[AbsoluteZer0]

First off, I'm relatively new to the headphone world and I have a few questions about buying a new pair. I have a pair of Beats Solo HD's, and honestly they're awful. I've had em for ahwile but I can't stand em anymore. Can't wear em for more than 30 mins-1hr at a time, and the sound just isn't all that great. Definitely not impressed for them costing as much as they did. I've been looking around here on the site at some of the reviews, and have been seriously considering buying the ATH-M50's.
 
1. Are they good headphones/good for the price?
2. Do I need to buy a headphone amp with these? 
3. Coiled or straight cord?
4. Are they good for primarily rock/metal?
 
Any other useful information is appreciated. 

 

[TMRaven]

The M50s are an upgrade in comfort over the on-ear beats, but not too much of an upgrade.  If you don't mind the heat and sweat buildup over time though, I'd definitely consider them, on-ear headphones like the beats solo are just plain not comfortable.
 
1. yes
2. no
3. that's your decision
4. they're decent at rock/metal.  the mids are more cold and recessed than they could be, but still decently balanced.

 

[AbsoluteZer0]

Ah I see. Would they be considered some of the best you could get for $130-$150? And I had no idea about the on-ears sucking at the time when I bought em, essentially bought them because they were supposedly good headphones, or so I thought.

 

[Doc-holliday]

Ah I see. Would they be considered some of the best you could get for $130-$150? And I had no idea about the on-ears sucking at the time when I bought em, essentially bought them because they were supposedly good headphones, or so I thought.

It is not the on ear that makes them "suck" it is the

that does that.

The sound signature of the HD25-1 ii is an on ear that you would enjoy more than the M50 for your taste and for sure a major upgrade to those beats. They run about 200 bucks.

You could even prolly go with a budget-fi set like even the CAL (Creative Aurvana Live) as a SIGNIFIGANT upgrade to the solos as they are highly regarded on here. You should look those reviews up I haven't had the chance to try them yet.

The M50 is a good headphone but I did end up trading them away in favor of many of my other phones including my 75 dollar JVC HAS500.

I think the HD25 is a good fit for you unless you are looknng for an over ear specifically now.

 

[ostewart]

Also check out the Shure SRH840, I wasn't that impressed by the M50, the M50 is fun sounding, but the mids don't cut it for rock/metal, also the bass isn't that tight.

 

[Doc-holliday]

Also check out the Shure SRH840, I wasn't that impressed by the M50, the M50 is fun sounding, but the mids don't cut it for rock/metal, also the bass isn't that tight.

+1 on bass not tight...... Shure would be a good over ear choice for you if you don't like the HD25 idea.

 

[Doc-holliday]

Oh yea.... the vmoda M80 is another on ear headphone that blows the Solo out of the water. Mentioning them cuz you can demo them at pretty much any RadioShack if you want to try them. For some reason they carry Vmoda.

Just another option for ya.. Good luck.

 

[TMRaven]

Quote:

It is not the on ear that makes them "suck" it is the

that does that.
The sound signature of the HD25-1 ii is an on ear that you would enjoy more than the M50 for your taste and for sure a major upgrade to those beats. They run about 200 bucks.

 
We're not talking about on-ears sucking in general, we're only talking about on-ears' comfort sucking.  The Beats Solo being a Beats product or not has nothing to do with comfort.

 

[Doc-holliday]

We're not talking about on-ears sucking in general, we're only talking about on-ears' comfort sucking.  The Beats Solo being a Beats product or not has nothing to do with comfort.

Well it's simply not true that on-ear headphones "suck" or even that they are all uncomfortable. I have tried dozens of over ear headphones that are much more uncomfortable to the DT1350. I don't know why you would promote that on here especially someone with your post count.

 

[TMRaven]

Again, nobody's talking about on-ears sucking.
 
The topic creator didn't like the comfort of the solos, therefor I'm not recommending other on-ears for him.  I also think the majority of on-ears are inferior to complete over-ears in comfort.  That's just an opinion you'll have to live with.  I got no problem if people say they are comfortable, but I personally rather not recommend them to wear if the topic creator already doesn't like the fit of the solos (for what it's worth I think the solos are the some of the more comfortable on-ears because they barely clamp and are lightweight)

 

[AbsoluteZer0]

Awesome, thanks. I dunno if the beats have just turned me off from on-ears or not, but it's damn near impossible to wear them for more than an hour without my ears killing me. I'll definitely look into the Shure's, especially if they are better for rock/metal.

 

[wolfetan44]

Quote:

Oh yea.... the vmoda M80 is another on ear headphone that blows the Solo out of the water. Mentioning them cuz you can demo them at pretty much any RadioShack if you want to try them. For some reason they carry Vmoda.
Just another option for ya.. Good luck.

They carry V-Moda?

 

[Doc-holliday]

They carry V-Moda?:eek:

I know i was suprised. Here in hollywood I went in to pick up a sansa clip 25% off and they had the M80 on demo. BYOSource...

 

[AbsoluteZer0]

I've been looking through some posts and saw someone posting about apple lossless format, what exactly is that? Oh and does the music player you use on android make a difference?

 

[Doc-holliday]

I've been looking through some posts and saw someone posting about apple lossless format, what exactly is that? Oh and does the music player you use on android make a difference?

Taken from google search... Also you should look up FLAC on there. Until last week ALAC was restricted in use to only apple but they just released it as open source under the Apache license. You can expect that all other media players will now start to support the ALAC codec in the coming months (legally):

Apple Lossless (also known as Apple Lossless Audio Codec, ALAC, or Apple Lossless Encoder, ALE) a type of audio compression created by Apple Inc.

Having Lossless in the name, obviously means Apple Lossless is a Lossless codec, unlike a lossy codec (such as mp3) where audio quality is lost forever in the name of smaller files, lossless stores the original CD track without loss, like zip for audio. Apple Lossless can compress CD quality audio file to roughly half its original size.

Apple Lossless files are stored in the MPEG 4 container and have a .m4a extension. The MPEG 4 container is also used for Advanced Audio Compression (AAC), a lossy compression (currently all tracks purchased from iTunes Music Store (iTMS) are AAC).