Audio-Technica ATH-M50S

The ATH-M50 is one of those rare products where the quality/price ratio really hits the sweet spot, and in fact is like a small miracle in the world of pro audio. When you get Grammy Award-winning audio engineers and producers like George Massenburg, Frank Filipetti, Al Schmitt...etc singing its praises publicly, you know it's got to be something special.

The M50 pulls off the difficult balance of being neutral, accurate, and detailed while not causing listening fatigue, and that is one of the most important things to get right when it comes to any audio device. If the device hurts your ears with shrill or piercing treble, then no matter how "detailed and revealing" you think it is, you won't be able to withstand the sonic torture anyway. Designed as professional studio monitors, the M50 can be used all day long without any listening fatigue, and it's tonal balance is accurate enough that many respected audio engineers would not hesitate to mix on them. Being sealed headphones, they also are a favorite among musicians and singers when recording, as they do not bleed into the microphone like open headphones (which means you also won't bother the people sitting near you, unlike open headphones where others will hear a tinny version of what you're hearing).

One of the most outstanding characteristics of the M50 is its sub-bass extension (50Hz and below), which is both deep and substantial. For those that don't know what full-sized loudspeakers with proper sub-bass extension sounds like, they might think the M50 is "bass heavy," but that would be incorrect. The extension and amount of bass rendered by the M50 is similar to what full-sized loudspeakers should sound like when the sub-bass is at a proper level. In fact, I would say headphones that have less sub-bass extension/level than the M50 should be categorized as "bass shy." The M50's bass is also punchy and visceral in a way that approximates full-sized loudspeakers, which is a very difficult thing to pull off for headphones.

The mids and the treble are smooth, and the treble never gets gratings like many other headphones. If I must nitpick, I might say that the treble has a tiny hint of metallic timbre when compared to open-back headphones. But it's a very vague impression and in no way gets in the way of the music, and it's only noticeable when doing extensive A/B comparisons. What I really love about the M50's upper mids and treble is that some songs can sound very shrill and fatiguing--especially on sharp snare hits or vocal sibilance--on other headphones that "fake" detail by raising a few to several dB's in those frequency ranges, but on the M50, those tracks sound perfect balanced and natural, never harsh and irritating.

The soundstage of the M50 is smaller than the average open-cans, because of its sealed design. This is perhaps the only thing sonically I wish it could be improved upon, but this does not mean the soundstage of the M50 is claustrophobic or in any way detrimental to the listening experience--it's simply not as open and lush as headphones like the Sennheiser HD6XX/5XX series (and other high quality open-cans).

Physically, the M50 is pretty comfortable to wear, but pleather tends to get a bit sweaty, and is a necessary evil for sealed-headphones. The rotating earcups are a bit annoying when taking the M50 on and off, since sometimes you have to rotate the earcups back into the correct orientation. For traveling, the M50 folds down to about half of its normal size, and that makes it very easy to travel with, not to mention more durable because it's harder to accidentally bend them or twist them out of shape. The overall look of the M50 has a pleasant, no-none-sense professional appeal--they really do look like they were designed to feel right at home in professional studios.

On a side note, the Sennheiser HD280 Pro is often recommended to musicians who need sealed-cans, and I highly suggest anyone considering a pair of nice sealed cans check out the M50, as they walk all over the HD280 in every single way possible, while still remaining very reasonably priced.

This is a review by a person, with little headphone experience.  The best headphones I have had before these would have to be the v-moda bass freq. I've had the skullcandy crushers, and some other of $20 or less phones.  This is probably a review for those who are on this forum and are noobs, since their ears are probably not as developed and won't appreciate the gifts of a $500 pair of headphones(good ones). At first I considered the Monster Studios as they were probably the only pair of headphones that i had heard of due to advertising and huge stores, and since they had such a high price tag i thought they had to be amazing.  I did try them on and they sounded good at first, but after thinking about the listening experience, the bass was muddy, and the sound was muddy as well. It just felt condensed.  Anyways, thanks to this site i saved 200 bucks, and got these babes.

Main things I noticed:

-These actually isolate very well, i was quite surprised with how well they do.

