[proteinpig]

Hi everyone,
 
I am a super n00b in the headphone world. I spent most of my last 15 days reading posts on head-fi to zoom upon the ideal cans for my needs and my budget ( I am an engineering grad student and hence my purse is not very fat :| ).
 
As you would have guessed by now, I ended up buying the much praised M50. They arrived yesterday night.  I listened to them immediately out of the box (without an amp and plugged into my HP notebook) and was not very impressed. I read several posts describing the burn in process for M50. I let my laptop play music on them for 15 hours (while I went to the lab and did some research). I came back tonight and tried them again. I am slightly worried now.  I don't find them to have punchy bass as described (though there is still some amount of bass) . Also, the upper mids / highs sound really harsh and piercing to my ears. I mostly listen to alternative rock and pop music.
 
Do I find them lacking in bass because I am a basshead? I love the sound from my Image S4s that I have been using for over 200 hours. I find them to be very sweet sounding with abundant bass whereas the M50 sound like they are going to pierce my ears. The drums on the M50 sound incredible. But the vocals are razor sharp and metallic.
 
Is it because they need more burn in time ( 100 hours? )? Can someone confirm if they had a similar experience before they were completely burnt in ?
 
Eagerly waiting for replies.
 
Thanks.

 

[plonter]

I say let them a few more hours of play and see if you like the sound.  maybe you need to get used to it.     
the treble is a little metalic i can agree with that..but i didn't find it too bothering. but mids are beautiful  and almost flat as i hear it,still a little recessed but not like the D5000. so it is strange too that you said that voices sound piercing to you because the midrange is kind of smooth on the M50. 
strange that you said they don't pack enough punch for you...they are extremely bass heavy and have wonderful punch imo,that's why they are my most favourable cans for electronic music.
again...maybe they need to open up a little. 
 
maybe it's your notebook... try to use a good player programme like foobar with flac/wav files without any EQ .

 

[basementdweller]

I agree, definitely try different sources before you throw them out.  When I got mine, I liked them a lot from the ipod, but thought they sounded awful from my laptop.  For some reason I had to set everything on my laptop's eq to flat and slightly raise the bars on the lower end of the spectrum.  I listen to some very bass heavy rock and love them, but if you have developed a taste for mainstream bass(over dominant, boomy, very much a focus over mids and highs) then I can see how you might not like them.  In other words, the bass isn't as obvious as a lot of mainstream headphones, but it is much cleaner and truer.  Again, I would start by fiddling with your source as my ATH-M50s did not change much from the day I first plugged them in too today when they would be most certainly considered burnt in.
 
It is also possible that you are, in fact, a basshead and thought you weren't.  I thought I was a basshead, but as I like the highs on these phones and think the bass is more than sufficient, I now think that I might not be a basshead.  Unfortunately, this particular hobby does require a fair amount of experimentation before one finds where their real preferences are at.

 

[mcnoiserdc]

Well I have a m50 and it is not that bassy. In fact I barely find it bassier than my hd600. My hje900 is bassier than it.

 

[plonter]

Quote:

Well I have a m50 and it is not that bassy. In fact I barely find it bassier than my hd600. My hje900 is bassier than it.

it sure sounds like we have a different M50's...or that we have different definition of what bass is.
mine is as bassy as the denon D5000 which are bass monsters.  although i agree that the M50's emphasis are greatly on the low bass than on the midbass,that's why i prefer their bass over the D5000...but i prefer the D5000 highs more.

 

[proteinpig]

Thanks a ton plonter. I am using 320 kbps mp3s. I didn't know about foobar. I can already see a noticeable improvement in the bass quality compared to windows media / vlc players. The bass hits far harder and is also smoother now. Does that mean that the windows media player is messed up? Or is it just psychological? I don't know. But, I can surely enjoy my music better now. But the piercing treble problem still exists. It is just too sharp for my taste. Do you think I am biased because the only decent phones I've used so far are the S4s. Does that mean that the S4s have smoother treble compared to the better cans? I know comparing IEMs to headphones is not right .. but I love the way the S4 sounds.

