Koss ESP-950 Electrostatic Stereophone

Other products by Koss

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 6.5 x 9.5 inches ; 7 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000056ULH
• Item model number: 160416
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 6, 2001

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Audiophiles seeking the best headphones money can buy should definitely consider the Koss ESP-950 electrostatic stereophone. The headset uses state-of-the-art electrostatic transducers rather than the fiber cone drivers typically used in headphones and loudspeakers. These transducers operate on currentless electrostatic charges with push-pull capacitor plates to induce movement in an intervening, low-mass, semiconductive diaphragm. That's a technical way of saying that these ear pieces are highly sensitive and very responsive to minute fluctuations in audio, rendering your music with delicacy and warmth, and with microdynamics--tiny fluctuations in the musicians' output level--intact. The stereophone uses a soft, vinyl closed-ear design for sonic isolation and includes a battery pack, a leather carrying case, connecting cables, and a 120-volt AC adapter.

Product Description

New advances in materials and design have served to expand the performance of Koss products. The company's product development team and engineers look for the most innovative combinations of existing and new technologies to deliver the most exciting products possible.Koss ESP-950 model incorporates state of the art electrostatic transducers that operate on currentless electrostatic charges on push-pull capacitor plates to cause movement of the intervening, low-mass semi-conductive diaphragm. It also features soft, vinyl closed ear cushion design for better isolation.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars cheap junk, December 27, 2009

By	J. D. Anderson "jazzmokey" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this from Amazon in November and it went kaput in December. The amplifier is cheap cheap cheap. Koss you should be ashamed. You have a better reputation than that...

23 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Pleasing Transcients, February 26, 2003

By	Limitless "Limitless" (Las Vegas, NV United States) - See all my reviews

I bought a pair of the ESP 950's in 1994 from a wholesaler for 495.00, I have collected high end audio gear my whole life and have several complete systems; however night time listening can
make your family very hostile...so I use these for stealth listening of my SACD and Hybrid Surrond encoded DVD's and Cd's.
The transcients on electrostatic phones are amazing, they tend to be a little bright with standard supplied connects, so I use my Transparent Audio Music Plus RCA inter-connects to the koss
E 90 unit which come with and runs these babies. Shear heaven!
I have been thinking of having some one build me a tube headphone amp for these headphones...then my family would be hostile again ..cause I would not want to go to work anymore.

3 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not much of a big deal, May 25, 2007

By	Reticuli (Las Vegas) - See all my reviews

It's hard to properly review this headphone system since Koss had an awful little $10 budget portable CD player hooked up to it at CES. However, it definitely sounded far too bright. There's no way it was the CD player causing that, I don't care how crummy it was. I also found the construction of the Koss to be very cheap: lots of plastic and a feel of low cost mass production. The volume and balance knobs are imprecise and inconveniently placed on top of each other. The mini 3.5mm TRS input also should have been supplemented or replaced with individual RCAs, possibly TRS 1/4" balanced inputs, which are cheap if you're tempted to think that's too "exotic". It's not. I really doubt balanced would make that much difference, but since the headphone is sending signal to the transducers with separate lines, it's a bad idea to share a ground on the input. RCA inputs are the bare minimum any amp needs, even a portable one as this energizer is marketed as. I'm sure the diaphragm probably is indeed very fast and revealing, but I can't say I was impressed beyond that. On the plus side, Koss has the best warranty possible. So the construction quality is perhaps moot, but that's doesn't change the tonal imbalance problem. You will need to use this with an EXTREMELY warm DAC or phono cartridge/preamp to get a neutral sound out of it. Maybe the old Burr Brown 20bits or Grado, respectively?