ABSTRACT

Koss designed the first commercially viable high-fidelity audio headphones in 1958. They were successful because up until that time audio-playback hardware had been heavy and anything but portable. However, the advent of the transistorized, portable players made headphone listening more attractive, and the Koss product line benefited from the requirements of the new small-player technology. Today, the Koss family still has a 60 percent share in the company (now run by the founder’s son, Michael J. Koss), and the products include studio and home-audio stereo headphones, portable headphones, cordless headphones, noise-reduction headphones, and microphones and headsets with microphones.