@@Joestudly Sound wise no complaints but the pleather started to peel after less than a year. Always something to consider when buying headphones is the quality of the non-audio materials
Agreed. It's great to compare what the people say vs what you have experienced and see if you agree. I just got these and am hoping they have great deep bass.
i had the opposite experience. the hinge on the ear cup broke after 3 years of using it. so i bought another one, and then a few years later, the same thing happened. i'm not buying a 3rd one.
Clamping pressure - reduce by stretching the ear phones to straighten the over head band (do it several times little by little so the band does not become too weak).
One major caveat of the K371 that isn't mentioned here: poor user-to-user consistency. I can't use the K371 because they simply won't seal properly over my ears, and this is a well-reported issue online. It also has poor consistency per session since the treble response will vary slightly per reseat. The M50x has none of these problems: It's incredibly easy-wearing and consistent, with bass that is far less fussy to whether or not you achieve a perfect seal. Totally agree on the sound-quality front. The K371 is simply better. However for those of us that can't wear the K371, the M50x at lower volume levels does nicely enough in the price range and responds well to EQ.
Had my ATH-M50X for 7 years and swapped the pads once. They sound pretty decent and built well. I don’t regret my purchase for a second as they have lasted me this long and still look new. I actually enjoy the sound. I know others sound better but I feel Audio Technica struck a good balance between sound quality and build quality.
I've had the M50 (non-x) for 11 years now and just replaced them with DT770s, so I'll throw my post-mortem take here. My use-case with these has been primarily monitoring while I play guitar through an amp sim, mixing, and sometimes just listening to music. The M50s, to sum up the sound, sound exciting. The bass hits hard, the highs are exciting (and a bit fatiguing, for me), they're kind scooped, but they just make everything sound huge and in your face. The stereo image suffers from this a decent amount - hard panned rhythm guitars get a lot of "stereo compression" (no idea if that's a term) on these, making them sound both huge, but also somewhat directionless. For listening to music, this can be cool. For mixing... I found these kind of a pain. This has the effect of muddying up any timing inaccuracies between rhythm guitar takes, making me realize I need to re-record a take only later after I've listened on my AirPods. Switching to my DT770s, I instantly appreciated having a wider stereo image, less boosted bass, and more breathing room in the mids. They don't sound as exciting, but I'm able to discern a fair bit more detail, both in terms of frequency and stereo imaging. So, I honestly have no idea why the M50 is ever suggested to people for mixing (when stereo monitors aren't an option)... they're great for tracking and casual listening, but make mixing pretty difficult IMO. As for build quality and comfort. My main complaints after 11 years are: The ear cups sit on my ears, not over them. This limits the comfort a lot. Having them on for more than an hour hurts. This can be diminished with softer aftermarket pads, but it's still an issue. Then there's the headband padding - it flakes off after a year or two, makes a giant mess, and isn't replaceable. I bought a cloth cover on Amazon to cover it up, but it was never as comfortable and doesn't look great. That aside, they're built like a tank. My version doesn't have a removable cable (like the x does), but this was never an issue. My pair still works perfectly - I've retired them from music-making usage and will keep them around for casual listening.
Hey sir thanks so much I wanted to buy these and I can't play through my loud amps and and at low volumes the richness is dead so I wanted to pair these with a vox amplug, and I use a pedal board with stereo delays and tremolos will they have a decent tone like will my pedals shine or will they blurr out and get muddy I want to buy any thing that can take pedal effects and not reduce my expensive board effects down the mud.
It doesn't require a DAC, but it sure helps at high volumes. These are pretty stiff for 32 ohm, and really shine at louder volumes, which is where a phone jack or low-end PC sound card will distort. To get these to sound great, I dial down the EQ in the 125 Hz to 500 Hz ranges a bit, and run then through optical to dedicated DAC/amp.
The audio technica doesn't profit from an amplifier. DAC is... I don't know not really required because todays soundcards have a good enough DAC built in. If you hear hisses it's probably the recording itself.
You are NOT a pinhead; I will give you that. This was a sort-of-good intro to these very nice headphones. One thing, though, is that it really depends upon how sensitive your hearing might be, rather than whether or not you got a melon for a head, which might most determine how much enjoyment these headphones will provide to the listener. For example, at my advanced age, and using these headphones and a UTube-based audio test with a tone generator, I seem to be able to hear up to frequencies around 14.2kHz. This is not to shabby for my age. However, I really wish I could go back in time, to when I was sweet 16, and try out these beauties. Good Intro. I have one of these M50x, and that is all I need...at my old age.
I think these are overhated due to their popularity. I mean, they're overhyped to hell and back, but they're good for what they are. The comfort is just the real issue (which admittably I don't think they're as uncomfortable as others find them, but everyone has different ear shapes and M50X do have a strooong clamp) The sound is good, far superior to the average consumer headphone. They have a tight bass and for mixing are actually really useful as they are a super glorified version of a consumer headphone giving you a good idea of how it will sound without sacrificing detail. It's like a tasteful V-shape that doesn't abandon sound quality; the bass isn't bloated but still pack apunch. Plus, honestly you can just EQ these which they're actually really good at responding to and will become a lot more flat. Obviously open backs will sound better but I do think audiophile elites like to reject this since it's so popular. It's really not that bad. A great starting headphone into the audiophile world, honestly. I started with these so I do have a softspot for these. (Plus, their swiveling and portability is great and these things can get loud without distorting)
I'm wondering if there is something wrong with me or if I just got a bad unit... I bought the ATH-M50XBT2 and I thought the sound was awful. No matter what I listened to, no matter if I used my phone, my laptop or my TV -- everything sounded like I was listening through a tin can. There was literally zero bass and wayyyy too much treble. Playing around with the equalizer helped only a tiny bit, as, even though the sound was better overall, I was still having needles being hammered into my head. Songs sounded like bad 96 kbit/s mp3 files. Even though I tried different files with 320 kbit/s and also waves ripped straight from my own CD collection. Bluetooth or wired didn't matter. Neither did the Bluetooth codec I used. So what is up with that I wonder. Everyone seems to love them...
This is the thing. It was my first proper headphone that cost over £100. It’s been 10 years since then and my tastes have changed. I now have stellia, vc and the liric. However the M50x does still get use. I can Chuck it in my bag and not worry about it breaking and if I’m not not doing critical listening then it’s fine
how can you bare that shit sound quality if you own 2 very expensive headphones... for real you should be snob sleeping on money to own Stellia (I know its not the most expensive but still I can buy a car in that price)
I have M40x and they broke twice within 1 year of using them. I handle my stuff with care, but the cheap build and cheap plastic are not worth the money. Maybe the older ones had better QC than the new ones they produce today.
I used the previous non x version of these from 2008 to 2014. I passed them along to someone else and they're still going in 2022. Very durable. I never want to hear them again though. They don't sound good in a general kind of way. You can get specific with audiophile terms, but it's unnecessary. Just generally goodn't in every technical aspect sound wise.
These are OK enough but the hinges WILL break after a certain amount of time. The plastic tab inside the hinge that prevents them from folding outwards too far is so small and flimsy that you are rolling the dice every time you put them on your head. My first pair (M50, not M50x) lasted 5+ years with fairly heavy use but my second pair lasted half as long. Once the hinge snaps it's impossible to get them to sit on your head properly (i tried a bunch of fixes suggested including 3d printed parts that didnt really work). If you search online it's a common problem.
hey. I had this issue and totally fixed it with a small black ziptie. You just tie it around the part where the little plastic part used to be and it works wonders. It's been a year since I fixed them and haven't thought about it since.
The pleather on the M50x flakes off from sweat and being handled so badly that the headphones look like TRASH after a few years. Really ugly and the lack of instrument separation is something I recall.
they are great for rap n techno productions where the music is going deep and is to be listened too on club systems that for the average listener wouldn't be able to tell stereo output from mono output. Reason I say that is I pair them with senns HD560S's and of course the soundstage is cramped on the 50x compared to senns phones. But it really doesn't get in the way of creating when having second opinion phones and good monitors. For those late night sessions these are SO worth the money. I have 2 pairs of the bright blue ones. I have a friend who solely uses Senns HD-25 to make music (no monitors) and his tracks are fire. Whatever works! Good vid! Very nice. Subscribed.