 

[plonter]

Quote:

Thanks a ton plonter. I am using 320 kbps mp3s. I didn't know about foobar. I can already see a noticeable improvement in the bass quality compared to windows media / vlc players. The bass hits far harder and is also smoother now. Does that mean that the windows media player is messed up? Or is it just psychological? I don't know. But, I can surely enjoy my music better now. But the piercing treble problem still exists. It is just too sharp for my taste. Do you think I am biased because the only decent phones I've used so far are the S4s. Does that mean that the S4s have smoother treble compared to the better cans? I know comparing IEMs to headphones is not right .. but I love the way the S4 sounds.

glad you are starting to like them.    remember to make sure that all EQ stuff is turned off,and it might be that your sound card is of a rather poor quality.   think about upgrading your system when you have the money.    
I would say that the highs are a little metallic sounding in their texture..but they are not over extended or aggressive in anyway (like grado for example) imo,sometimes i even wish that they were extend a little bit more and be more aggresive.  well, i am a grado lover so what can you do 

 
but let them some playing time to see if the treble will soften a bit.   and in time you will get used to the sound..it is like that with every new headphone so don't worry about that...just enjoy them,they are very good headphones.

 

[proteinpig]

I think I'm indeed a basshead then. But I have noticed a significant improvement with foobar (which I couldn't see after tinkering with EQ in wm player). So, I take back my bass remarks. There are still some songs ( for example Coldplay's viva la vida) that kinda feel metallic at some points (I don't know how else to put it). I didn't read many posts on the forum that stressed the importance of a good music player software though I came across many that stressed the usefulness of good sound cards and amps. This is indeed one important point for n00bs like me to note.
 
Do you guys have any other tips like these to improve the sound quality?
 
Quote:

I agree, definitely try different sources before you throw them out.  When I got mine, I liked them a lot from the ipod, but thought they sounded awful from my laptop.  For some reason I had to set everything on my laptop's eq to flat and slightly raise the bars on the lower end of the spectrum.  I listen to some very bass heavy rock and love them, but if you have developed a taste for mainstream bass(over dominant, boomy, very much a focus over mids and highs) then I can see how you might not like them.  In other words, the bass isn't as obvious as a lot of mainstream headphones, but it is much cleaner and truer.  Again, I would start by fiddling with your source as my ATH-M50s did not change much from the day I first plugged them in too today when they would be most certainly considered burnt in.
 
It is also possible that you are, in fact, a basshead and thought you weren't.  I thought I was a basshead, but as I like the highs on these phones and think the bass is more than sufficient, I now think that I might not be a basshead.  Unfortunately, this particular hobby does require a fair amount of experimentation before one finds where their real preferences are at.

 

[swmtnbiker]

IMO you're better off finding which headphones have the basic sound signature you like, then tweaking from there with source and amp.

 

[mcnoiserdc]

I am really starting to think I have a different set of m50 because I read everywhere they are bass heavy but not these. 

 

[proteinpig]

I was indeed planning to get a SR80i/SR125i before I came across M50. I probably would have freaked out with the highs if I did. Since there are tons on audiophiles on head-fi who love grados, I presume that a lot of you guys appreciate aggressive highs. As you say, I think it will take me some time to get adjusted to the new headphones. Thanks for the advice.

 

[plonter]

Quote:

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" width="1" />" width="1" /> I was indeed planning to get a SR80i/SR125i before I came across M50. I probably would have freaked out with the highs if I did. Since there are tons on audiophiles on head-fi who love grados, I presume that a lot of you guys appreciate aggressive highs. As you say, I think it will take me some time to get adjusted to the new headphones. Thanks for the advice.

I am a huge grado fan because i like to listen to rock/metal very much and i DO feel that the grado coloration compliment those genres very much,but i don't use them for anything else besides rock...maybe some classical sometimes but rarely. for example,i didn't even try to listen to any kind of electronic music with my RS1,not even once because i know that it will be unappropriate.    the M50 are imo much more customable for a variety of genres as they are more balanced sounding than the grado.    but that's me...

 

[plonter]

I am listening to my M50 right now...metallica's black album.    the bass hits very hard and deep,if one's doesn't get enough bass it can be for two reasons:
1. he is probably a super crazy basshead that want's to get huge amounts of bass that's totally out of proportion.
2.not enough driving power, i.e amping issue.

 

[proteinpig]

 
I think this makes sense to me now. I'm guessing the peak at 10khz in M50 (vs a trough in S4) is what I perceive to be piercing treble. Also, doesn't this mean that the S4s are extremely bass biased?  Anyways, I think I have started liking my M50s now. The bass sounds clearer to me now (burn-in??). I'm just waiting for the peak at 10khz to somehow flatten out a little so that I can enjoy them to the fullest.
 
On a side note, the response for SR80 looks completely opposite to the one from S4s - less bass and an Everest around 10khz. Is there anyone who likes both the phones?