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

Its hard to find a headphone that can match this headphones performance at a mere $140. I really can't complain at this price, but if I am to find any fault in it, it is its mids. The mids are not bad by any means but are ever so slightly recessed and sound a bit thin to my ears. Wonderful build quality, you can abuse them, but I dont. Nice long, sturdy, and thick cable. These headphones will clamp very tight when you first get them, but that is very easily fixed. All you have to do is stretch them over a tissue box as you burn them in and viola! Can't beat it for the price. If you want an IEM that is on par with these for about the same price get the Vsonic GR07's, they are like the m50s but with better mids.

Well hey, let me keep this short and sweet, after owning these i certainly don't have the passion to write a lovely long complimentary review because these are not worth the effort.

They are way overhyped - simply put...no refinement, sort of like a V8 Nascar taking on a Formula 1, get my drift, these are the V8, not the worst, but certainly not the best. They are a tad boxy sounding, and not as detailed as some other better ones, they will stand up and fight, but they will lose, simple as that.

The midrange tone, plus the bass is prominent, to the detriment of the top end and they are not conducive to an open airy sound-stage; actually they sort of have a similar sound to the sennheiser 449's, midrangy sounding, but these are better than the 449's with more punchy bass attitude and a bit more detail, but overall, the hype surrounding these is not justified, believe me!