These are one of my most uncomfortable pairs of headphones. The earcups are just too small and shallow, even with custom earpads :/ I do like the sound signature on occasion though, with the more fun and bassy signature they have. They're definitely not balanced though, so I wouldn't recommend them for studio work. They work surprisingly well for gaming, with good imaging, if having a less noteworthy soundstage. They can be a bit hot on some tracks.
I got something to say. Dont trust audiophile opinions its always subjective impressions. Trust audio engeneers opinions especialy if you are not a well trained listener. :D
Sound engineers don't have time to test hundreds of headphones like audiophiles do. They have the knowledge but you will never get this kind of reviews and comparison, only from audiophiles.
They tick all the boxes. Rugged as all hell, detachable cable, sound decent (for music/gaming). For $200 here in Australia, they're darn good value. I recently re-bought some HD25s and honestly I prefer them for music by a large margin... and managed to score them for $200 AUD. My next buy will be a set of Samson SR850s
@Bo Vance I give up. Any headphones I find that are supposed to be good, first I hear they are the best thing ever, I get hyped up, then I find a ton of comments saying they are the worst thing ever. And that happens with all the headphones. So obviously, each of them are all the best and the worst at the same time.
@@bobvance- You can't say that because it all depends on your personal music taste. People who prefer flat and neutral headphones won't like bass boosted headphones. But the other way around it is the same.
@@ChrisBessy true, I didn't use them that much though. I would recommend other headphones for sound quality over the M50X... Like the Sennheiser 560S, Sennheiser 6XX, Beyer TYGR 300R, Hifiman Sundara, etc
Last time I tried a 25 it was around the technical performance of a 280 so not very impressive. But it is a very common headphone as well so may need to be in the mix alongside the 280 itself
@@metal571 For the intended purpose of DJing, the HD25 are legendary and just about perfect. They are almost indestructible (there’s a video out there of someone hitting them with a bat and trying to break them), they’re lightweight and very portable, great isolation, can be driven be anything, and have the V shaped frequency response needed for beat matching. They also have good bass (not bloated) and not sibilant like the M50x.
My first "good" headphone was the m50x and I still have them more than 7 years later. While they have been retired as my travel headphone, in place of my Panda's, I strongly recommend them to friends and family who just want good enough, affordable and portable headphones. They can be beat up and somewhat abused and in my years of owning them I have never once regretted owning them.
After running several sets of studio-grade headphones through both a basic Audigy soundcard AND a full-sized Yamaha mixer... The m50'x have a nearly perfect sonic representation. You can't really give a good review of ANYTHING from your desktop PC that wasn't designed for high fidelity sound, regardless of what kind of file format you've downloaded, LOL. 90% of all online reviews come from someone who has plugged these into a motherboard's sound jack and are therefore irrelevant. Get a soundcard. Turn off the built-in EQ and Studio mode; we are just using this to route the audio, not modify it. Now, run it into your mixer via USB (not analog, that introduces noise) and set all of your dials to their respective infinity points. Now realize that's how your headphones ACTUALLY sound...When not crippled by your motherboard. Have a great day. ♥ PS: That graph is so inaccurate as to border on propaganda, LMAO. (smoothed = modified = biased = irrelevant.) Type "Reference Audio Analyzer, ATH M50x" into Google, since this channel blocks all links correcting them.... Which is why i will also be nesting this reply into several dozen comments.
@@The_Eldest_Millenial mate I haven't listened to something straight off my mobo in years, I'm currently running a schitt magnius and modius combo but I also have a thx AAA Amp I got from drop that I used to run on my desk. I currently have a goxlr mixer but I have had a good few mixers over the years as well. The m50x still sounds fine enough off of whatever though, it doesn't need much power to be driven and as long as your not plugging them into something with weird eq or distortion they will sound fine. Mine are retired because I have more comfortable, better sounding closed backs but my daily drivers are large planar open back headphones. Thus the m50x's are retired for me. Like I said in my original comment I still recommend them as travel headphones or entry headphones for people since they do sound good enough and since they are durable, easy to drive, and reliable. The m50x is fine enough but isn't a perfect headphone, I have a little over a dozen to compare them against with studio quality equipment to test them all on. They are just fine, they aren't amazing and are lacking in areas but on the other hand they aren't too harsh and present a nice casual listening experience. That's what I was trying to get across in my original comment, they are just fine, nothing exceptional. Sorry if formatting or grammar are weird I'm writing this on my phone just as I'm waking up.
You know why these are great for mixing? Because it helps to know when consumer headphones will make the bass and lower-mids muddy. It’s a great benchmark for that and also helps to show the terrible shouty parts of songs, because you WILL notice with m50xs. It’s not flat, it’s not good because it’s flat. It’s good because it is fairly detailed, durable version of a typical cheap consumer headphone.
@@soulfulfool those m50x are just great because they have a broad as use case. I can hop into the bus listening to music going to work afterwards I can go Skate with Dose without me having to worry about braking them. They are so durable that they have been surviving some nasty slams at big sets of stairs. Then I want to go Film a line I can use them to monitor my Audio. At night I go to a rave and I can use them quite satasfing to DJ for housers. So there is much more to headphones then just Audio.
I had one for many many years, but ended up with the classic broken hinge that seems very common to this model. Nowadays I have much better sounding phones, such as the Hifiman Sundara, but I miss the sturdiness and portability of the M50x that I could take anywhere with me. I love that you included an alternative on this video, but I'd like to know more about other alternatives that might have better sound but equivalent build.
I own the M50 x. I have not heard the problems you mentioned and I have listened several times very attentively. My best guess is that you happen to have a defective M 50 x headphone. Furthermore, the reason I say this is I have a strong musical background and I have heard different types of speakers and headphones over the span of several years and the M 50 x is by far the best sounding inexpensive headphone I have ever heard. Incidentally, I have never heard an AKG headphone that I like. In my opinion all AKG headphones I have heard were extremely insufficient in bass frequencies.
Just copped the M50X from Goodwill for $29.99. It with a headband zipper cover, and seemingly pristine earmuffs which leads me to think they've been replaced and generally taken care of. Great sound!
They still serve me well after like 8 years. I no longer use them for music but for gaming when my house is a bit noisy. They isolate like a champ and sound pretty decent with some EQ. But yeah there's better options out there. Thanks for the revisit to these cans!
This isn't rocket science where you need all these graphs and dissenting the audio to the Nth degree. All you have to do is listen to them and either you're going to like them or not.
had these for almost 6 years now and ive been using them daily a lot, only swapped the pads once and they still work like brand new, literally built like the tank and they still sound absolutely amazing
Bought the M50x for about 85 USD used a few days ago - no traces of usage, came with original pads and Brainwavz HM5. Didn't notice much difference in bass with the HM5's. Installed Wavelet on my Android, set AutoEQ which gave a MUCH better sound (AutoEQ project has thousands of headphones and earphones in the database and aims to give a neutral sound to any of them) and on top of that modified the sound. They sound AWESOME!
I have used both the wired and BT versions for years. The only odd thing I find with them is, while they give you good sound isolation in general, they have a bizarre tendency to almost amplify far away noises. For example the other night I thought I could hear someone talking that sounded out of place on the youtube video I was watching. I first took the headphones off and... couldn't hear anyone talking. Put them back on and paused the video and I could hear... the neighbours out at the front door chatting to someone quietly. I played with it for ages, on, off, on, off and they did make distance chatter clearer. I wish I had thought to switch them off and on to confirm there is no noise cancellation trickery going on, even though they don't (?) have any.
i own ath m50x and they amplify different types of sound from a really far away, like train track smashing when train comes by and ppl talking on street or walking on street. Even with closed windows i can hear those sounds better with m50x on head. I think it is caused by closed back design with material that conducts those frequencies better somehow.
