[csmx123]

2. Beyerdynamic DT 990 600ohm. Hard AF to drive, but worthwhile if you get a good amp. Boomiest open-back headphones you can get at the price. You can always get a lower impedence pair of 990s (250 ohm) that would work good, but if you want great boomy quality for that price, you need to get an amp, preferably tube, but digital aint bad

 
I agree with Nick. DT 990 is the upgraded version of M50, and it has the same price if you get the DT990 PRO LIMITED EDITION 250 OHM. They share the similar sound signature, well maybe not, because DT990's treble is higher. I would say they are pretty similar if you use eq to roll off the highs of DT990. Besides that, 990 is more airy and has a better soundstage.
 
For portable, maybe look for a lower OHM or get a good amp. Hope it helps

 

[MtnMan307]

I've had the M50x for about 2 months now as my first full-size headphone.  They definitely do not require an amp to do a pretty reasonable job at the $150ish price point.  With either my iPhone 5S or my speaker amp's headphone jack, the M50x plays plenty loud for me at pretty low volumes.  
 
I too wasn't convinced they would benefit from an amp.  A couple weeks ago I joined the last drop for the AKG K7XX and then ordered a Vali 2 to run them with.  The Vali 2 arrived last Thursday and of course I had to try it out with the M50x for now.  There is definitely a difference to me!  With low gain, low volume, and the stock tube, I was floored on the first few songs.  More detail, a more neutral sound signature, and just a more real sound overall.  You still won't mistake it for an expensive Audeze or something but they DO benefit from a decent amp with a decent amount of power.  

 

[logitikes]

So just an update, I returned the original dt 770 80's and got a new pair and they sound much better with less clipping and better bass response. I guess my next step would be to get an amp + dac to see if I can get better bass response without any clipping or distortion. As for my ath m50's I think I'll just keep them for portable use and keep my dt 770's as an "upgrade" to them for desktop use. Also just a hypothesis but would the clipping/distortion at higher volumes be caused by my onboard sound card "digitally" making it louder instead of actually providing it with more power like how an external amp would? The weird thing about the clipping/distortion is that it only happens with certain types of bass/vocal frequencies. For example if I'm listening to "Jess Glynne - Ain't Got Far To Go" which is not necessarily bass heavy, I get clipping/distortion when shes singing @1:09, it sounds like shes singing into a fan lol and even the bass sounds like that too. But when I'm listening to "Lil Wayne ft Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, The Game - Rah!" the bass doesnt have any clipping/distortion and instead it sounds freaking amazing on these headphones even with bass eq'd up.

 

[Raketen]

Is this happening even without EQ applied? Because that's bascially what your software EQ is doing- applying a "digital" preamp gain to the bands you adjust before it reaches the dac/amp circuitry of the soundcard. I think soundcard volume control works similarly to any 'solid state' amplifier does to adjust the output voltage.
 
You may want to double check your system 'playback device' properties settings to make sure that all audio effects/"Enhancements" are disabled- there are things like 'loudness equalization' and 'loudness enhancement' that could be applying some kind of weird pre-gain to the signal to cause clipping, especially if you are adding in EQ- if you have some kind of soundcard manager runnign in the background that might be doing similar stuff too.
 
Another thing you may want to try if you aren't already is "Subtractive EQ"- basically instead of raising the bass bands, you decrease all the other frequencies- the net effect is the same- but it might assure you aren't producing excessive pre-gain and help determine if you are just running into the limitations of the soundcard's amp section for your headphones.
 
 
I found this description about how underdriven speakers sound might be helpful- that "fluttering' distortion might be similar (from http://ultimist.com/hifi/answer/411/nomenclature/9937/what-do-under-driven-speakers-sound-like )
 

 Another situation often occurs with very hard to drive speakers driven by large amplifiers that are still not up to the job. Sound for these pairings is often slightly compressed, the major notes of the music petering out before the get to their full loudness that we would naturally expect to hear and the minor notes hardly showing up at all, especially when the major notes are still being generated - the amp just plain runs out of steam trying to keep up with the major notes. The sound then appears to have a lack of resolution (subtleties and micro-dynamics are near non-existent) and notes just decay off over-quickly, the amp not up to the task on controlling the speaker in such a very sensitive and delicate manner.

In the average case, the sound just does not have a lot of dynamics. It is dull sounding and you may want to keep turning it up louder and louder to try and get it to have more dynamics and be more exciting to listen to.

In the worst case, the harmonics will be off, the dynamics will be OK for some frequency ranges and awful for others, some frequencies will be much louder than others, and turning the volume up just makes it worse.

The opposite of an under-driven, under-powered sound is 'well controlled' sound.

 

[SX3900]

subscribed.

 

[logitikes]

  Is this happening even without EQ applied? Because that's bascially what your software EQ is doing- applying a "digital" preamp gain to the bands you adjust before it reaches the dac/amp circuitry of the soundcard. I think soundcard volume control works similarly to any 'solid state' amplifier does to adjust the output voltage.
 
You may want to double check your system 'playback device' properties settings to make sure that all audio effects/"Enhancements" are disabled- there are things like 'loudness equalization' and 'loudness enhancement' that could be applying some kind of weird pre-gain to the signal to cause clipping, especially if you are adding in EQ- if you have some kind of soundcard manager runnign in the background that might be doing similar stuff too.
 
