Very deep bass, great isolation, nice comfort

Hard to insert

I'm not an audiophile, I use to work as a DJ so I like powerful bass, which the plug gives me. It took some time learning how to insert the plug into my ears. Great, great bass.

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Sharp

After modification; decent bass, good stereophony and comfort and fit.

Before modification; lack of bass, poor overall sound and isolation.

I'm a newbie and more of a reader than active writer to discussion groups. This headphone group is great and your reviews have informed me a lot. Thank you all for that.

I use for listening at home my old trusty Sony MDR-CD6's
(I have changed the earpads already three times), for PC I use Koss KTX Pro's and for my portable radios Koss KSC-35's. I bought The Plug for spare use, because I sent my 35's to be repaired using the Koss "lifetime warranty".

At first I was very disappointed with The Plug's performance. No decent bass, poor stereophony, sound and isolation and fit to my ears. It really looked as though I had thrown my money out through the window. Seemed to be the reason was the original foam tips, which did not suit my ears well.

Then I heard about musicians using The Plugs slightly modified for monitoring by having instead of the original foam tips the "Shure's (optional) reusable Triple-Flange Sleeves for E-series earphones". As far as I know similar to those can be found by Etymotic (their flanged eartips) and at least in Sweden and also recommended for musicians to use with The Plug ( Pro eartips / latex rubber ).

Also CMoy (Chu Moy) in his article "Revisiting Koss -The Plug- Headphones (in Headwize.com at URL: http://headwize.com/projects/cmoy4_prj.htm) shows a mod-picture from blue Smith & Wesson "Quick-Fit" flanged ear plugs made usable by boring them for The Plug.

After having bought these flanged ("X-mas tree") sleeves (Shure in my case and a pair for $12 ) the result was: First the isolation problem was solved, they were easy to fit in my ears and they stay nicely. Second and the most important thing was the improvement in sound and clarity of the stereophony. It was like the bass player came back into the band (nice "growl" of el-bass / hearing notes of the B-string of the five-string bass and nice softness of the acoustic bass). I also could hear the "smacks"of the bass drum and tom-toms), hear the various instruments better and the somewhat broadened stereophony. I can't say that the sound was like my KSC-35's, but much improved and again a joy to listen in particular to groove music jazz-fusion-blues-soul) through my portable radio. The only really negative thing is the somewhat worse antenna character of the cord than that of the 35's.

The message of my review is by my experience: Koss "The Plug" earphones aren't that bad and can with the flanged sleeves eartips be an excellent choice for those having problems with the foam tips. Check this option (they are'nt even expensive) and you might enjoy "The Plug ". This easy modification is really worth the try and many musicians using these (as I have been told) can't possibly be that wrong.

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Various Sony earbuds.

Very bassy for earplugs, very comfortable

Sound is somewhat colored, very difficlt to insert into ears compared to other earbuds, high end is dissapointing

These are some strange little earbuds, they are very difficult to get into your ear properly, you have to squish a foam part which expands as you hold them in your ears for a few seconds. Once they are in correctly, they sound pretty good for a $15 pair of earbuds, and if and only if they are in correctly are very bassy because of the way they were designed. They also do an excellent job at blocking out external sounds.

NONE!

Everything

After one day of using Koss The Plugs, I got fed up with them! WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP!!! Boomy, unmusical, overpowering bass; as for the mids and highs - HEY! WHERE ARE THOSE MIDS AND HIGHS? UGH!!! And the Plugs are difficult to put on properly, and are very uncomfortable to boot! And the Mute button is all too easy to hit inadvertently, especially during a workout. UGH!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, there are no good choices in isolating earplugs under $250. And the best inexpensive or mid-priced headphones or earphones are totally useless in a subway train or a workout gym because they provide absolutely no isolation at all. Oh, well... You get what you pay for.

AVOID THESE CRAPPY PLUGS AT ALL COSTS!!! And they stink even as they're burning.

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Nothing this crappy

BASS! The supplied foam plugs on my newer sample expand more slowly and easier to insert than previous versions of The Plug

Highs are just mediocre, overboosted bass strikes me as too much of a good thing.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that Koss The Plugs are crap compared with the Etymotic ER-4S/P canalphones, but then the Etymotics cost more than 10 times the price of The Plugs. Actually, if you listen to music that's normally bass-heavy, the Plugs will do the trick. They may make jazz and classical music sound too dark, however, due to the overly-reinforced bass response and mediocre highs.

