Audio-Technica ATH-M50S

I see a lot of people saying how overrated these headphones are lately, but most of the time these people compare these headphones 50% to twice its price or higher. In my opinion the ATH M50s are one hard to beat package for a beginner looking to get into better audio at a cheaper price. These headphones are better than many retail stores headphones that cost twice as much or more. I have been using these headphones for hundreds of hours over the past 2 years and have finally upgraded to the Mad Dogs (which blow these out of the water in the majority of categories).
 
Sound:
I do not think these are balanced or flat sounding like some people claim, these headphones do have an easy to listen to sound signature especially for a beginner or some one on a budget. Where these headphones excel is definitely in the lower frequencies. However being a huge fan of these the sound has a major flaw, and that is the highs. These headphones have a lot of sibilance even from uncompressed 16/44.1 files from ipod. Some of my favorite bands like Skillet and System of a Down are nearly un-listenable on these headphones. However many types of rock sound pretty good on these headphones, and they excel at Dubstep and rap. I find instrumental type music to be kinda boring on these headphones. The sound stage is quite small which make these a poor choice for gaming and movies even though these headphones have a fun sound (imo). 
 
Amplification:
These headphones do not require amplification, however I do find the ipod amplifier quite lacking (if you are using an ipod). I ended up buying and trying some of the fiio amps. The fiio amps do provide a little bit of extra juice for the driver and it helps the sound a decent amount. The LOD cable definitely probably makes the biggest difference (and is a must have if you are buying an amp for the ipod). Overall if you need a little extra sound without going to a new headphone an amplifier may be helpful.
 
Isolation: 
It is pretty decent but starts to get worse as the pads get older and start cracking. 
 
Build Quality:
Top notch for a plastic headphone at around $100. These things are nearly unbreakable. The only broken pair I have ever seen was a pair with a dog chewed cable. One thing I would like to bring up is that not all the headphones are built equally. My headphones sound quite a bit better than my brothers (same box), but mine are a year older and have been played much more. This either proves a) that burn in does make a difference in some headphones and is not a myth or b) not all the M50s batches sound the same. Another complaint is that the cable choices are annoying. Either you have a obnoxiously long cable which is annoying for portable use or you have an annoying coiled cable (imo). I chose the straight cable and to limit the length I braided the cable like you do with hair and it reduces the cable to a 1/3 of its length and is much more manageable
 
Conclusion:
You may be questioning why I gave these 5 stars after all the complaints I had in this review. Well I must say while the sound is not perfect and definetely what I would not consider an audiophile sound headphone but more of a fun one (get the SR80i if you want a cheap audiophile sound), the build, decent sound, and price is what helps this earn the 5 stars.  I see them for what they are a great beginner headphone. There are better sounding headphones for a bit more cash ($50-$100) but for somebody on a budget that extra cash is a lot of money. Overall I recommend these headphones to all my friends trying to get into audio and try to prevent them from buying an over price consumer headphone.

I'm an older fellow whose been listening to headphones for 30 years and I've enjoyed the AT house sound of treble enhanced yet fairly realistic sound. I've owned and used many of their phono cartridges and headphones over the years and generally find that it's good practice to stand up and take notice of any product from any company who has been involved in vinyl sound reproduction, Grado and AT come first to mind. The m50 however are not the typical musically bright sound but have a fatter, more rolled off sound.........Regardless, these are a great all'rounder that offers the average man/woman something to use for many purposes. I find the bass a bit too 'fudgey' for me and not enough 'air' but both of these are part and parcel of a closed back phone perhaps. I can't recommend these for those who are critical listeners or who demand ultimate accuracy in sound reproduction, but for the most part, all instruments come across sounding more or less as they do in reality and there is a good sense of dynamics. The price point as they say is right on and these are great for musicians who just need something to throw in the rehearsal bag etc. Long live AT.

Good quality sound but it is pretty stiff at first and creates a lot of pressure on your head.
 
Cant fault the audio quality though

I'll add my voice to the many who say these are a freaking bargain. I bought them over cans costing two or three times as much, and have no regrets. I say this as someone who also owns Audeze LCD3's. I don't want to take those with me when I travel, so these are my travel pair, and while they obviously aren't in the same league, I'm still happy to listen to them.
 
After comparing options, I bought them from Amazon for $120 with free shipping. I typically use them with a Fiio E17, which greatly improves the sound quality when listening from my Macbook Pro--without it, I don't really find the music enjoyable, even though people say these don't need a headphone amp.
 
I listen primarily to classical, vocalists, some jazz and other acoustic music.
 