Another thing you may want to try if you aren't already is "Subtractive EQ"- basically instead of raising the bass bands, you decrease all the other frequencies- the net effect is the same- but it might assure you aren't producing excessive pre-gain and help determine if you are just running into the limitations of the soundcard's amp section for your headphones.
 
 
I found this description about how underdriven speakers sound might be helpful- that "fluttering' distortion might be similar (from http://ultimist.com/hifi/answer/411/nomenclature/9937/what-do-under-driven-speakers-sound-like )
 

Yup its happening even without any eq'd applied. I have checked the soundblaster drivers and made sure to turn off all the enhancements except for the eq but I havent checked to see if going into playback devices properties has any extra enhancements from windows 7 itself. I also tried subtractive eq'ing, and it still doesnt help. I really doubt I got another bad set of headphones because even when I had my hd 598's it would do that with the same types of songs and those headphones are like 50 ohms. The reason why I'm leaning towards the dt 770's being under amped is because it doesnt happen on my ath m50's and the 770's are more than double the impedance of m50's. So now I'm on the fence with either just getting an amp first to see if it helps and if it doesnt then get a cheaper dac to see if that helps, or get a dac/amp combo.

 

[Raketen]

Yeah that's weird. 80 ohms isn't that high of an impedance, they have similar sensitivity to m50- have you tried with a phone or something too, just for comparisons sake? should be able to get them to listenable volume.
Might be worth digging/asking around the computer audio threads about similar problems.
 
Sounds like you do like the DT770 so it's probably worth trying one of those choices out before moving on to another headphone.

 

[logitikes]

  Yeah that's weird. 80 ohms isn't that high of an impedance, they have similar sensitivity to m50- have you tried with a phone or something too, just for comparisons sake? should be able to get them to listenable volume.
Might be worth digging/asking around the computer audio threads about similar problems.
 
Sounds like you do like the DT770 so it's probably worth trying one of those choices out before moving on to another headphone.

I've tried it on my nexus 4 but it doesnt get loud enough to properly test it.

 

[logitikes]

So today I picked up a Fiio E10k just to see if it will help the dt 770's but sadly it's still the same. I think I'm gonna have to give up on these headphones, they just aren't what I'm looking for. I mean overall they are amazing headphones, compared to the m50's the soundstage is not even in the same league and the clarity as well, but when it comes to bass response, the dt 770's just isnt enough for me, and eq'ing to make up for the lack of base just makes them "distort". So I guess I'm back to square one and I'll be posting my dt 770's up for sale and do some more research on my next pair. I came across this thread and hopefully find my next pair of headphones.

 

[Raketen]

You must be adding a lot of bass because my C5D's boost is like 18db and no problems lol. I think that puts you pretty firmly in basshead territory. unless its a lot of midbass you are looking for.
If you can get over the looks maybe those VModas might be a good choice, see them mentioned both on that V thread and the Hardest Hitting threads.
Good luck!

 

[Klitschko]

How about the M50x? detachable cable more comfortable and better sound its the whole package.

 

[logitikes]

  You must be adding a lot of bass because my C5D's boost is like 18db and no problems lol. I think that puts you pretty firmly in basshead territory. unless its a lot of midbass you are looking for.
If you can get over the looks maybe those VModas might be a good choice, see them mentioned both on that V thread and the Hardest Hitting threads.
Good luck!

 
I think I found out the problem with the dt 770's. They cant handle hard hitting bass when vocals are being played at the same time. I noticed that when listening to songs where the bass portions are separated from the vocals, everything comes out clean. But when I listen to alot of hiphop where its very bassy when the person is rapping I notice distortion with the voice and bass. I think its just the characteristics of these headphones, the bass just bleeds into the "treble? not sure what vocals are described as" and causes distortion. So heres Adele - Someone Like You, voice is clear and crisp, no distortion. Heres Slumberjack ft. KLP - The Others, bass is crisp, hits hard, no distortion. But when I listen to Logic - Young Jedi (ft. Dizzy Wright) you can hear the distortion in his voice when the bass hits. And i've found another user on head-fi that claims he had the same thing. http://www.head-fi.org/t/612078/m-audio-q40-vs-dt-770-pro-80-ohms. 
 

  How about the M50x? detachable cable more comfortable and better sound its the whole package.

 
I mean I already have the M50's and from what I know they sound the same, its just that the X version comes with detachable cable. I want something better...

 

[Raketen]

I've read a couple places that the m50x made some small tweaks/improvements to the sound, but not a huge change or anything, same basic signature.
 
 

 

[Klitschko]

 
I mean I already have the M50's and from what I know they sound the same, its just that the X version comes with detachable cable. I want something better...

The X version has made many different changes to the sound quality and comfort not just the detachable cable.

 

[Raketen]

  The X version has made many different changes to the sound quality and comfort not just the detachable cable.

Hmm, just out of curiousity put M50 and M50x into Build-A-Graph, also DT770 and M-100-  does look quite a bit different- looks like 50x lifted subs & lows quite a bit- though FR only tells a part of the story.