If you're considering any earplug-type headphones cheaper than the Etymotics, please try them before you keep them. Both the Koss and Sony earplugs are good performers (especially for their low prices), but they have flaws. Please note that my value rating is based on the somewhat high $24.99 at Best Buy that I paid for them.

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Sony MDR-EX70LP (that model costs twice as much as The Plug - and suffer from overly bright highs and mediocre mids)

Good badd responce, good isolation

very low quality earplugs included with the headphones

I had read some reviews of these headphones online before I ever saw them and they seemed like a good deal, sound dampening hedphones cheaper then the $100 pricetag on the sound canceling headphones. Ofcourse once I bought them it was a different story. The earplugs that come on the headphones are pure garbage. The foam is low quality, and it expands entirely too fast. It is nearly imposible to get a good seal with it. But there were 3 more sets of plusg included in the packaging of varying shapes and sizes that i thought might imporve on the ones that were on the headphones themselves. No luck there, the larger ones never even stayed in my ears while the others were just as bad as the originals. But the thing was the headphones themselves are fine as is the design. It just needs a minor modification. So off I went to the locak Rite Aid. and bought some cheap foam earplugs (set of 12 plugs for $3). I used a hot needle to make a hole in the plugs for the transducer tube. Once that was done the headphones work very well for the pice and deliver the advertised features. I just wish Koss had included better earplugs in the package. (for a detailed description of the modification go here, http://headwize.com/projects/cmoy4_prj.htm

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Sony earbuds with similar design but no earplugs

Reduces outside noise, good sound

None, really

The main reason I bought these was to improve my listening on plane trips. I found that typical earbuds and Walkman-style headphones are almost useless competing with jet noise, and full-sized headphones actually create a seashell effect that increases the high-frequency 'whoosh' noise. The Plug does a good job in cutting the cabin noise, plus it provides very good sound from high to low frequencies. I won't say that it is too bassy, but my Awia portable cassette has 4 EQ pre-sets, and I usually keep mine Flat. Going to pre-sets with boosted low end does provide a little too much bass for me. (I tend not to blame headphones for lack of balance - my question is, why don't portable CD & cassette provide real EQ controls anymore? They either have nothing, an "X-Treme Turbo Sub-Bass Boost", or a few pre-sets if you're lucky.)
Anyway, I like these phones. Once you know how to squish the foam, they're no trouble to insert; plus they stay put once in. Sound quality is very good. I give it 5 value stars because all other noise-reducing headphones are $100-$200.

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A variety of headphones, earbuds, etc.

BASS!!!, comfort, isolation from outside noise, in-line mute button

Lack of anything resembling a high-end

After becoming frustrated with the fit and lack of bass from the several pairs of buds I had been using with my MD player, I decided to try these buds. I picked them up for $20 from J & R, which is a fairly reasonable price considering some buds from Sony and Sennheiser run up to $50.

As for the sound, I was very, very disappointed with these plugs out of the box. I hooked them up to my home CD player, popped in a favorite CD, and was disgusted by the sound--it was as if someone had turned the treble control down to -15dB and turned the bass knob all the way up. The plugs were very comfortable, much more so than any other bud I had ever tried, and did provide great isolation from outside sound, but the sound was just awful.

As aforementioned, I purchased these buds for use with my portable MD player. Deciding not to give up on them, I routed the signal from my CD player through an EQ, and then to my MD recorder (meaning of course that I had to bypass the digital input and use the analog). After a great deal of time fooling with the EQ, I was able to settle upon a sound that was acceptable, though it was obviously a far cry from what my Sennheiser 600's sounded like that I was using as a reference. But still, the "altered" MD's that I've made have sounded quite good for buds.

Thus, the Plugs have been kept. If you are thinking of buying these, I strongly recommend using an EQ like I did if at all possible, because you will otherwise be displeased with the sound. But you will be happy with the fact that they stay in your ears, which certainly can't be said for all plugs, and provide gobs and gobs of bass. And sure, while these plugs would never replace my 600s, they're the best buds I've found for when I jog and work out.

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Various JVC/Aiwa/Sony buds

Price, Comfort

In-line mute button

I have had my "Plugs" for just over a month. I use them with my Minidisc player. They are much better than the earbuds that come with the MD player. They seem to be fairly sensitive, meaning, the volume level seems to be reasonable as compared to other headphones I've used.

They do a terific job of eliminating any outside noise. They are comfortable and somewhat discrete (something that over the ear phones are not). They come with a nice little storage pouch.

Over all I'm pleased with them. For the price, their good.