KOSS BT540i: Bluetooth Wireless Mobility

Bluetooth Calls

Now on to the meat and potatoes… Or whatever it is you guys like to eat.

My previous experience with Koss has been through their darker, bassier Porta Pro and the brighter, but still bassy KSC75. They both provided an accentuated low end bass response and a very full and lively sound from top to bottom, sounding almost thick and congested at times. I was kind of expecting the same full sound from the BT540i based on those experiences. I was COMPLETELY wrong in my expectations.

The BT540i handled calls like a champ! Vocal clarity was great on both sides and I didn’t experience any cut outs or fading of speech and the person on the other end was able to hear me perfectly for the entirety of any call made. My longest call was about 3 1/2 hours and the BT540i handled it smoothly the entire time. Looks like the dual mics work exactly as they should! There also wasn’t much interference, if any, from my surroundings. All in all, as a can used for conversations via Bluetooth, I couldn’t ask for more.

Now, with my Macbook Pro while listening to music: these are pretty good. The best way to describe them is crisp with good clarity, which is pretty much how Koss describes it themselves. They got the description dead on. They have a very linear and even response from top to bottom. I tested them with a variety of music genres, from Jazz, to Rock, Rap and R&B and they performed well enough, though admittedly they were more than a bit lacking on bass heavy tracks, and there was absolutely no depth to them.

Sound of Music

Detail isn’t too bad. While you can definitely hear each individual instrument in the music you’re listening to, everything is very flat, and very one dimensional sounding. There is absolutely no width or depth to the sound stage at all, which was fairly disappointing, though not unexpected since its main functionalities are intended for Bluetooth usability and music.

The treble is lively and sharp but thin sounding. Slightly sibilant at times. I mostly enjoyed it on jazz tracks and some rock (classical) like Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” or Aerosmith’s “Mama Kin”. It seemed to have trouble keeping up with faster paced music, the little detail that it does have in the upper treble getting lost in translation as a result.

The mid range is very slightly forward sounding, with very good vocal clarity, but again, not as full or as engaging as I would like. The lack of air around any vocals, presented in any form, male or female, took me back to the times when I would just grab any old cheap headphones to listen to whatever I was spinning in my old Sony CD player at the time. Definitely a hit of nostalgia there, which isn’t bad, as it made me appreciate the gear I spent so much on that much more. It does seem to handle slower vocal tracks much better than others, which I really liked for R&B tracks.
When a song became too fast there was a slight but noticeable blurring around the edges of the vocals, but they are still more on the clear side than anything else.

Bass heads beware! This is not the headphone for you! The bass is very lean, but it is still present and clear enough to recognize among the midrange and treble, but will definitely have a hard time with more bass heavy tracks, at least as far as getting that satisfying rumble and slam. Also, it doesn’t do too well with bass boosting. It just drowns out the detail that is there.

Conclusion

As far as Bluetooth clarity goes, these are a great headphone to use while out and about making and receiving calls, and they perform well for most music, but might come across as unengaging for those who absolutely need more staging, depth, and detail. However, if you have
a desire for a portable over ear Bluetooth capable headphone that doesn’t suffer in terms of quality, then these are the perfect choice for you. For $200 USD you can buy them direct from the Koss website, or save a few bucks and get them from Amazon for around $140 USD. For
the Amazon price, these are definitely worth the money for convenience, clarity, and how well they perform overall as a Bluetooth device.

Editor’s Note: It actually looks to me like Koss made a pretty good wireless BT headphone. I was surprised they were going for only $140 in the US. Price-Quality wise these are easy to recommend but like Ricky said: if you want a headphone that’s mostly for listening to music and not for making calls and you do not need it to be wireless, you might want to look elsewhere as there are other more musical but hardwired headphones out there.

4/5 - (27 votes)
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14 Comments

  • Reply October 23, 2014

    George Lai

    I feel that one hurdle to more widespread acceptance of BT for audiophile headphones is that BT keeps evolving so even though it is only USD140, I won’t know if it will pair to my next computer or smartphone with BT 4.0 or the next one, 5.0 or whatever.

    Those of us who use BT headsets in our cars for example know that they don’t always connect or disconnect flawlessly. And when you get one that does behave flawlessly, things might change when you change phones or BT headset.

    When on a phone call, it can also cut off and irritating though that might be on a phone call, imagine when you use it for music and you’re right at, say, the middle of the guitar solo in Hotel California.

    • Reply October 23, 2014

      Headfonia_L.

      It isn’t my thing either. I’ve always been a fan of wires 🙂

      • Reply October 23, 2014

        George Lai

        You’re a cable aficionado.

      • Reply October 23, 2014

        dalethorn

        Same here – I can recommend the B1, for example, for sound quality, and give it a 98 percent recommendation for reliability, but it still has a few tiny glitches.

  • Reply October 23, 2014

    dalethorn

    I have the little Audioengine B1 Bluetooth DAC “receiver”, and its sound quality is audiophile grade**, so apparently a device being Bluetooth doesn’t have a bearing on the sound quality.

    **At least as good as a FiiO E17.

  • Reply October 23, 2014

    Anthony Kimball

    I was curious if Ricky did any listening while “wired” to the BT540i…I have noticed from some other reviews that the sound quality changes (sometimes dramatically) when connected..

    Great review!!

    • Reply October 23, 2014

      Ricky Sterling

      I actually did quite a bit of listening with it wired, but there was no real change in the overall quality that was worth mentioning, in my opinion.

      Thanks for the kind words!

  • Reply February 22, 2015

    Steve Matzura

    I’ve been a Koss fan since the Pro 4-AA’s I got as a Christmas present in the late 60’s. I’d give my left **** to have another pair of their Sound Partners (vintage mid-80’s); their Porta-Pros, of which I’ve now gone through three pair, weren’t nearly as good. Their high-ends were muted, and their small size precluded good bass responsde, plus the ear covering always degraded and came off quickly. I’m happy to tell you the BT540I’s suffered none of these problems, but yes, even when hardwired to a sound source, they do lack some bass. This was disappointing. I’d like to hear a comparison of the BT540I v the Avantree Audition, which sells at half the price.

  • Reply November 12, 2015

    Justin Myers

    Ya, these aren’t bad at all. I started off with just a smaller pair of wired Panasonics and
    didn’t like the range at all. It was very distant and tinny sounding so I
    started reading around. Something I read at CNET led me to get a pair of Sonys
    but I wound up sending them back. They were loud and bass’y but didn’t offer
    anything crisp. I think if I would have spent a little more on Sony, I would
    have been fine, but I was led to these Koss by a review from POC Network (http://pocinc.net/blog/product-reviews/review-koss-bt540i-bluetooth-over-the-ear-headphones
    ) who thought very well of them. They were the same price as the more expensive
    Sony option I probably would have ended up with outside of the fact that the Koss
    were wireless. I’ve never owned a pair of wireless headphone before so I thought
    hey, this would be cool. Well it was as I use them all over the place. I walk to
    work since I only live about 3bocks away and tend to wear them there as well (when
    I can get away with it at least) ^_^. If they were waterproof, I would bring them
    to the gym with me and listen to something zen-like, but they aren’t. I look back
    at the Panasonics and laugh 🙂

  • Reply March 4, 2016

    Laurajia

    nice review

  • Reply March 4, 2016

    Laurajia

    Hello Ricky, could you please review our earphones?

  • Reply May 9, 2016

    Wayland Couch

    Every year, a week or so after Black Friday, Koss has a 40%-off sale which would put these at $120. Now, THAT, is an incredible deal. The only thing to note with these is that they have a 1-year warranty instead of the standard Limited Lifetime Warranty.

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