The pressure is still fairly high on my head. Fortunately, they go around the ears, so it is not the ears that get the pressure, but the sides of my head. Still, I tend to take them off every hour or so to relax before resuming listening. It may be that over time they will loosen their grip a bit--I don't use them all that often.
 
My rating is based on their price; obviously there are much better cans if price is no object.

The M50 is without question, an excellent studio headphone that really strikes a great price/performance ratio.
 
The bass extends quite well and is never overbearing. 
 
Mids are present and very articulate. 
 
The trebles are the biggest surprise in that they, IMO, are balanced wonderfully relative to the other frequencies. I haven't found myself wanting more clarity or sparkle yet!
 
The fact that the M50s are just as useful with my iPod as they are in a studio makes them very versatile and a great buy. If you can pick up used for around $100, I'd recommend pulling the trigger. 
 
The only negative about which I'll comment is that the pads, like many say, can make things uncomfortable after long sessions. The pleather is just low quality and can make ears hot or sweaty depending on how long the session is.
 
If you're interested in upgrading your Beats or Skullcandies, look no further. The ATH M50 will retain the fun sound sig while boosting clarity and overall depth for a very budget-friendly price.

hi everyone 
It's been two years since I was introduced to the audiophile world and these are my first over ear monitoring headphones and I've burnt them in for about 40 Hrs.
 
Highs
you shouldn't worry about treble extent . they are pretty good at controlling the highs.
 
Mid
Detailed but as I said you wouldn't feel like you're sitting in a philharmonic concert. the sound stage could use some improvement.
 
Bass
Punchy and detailed . they don't sound like a sub woofer and they pretty much depend on your audio source. but They have got ENOUGH bass for majority of audiophiles I guess.
 
 
Overall
overall sound signature is not flat and is slightly colored. Maybe the only flaw is the sound stage but remember every review is based on the product's value which means if these where more than 200$ they wouldn't have been rated so high .
so if you've got a small pocket like me, I totally suggest these to you. 
 
Update:
the ear pad and headband leathers are not high quality and start peeling after a few months!

     I'm new to this so take everything with a grain of salt, but I play guitar, and piano so I have a pretty good ear even though I don't know what I'm talking about I know what I like, and I like these alot. This was my first real set of good headphones. I had some $30 AKG plastic things that I thought were great, and some Sennheiser CX380 IEM's before, and was happy with both. Compared to all my friends and there Skullcandys they were awesome. Then I got these, and I was blown away. The cliche of hearing new things in all my music, and being like listening to all my music for the first time again applied.
     Like I said I'm new to this whole thing, but long story short I bought these about four months ago, and since have gotten deeper into it. I now also have ME Electronics M9, Vsonic GR-04, Shure SE-215, Fiio E06, and last week got Beyerdynamics DT-880 250 Pro, Fiio E17/E09K.
     Overall they are a good set of headphones, and a great value. If you are just starting with the whole audiophile thing they will do you wonders, but can quickly lead to a wallet draining aresnal.
 
     My only complaint is that since they are closed back, and leatherish ear cups they don't breath, and my ears gets a bit sweaty after a couple of hours. But it is possible that is just a closed back thing. My new Beyers are ridiculously comfy for hours on end, but at this point that is all I have to compare.
 
 
In response to
"It looks like you appreciate the comfort level your new Beyerdynamic DT-880's have over these. What are your thoughts about the sound quality comparison between the ATH-M50S and your new DT-880's?"
 
 
To answer the question in my not know what I'm talking about version of the vernacular. They Beyers sound better. Not as much bass, so for some stuff I am fiddling with EQ's, but haven't found anything that amazes me yet, and they are bad enough to demand some EQ. So I'm still up in the air for that. Have some Nickel Creek going right now, and it is just about perfect for that. The sound stage is definitely better, although the M50's being my first real headphones I thought they were pretty good. From what I have gathered, that is a consequence of the open back (the DT-880s are semi open back whatever that means).
I have only had them for literally two days so far so I haven't had much chance to really pay attention to the little details yet so I can't say any more than they sound better in almost every way, aside from the aforementioned bass. 
But the caveat to that is that the 250 pros won't run very well on the same setup as the M50's. I have the gain turned down, and lo bypass on the E17, and the gain turned off on my E09K, and that setup runs about half volume on the E09K for normal level, and cranked is just on the loud side of the loudest I would ever want to listen to it. But I tried it with my phone setup (Droid X2, and Fiio E6, and I had to crank everything to get it to just above normal listening volume, versus the M50's which would blow my ears out with this. So the 880's (at least the 250 version) need more oomph to get them going. So you may have to change you setup if you switch between headphones. From my collection I can say the they all run on the same basic setup without issues aside from the Beyers. Due to that I can't say what is strictly the Beyers, and what is the new setup. Since they are nicer they were intended specifically for my home setup at my desk, and the M50's are my around the house, and at school over ears. But I can backwards compare them with the M50's on my new setup and they definitely don't have the bass, but everything else is better, which if need be can be doctored with an EQ a bit.
 
