Twelve years of heavy use, and still going strong!

Weaknesses:
The material covering the ear padding is flimsy and wears poorly over time.

Price Paid:  $24.00

Summary:
These headphones are a P.O.S. A true waste of money. No attempt at musical accuracy, and these sound horrible for their size. No real bass to speak of (equivalent to those cheap 30 mm drivers on common none home use headphones.

Strengths:
Good earwarmers!

Weaknesses:
Everything to do with sound. Bass, mediocre treble and midrange, too big for such crappy sound

Similar Products Used:
Sony MDRV300 far superior pair of headphones, much more pricy thow.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
The Koss UR20 headphones are pretty good I guess. They feel comfy and isolate outside noise well. In my opinion they are a cut above the rest in the same price range. I have a couple of problems with the sound quality, but nothing too serious.

Strengths:
comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time. they look really cool too.

Weaknesses:
sounds overly bassey and sometimes kinda painful for some reason. It depends on the type of music youre listening to. I think my Optimus Pro-XB100s sound better, and im pretty sure theyre cheaper too. The UR20s dont have any features like volume control either.

Similar Products Used:
Optimus Pro-XB100

Price Paid:  $40.00 from Walmart

Summary:
These should be called Hoover 20 because they suck so much tone. I have owned these for only 30 minutes, and I already know I will be returning these. It hurts my ears to listen to anything. I am straining to hear some mid range tones and they have been sucked out. I do not reccomend these to anyone. Pain in the ears - literally. One of the worst listening experiences I ever had. I'd rather feed my cd's to an elephant then stick my head between it's buttocks and listen. It would sound better.

Strengths:
Comfortable to wear. Blocks out background noise fairly well. Inexpensive.

Weaknesses:
No mid-range frequencies. Horrible tone. Too much bass. Too much hiss at low volume.

Price Paid:  $25.00 from Hastings

Summary:
Extremely boomy, not a balanced upper register, uncomfortable, cheap. In otherwords... I didn't like them.

Tehy are better than in the box type headphones, or if you have a tin ear. For music other than Techno, remixes, or hip-hop, avoid these. Spend the extra money and get real headphones. I bought Grado SR60's and they sound beautiful in comparison.

Strengths:
boomy if you like that, better than the very cheapest headphones. Better than any Sony headphones you wll find at a better price. They can be used as earmuffs.

Weaknesses:
Gaudy, heavy, uncomfortable, headclamps, not accurate, ugly, chinsey, MASSIVE, made uglier yet by decals.

Similar Products Used:
none in this price range.