As much as I like the sound of M50X the pads are just garbage. Unfortunately those headphones are just not the same with anything other then stock pads 😟
Przestań Stasiu jak nie chcesz zaplacic wiecej za sluchawki to zmien je chociaz na DT770 (albo tak jak gada na te AKG) tak czy siak zamkniete sluchawki nie zagraja jak otwarte chyba ze wybulisz sporo kasy ale raczej nie warto. Meze 99 sa dobre jak chcesz mocny bass, da sie to skorygowac wymiana padow albo EQ
@@soulfulfool Ale o co Panu chodzi bo nie bardzo rozumiem? M50X maja swoje niezaprzeczalne zalety jak wytrzymała konstrukcja, to ze się składają a sam dźwięk bardzo mi odpowiadał. Natomiast nie udało mi się znaleźć takich padów które byłyby wygodne i nie zmieniały dźwięku. Doskonale wiem ze są inne zamknięte słuchawki. A otwarte maja zupełnie inne zalety jak i wady . Jak ma pan remont klatki schodowej jak ja przez ostatni miesiąc to sobie pan muzyki nie posłucha na otwartych - wiem bo próbowałem.
@@stanisawszczypua9076 no tak sa rozne dziwne gusta i nie kazdy chce inwestowac w jakosc muzyki, co do remontu to jest fakt jak ktos zaczyna wiercic albo trzaskac to nie da sie sluchac na otwartych
My son got these years ago much to my disgust, last year he asked me to get new pads for them, i tryed some different pads i had kicking around, then i tried some Yaxi stpad2 i had on another headphone, i told my son a miracle just happened it made the M50X listenable...and comfortable, gotta try them Andrew...
Used to own the M50x, upgraded to M50xBT, and the last edition was the M50xBT2. Had sold the original M50x as my first upgrade was the bluetooth version. The wired sound is the best but I wanted bluetooth as an option. Now they've stopped with only the second bluetooth version which I saw was just newer bluetooth tech, multipoint and USB C as the first version is micro usb. Haven't made that second upgrade but would if they introduce noise cancelling to the M50x as they do have earbuds that they have started that with.
I find that the m50x with velour pads make the bass extremely tame with a slight increase in treble. Eq’ing this was a-lot easier than with the stock pads and they actually increase soundstage since the seal isn’t as tight with the faux leather pads.
I got hybrid pads with velour on the flat part and faux leather around it. Seal is a bit worse but the bass is more tolerable. The stock pads isolate quite well though, that is a nice feature in an office evironment.
My m50x hinges broke. I had to order 3D printed support pieces and add some hot glue. Lots of broken cables too. Also that headband material starts peeling quite easily.
It took me five years to break both of mine. I managed to fix it with a paperclip. I thought of it as a temporary fix and planned to order new forks, but the paperclip fix turned out to be so solid I never did.
The DT 700 Pro X is not portable and the K371 breaks by looking at it. The ATH-M50x is the only monitor in this price range that combines portability with build quality, while still having good sound and comfort. If Beyerdynamic would make something portable, or AKG would improve its build, the reign of the ATH-M50x might come to an end.
I feel like at the end of the day, it really all boils down to preference and use case. For what they advertise the M50x for, it just about ticks most of the boxes for me: Clear and bright highs (I haven't experienced sibilance issues that some have claimed), good mids albeit not perfect, and generous amounts of lows without it being too bassy. I personally don't use mine on the go but the added benefit of durability, build quality, and comfort is very much appreciated. Sure, looking at measurements and listening to this pair with a trained ear, it becomes apparent that it may be overhyped and overpriced for what they offer, but for now I'm very happy with mine. It's one of the aspects I feared back when I first started dabbling into the realm of audiophile equipment... that I would become overly critical with each pair I own and would lose the "enjoyment" of the listening experience. And it especially sucks where I'm from since returning purchased items, especially if it's not due to warranty issues or a factory defect, isn't normally practiced... and very rarely do companies honor the reason of "I change my mind" or "it doesn't sound as good as I had initially thought after X amount of hours"
After running several sets of studio-grade headphones through both a basic Audigy soundcard AND a full-sized Yamaha mixer... The m50'x have a nearly perfect sonic representation. You can't really give a good review of ANYTHING from your desktop PC that wasn't designed for high fidelity sound, regardless of what kind of file format you've downloaded, LOL. 90% of all online reviews come from someone who has plugged these into a motherboard's sound jack and are therefore irrelevant. Get a soundcard. Turn off the built-in EQ and Studio mode; we are just using this to route the audio, not modify it. Now, run it into your mixer via USB (not analog, that introduces noise) and set all of your dials to their respective infinity points. Now realize that's how your headphones ACTUALLY sound...When not crippled by your motherboard. Have a great day. ♥ PS: That graph is so inaccurate as to border on propaganda, LMAO. (smoothed = modified = biased = irrelevant.) Type "Reference Audio Analyzer, ATH M50x" into Google, since this channel blocks all links correcting them.... Which is why i will also be nesting this reply into several dozen comments.
@@Kacey_Jaymes To be fair, I guess it is quite difficult to properly review audio equipment objectively unless you have studio grade equipment at your disposal. I think the general consensus is that for the money you're spending on an m50x, there are now alternatives that have similar sound quality for cheaper or even better sound quality than the m50x for around the same price. But, I guess it's also understandable considering how old the original m50 is by now and that span of time from when it was highly praised, when it was relatively new, no longer holds for the more recent offerings from AT's competitors. Plus, it doesn't help that the m50x has been aggressively marketed and advertised by multiple artists and audio engineers over the years... making ordinary consumers question the validity of the claims over time.
i think the major problems people have with this headphone is becouse they see a lot of musicians and tecnhicians using it and assume the headphone is fucking great. The truth is, this series of headphone are especially meant to whose work with audio and we do need to to get a good sonic representation. The headphone being sibilant is not bad, its tolding you to check around where those "s" sounds are coming and treating then. I think this headphone are no suitable for just audiophiles who want to just listen good music but its great to whom work with audio and they kind get standard headphone just like those ns-10 became standard monitor and we do need those standards equipaments to create a standard reference. those things happens naturaly with all studio equipments.About the sound, to me, they reveal lots os stuff you don want. if your mix are too bassy they will reveal, they will reveal if you exagerated with reverbs, they will reveal if your voice is sibilant, they even help you to check volume balance. I always check my final mixes on a m40x and on a m50, and they always reveal me things and final touchs my monitors didnt.
I would be interested to see a comparison between these the Shure SRH840A, DT770 80 ohm and Sony MDR7506. All seem promising for both portable and studio use.
I've tried them all doing live sound gigs for nearly a decade. The Sony MDR7506 are a classic, but they are the worst wearing/sounding of the bunch. They're also the cheapest, if memory serves. I actually really liked the Shure headphones when I tried them. I think they're the most accurate perceptually in the places that counts, i.e. when I soloed something up and went back to listening to the room, it didn't feel like there was a huge change. My personal set is the M50x from about 8 years ago. I'm used to them now, but when I started I definitely felt like they had issues around 10k. They have such great isolation and are built like a tank. The most comfortable of the bunch is the DT770s, but I really don't think they sound all that great. Don't get me wrong, they're not bad sounding headphones, but they don't have the same isolation as the M50x and their comfort comes with additional bulk so for me it's a side grade. TL;DR - If you're a working professional any of them are perfectly serviceable and you will see them often enough to get a feel for how each sounds.
As an additional aside, my all time favorite headphone from Sony were the MDRV6. They were actually pretty mediocre in terms of their time domain performance, but they were superbly flat and I always felt work I did on them transferred to other things well whether it was an iPhone or a d&b rig.
Do you mean just for tracking stuff? Cause in that case any headphones would do wouldn't it? It's certainly not a great studio headphones balance wise because it's not flat, at all in the bass and the soundstage is not good I also can't imagine it's comfy for long durations (then again, I too am a melon head so idk).
May not be totally flat but neither are lots of widely used studio monitors. Most folks doing recording work know what they sound like and damn near any studio has a pair available.
own the m40x (for 4 years) and m50x BT (entering its 2nd year)... both have its own specific use case... but i particulary like the m50x simply because its bluetooth and the boosted low end helped blocked ambient noise (engine rumbling, chatter, etc) and a great construction for a portable can.... compared to my grad0 sr80x, hd660s, shp9500, the m50x lacks behind in terms of sound quality.... but hey its bluetooth aptx (40 hours yo), collapsible, and built like a panzer
@@user-xg6zz8qs3q yes 🤣🤣 i kept the shp9500 for the highs 🤣 i dont know why im still keeping it instead of my 9600😆😆, tamed the highs down a lil bit with tube amp tho (xduoo ta 05) but im still enjoying it out of my iphone 4s 😅
Your whole reviews and opinion that the AKG K371 sounds subjective. In fact it sounds almost like you are pushing that product over this one. There is a reason that over time the m50x is much more popular and preferred over the AKG K371. So, having said that, you sounds like so many other "aspiring" wannabee youtube audio reviewers pushing products based on probably who is paying you.