Sorry for being a bit rambly.

I listen to music at my desk all day to help drown out the rest of the office noise, these headphones sound amazing and block out the rest of the office.
They are comfortable and look pretty good.
Sound quality is phenomenal.
I can afford them.
 
The only down-side, and its a minor one, is that the metal jack housing (not the 1/4" jack itself, just the housing) is taller than my smartphone. When I plug it into my phone and set it on a table, my phone doesn't lay flat.

I was looking for a great pair of over-ear's to use for work purposes. Did not want to go open back as sound leakage is a concern when sitting next to my co-workers. Did my research and came across these as well as the aiaiai tma-1 studios and I am not disappointed that I went with this set of cans. Sound stage could be more but for a closed back work set I cannot complain. I play through an Int'l Galaxy S3 rooted with the Siyah kernal which lets me tweak the built in Wolfson Micro WM1811 DAC, being that the M50's sound really great with an AMP I paired that with a FIIO E11 and it really turned this into a "FUN" to listen to pair of cans, If your looking for FLAT, PURE then these may not be what your looking for. But for great sounding music to make the work day go by these are great and still let's you appreciate the quality of your tracks. I did however, find the "muddy" mids that some were talking about, but I seemed to be able to work that out with some EQ adjustments. It was not really enough to cause me to not pick these up to begin with but worth a mention. Bass packs a nice punch in a good clean way, High's are nice and bright. Clamping is nice a snug but not to tight, decent quality cable and A LOT of it!
 
My current and only issue with these is that they sit a little heavy which I would imagine could make it a little difficult for long term listening for some.
 
NOTE!: These are not meant to be a portable can (which i am fine with, I sit for a living), they are meant for DJ's and Studio's. So keep that in mind that they are a LARGE set of CANs. 
 
Overall? I LOVE THESE CANS!

I bought these cans about a year ago and they sound pretty good. as many reviews say they are fairly flat sounding with a slightly recessed mid and slightly elevated bass, with good highs. another thing is the sound stage isn't that great but overall these are great cans. about seven months in i bought a Fiio E11 amp for them. by the way i use them on average of 5 to 7 hours a day. now a lot of people say these already operate at max which i found to be completely false. i am using a 4th gen ipod touch with the eq off. (flat) i have the amp set on high power high gain and its eq off as well. honestly at first i didn't notice a difference with having the amp compared to no amp for a while other than the mids were slightly more present and the highs as well. after putting a hundred hours appx. on the amp i listened to the M50's without it. then i noticed that the amp also really filled out the m50's quite a bit. personally if your dissatisfied with the quality of the M50's id suggest simply getting different cans but the amp defiantly does fill them out and gave them a slight raise the mids and highs. now for the E11 I've seen complaints about a hissing sound that they produce, i can turn the dial to 6 before i hear the hiss (with nothing playing) and the M50's distort at about 5 and a half depending on what is being played anyways so i have not found that to be an issue. i cant pinpoint the difference between the high and low power setting on it. it doesn't increase the volume and there is a slight sound change but it is very minimal so i just left it on high. however the high low gain is a massive difference and high gain just blows the low gain out of the water. actually they sounded worse with low gain than they did without the amp all together. and the eq. on it is only for lows. 0 is natural sounding. 1 would sound pretty nice for slightly bass lacking headphones or if you just want that extra little bit of bass and 2 simply vibrates your face and unless you are a bass head or have cans with nearly completely lacking bass has no purpose. 

I owned a pair of ATH M50s since a month ago. I have heard people saying on Head-fi that it is an overrated headphone. As I have nothing to compare it against, and being new to this world of headphones, I was initially doubtful about that, and I kept wondering if I made the right decision of purchasing M50s. Don't get me wrong, I am happy with the sound quality, but I kept wondering if it is indeed overrated, several other headphones out there must do even greater job. 
 
I decided to end my curiosity by trying out several headphones at a store, namely:
-Alexandra MS1i
-Grado SR80i
-Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro
 
I compared these few because people always make comparisons between M50s with them. Beyerdynamic is compared as the price range is similar and the salesman actually recommended that when I asked which headphone should I upgrade to.
 