- These have great bass, quantitively less than the Studios but not by much.  Quality wise they are way better.

- The pleather and the design of this heapdhone was crazy good.  They were comfortable for me, and they look really good which was a big factor. Ears do swear a little, but you only notice once you take them off.

- The spinning ear cups don't bother me much.  They are kind of cool cause you can spin it off and you don't have to take off the heapdhones if somebody is talking to you

- The only two cons of this headphone is that the cable is rather long and that the headphones create pressure on your head but that goes away after a while.  The thing with the cable is that you can wrap it up and its fine. 

Conclusion:

Most people that don't do too much research or just look at price will probably go with the beats studios or bose.  I was quite convinced about those two before i came here.  I was going to buy the studios, because of how i thought they looked good and the noise cancelling feature was good because i could listen to my music and feel alone as if nobody was there.  These are just as good looking, and they are definitely better quality.  These cans are better than than any pair of bose over ears, and the studios with the bose and studios set up at stores in their best conditions.  I play this out of my ipod, and its way better. I listen to hip hop and rap and these are great for those genre's of music.  The bass is perfect and the cans produce crisp and basically beautiful sound.  Buy these if you want a cheap pair of headphones, that perform like expensive headphones that provide good bass, without compromising sound quality and having good isolation.  As you can tell i don't know audiophile terms, but these are amazing.  Everything you could want for 99 bucks

Just wanted to share my thoughts on the vaunted m50's...not that more reviews are needed. First off, I couldn't be happier with them except for the comfort level. I need a break from them after about an hour and it's a tough concession as I really don't want to take them off!! I plan to stretch them out a little and see if it makes a difference. 

The best way that I can describe the m50's is that they seem to be able to play just about any genre well...effortlessly. The sound is rich, articulate, a bit heavy on the bass (which I like) and inviting. The sound signature is perfect for me. I just like the way that they sound in nearly every category. The other headphones that I owned have been put through the artificial burn in period. When I put these on my head, I just didn't feel the need to give them a burn in period. I just wanted to listen, and listen and listen. I will let them burn in naturally as I use them. I just don't feel the need to get better sound from them out of the box. They are that good to me.

These are not what I would budget/bang for the buck phones. They feel expensive, look expensive and sound expensive IMO. The fact that they can be had for around $100 may change that equation though. Maybe the best compliment that I can pay the m50's is that when I put them on I stop listening to the audio quality and just get lost in my music. The second best compliment is that they curbed my desire to go and buy "a better" pair of headphones. How long will that last? Don't know. 

The cable is nice and thick and metal coiled at the terminated end...nice touch. They are drive nicely without any amp. They have a heft to them that suggest the quality of the build. What would I change about them? I wish that they had more comfortable pads. That's it really. 

If anyone is on the fence about these, don't be just buy them and enjoy!!

There's always one.  Every good thing has a dissenter, and that's me.  The ATH-M50 cannot handle songs with lots of different lower frequencies going on at once because of the artificial bass extension.  For example, Nine Inch Nails' "Heresy" is a very challenging song to play on headphones; it sounds like crap on my car stereo because the subwoofer is confused on which notes to play, so too low of frequencies overpower what should be playing louder.  The M50s do the same on the FLAC version of it.  The impacts of the kick-drum are far quieter than the bass in the verses.  It's incredibly annoying.  The bass is so sloppy and uncontrolled.  Another good example, Smashing Pumpkins' "Thirty-Three", in which there is a subtle background bass that tends to get incredibly emphasized to the point it's unlistenable on car subwoofers/headphones with poor bass response.  The ATH-M50 do this.  Luckily, they have really nice mids and respectable highs.  Yet, it's shocking they bill these as monitors, they're horribly unbalanced towards the lower-end.  These headphones main competitor, the HD280Pro, are superior in every way, except for the clamping force.  Not a producer I can think of uses these, either.  NOT monitors.

The build quality is a joke.  I went through three earpads in a year before the right speaker stopped working and the connector to the iPod got frayed.  They seem big and durable, but I've had lesser headphones be more durable.  I thought they were comfortable.  But the praise on here is sickening and misguided.  Do y'all get paid by Audio-Technica?  And at their new price, they are an even worse deal.