Era
Headphones from the 1980s
The 1980s brought lighter studio headphones and the first Pro-bias Stax. Beyerdynamic's semi-open DT 880 arrived in 1980 and the DT 990 in 1985, Sennheiser had the HD 540 Reference and HD 560 Ovation, AKG replaced the Sextett with the K 240 Monitor, and the K 1000 earspeaker closed the decade. Stax moved the Lambda to Pro bias and a 5-pin plug in 1982, and Koss launched the Porta Pro in 1984. Several of these were made for decades, so a listing may be much newer than the design.
10 models we cover.
Sennheiser
Open-backSennheiser HD 540 Reference
- Years made
- 1985–1992
- Impedance
- 300 ohms
- Drive it from
- Wants a headphone amp
$220–$240 typical ask
2 on eBay
Sennheiser
Open-backSennheiser HD 560 Ovation
- Years made
- 1989–early 1990s
- Impedance
- 300 ohms
- Drive it from
- Wants a headphone amp
Specs and what to check →
AKG
Open-backAKG K 240 Monitor
- Years made
- 1984–2004
- Impedance
- 600 ohms
- Drive it from
- Wants a headphone amp
$80–$210 typical ask
13 on eBay
AKG
Open-backAKG K 140 S
- Years made
- 1980–1982
- Impedance
- 600 ohms
- Drive it from
- Wants a headphone amp
$65–$180 typical ask
5 on eBay
AKG
Open-backAKG K 1000
- Years made
- 1989–about 2004
- Impedance
- 120 ohms
- Drive it from
- Runs off a speaker amp
Specs and what to check →
Beyerdynamic
Open-backBeyerdynamic DT 880 (1980s)
- Years made
- 1980–1989
- Impedance
- 600 ohms
- Drive it from
- Wants a headphone amp
$170–$260 typical ask
5 on eBay
Beyerdynamic
Open-backBeyerdynamic DT 990 PRO
- Years made
- 1985–today
- Impedance
- 600 then 250 ohms
- Drive it from
- Wants a headphone amp
$110–$160 typical ask
82 on eBay
Koss
Open-backKoss Porta Pro
- Years made
- 1984–today
- Impedance
- 60 ohms
- Drive it from
- Plays from a phone
$50–$85 typical ask
27 on eBay
Koss
Open-backKoss HV/X
- Years made
- 1980s
- Impedance
- Not documented
- Drive it from
- Wants a headphone amp
$55–$60 typical ask
1 on eBay
Stax
ElectrostaticStax SR-Lambda Pro
- Years made
- From 1982
- Impedance
- 129,000 ohms
- Drive it from
- Needs an energizer
$750–$1,125 typical ask
11 on eBay