Yamaha HPH-MT220BL

Yamaha mt220's are amazing headphones which offer top notch sound quality for little expense. They do net need an amp to drive, but still work well with one.
Neutral sounding while still maintaining a good, realistic sound.
They blow the m50x out of the water, if you are looking for a cheap set of cans with pristine quality look no further.

This is my first review.
 
I will cover a few points about this headphone as best as i can and will then compare them to some other headphones mainly the Sennheiser HD700.
 
Price:
I got these for 167€ which is basically a steal considering the sound quality of these. 

Built:
These are built very sturdy. I don't have them long enough to judge how they will last over the course of the years but they are made of aluminum and very hard sturdy plastic. The earpads while looking good quality are from what i've heard not that long lasting and will flake with time. Same with the headband. Again, this is only what i've heard. 
 
Comfort:
The MT220's are pretty comfortable but i think the earpads are a bit shallow and the earcups are a bit small so people with big ears might have some problems. I don't. I think the headband is comfortable and so are the earpads, but i will replace the earpads with some brainwavz earpads soon.
 
Sound:
I must say that i haven't burned them in for that long because sadly my left driver got a bit of a rattle when i play the bassshaker test from this website: http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php and so i didn't had the motivation to let them burn in all day and all night. I already ordered a second pair and will test if these have the bass rattle too and return the current ones. The burn in at this time is about 20 - 30 hours. But let me say the already sound extremly good.
 
But lets move on to the sound. 
 
Right out of the box they sound they sound phenomenal. I plugged them into my iPod and my Xonar Essence STX and on both they sound very very good. The main reason i bought these is to listen to music in bed with my iPod / iPad and or at work with my Xonar DG.
 
Bass:
The bass is very good. It's tight, controlled, a "bit" emphasized (which i love) and fast / detailed. It doesn't bleed into the mids and its never overwhelming.  Compared to my Sennheiser HD700 the bass is not as textured but it comes so close its almost scary. Compared to the Fidelio X2's the bass is way  waay less present but the X2's the bass isn't as fast and punchy as on the MT220's. At last compared to the new Sony MDR100AAP the bass takes the Sonys to school with much more control and detail. Where the Sonys bass sounds pretty bloated to my ears, the MT220's bass plays in a whole other league.
 
Mids:
The mids are, while to my ears a tiny tad bit recessed, very neutral and balanced with the rest of the frequency. Female or male vocals come up beautifully and detailed and overall the midrange is just very pleasing to listen to. I heard that the midrange opens up with further burn-in so i am looking forward to that. Compared to the HD700's the midrange isn't as airy and open but it's not as reccesed as on the Sennheisers. On the HD700 i had to use an equalizer because vocals sounded so distant but with the equalization i got them to perfect volume with the rest of the frequency. On the MT220 i don't have to use and equalizer. The mids are just as good without. Compared to the Fidelio X2's the midrange is more balanced and alot "colder" and more neutral but the X2's are known for making the midrange sound rather warm. I won't compare these to the Sonys because it's just unfair IMO. The Sonys midrange just doesn't sound good anymore when you listened to the the MT220's.
 
Trebble:
While i first thought they were a bit sibilant and shrill i noticed with further listening that they are just so extended that i had to get used to the higher frequencies that these headphones give. The treble is what you could call pretty smooth with maybe a tad more volume but that is fine and adds the overall sense of more detail. Overall the treble is really good and pretty detailed as well. Compared to the HD700's they are not sibilant and annoying at all. Unequalized the HD700's make your ears bleed.. not THAT bad but i had to tone down the treble about 8 to 10db to make them non fatiguing. Again on the MT220 i don't have to do that. Compare the treble to the Sonys and you notice that the Sonys are rolled off and a lot quieter as on the Yamahas. Overall i like the treble a lot more as on Sonys. On the X2's the treble can sound artificial. One of the reasons why i will send them back (The X2's ofc).
 
Soundstage / Detail:
The Soundstage on these, while not beeing overly big, is very good and big enough to let the track breathe freely. Whats so special about these IMO is the detail and the clear lines between instruments, something which i came to love on my HD700's. They have some AMAZING microdetail. I hear things which i haven't heard on my HD700's. Not because the HD700's doesn't show them but the Yamaha's just reveal them clearer and show so much detail that you hear literally EVERYTHING that is on the track. That means you also hear a bad quality mic from vocals and sometimes even floor noise in the track which i didn't hear on the Sennheiser. Compared to the Soundstage and airiness of the HD700 the MT220's can't compete on the same level. But its a closed back headphone so it's expected. I would compare these to about the same Soundstage as the X2's but that is just from memory.
 
Conclusion:
Overall i am very satisfied with these headphones and i can recommend them to anyone who is on the lookout for some amazing closed back headphones. If you can get them under 200€ or $ they are a steal but i would even go as far as saying that they are worth 300 - 400€ as they were when they were released. The biggest pro for me is that they are sturdy, easily driven by an iPhone or iPad and i don't have to worry about them breaking when i carry them in my backpack.
 
Thanks a lot for reading my review.

Anyone looking for a set of closed portable headphones needs to try the Yamaha MT220. Why the MT220 and not one of the many other models available on the market? It’s simply one of the overall best-sounding closed portable headphones I’ve heard, regardless of price—and the fact that until recently it was available from B&H Photo for $150 practically made it a steal!
 
The MT220 is one of those headphones that probably won’t impress anyone upon first listen; it certainly didn’t impress me initially. There was no “wow” factor—its treble was just a bit subdued to me (but I personally like treble, so that may be a good thing for those who don’t), its bass lacked an extra oomph that some other headphones have (like the V-MODA M-100 and KEF M500), and it didn’t convey much of a soundstage despite having angled drivers. It didn’t help that I also found it to lack just a bit of clarity—elements in the mix didn’t sound totally clear & distinct, like they did on the Audio-Technica MSR7.
 
But the more I listened, the more I realized how balanced-sounding it was throughout the spectrum, without any of the common flaws I’ve heard from other headphones in this segment, like excessive bass bloat (V-MODA M-100, Shure SRH1540), recessed mid-range and/or bass (Beyerdynamic DT1350, Sony V6/7506), or just a lack of refinement (too many headphones to list there). The MT220 simply had a strong sense of fullness & body throughout the spectrum without sounding bloated, murky, blurry, or blunted anywhere. Both male & female vocals had convincing presence, drums sounded appropriately heavy & impactful, and bass guitars sounded low & powerful. And it consistently rendered synthesized bass lines with a depth that was satisfying but also a control that kept it tight as well. Essentially, it easily covered the range of music I listen to, which includes classical, jazz, bluegrass, folk, pop, rock, electronica, and metal. Everything sounded good on it, from symphony orchestras playing Beethoven, to Dave Brubeck, to my favorite female vocalist Alison Krauss and favorite band Massive Attack, to the tough & aggressive metal of bands like Machine Head, Trivium, and Periphery.
 
And it didn’t stop sounding good with just music either, as it worked great as a computer headphone too, for watching movies and playing games. In specifically action movies & games (first-person shooters, like Crysis), it delivered big-sounding explosions and heavy-yet-fast-sounding machine-gun reports. That’s no small thing—not many headphones I’ve heard can really do a convincingly visceral-sounding machine-gun report in particular, and that the MT220 could do it was just icing on the cake!
 
I’ve gone through too many other closed portable headphones over the past 10 years in the pursuit of finding something that works well for all of my uses, and the MT220 is the first one that I can say meets all of them! I highly recommend it for absolutely everyone!