Motivation for purchase
At work I'm moving from my own office to a space I share with colleagues. I love my Grado SR60e's but they are very leaky so I was looking for a closed pair of cans. I was undecided between the Audio Technica M50x and the AKG K181 DJ UE. The AT got better reviews but was also €50,- more expensive. So, I ordered them both to compare.
Gear
I'm using them in combination with an Audioquest Dragonfly Black 1.5, Audioengine N22 desktop amp and I'm playing MP3s and FLACs through Foobar.
Build and comfort
They seem solidly built and fit very comfortably over my ears. I have a fairly large head (not huge) and fairly small ears.
Sound
What immediately struck me about the sound was how much treble there was. It is seriously uncomfortable how much (high) treble there is compared to the rest of the spectrum. Maybe this can be solved with equalization but simply crushing the treble (which I tried) did not make them sound much better; because other holes in the spectrum quickly became apparent. The bass is lacking across the board; there's a bump somewhere in there but there's no subbass and the higher end of the bass/lower mids is not smooth at all and sounds very hollow or just absent. I tried them with all sorts of hiphop, rock, techno, folk, pop, classical, jazz you name it but the treble was just completely overpowering everything else. I switched cables to see if that was the problem, but no.
Compared to the Grado SR60e
Even though the Grado is less than half the price, the AT can't hold a candle to it. Not even remotely. The open Grado's even have more bass across the entire range, smoothly rolling into the mids which are super fluid. If anything, these M50x's have shown me just how damn good those Grado's sound. Of course the Grado's aren't nearly as comfy and they are super leaky.
Compared to the AKG K181 DJ UE
When turning on the 'bass boost' (which is just the opening of a vent, mind you), the K181s have the pumping bass they are apparently known for. Without the bass boost on, there isn't much; less than the Grado's in any case. The mids seem more fluid than on the M50x, although they don't come close to the Grado's. The treble is much more comfortable, so even though the K181's are not nearly as comfortable to wear as the M50x's, I'm sticking with the K181's as my closed cans. They look better too.
[edit] typo
[edit] So, were'e more than 2 years later and I've had the opportunity to compare my experience with the M50x to another pair of M50x which a friend of mine swears by. Several people here said they believed I might have purchased a defective or counterfeit pair and I can now counter that with some certainy. The other ones I've tried sound the same as the pair I wrote the above review about; harsh treble and disappointing bass. I will say again that the disappointing bass is less of an issue than the harsh treble, for me personally. To my ears, the treble is so bad they are actually unpleasant to listen to. Blame it on my ears, but I can't change how it sounds to me. I've been using the cheaper AKG 181 DJ UE daily with the infamous bass boost turned on and those put a smile on my face every single time. So, this illustrates how widely different people's ears are! I'm honestly surprised by this since of course I'm willing to believe the people who enjoy these cans (including my friend who loves his M50x); that just means there's big differences in the way some of us perceive sound!
At work I'm moving from my own office to a space I share with colleagues. I love my Grado SR60e's but they are very leaky so I was looking for a closed pair of cans. I was undecided between the Audio Technica M50x and the AKG K181 DJ UE. The AT got better reviews but was also €50,- more expensive. So, I ordered them both to compare.
Gear
I'm using them in combination with an Audioquest Dragonfly Black 1.5, Audioengine N22 desktop amp and I'm playing MP3s and FLACs through Foobar.
Build and comfort
They seem solidly built and fit very comfortably over my ears. I have a fairly large head (not huge) and fairly small ears.
Sound
What immediately struck me about the sound was how much treble there was. It is seriously uncomfortable how much (high) treble there is compared to the rest of the spectrum. Maybe this can be solved with equalization but simply crushing the treble (which I tried) did not make them sound much better; because other holes in the spectrum quickly became apparent. The bass is lacking across the board; there's a bump somewhere in there but there's no subbass and the higher end of the bass/lower mids is not smooth at all and sounds very hollow or just absent. I tried them with all sorts of hiphop, rock, techno, folk, pop, classical, jazz you name it but the treble was just completely overpowering everything else. I switched cables to see if that was the problem, but no.
Compared to the Grado SR60e
Even though the Grado is less than half the price, the AT can't hold a candle to it. Not even remotely. The open Grado's even have more bass across the entire range, smoothly rolling into the mids which are super fluid. If anything, these M50x's have shown me just how damn good those Grado's sound. Of course the Grado's aren't nearly as comfy and they are super leaky.
Compared to the AKG K181 DJ UE
When turning on the 'bass boost' (which is just the opening of a vent, mind you), the K181s have the pumping bass they are apparently known for. Without the bass boost on, there isn't much; less than the Grado's in any case. The mids seem more fluid than on the M50x, although they don't come close to the Grado's. The treble is much more comfortable, so even though the K181's are not nearly as comfortable to wear as the M50x's, I'm sticking with the K181's as my closed cans. They look better too.
[edit] typo
[edit] So, were'e more than 2 years later and I've had the opportunity to compare my experience with the M50x to another pair of M50x which a friend of mine swears by. Several people here said they believed I might have purchased a defective or counterfeit pair and I can now counter that with some certainy. The other ones I've tried sound the same as the pair I wrote the above review about; harsh treble and disappointing bass. I will say again that the disappointing bass is less of an issue than the harsh treble, for me personally. To my ears, the treble is so bad they are actually unpleasant to listen to. Blame it on my ears, but I can't change how it sounds to me. I've been using the cheaper AKG 181 DJ UE daily with the infamous bass boost turned on and those put a smile on my face every single time. So, this illustrates how widely different people's ears are! I'm honestly surprised by this since of course I'm willing to believe the people who enjoy these cans (including my friend who loves his M50x); that just means there's big differences in the way some of us perceive sound!
