Koss Tugo review

The Koss Tugo is predictably light on features. There's no screen, no support for playlists or protected music, and no shuffle option. The player mounts as removable storage on either a Mac or a Windows machine, and you can use Finder or Explorer, respectively, to transfer files via drag-and-drop. The Tugo also works with Windows Media jukeboxes such as Rhapsody, and it supports both MP3 and WMA files. There is some song organization on the device, but it is all alphabetical--either by artist and album if you transfer using a jukebox, or by track name and number if you use drag-and-drop with individual songs. Thus, you can order songs as you prefer by appending numbers to the beginning, or by creating alphabetical playlist folders.

Those who can get past the Tugo's limited memory and high price tag will be rewarded with rich, clear-sounding audio. Perhaps due to the same unseen opening that allows for sound leakage, the headphones seem to offer wider, more open sound than some of their full-size counterparts. Also, the fact that the speakers are not pressed directly against the ear undoubtedly helps with this. The Tugo offers impressive bass response and nice, warm mids. The rated battery life of 10 hours isn't spectacular, but it's pretty typical for this form factor.