MaxMusic
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2010
- Posts
- 91
- Likes
- 13
Let me begin by thanking everyone who helped me in this strange world of high fidelity audio. I recently thanked the community for taking me outside the dark abyss that was my desire to own Beats headphones. Though I did a little reviewing in that thread, It is more appropriate to create a review-centered thread, especially after spending much more time with the headphones.
After a grueling decision making process, aided by the head-fi community, I decided to buy the ATH-M50s and RE-ZERO headphones. I wanted headphones that did not require an amp, and I needed some degree of portability (my reason for the RE-ZEROs). I chose the RE-ZEROs and M50s together because research led me to believe the ZEROs had defined bass that lacked in quantity, but very good mids and highs for the price point. I then juxtaposed them with the M50s, which were said to have very satisfying bass (and treb), but recessed mids. Here are my reactions
ATH-M50s:
Wow. There was a lot of hype and high expectations circulating around these cans, and they did not disappoint. I expected the bass to be good, but I did NOT expect the level of clarity these cans put out. The mids are surely recessed, but not to the point where it degrades the experience. The bass quantity was actually a little lower than I expected, but was more than enough. It was tight, controlled, and satisfying. Ive burned them in for around 30 hours, and to be honest I cant tell much difference between now and when I first got them, but then again most of that burn in was with my ears
.
Comparisons:
I recently directly compared them to my friends Bose QCs and there was no comparison (though as a bose fanboy, he swore his QCs had a bigger soundstage. They didn't though lol). Even he noticed the M50s were much clearer though. I have also listened to the beats PRO and STUDIO models, and I can tell you that they outperform the studios in every way imaginable. The more expensive PRO model of beats ($300-$400) is about the same performance as the M50s ($100-150). The PROs have more bass quantity and similar bass quality, but the M50s have noticably better highs. Overall id say they are about equal sound quality, but the pros are $400 and very uncomfortable, while the M50s are $130 and very comfortable. Thats a No-Brainer.
Overall, I am extremely satisfied with these cans. My friends all think they sound amazing, and are austounded by how little they cost. Oh and they work very well for studio monitoring as well.
RE-ZEROS:
What can be said about these that hasn't already been said? The level of detail these put out is amazing compared to anything I have had the privledge to listen to, surpassing the M50s in that respect by a large margin. These truly were a great choice to juxtapose the M50s. They have just enough bass to keep my satisfied, and really allow me to enjoy mid centric songs in a way the M50s cannot. I chose these over the RE0s because I knew i would be using them every day, and I could not deal with a total lapse of bass (which was warned of the RE0s). But like I said, while these aren't high in the bass quantity department, they have enough to get the job done. My primary concern was the required adapter. I pretty much manually change every song on my iphone, so i feared this would be a problem. However, the adapter is actually REALLY SMALL and does not bother me nearly as much as I anticipated.
If your looking to get into the Hi-Fi market, and don't want to invest in amplifiers, I highly recommend both of these headphones. I could not be happier with both of them, there is a reason why M50s and RE-ZEROs are so highly recommended!
Thanks if you took the time to read this!
-Max
After a grueling decision making process, aided by the head-fi community, I decided to buy the ATH-M50s and RE-ZERO headphones. I wanted headphones that did not require an amp, and I needed some degree of portability (my reason for the RE-ZEROs). I chose the RE-ZEROs and M50s together because research led me to believe the ZEROs had defined bass that lacked in quantity, but very good mids and highs for the price point. I then juxtaposed them with the M50s, which were said to have very satisfying bass (and treb), but recessed mids. Here are my reactions
ATH-M50s:
Wow. There was a lot of hype and high expectations circulating around these cans, and they did not disappoint. I expected the bass to be good, but I did NOT expect the level of clarity these cans put out. The mids are surely recessed, but not to the point where it degrades the experience. The bass quantity was actually a little lower than I expected, but was more than enough. It was tight, controlled, and satisfying. Ive burned them in for around 30 hours, and to be honest I cant tell much difference between now and when I first got them, but then again most of that burn in was with my ears
.Comparisons:
I recently directly compared them to my friends Bose QCs and there was no comparison (though as a bose fanboy, he swore his QCs had a bigger soundstage. They didn't though lol). Even he noticed the M50s were much clearer though. I have also listened to the beats PRO and STUDIO models, and I can tell you that they outperform the studios in every way imaginable. The more expensive PRO model of beats ($300-$400) is about the same performance as the M50s ($100-150). The PROs have more bass quantity and similar bass quality, but the M50s have noticably better highs. Overall id say they are about equal sound quality, but the pros are $400 and very uncomfortable, while the M50s are $130 and very comfortable. Thats a No-Brainer.
Overall, I am extremely satisfied with these cans. My friends all think they sound amazing, and are austounded by how little they cost. Oh and they work very well for studio monitoring as well
. RE-ZEROS:
What can be said about these that hasn't already been said? The level of detail these put out is amazing compared to anything I have had the privledge to listen to, surpassing the M50s in that respect by a large margin. These truly were a great choice to juxtapose the M50s. They have just enough bass to keep my satisfied, and really allow me to enjoy mid centric songs in a way the M50s cannot. I chose these over the RE0s because I knew i would be using them every day, and I could not deal with a total lapse of bass (which was warned of the RE0s). But like I said, while these aren't high in the bass quantity department, they have enough to get the job done. My primary concern was the required adapter. I pretty much manually change every song on my iphone, so i feared this would be a problem. However, the adapter is actually REALLY SMALL and does not bother me nearly as much as I anticipated.
If your looking to get into the Hi-Fi market, and don't want to invest in amplifiers, I highly recommend both of these headphones. I could not be happier with both of them, there is a reason why M50s and RE-ZEROs are so highly recommended!
Thanks if you took the time to read this!
-Max