Andrew, I love that you reviewed this headphones. These are primarily DJ headphones, and I'm surprised that you did not say the term "DJ" in the entire review. Being an audiophile who also happens to be a DJ, I should mention that DJs primarily focus on mobile ruggedness, isolation (in loud rooms) and need a frequency response that emphasizes the lower and higher frequencies for beat matching. This is why these DJ headphones and most other highly regarded Dj headphones are tuned like this. I think a big reason most people buy these headphones is to look like DJs they see using them. With that said, I would buy a Sennheiser HD25 as they sound much better, are more rugged, and even more isolating than the M50x
Oh hey, I think you messaged me on the forum about this as well. Yeah, the DJ stuff is totally not in my wheelhouse, so I'm less familiar with that use case, but I imagine these would be excellent for exactly that purpose.
well maybe you have a point, that mean DJ headphones sounds like crap but oh well kids in most cases want bass and treble, fuck midrange where real music is born haha
@@soulfulfool It just means there are different headphones for different intended purposes. When I come home, I enjoy listening to music with my ZMF Verite closed headphones and a tube amp. Those headphones would not be a good choice for DJing. DJs have a limited amount of time to match beats and start the mix; they aren’t listening for pleasure. The same is true for headphones used by reporters and broadcasters. Most DJ headphones have V-shaped frequency response for beat matching and the midrange is an afterthought.
I enjoy the bass response on the K371 a lot but there's something extremely uncomfortable happening in the low mids and treble. Low mids sound uncomfortably hollow and there's a lot missing in the 4-6k region while something over that, probably around 7-10k is boosted to uncomfortable levels. It makes vocals and other instruments that live in that frequency spectrum sound snarly and gritty. I reckon the hollow low mids are because of that mid-treble spike that demands too much attention. I'm very displeased with these headphones and it's a shame because the bass is solid and the higher mids are great. Sounding hollow and harsh simultaneously makes them unlistenable for me though. Shucks, wanted to like 'em
The ATX M50 Headphone build quality is shit, the hinge mechanism will break with the slightest of twists. They look like they are built like a tank but they are not. If they were built like a tank then every critical piece of its construction would be made of metal and designed better overall. It doesn't matter how well you look after them, they will break with regular use. Audio Technica knows this problem but refuse to fix it because they know people will probably go and buy another pair. The quality of the materials used is just poor and will wear out in no time. Don't believe any reviewer that says the ATH headphones are good quality because none of them are when it comes to build quality. I've had 11 years of experience with them.
I bought M50x in 2014. Immediately changed the earpads along the way because I don't like the way original pad clamping my ears, I change it with Brainwavz and it much bigger and could contains my ear completely so it's more comfortable. Still using it today in 2023, modding it with small portable HiFi DAC bluetooth receiver (sticking that bluetooth DAC with strong double tape on it), and then on source I'm using AutoEQ to tune it more leaning to Harman Curve. This is the way.
I hope I can get your help to choose: I'm between the dt 770, dt 700 pro and the m50x; the thing is, I owned de Sony mdr-1a and I hated them, sound way to sharp for me :( and they have the same peak around 8K that seems to be the same in the dt770 so I looked into the m50x, but everyone keeps saying the dt770 are better. I could also save a little and go for the dt 700 pro x, if they're better, but I do look for kind of the same sound profile, good rumbling base but with good enough definition to actually listen the instruments and music. Thank you!!
Yeah. You lost a lot of credibility on this one. This is why you shouldn’t listen to guys on the internet who cannot even wear their hat straight. Bizarre suggestion to go buy super cheaply built headphones at a high price.
Bought the M50 back in 2012 (before model X). Was pleased but not blown away. Base was ok, Treble was terrible, way too sharp for longer gaming or music sessions. I still have them. Great looking. Work as they should. Had to swap the flaking plastic pads and flaking plastic headband to real leather and they feel amazing after that. - Do i regret buying them? = No - Did they open up my world to HiFi HeadPhones = Yes - Am i gonna spend ALOT more on my next pair = Also YES
M50x is clearly made for solid DJing.. and that is why the precise punch base is dominating for a reason. Does not make sense to compare it to a daily driver in my opinion
i am now kind of confused. you claiming that this is a bass boosted headset, while other reviewers claim that the bass here is more on a neutral level, some claim that the bass is not really that high. this is what i hate about headset reviews.
if you want a dumb voice telling your battery is high or low and wait about 30 seconds for it to turn on this is the head phones for you! 6 months later bluetooth keeps droppping stay away from this BRAND AT ALL COST!
This set is superb. To my ears there is no bass bloat or bleed, yes the bass is thick, but it’s not interfering with mids to my ears. The treble is done well too, theres no sibilance to my ears. These are fantastic headphones.
I had an original set from years ago. The originals were terrible. I have the m50xbt2 and the tuning is different. Bass is tamed by comparison. Doesn't bleed anymore like it used to. I'm glad they did though. Cause I use them regularly
The M50x (and by extension the M50) does feel like a sturdy headset HOWEVER There is a major design flaw with their hinge that is likely related to their clamping force. There is a small plasic tab on each hinge that prevents the cans from swinging outward. These tabs take the full clamping force and are notorious for breaking. I own the original M50s and just had my second hinge break after having them for 7 years or so. My first hinge broke after about 3 or 4 years. Unfortunately my latest attempt to repair them was unsuccessful and I have to retire them. They have gotten a lot of use and abuse so I feel it's time to upgrade anyway. I may consider going back and repairing them because they are fantastic for traveling with.
Thats true. I have a m40x for about 8 year and they heave been abused as well, lots of travel in a backpack, were my main headphone to mix and track i fixed it couple of times ultil the last fix were not so great and the headphone dont clamp as good as before i used to wrap a band on my head to high pressure the headphone on my ears. haaha Than i bought a second hand old m50 that was well treated and it became my main mix headphone. Last week i found on aliexpress a full replacement band to those m50 and ordered hoping i can save my m40x. Conclusion is. Treat well your m40/m50x otherwise they will break. if you need to travel with then buy a case and dont lend your main headphone to people in studio, if its just to tracking, buy some cheaper headphone. :P
This mirrors my experience with the original M50s. Boomy and fatiguing, but good enough to serve their purpose, with excellent isolation for instrument tracking. Acceptable imaging, but too narrow. The shitty fake leather on the headband will peel off over time, but aside from that they stand up to a lot of punishment. 10 years and still going on mine.
After running several sets of studio-grade headphones through both a basic Audigy soundcard AND a full-sized Yamaha mixer... The m50'x have a nearly perfect sonic representation. You can't really give a good review of ANYTHING from your desktop PC that wasn't designed for high fidelity sound, regardless of what kind of file format you've downloaded, LOL. 90% of all online reviews come from someone who has plugged these into a motherboard's sound jack and are therefore irrelevant. Get a soundcard. Turn off the built-in EQ and Studio mode; we are just using this to route the audio, not modify it. Now, run it into your mixer via USB (not analog, that introduces noise) and set all of your dials to their respective infinity points. Now realize that's how your headphones ACTUALLY sound...When not crippled by your motherboard. Have a great day. ♥ PS: That graph is so inaccurate as to border on propaganda, LMAO. (smoothed = modified = biased = irrelevant.) Type "Reference Audio Analyzer, ATH M50x" into Google, since this channel blocks all links correcting them.... Which is why i will also be nesting this reply into several dozen comments.
@@soundscapemedia1700 Agree dude. This headphone is meant to whose work with audio, especially monitoring and checking mixes but also for tracking Its a goodheadphone to tracking, bleeds almost nothing. But to track drums i still going dor those vikfirthm they sound like crap but does not bleed metronome into the drum mics.
Tame the bloated bass and sibilance with EQ and get some decent pads to improve the comfort and they are a detailed and durable closed backs. My M50’s feel indestructible.
I bought the M50x in 2012 and used them everyday until now when they just broke under the swivel. Just looking around to see if anything is better and I might buy another pair.