My opinion:
I like by M50s even more ever since. In my opinion, M50s beats the other 3 headphones in terms of sound quality, built, comfort, and value for money. Alexandra MS1i and Grado SR80i both have good SQ, but I prefer the sound signature produced by M50s. Besides, I feel uncomfortable with the small cups and not-so-convincing built of both headphones. M50s has solid built, the cups fit me nicely (gets a bit heaty after prolonged listening), and the clamping force is not an issue for me. More importantly, M50s performs very satisfactorily across all genres, excels especially in electronic. The bass produced by M50s is pretty tight too. My only complaint is the slightly recessed mids in certain (not all) songs.
 
Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro is a huge letdown. The detail is quite bad. The bass is boomy and uncomfortable to listen to especially at highest setting. There is no comparison here. I instantly dislike it after 1-2 minutes of listening.
 
As for amp/DAC, IMO M50s will do just fine without an amp if you listen to music from laptop, due to its low impedence. I purchased PA2V2 amp due to the rave review but it doesn't make much difference in terms of SQ (perhaps my ears can't discern it). Not sure bout portable music player though. 
 
I also tried out 2 heavyweight audiophile headphones: Sennheiser HD 650 and Beyerdynamic Tesla T1 out of curiosity   Both are excellent of course, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to pay that much for a pair of headphones (at least for now), not to mention the amps/equipments needed to bring out their full potential.
 
In conclusion, ATH M50s is really a great pair of headphones, totally worth the money. It totally deserves such high ratings, and definitely not overrated in my opinion.

These headphones, at first seemed all ordinary to me, but after I took one back home, everything I assumed about these was wrong. The High - Low balancing in range made listing to music of all types very comfortable and gave it a "natural" feel. Whether if it's Rock, Electronic, Hip-hop, jazz, anything! This works well with any music you like, and you can even discover sounds that you never heard in a song before! The Headphone is pretty comfortable even for someone with glasses like me, It might be painful after a 3 hours or so, but sure lasts longer than many other headphones. I'm also fond of the collapseable model the headphone feature, good here and there! I just don't like the amount of noise the headphone leaks out and being unable to detach the horrendously long monster cables.
But overall, very good headphones for studio producers, Electronic musicians and DJs.
 
-K3WRO

These were my first step into the audiophile world, and they are pretty incredible. I can hear things that were not to be found before, and they fit well. For the price they're going for, the value is incredible! I would recommend therm to anyone

      these were my first headphones and when i got them, at first i was really disappointed with the sound of these headphones and i made the mistake of buying a fiio e6 instead of an e11/e17/digizoid ZO/ibasso. No matter what sort of equalization i did i was not satisfied at all on how they sound. This headphone by itself sounded like it was trying to be a jack of all trades but failing at everything.
      I see everyone saying it is bassy but i barely felt the punch even with bass boost eq on and that also made a mess of the whole sound spectrum, everything became muddy and distorted filled with static at high gain. I have no issues with the trebles though, having no sibilance is what made me kept this headphone. NOTE: that this is after 80 + hours of burn in and using mainly music in the form of AFLAC ripped from cds and some 320bit mp3s on an asus xonar ds soundcard (weak trash amp inside the sound card). So they've been collecting dust, being used around ten times a month max.
       Then i was at my sister's house and she has a nice home theatre full sized amplifier, i tried plugging in the m50s and oh my god! the multiple eargasms i was looking for finally came. Higher volumes without muddiness or distortion, bass is pounding(not basshead level pounding mind you) without drowning anything out. The recessed and muffled mids were brought up front and fully detailed while the became even crisper.
     So the moral of the story is, dont go cheap in portable/at home amplifiers, The difference is day and night, people say you can listen to it without amping but sorry to say, it sounds like sh^$#t to me without proper amping. I mean you can listen to classical, vocals and soft RnB  without the amp and be satisfied but if your listening to rock, hip hop, metal, electro, mainstream pop, jazz, your music will basically sound lifeless.
     These are OKAY for mixing, a mostly flat basic factory eq on these cans but the shure srh840s do a better job for dj monitoring.
    ALSO if your a basshead, DONT LISTEN to people when they say this headphone is bassy or has a lot of bass, because they fail to point out, that they are not true bassheads first before making that statement, save your money, get the pro700mk2 because these barely have the basshead level of bass. the most it can do is rumble the earpads and yours ears like a v1br@t0r thats dying and running out of batteries, it also has no punch and the bass is not tight enough to keep up with your music. THERE IS NO BASS QUANTITY whatsoever listening to it by itself, unless you totally juice it up with a good amp with a clean bass boost eq, even then its not enough bass to satisfy true skull numbing bassheads.
             These are good for their balanced sound signature and should be used to multiple genres of listening if your an android user, good luck because htc's music player is horrible quality even with amps and there will be heavy sibilance and metallic highs, they sound like the beats by dre solos with a bad source, even apple products gave a lot better sound quality. Although these headphones aren't really meant to be portable.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50S are really great headphones for the price, but are definitely not the best cans out there. In my opinion these headphones have a lot flaws. Biggest flaw is the bass response. It's great for metal and hip hop, but even though I'm quite of a BASSHEAD, I find the bass to be too lossy, and really overpowering the mids and the highs, especially when listening to Pink Floyd . Sure if you are listening through a computer or a phone or any source that has an EQ it can be easily fixed by lowering the low frequencies. But there is one thing that I couldn't fix is the harsh, metallic treble. Even after 300 hours usage these cans still have treble problem which is unbearable when listening to "Drum and Bass".

