Is the difference in quality and clarity ginormous from maybe the ATH M50s? Frequency response or bass performance? They seen pretty balanced and bassy though.
I do mostly monitoring, but these look like amazing headphones either way!
I tried the ATH-M50s recently, and returned them for the Sennheiser HD8 DJ. I thought the ATH-M50 had great resolution and build quality. However, each portion of the frequency ranged didn't blend well with the others. The bass was decent, the midrange was extremely laid back, but the worse part was the high end. I'll admit, I don't really like high end, but it sounded extremely strident to me. I really wanted to like them, but because of the frequency response, along with its crushing headband, I decided to return them and look for something else.
HD8s are amazing. Bass is a bit flabby, but I don't really mind. Mids are really good, and highs cut off at around 18khz, and there the high end is very controlled. I've seen that the cutoff is hit or miss with people, but even though I'm bias cause I don't really like the high end, it's a hit. The only criticisms on the sound is really just slightly flabby bass, and 200hz-300hz are ducked a bit, causing snares to have less of an impact than kicks, but nothing that an EQ can't fix. Build quality is awesome, and although my head does hurt after wearing them for about 30 minutes, it can be easily fixed, and it hurts nowhere near as much as the M50s (M50s hurt much more after 5 minutes than HD8s hurt after 30.)
It's really up to preference. If you don't mind a lot of highs, and a very artificial sounding response, and don't mind a smaller soundstage, M50s are far cheaper, and the M50X seems a little more portable than the HD8. But if you're a DJ, or you don't like high end, but enjoy lots of bass, you'll absolutely love the HD8s.
