Koss adds Apple remote to Porta Pro headphones
The Koss Porta Pro are iconic. They aren’t really all that good, being beaten all the ways to Mars by the similarly priced Sennheiser PX-100 (and a whole lot of other headphones), but have grown extremely popular because of a few factors, namely distribution and them being bass heavy. The latter is important here because the people who are most likely to buy these are people who otherwise would have used bundled earphones that come with devices, and bass is perhaps the biggest issue with such headphones. The Porta Pro bass might be muddy and exaggerated, but most consumers don’t have any frame of reference.
Anyways, the reason why these are in the news on a tablet site is that Koss has now made a version with playback controls on the cable, which means it can remote control an iPad’s music playback. The new model, called the Porta Pro KTC, adds the three iconic Apple remote control buttons that through various button combinations can provide a full range of playback controls. A mic is also included so you can use the headphones for phone calls.
Trying to get people to stop buying Porta Pros is more or less the definition of futile, but at least it’s nice to see some added functionality to the monstrosities. No word on pricing though, but considering the discounted prices that the normal Porta Pro go for I’m hoping the KTC version will be close enough to be a viable option.
[Engadget]
