My ATH-M50 headphones sound like junk - Page 2

The bass on mine is fine, and I cant hear that stuff on youtube either.

for the love of &**$ don't blame burn in.  Or bad sources or amps.  Broken sources/amps/headphones maybe.  But headphones don't go from sounding broken to sounding good with burn in, or amps or cables or anything else.  128k mp3 does not sound broken period.  320k sounds better, but it's subtle.  People go way over the top on this forum sometimes. 

Either there's something wrong with your M50's or amp/source or you're just not used to hearing such revealing headphones.

any updates from OP on this ?

i too is struggling with a pair of new M50 that have been break-in for 60 hours. can't get he mids to sound clear, it sounds away in distance. and vocal sounds muffled. besides that, the bass and highs are good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lie495fc 

any updates from OP on this ?

i too is struggling with a pair of new M50 that have been break-in for 60 hours. can't get he mids to sound clear, it sounds away in distance. and vocal sounds muffled. besides that, the bass and highs are good.

Just curious. Are you comparing these cans to other cans (closed or open), or are your feelings/observations based on what you know and like?

The reason for the question is that compared to my DT880's and other's I have and had, yes, the mids are recessed (slightly, IMHO). I wouldn't call them muffled (but that may be more semantics than anything else).

Yes, the M50's are slightly U-curved, but I don't mind the slightly recessed mids for 99.99% of everything I listen to, regardless of genre. And, after listening to them for a very short while, the psychoacoustics kick in and they sound very naturalistic... but then if I jump to the DT880's... whoo boy, they sure sound constrained and coloured. So I just don't do that, and I find them incredibly enjoyable.

Many who own these and appreciate them do so in spite of their shortcomings. What they do, they do very well...

cheers

shane

Quote:

Originally Posted by lie495fc 

any updates from OP on this ?

i too is struggling with a pair of new M50 that have been break-in for 60 hours. can't get he mids to sound clear, it sounds away in distance. and vocal sounds muffled. besides that, the bass and highs are good.

You need to balance mod them.  

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/470541/very-simple-ath-m50-balance-mod-less-bass-more-mids

The vocals are their if you listen closely, they are not pushed back.  The upper mid bass is encroaching over your vocals giving it that appearance.  The slight dip in the upper mid only warms the timbre on vocals, nothing gets pushed back in the midrange.  I certainly would not call them muffled or veiled.  Even w/ the untuned bass encroachment you can hear the mids present.  YMMV.

I agree w/ Shane they have a very natural psychoacoustic affect if thats the right way to put it.  

yes Shane, im comparing m50 to jvc fxc50 IEM. anaxilux has those IEM too, maybe he can chip in on this :)

and thanks there anaxilux. did the balance mod last night, it does bring out the vocal with lost of bass.

Heh, heh... I gots to try me that mod one of these days... 

Quote:

Originally Posted by irvikissa 

Hi, new to the forum.

 

I bought a pair of ATH-M50 headphones a couple of days ago after doing a lot of research and reading reviews. They seemed like good headphones, but now I don't know anymore. Even my 20 $ wireless headphones sound better and have a richer sound quality (to my ears). I don't have a clue WHY these are good headphones, because, to me, they sound awful. I don't know if there's a manufacture fault or if my ears are faulty.

 

I'm not using these for mixing or studio work. Just plain music listening through my computer. I love all kinds of music, from psychedelic rock to extreme metal and from pop to classical. I don't have any complaints when it comes to bands such as the early Pink Floyd (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn) or The Beatles. The soundstage is fantastic and I can hear every instrument clearly. But when I listen to bands like Slayer, Sodom or anything that has a dominating bass sound, the sound goes flat. The bass sucks!

 

After "burning in" the headphones, nothing has really changed. And now I'm trying to go through "bass tests" and such from Youtube. Like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH_sUK7hJxE. I can't hear ANYTHING from 00:00 to 01:30, and after that I hear something, but I have to turn the volume way up to a hearing loss level (for normal listening). When the video gets to the point where it starts the "full frequency test" the sound stops at 12000 Hz althrough the phones are marketed to have a 30 Hz to 28 kHz range. What the hell?

 

Is there something I can do to make my listening experience more joyable? Or are these faulty phones?

If you want some really great bass testing songs.This is the website.High quality bass songs/tests that go down to and below 20Hz.They make the bass on my Q40s sound unreal.http://www.stealthsettings.com/woofer-bass-subwoofer-sound-test
 

interest sound tests there nirvana, thanx.