Verdict:

Audio-Technica ATH-M50S has a lot of bass, which is great for hardcore bassheads, but lacks clarity in high frequencies, and despite that these cans doesn't have a detachable cable, Audio-Technica ATH-M50S are foldable, easy to drive, great for hip-hop, metal, rock, and has an incredible value, and boosting really good sound quality.

 

The only real quality headphones I've had before these were my AKG 272's, which broke a few months ago. I've been using 20 dollar panasonic earbuds that I've thought sound pretty decent for a while now, but I decided it was time I get something quality again, and I wanted to try something new. I was prepared for a disappointing first listen, after reading all the reviews here, and that's exactly what I got. The highs were so sharp they hurt with certain songs (keep in mind I was used to muddy, rolled back in-ear cheapies), the bass was almost non-present and the mids were pushed back so far I made sure I didn't have a weird EQ on by accident. But after a few days of near constant listening and a combination of my ears adjusting and the cans breaking in, I'm SERIOUSLY impressed even for the pretty inflated price I picked them up for. The bass has loosened out to the point it'll really wobbles my head exactly when it needs to, but stays clean in anything not intended to be bassy and it hasn't lost a hint of the detail. Same for the highs, they're no longer as harsh as they were but still sound just as clean and I'm losing myself in my music more than I'd thought possible before. The only complaint I could have with these headphones is the soundstage is naturally a bit flat considering being closed-back and having incredible isolation, although the excellent stereo balance really makes it hard to notice unless you're used to open back headphones. Overall I'd recommend these to almost anyone, they're the perfect balance between the basshead punch and a studio neutrality. Just let them burn in for a few days before you judge them, especially if you're new to the audiophile thing.
 
I plan to get a FiiO E7 ASAP to help the soundstage and make these sound even better. I was skeptical at first.. But there's a reason they're number 1.

A new subscriber, but with a good ear and old enough to avoid being sold by marketing alone. The ability to judge a number of over the ear headphones, without the need for active noise-cancelling, makes the choice of a purchase a predictable pathway. My budget allowed me to examine all contenders up to £500, or $750. I also went down to £100 or $150. I auditioned several headphones and then sourced the ATH-M50 from musicmatters in the NW of England. Delivered by FedEx the following day at no extra cost, BTW no vested interest in this or any other companies. I can just detect the difference with or without a portable amplifier, when connected to an iPod, better with the amplifier. I assume they improve with age and burn-in. So the cost of £126.00 was well worth the investment. I will contribute another missive when the headphones are more mature.

Pros: Absolutely stellar build quality and design. Great sound quality and thumping bass that can go VERY deep. Great aesthetics. comfy for all those apart from the largest heads ( you can just stretch them out a bit).

Cons: Ear pads tend to get hard after a few months and get sweaty when worn for a while. Can be uncomfortable for some. Ever-so slightly recessed mids. In my opinion, the cable could do with having about 2 foot cut off. Highs can be harsh depending on your source/amp. Vocals could be better, especially with heavier/ more cluttered music with lots going on.
 
Price was £134 new.

I just got these cans a little over 5 hours ago and I'm impressed. Guitar sounds crisp and clear. Bassy songs really shine. Sometimes vocals may be a little quiet compared to guitar and drums. I would recommend these headphones to any one entering the hi-fidelity world. But i wouldn't buy them for $160 dollars. $130 would be a good price to by these headphones.

These were one of my first headphones back in the day (2 years ago) and i still haven't gotten over how good they are. The base isn't too overpowering, maybe a little bit less would be amazing. The mediums are nice and crisp and the highs are fantastic. They are a little bit cold when i put them on, but otherwise I recommend these to anybody trying to get into the audio world.