Dont buy anything else from Audio Technica. I dont know if its their newer build or not, but they are now notorious for crap QC. I and many people I know have had similar issues with the swivel breaking.
I don’t why but I love watching reviews of stuff I already have
it's like me loving to watch streams of games i’ve already finished 😅
To see if by any chance you chose wisely
@@Joestudly Sound wise no complaints but the pleather started to peel after less than a year. Always something to consider when buying headphones is the quality of the non-audio materials
Agreed. It's great to compare what the people say vs what you have experienced and see if you agree. I just got these and am hoping they have great deep bass.
My original M50 still going strong after something like 15 years and 3 pad swaps. Built like a tank.
Which pads did you swap to? Did velour now on perforated pleather. It’s meh
i had the opposite experience. the hinge on the ear cup broke after 3 years of using it. so i bought another one, and then a few years later, the same thing happened. i'm not buying a 3rd one.
@@DS-ff6ze Have my M50X from 2015. One pad swap. No other issues, and its my main headphones.
do you do anything to preserve fixed wire headphones specifically for that long?
original m50s here going on 8th year, one pad swap
Clamping pressure - reduce by stretching the ear phones to straighten the over head band (do it several times little by little so the band does not become too weak).
One major caveat of the K371 that isn't mentioned here: poor user-to-user consistency. I can't use the K371 because they simply won't seal properly over my ears, and this is a well-reported issue online. It also has poor consistency per session since the treble response will vary slightly per reseat.
The M50x has none of these problems: It's incredibly easy-wearing and consistent, with bass that is far less fussy to whether or not you achieve a perfect seal.
Totally agree on the sound-quality front. The K371 is simply better. However for those of us that can't wear the K371, the M50x at lower volume levels does nicely enough in the price range and responds well to EQ.
Had my ATH-M50X for 7 years and swapped the pads once. They sound pretty decent and built well. I don’t regret my purchase for a second as they have lasted me this long and still look new. I actually enjoy the sound. I know others sound better but I feel Audio Technica struck a good balance between sound quality and build quality.
Mine lasted 4 years then snapped (1 side) cant moan really maybe its been dropped more then 10 times making the hinge weak
I've had the M50 (non-x) for 11 years now and just replaced them with DT770s, so I'll throw my post-mortem take here. My use-case with these has been primarily monitoring while I play guitar through an amp sim, mixing, and sometimes just listening to music. The M50s, to sum up the sound, sound exciting. The bass hits hard, the highs are exciting (and a bit fatiguing, for me), they're kind scooped, but they just make everything sound huge and in your face. The stereo image suffers from this a decent amount - hard panned rhythm guitars get a lot of "stereo compression" (no idea if that's a term) on these, making them sound both huge, but also somewhat directionless. For listening to music, this can be cool. For mixing... I found these kind of a pain. This has the effect of muddying up any timing inaccuracies between rhythm guitar takes, making me realize I need to re-record a take only later after I've listened on my AirPods. Switching to my DT770s, I instantly appreciated having a wider stereo image, less boosted bass, and more breathing room in the mids. They don't sound as exciting, but I'm able to discern a fair bit more detail, both in terms of frequency and stereo imaging. So, I honestly have no idea why the M50 is ever suggested to people for mixing (when stereo monitors aren't an option)... they're great for tracking and casual listening, but make mixing pretty difficult IMO.
As for build quality and comfort. My main complaints after 11 years are: The ear cups sit on my ears, not over them. This limits the comfort a lot. Having them on for more than an hour hurts. This can be diminished with softer aftermarket pads, but it's still an issue. Then there's the headband padding - it flakes off after a year or two, makes a giant mess, and isn't replaceable. I bought a cloth cover on Amazon to cover it up, but it was never as comfortable and doesn't look great. That aside, they're built like a tank. My version doesn't have a removable cable (like the x does), but this was never an issue. My pair still works perfectly - I've retired them from music-making usage and will keep them around for casual listening.
Hey sir thanks so much I wanted to buy these and I can't play through my loud amps and and at low volumes the richness is dead so I wanted to pair these with a vox amplug, and I use a pedal board with stereo delays and tremolos will they have a decent tone like will my pedals shine or will they blurr out and get muddy I want to buy any thing that can take pedal effects and not reduce my expensive board effects down the mud.
It doesn't require a DAC, but it sure helps at high volumes. These are pretty stiff for 32 ohm, and really shine at louder volumes, which is where a phone jack or low-end PC sound card will distort. To get these to sound great, I dial down the EQ in the 125 Hz to 500 Hz ranges a bit, and run then through optical to dedicated DAC/amp.
Yes! The DAC makes the bass spot on! I use them with a n inexpensive but very good Topping DX3 . Its day and night with this DAC.
@@dennispelaez187 Placebo effect
The audio technica doesn't profit from an amplifier. DAC is... I don't know not really required because todays soundcards have a good enough DAC built in. If you hear hisses it's probably the recording itself.
Why do I get the feeling that DMS was holding a gun at you from behind the camera throughout this review?
You are NOT a pinhead; I will give you that. This was a sort-of-good intro to these very nice headphones. One thing, though, is that it really depends upon how sensitive your hearing might be, rather than whether or not you got a melon for a head, which might most determine how much enjoyment these headphones will provide to the listener. For example, at my advanced age, and using these headphones and a UTube-based audio test with a tone generator, I seem to be able to hear up to frequencies around 14.2kHz. This is not to shabby for my age. However, I really wish I could go back in time, to when I was sweet 16, and try out these beauties. Good Intro. I have one of these M50x, and that is all I need...at my old age.
I think these are overhated due to their popularity. I mean, they're overhyped to hell and back, but they're good for what they are. The comfort is just the real issue (which admittably I don't think they're as uncomfortable as others find them, but everyone has different ear shapes and M50X do have a strooong clamp)
The sound is good, far superior to the average consumer headphone. They have a tight bass and for mixing are actually really useful as they are a super glorified version of a consumer headphone giving you a good idea of how it will sound without sacrificing detail. It's like a tasteful V-shape that doesn't abandon sound quality; the bass isn't bloated but still pack apunch. Plus, honestly you can just EQ these which they're actually really good at responding to and will become a lot more flat.
Obviously open backs will sound better but I do think audiophile elites like to reject this since it's so popular. It's really not that bad.
A great starting headphone into the audiophile world, honestly. I started with these so I do have a softspot for these.
(Plus, their swiveling and portability is great and these things can get loud without distorting)
🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷👏🏻, Awesome video, very informative. You think the DT 700 x is still a good buy for 2024?
I'm wondering if there is something wrong with me or if I just got a bad unit...
I bought the ATH-M50XBT2 and I thought the sound was awful. No matter what I listened to, no matter if I used my phone, my laptop or my TV -- everything sounded like I was listening through a tin can. There was literally zero bass and wayyyy too much treble.
Playing around with the equalizer helped only a tiny bit, as, even though the sound was better overall, I was still having needles being hammered into my head.
Songs sounded like bad 96 kbit/s mp3 files. Even though I tried different files with 320 kbit/s and also waves ripped straight from my own CD collection. Bluetooth or wired didn't matter. Neither did the Bluetooth codec I used.
So what is up with that I wonder. Everyone seems to love them...
Pls do a review of all classic headphones which have around for a while comparing them to newer stuff like HD25, MDR750, DT770, Sennheiser 560s etc
This is the thing. It was my first proper headphone that cost over £100. It’s been 10 years since then and my tastes have changed. I now have stellia, vc and the liric. However the M50x does still get use. I can Chuck it in my bag and not worry about it breaking and if I’m not not doing critical listening then it’s fine
Wheezy did a great review of the m50x
how can you bare that shit sound quality if you own 2 very expensive headphones... for real you should be snob sleeping on money to own Stellia (I know its not the most expensive but still I can buy a car in that price)
I have M40x and they broke twice within 1 year of using them. I handle my stuff with care, but the cheap build and cheap plastic are not worth the money. Maybe the older ones had better QC than the new ones they produce today.
I used the previous non x version of these from 2008 to 2014. I passed them along to someone else and they're still going in 2022. Very durable. I never want to hear them again though. They don't sound good in a general kind of way. You can get specific with audiophile terms, but it's unnecessary. Just generally goodn't in every technical aspect sound wise.
