A Concise View of Why The ATH-M50 is No Longer King

[Arvan]

I just got the M50 today..I don´t need them but i was eager to try them out anyways. 
 
I payed the man and home i went with some new cans to ad to my collection. Compared to what i mainly use today i see these as the funny daily driver. Sounds funny, tons of bass with sort of mild highs..daced and amped i can see why they are so popular since they sound like what i guess most non-audiophile people think is good sound. Bass and a touch of treble to give it the fun sound. Im not complaining..It´s a good complement to my collection so far..But i would not trust them for studio listening or mixing...They are NOT natural at all.
 
To bad i didnt noticed that i got the s version with straight cord..Guess it will do.

 

[Splungeworthy]

If loving these cans is wrong, I don't wanna be right!
And don't think I haven't longed to hear HD650's, 800's or LCD-2's.  And if I did, my attitude might change, but I don't think so.   I really respect alot of the info I get on Head-Fi, and my wallet has been "sorry" for awhile now.  But for me the M50's are my favorite cans, and I still had money left over to pop for an E10.

 

[tribestros]

The album doesn't sound like trash on things under $500.  The album sounds bad on inprecise speakers, the M50 happen to fall into this.  And it's not only that album, there are many other songs/albums like this that the M50 sucks with, like this:
 
NIN's The Downward Spiral
Smashing Pumpkins' Thirty Three
Smashing Pumpkins' To Forgive
Alice in Chains' Nutshell
Metallica's Blackened
Muse's Absolution
Nine Inch Nails' We're in this Together
VAST's Falling From the Sky
 
There's more, but this is a good example if you want to show the flaws of the M50.
 
Quote:

 
Bro fist. That entire album sounds like trash on speakers/headphones that have no bass control or detail. Ruiner is just a mess on any set of speakers I have tried under the $500 mark. The XB700's even have some serious bass echoing and flubbering with this song. Granted it's not seriously bad but good god this is a particular album.

 

 

[Nepenthe]

The album doesn't sound like trash on things under $500.  The album sounds bad on inprecise speakers, the M50 happen to fall into this.  And it's not only that album, there are many other songs/albums like this that the M50 sucks with, like this:
 
NIN's The Downward Spiral
Smashing Pumpkins' Thirty Three
Smashing Pumpkins' To Forgive
Alice in Chains' Nutshell
Metallica's Blackened
Muse's Absolution
Nine Inch Nails' We're in this Together
VAST's Falling From the Sky
 
There's more, but this is a good example if you want to show the flaws of the M50.

Completely disagree with this. Thanks.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Quote:

I just got the M50 today..I don´t need them but i was eager to try them out anyways. 
 
I payed the man and home i went with some new cans to ad to my collection. Compared to what i mainly use today i see these as the funny daily driver. Sounds funny, tons of bass with sort of mild highs..daced and amped i can see why they are so popular since they sound like what i guess most non-audiophile people think is good sound. Bass and a touch of treble to give it the fun sound. Im not complaining..It´s a good complement to my collection so far..But i would not trust them for studio listening or mixing...They are NOT natural at all.
 
To bad i didnt noticed that i got the s version with straight cord..Guess it will do.

What do you mean "non-audiophile people"?  Have you ever heard good speakers?  If a headphone or speaker is flat all the way down they have real bass.  I suspect what you call "audiophile" sound is the K701 type which is colored to emphasize clarity by being bass light and trebley.  Which may sound nice, but it aint neutral.  And it doesn't mean that something with real bass response is "non-audiophile"
 

 

[TMRaven]

Sadly a flat and extending headphone doesn't have the same type of bass as a flat and extending speaker setup though.  
 
 
 
 

 

[rhythmdevils]

Yes it does. You just cant feel it in your gonads

 

[TMRaven]

In perceived loudness compared to the rest of the audio spectrum, sure.  But in terms of actual presence, it's no where close.  I'm not just talking about visceral qualities either, I never turn my speakers up loud enough to get that.

 

[ssrock64]

I honestly believe that a headphone can have bass impact and presence of the same quality as speakers, with the only difference being where you feel it.

 

[TMRaven]

I guess we disagree on that.  For me there's just no replacement for full-sized speakers when it comes to authoritative bass.

 

[rhythmdevils]

yeah I agree that speakers have better bass.  They're better in every other way too. 

 

 

[Arvan]

I don´t mean that good sound does not include bass..But just look at the beats for example..Sound horrible with muddy and loads of bass..Bass = good sound for so many people..It is a good sellpoint for average people looking for some cans or speakers. Bass and bass only. Just like megapixels on a digital camera.
 
It´s probably why the M50 is very popular, it got a bit of both with superior clarity compared to junk cans like beats or what ever. Not saying its a bad thing since i got em myself the other day. I think they will do it for most listeners.
 
 

 

[sonitus mirus]

It appears, from your inventory, that you prefer a sound signature with a lower bass quantity and impact.  With regards to bass, the M50s and Beats products sound horrible to you, in the same way that your preferred headphones sound thin and inaccurate to me.  Beats products are not horrible, they are just overpriced and optimized for a specific genre of music. 
 
We simply have different opinions about what sounds good, but there is no need for personal attacks just for being different.  I'm sure there are plenty of legitimate audiophiles that disagree with your findings, just as there are surely those that support it.  Now I know that we don't share the same idea of what sounds good, so I will not be able to use your experiences and opinions to evaluate products because our perspectives are so far apart.

 
Quote:

I don´t mean that good sound does not include bass..But just look at the beats for example..Sound horrible with muddy and loads of bass..Bass = good sound for so many people..It is a good sellpoint for average people looking for some cans or speakers. Bass and bass only. Just like megapixels on a digital camera.
 
It´s probably why the M50 is very popular, it got a bit of both with superior clarity compared to junk cans like beats or what ever. Not saying its a bad thing since i got em myself the other day. I think they will do it for most listeners.
 
 

 

 

[TMRaven]

The ironic thing is the M50s have more low, low bass than the Beats.  The beats absolutely fall apart when it comes to producing anything below 50hz.

 

[ssrock64]

Quote:

The ironic thing is the M50s have more low, low bass than the Beats.  The beats absolutely fall apart when it comes to producing anything below 50hz.

The Studios are horrible in that aspect. Their sub-bass is literally non-existent.