Review: Koss 'The Plug'

Enjoying music on the move is as much about blocking out ambient noise as it is about having good quality headphones.

The Koss Plug earphones are a cheap alternative to noise-cancelling headphones, being earphones built-in to ear plugs.

To ensure a comfortable fit, the ear-plug part of the earphones is made out of foam that can be squeezed between the fingers. Once released the plugs slowly return to their original size, fitting snugly in the ear.

For the price, the earphones are surprisingly effective at blocking out background noise, even on a noisy train, for example. The sound quality was also very good.

The main worry with these earphones, though, is that with the sound source so close to the ear it would be very easy to end up with a hearing problem if listening to music at high volume. We found that it was necessary to turn the volume right down to stay comfortable.

The other area of concern is that after a month of use the plugs were not compressing as tightly as they did when new. Two sets of the foam plugs are included with the headphones.

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