These are OK enough but the hinges WILL break after a certain amount of time. The plastic tab inside the hinge that prevents them from folding outwards too far is so small and flimsy that you are rolling the dice every time you put them on your head. My first pair (M50, not M50x) lasted 5+ years with fairly heavy use but my second pair lasted half as long. Once the hinge snaps it's impossible to get them to sit on your head properly (i tried a bunch of fixes suggested including 3d printed parts that didnt really work). If you search online it's a common problem.
hey. I had this issue and totally fixed it with a small black ziptie. You just tie it around the part where the little plastic part used to be and it works wonders. It's been a year since I fixed them and haven't thought about it since.
@@renatozurita3751 I tried this as well, I must have had the wrong size zip tie or something because it didn't work for me. Good tip though
I listen to Techno, and the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro I just got sound great in the mids, but no bass whatsoever. So, maybe these are what I need.
The pleather on the M50x flakes off from sweat and being handled so badly that the headphones look like TRASH after a few years. Really ugly and the lack of instrument separation is something I recall.
What headphones u rec for a large head?
Any way to make these wider?
How about Shure SRH 940, more comfortable with velour pads, but can't comment about SQ.
Also, how about older K553 Pro.
they are great for rap n techno productions where the music is going deep and is to be listened too on club systems that for the average listener wouldn't be able to tell stereo output from mono output. Reason I say that is I pair them with senns HD560S's and of course the soundstage is cramped on the 50x compared to senns phones. But it really doesn't get in the way of creating when having second opinion phones and good monitors. For those late night sessions these are SO worth the money. I have 2 pairs of the bright blue ones. I have a friend who solely uses Senns HD-25 to make music (no monitors) and his tracks are fire. Whatever works!
Good vid! Very nice. Subscribed.
These are one of my most uncomfortable pairs of headphones. The earcups are just too small and shallow, even with custom earpads :/ I do like the sound signature on occasion though, with the more fun and bassy signature they have. They're definitely not balanced though, so I wouldn't recommend them for studio work. They work surprisingly well for gaming, with good imaging, if having a less noteworthy soundstage. They can be a bit hot on some tracks.
They are barely over ear indeed
Hey would the K371's be good for gaming, I have a good gaming microphone, but I want a high quality headset.
Open headphones are better for gaming, if you play games where positioning is crucial.
I got something to say.
Dont trust audiophile opinions its always subjective impressions. Trust audio engeneers opinions especialy if you are not a well trained listener. :D
Trust your own ears
I agree, but there really isn't a lot of audio engineers making headphone reviews, it's mostly audiophiles
Sound engineers don't have time to test hundreds of headphones like audiophiles do. They have the knowledge but you will never get this kind of reviews and comparison, only from audiophiles.
if your hinge ever breaks i have parts on Etsy :D iv seen some broken ones out there, mine still good tho
vs M40x? With deep pads
for me the m40x is more comfortable and more light on the head. I hated the m50x after 15min .....
what headphone are almost as good but have less clamp pressure
They tick all the boxes. Rugged as all hell, detachable cable, sound decent (for music/gaming). For $200 here in Australia, they're darn good value. I recently re-bought some HD25s and honestly I prefer them for music by a large margin... and managed to score them for $200 AUD. My next buy will be a set of Samson SR850s
There are sooooo many better headphones for that price lol. Also the build quality is fine, I wouldn't say it's great.
@Bo Vance I give up. Any headphones I find that are supposed to be good, first I hear they are the best thing ever, I get hyped up, then I find a ton of comments saying they are the worst thing ever. And that happens with all the headphones. So obviously, each of them are all the best and the worst at the same time.
@@bobvance- You can't say that because it all depends on your personal music taste.
People who prefer flat and neutral headphones won't like bass boosted headphones. But the other way around it is the same.
@@makunouchiippo816 objectively there are better headphones out there for the money, even direct competitors of the 50's
If you pair the original corded M50x with a Fiio portable headphone amp you will be amazed at the quality of sound.
:))
Fiio e10k?
I had my m50x for seven years, the fake leather coating on the headband cracked and is falling off in pieces
Plus the squeaking noise and not so great ear pads that peal away.
@@pliedtka Yep, at least ear pads are more easily replaced.
yes but 7 years bro .... its very good :)
@@ChrisBessy true, I didn't use them that much though. I would recommend other headphones for sound quality over the M50X... Like the Sennheiser 560S, Sennheiser 6XX, Beyer TYGR 300R, Hifiman Sundara, etc
Could you compare these to Focal headphones?
Which ones though
AKG K371 has very poor noise isolation.
This is gonna get a lot of views. But wait until you do the comparison review to DT 770 and MDR-7506 next
Which one would you pick, dt 770 80 ohm or k371 and why? :D
Good meme sir!😂
And then compare the winner to the Sennheiser HD25 which is also $150
Last time I tried a 25 it was around the technical performance of a 280 so not very impressive. But it is a very common headphone as well so may need to be in the mix alongside the 280 itself
@@metal571 For the intended purpose of DJing, the HD25 are legendary and just about perfect. They are almost indestructible (there’s a video out there of someone hitting them with a bat and trying to break them), they’re lightweight and very portable, great isolation, can be driven be anything, and have the V shaped frequency response needed for beat matching. They also have good bass (not bloated) and not sibilant like the M50x.
My first "good" headphone was the m50x and I still have them more than 7 years later. While they have been retired as my travel headphone, in place of my Panda's, I strongly recommend them to friends and family who just want good enough, affordable and portable headphones. They can be beat up and somewhat abused and in my years of owning them I have never once regretted owning them.
After running several sets of studio-grade headphones through both a basic Audigy soundcard AND a full-sized Yamaha mixer... The m50'x have a nearly perfect sonic representation.
You can't really give a good review of ANYTHING from your desktop PC that wasn't designed for high fidelity sound, regardless of what kind of file format you've downloaded, LOL.
90% of all online reviews come from someone who has plugged these into a motherboard's sound jack and are therefore irrelevant.
Get a soundcard. Turn off the built-in EQ and Studio mode; we are just using this to route the audio, not modify it.
Now, run it into your mixer via USB (not analog, that introduces noise) and set all of your dials to their respective infinity points.
Now realize that's how your headphones ACTUALLY sound...When not crippled by your motherboard.
Have a great day. ♥
PS: That graph is so inaccurate as to border on propaganda, LMAO. (smoothed = modified = biased = irrelevant.)
Type "Reference Audio Analyzer, ATH M50x" into Google, since this channel blocks all links correcting them.... Which is why i will also be nesting this reply into several dozen comments.
@@The_Eldest_Millenial mate I haven't listened to something straight off my mobo in years, I'm currently running a schitt magnius and modius combo but I also have a thx AAA Amp I got from drop that I used to run on my desk. I currently have a goxlr mixer but I have had a good few mixers over the years as well.
The m50x still sounds fine enough off of whatever though, it doesn't need much power to be driven and as long as your not plugging them into something with weird eq or distortion they will sound fine.
Mine are retired because I have more comfortable, better sounding closed backs but my daily drivers are large planar open back headphones. Thus the m50x's are retired for me.
Like I said in my original comment I still recommend them as travel headphones or entry headphones for people since they do sound good enough and since they are durable, easy to drive, and reliable.
The m50x is fine enough but isn't a perfect headphone, I have a little over a dozen to compare them against with studio quality equipment to test them all on. They are just fine, they aren't amazing and are lacking in areas but on the other hand they aren't too harsh and present a nice casual listening experience. That's what I was trying to get across in my original comment, they are just fine, nothing exceptional.
Sorry if formatting or grammar are weird I'm writing this on my phone just as I'm waking up.
Good thing you'vd listened to them so much they sound like "normal" lol
@@The_Eldest_Millenial how much would a nice soundcard for this cost?
@@nyox999 you should never buy one of these, buy an actual standalone dac or dac/amp combo.
You know why these are great for mixing? Because it helps to know when consumer headphones will make the bass and lower-mids muddy. It’s a great benchmark for that and also helps to show the terrible shouty parts of songs, because you WILL notice with m50xs. It’s not flat, it’s not good because it’s flat. It’s good because it is fairly detailed, durable version of a typical cheap consumer headphone.
That's actually a great way to put it, means it shouldn't be your only headphone.
An NS10 sort of thing?
@@lylejorgenson4878 yeah pretty much, but instead of boosting that sensitive part in the mids, it plays with upper-bass and treble.
@@houssamalucad753 lets be real, it shouldnt be your headphones if you got any idea how music sounds, there are akg and beyerdynamic in low price
@@soulfulfool those m50x are just great because they have a broad as use case. I can hop into the bus listening to music going to work afterwards I can go Skate with Dose without me having to worry about braking them. They are so durable that they have been surviving some nasty slams at big sets of stairs.
Then I want to go Film a line I can use them to monitor my Audio.
At night I go to a rave and I can use them quite satasfing to DJ for housers.
So there is much more to headphones then just Audio.
I had one for many many years, but ended up with the classic broken hinge that seems very common to this model. Nowadays I have much better sounding phones, such as the Hifiman Sundara, but I miss the sturdiness and portability of the M50x that I could take anywhere with me.
I love that you included an alternative on this video, but I'd like to know more about other alternatives that might have better sound but equivalent build.
Sundara is thin and lacks a lot in the sub-bass area.
If you think that is a better headphone... Okay...
The AKG K371 has notoriously bad reviews for build quality, and these shouldn't be recommended by anyone for that reason.
have k371, nothing wrong with durability.
I own the M50 x. I have not heard the problems you mentioned and I have listened several times very attentively. My best guess is that you happen to have a defective M 50 x headphone. Furthermore, the reason I say this is
I have a strong musical background and I have heard different types of speakers and headphones over the span of several years and the M 50 x is by far the best sounding inexpensive headphone I have ever heard.
Incidentally, I have never heard an AKG headphone that I like. In my opinion all AKG headphones I have heard were extremely insufficient in bass frequencies.
Just copped the M50X from Goodwill for $29.99. It with a headband zipper cover, and seemingly pristine earmuffs which leads me to think they've been replaced and generally taken care of. Great sound!
If u need budget headphones to mix with its these dont go lower than 50s
Andrew you always find a way to get a laugh out of me when I least expect it
You should do ATH-MSR7b and Sony MDR-1AM2 one day as light, portable headphones.
Please try the new shure stuff (srh440a and srh840a) and compare it to k371
i think the operative term for m50 is... they're fine. they're not crap like raycon or beats.
They still serve me well after like 8 years. I no longer use them for music but for gaming when my house is a bit noisy. They isolate like a champ and sound pretty decent with some EQ. But yeah there's better options out there. Thanks for the revisit to these cans!
which ones u use for music.
Can you name any of 'better options out there'?
@@gourabasis k361
@@user-uq5gz6uk7v dt 770 pro vs akg k361?
This isn't rocket science where you need all these graphs and dissenting the audio to the Nth degree. All you have to do is listen to them and either you're going to like them or not.
Poor Shure SRH-840 got forgotten about again.
had these for almost 6 years now and ive been using them daily a lot, only swapped the pads once and they still work like brand new, literally built like the tank and they still sound absolutely amazing
Bought the M50x for about 85 USD used a few days ago - no traces of usage, came with original pads and Brainwavz HM5. Didn't notice much difference in bass with the HM5's.
Installed Wavelet on my Android, set AutoEQ which gave a MUCH better sound (AutoEQ project has thousands of headphones and earphones in the database and aims to give a neutral sound to any of them) and on top of that modified the sound. They sound AWESOME!
I have used both the wired and BT versions for years. The only odd thing I find with them is, while they give you good sound isolation in general, they have a bizarre tendency to almost amplify far away noises. For example the other night I thought I could hear someone talking that sounded out of place on the youtube video I was watching. I first took the headphones off and... couldn't hear anyone talking. Put them back on and paused the video and I could hear... the neighbours out at the front door chatting to someone quietly. I played with it for ages, on, off, on, off and they did make distance chatter clearer. I wish I had thought to switch them off and on to confirm there is no noise cancellation trickery going on, even though they don't (?) have any.
i own ath m50x and they amplify different types of sound from a really far away, like train track smashing when train comes by and ppl talking on street or walking on street. Even with closed windows i can hear those sounds better with m50x on head. I think it is caused by closed back design with material that conducts those frequencies better somehow.
would love to see Sony 7506 in 2022 and compared it with the AKG K361
As much as I like the sound of M50X the pads are just garbage. Unfortunately those headphones are just not the same with anything other then stock pads 😟
Przestań Stasiu jak nie chcesz zaplacic wiecej za sluchawki to zmien je chociaz na DT770 (albo tak jak gada na te AKG) tak czy siak zamkniete sluchawki nie zagraja jak otwarte chyba ze wybulisz sporo kasy ale raczej nie warto. Meze 99 sa dobre jak chcesz mocny bass, da sie to skorygowac wymiana padow albo EQ
@@soulfulfool Ale o co Panu chodzi bo nie bardzo rozumiem? M50X maja swoje niezaprzeczalne zalety jak wytrzymała konstrukcja, to ze się składają a sam dźwięk bardzo mi odpowiadał. Natomiast nie udało mi się znaleźć takich padów które byłyby wygodne i nie zmieniały dźwięku. Doskonale wiem ze są inne zamknięte słuchawki. A otwarte maja zupełnie inne zalety jak i wady . Jak ma pan remont klatki schodowej jak ja przez ostatni miesiąc to sobie pan muzyki nie posłucha na otwartych - wiem bo próbowałem.
@@stanisawszczypua9076 no tak sa rozne dziwne gusta i nie kazdy chce inwestowac w jakosc muzyki, co do remontu to jest fakt jak ktos zaczyna wiercic albo trzaskac to nie da sie sluchac na otwartych
My son got these years ago much to my disgust, last year he asked me to get new pads for them, i tryed some different pads i had kicking around, then i tried some Yaxi stpad2 i had on another headphone, i told my son a miracle just happened it made the M50X listenable...and comfortable, gotta try them Andrew...
Thanks for mentioning the Yaxi stpad2! I gotta look them up
@@coffeedudeguy passion for sound did a review on them (Yaxi pads) and a correction video staring me, LOL.
The next one should be Shure SRH840.
What BS review is this. M50x are the best in the market.
They are horrible lmao 💩
your opinion of these headphones comes from a position of bias! im into music production and these do me just fine, thank you.
Used to own the M50x, upgraded to M50xBT, and the last edition was the M50xBT2. Had sold the original M50x as my first upgrade was the bluetooth version. The wired sound is the best but I wanted bluetooth as an option. Now they've stopped with only the second bluetooth version which I saw was just newer bluetooth tech, multipoint and USB C as the first version is micro usb. Haven't made that second upgrade but would if they introduce noise cancelling to the M50x as they do have earbuds that they have started that with.
If you want field recording (or portable headphone at all), I would pick the Sennheiser HD25 and HD26 before the Ath-m50x. Or Sony 7506.
I find that the m50x with velour pads make the bass extremely tame with a slight increase in treble. Eq’ing this was a-lot easier than with the stock pads and they actually increase soundstage since the seal isn’t as tight with the faux leather pads.
I got hybrid pads with velour on the flat part and faux leather around it. Seal is a bit worse but the bass is more tolerable. The stock pads isolate quite well though, that is a nice feature in an office evironment.
Where did you get your pads from?
My m50x hinges broke. I had to order 3D printed support pieces and add some hot glue. Lots of broken cables too. Also that headband material starts peeling quite easily.
It took me five years to break both of mine. I managed to fix it with a paperclip. I thought of it as a temporary fix and planned to order new forks, but the paperclip fix turned out to be so solid I never did.
Same, build quality is good until it isn't.
There was an MLB pitcher Fernando Rodney who always wore his hat crooked/titled. Google Fernando Rodney Hat
The DT 700 Pro X is not portable and the K371 breaks by looking at it. The ATH-M50x is the only monitor in this price range that combines portability with build quality, while still having good sound and comfort. If Beyerdynamic would make something portable, or AKG would improve its build, the reign of the ATH-M50x might come to an end.
i had never seen the m50x graph before, that looks absolutely terrible
I feel like at the end of the day, it really all boils down to preference and use case. For what they advertise the M50x for, it just about ticks most of the boxes for me: Clear and bright highs (I haven't experienced sibilance issues that some have claimed), good mids albeit not perfect, and generous amounts of lows without it being too bassy. I personally don't use mine on the go but the added benefit of durability, build quality, and comfort is very much appreciated.
Sure, looking at measurements and listening to this pair with a trained ear, it becomes apparent that it may be overhyped and overpriced for what they offer, but for now I'm very happy with mine. It's one of the aspects I feared back when I first started dabbling into the realm of audiophile equipment... that I would become overly critical with each pair I own and would lose the "enjoyment" of the listening experience. And it especially sucks where I'm from since returning purchased items, especially if it's not due to warranty issues or a factory defect, isn't normally practiced... and very rarely do companies honor the reason of "I change my mind" or "it doesn't sound as good as I had initially thought after X amount of hours"
After running several sets of studio-grade headphones through both a basic Audigy soundcard AND a full-sized Yamaha mixer... The m50'x have a nearly perfect sonic representation.
You can't really give a good review of ANYTHING from your desktop PC that wasn't designed for high fidelity sound, regardless of what kind of file format you've downloaded, LOL.
90% of all online reviews come from someone who has plugged these into a motherboard's sound jack and are therefore irrelevant.
Get a soundcard. Turn off the built-in EQ and Studio mode; we are just using this to route the audio, not modify it.
Now, run it into your mixer via USB (not analog, that introduces noise) and set all of your dials to their respective infinity points.
Now realize that's how your headphones ACTUALLY sound...When not crippled by your motherboard.
Have a great day. ♥
PS: That graph is so inaccurate as to border on propaganda, LMAO. (smoothed = modified = biased = irrelevant.)
Type "Reference Audio Analyzer, ATH M50x" into Google, since this channel blocks all links correcting them.... Which is why i will also be nesting this reply into several dozen comments.
@@Kacey_Jaymes To be fair, I guess it is quite difficult to properly review audio equipment objectively unless you have studio grade equipment at your disposal.
I think the general consensus is that for the money you're spending on an m50x, there are now alternatives that have similar sound quality for cheaper or even better sound quality than the m50x for around the same price. But, I guess it's also understandable considering how old the original m50 is by now and that span of time from when it was highly praised, when it was relatively new, no longer holds for the more recent offerings from AT's competitors.
Plus, it doesn't help that the m50x has been aggressively marketed and advertised by multiple artists and audio engineers over the years... making ordinary consumers question the validity of the claims over time.
i think the major problems people have with this headphone is becouse they see a lot of musicians and tecnhicians using it and assume the headphone is fucking great. The truth is, this series of headphone are especially meant to whose work with audio and we do need to to get a good sonic representation. The headphone being sibilant is not bad, its tolding you to check around where those "s" sounds are coming and treating then. I think this headphone are no suitable for just audiophiles who want to just listen good music but its great to whom work with audio and they kind get standard headphone just like those ns-10 became standard monitor and we do need those standards equipaments to create a standard reference. those things happens naturaly with all studio equipments.About the sound, to me, they reveal lots os stuff you don want. if your mix are too bassy they will reveal, they will reveal if you exagerated with reverbs, they will reveal if your voice is sibilant, they even help you to check volume balance. I always check my final mixes on a m40x and on a m50, and they always reveal me things and final touchs my monitors didnt.
I would be interested to see a comparison between these the Shure SRH840A, DT770 80 ohm and Sony MDR7506. All seem promising for both portable and studio use.
At 3:06 those voices tell me to keep buying headphones... You're telling me that's a terrible thing?
I've tried them all doing live sound gigs for nearly a decade. The Sony MDR7506 are a classic, but they are the worst wearing/sounding of the bunch. They're also the cheapest, if memory serves. I actually really liked the Shure headphones when I tried them. I think they're the most accurate perceptually in the places that counts, i.e. when I soloed something up and went back to listening to the room, it didn't feel like there was a huge change. My personal set is the M50x from about 8 years ago. I'm used to them now, but when I started I definitely felt like they had issues around 10k. They have such great isolation and are built like a tank. The most comfortable of the bunch is the DT770s, but I really don't think they sound all that great. Don't get me wrong, they're not bad sounding headphones, but they don't have the same isolation as the M50x and their comfort comes with additional bulk so for me it's a side grade.
TL;DR - If you're a working professional any of them are perfectly serviceable and you will see them often enough to get a feel for how each sounds.
As an additional aside, my all time favorite headphone from Sony were the MDRV6. They were actually pretty mediocre in terms of their time domain performance, but they were superbly flat and I always felt work I did on them transferred to other things well whether it was an iPhone or a d&b rig.
M50x is a great studio headphone. It is not a great listening headphone.
Do you mean just for tracking stuff? Cause in that case any headphones would do wouldn't it? It's certainly not a great studio headphones balance wise because it's not flat, at all in the bass and the soundstage is not good I also can't imagine it's comfy for long durations (then again, I too am a melon head so idk).
May not be totally flat but neither are lots of widely used studio monitors. Most folks doing recording work know what they sound like and damn near any studio has a pair available.
Yup, that's why I bought mine
These are great headphones and are virtually as good as it gets in this price range.
own the m40x (for 4 years) and m50x BT (entering its 2nd year)... both have its own specific use case... but i particulary like the m50x simply because its bluetooth and the boosted low end helped blocked ambient noise (engine rumbling, chatter, etc) and a great construction for a portable can.... compared to my grad0 sr80x, hd660s, shp9500, the m50x lacks behind in terms of sound quality.... but hey its bluetooth aptx (40 hours yo), collapsible, and built like a panzer
The Philips SHP 9500 sounds awful I'm sorry. Enjoy having grainy highs, recessed vocals and almost no bass. At least the M50 has bass.
@@user-xg6zz8qs3q yes 🤣🤣 i kept the shp9500 for the highs 🤣 i dont know why im still keeping it instead of my 9600😆😆, tamed the highs down a lil bit with tube amp tho (xduoo ta 05) but im still enjoying it out of my iphone 4s 😅
Your whole reviews and opinion that the AKG K371 sounds subjective. In fact it sounds almost like you are pushing that product over this one. There is a reason that over time the m50x is much more popular and preferred over the AKG K371. So, having said that, you sounds like so many other "aspiring" wannabee youtube audio reviewers pushing products based on probably who is paying you.
Andrew, I love that you reviewed this headphones. These are primarily DJ headphones, and I'm surprised that you did not say the term "DJ" in the entire review. Being an audiophile who also happens to be a DJ, I should mention that DJs primarily focus on mobile ruggedness, isolation (in loud rooms) and need a frequency response that emphasizes the lower and higher frequencies for beat matching. This is why these DJ headphones and most other highly regarded Dj headphones are tuned like this. I think a big reason most people buy these headphones is to look like DJs they see using them. With that said, I would buy a Sennheiser HD25 as they sound much better, are more rugged, and even more isolating than the M50x
Hey Dj, which freqeucny should I tone down to reduce sibilance?
Oh hey, I think you messaged me on the forum about this as well. Yeah, the DJ stuff is totally not in my wheelhouse, so I'm less familiar with that use case, but I imagine these would be excellent for exactly that purpose.
@@bing-chilling1713 😂
well maybe you have a point, that mean DJ headphones sounds like crap but oh well kids in most cases want bass and treble, fuck midrange where real music is born haha
@@soulfulfool It just means there are different headphones for different intended purposes. When I come home, I enjoy listening to music with my ZMF Verite closed headphones and a tube amp. Those headphones would not be a good choice for DJing. DJs have a limited amount of time to match beats and start the mix; they aren’t listening for pleasure. The same is true for headphones used by reporters and broadcasters. Most DJ headphones have V-shaped frequency response for beat matching and the midrange is an afterthought.
new resolve video, day couldnt get better
I enjoy the bass response on the K371 a lot but there's something extremely uncomfortable happening in the low mids and treble. Low mids sound uncomfortably hollow and there's a lot missing in the 4-6k region while something over that, probably around 7-10k is boosted to uncomfortable levels. It makes vocals and other instruments that live in that frequency spectrum sound snarly and gritty. I reckon the hollow low mids are because of that mid-treble spike that demands too much attention. I'm very displeased with these headphones and it's a shame because the bass is solid and the higher mids are great. Sounding hollow and harsh simultaneously makes them unlistenable for me though. Shucks, wanted to like 'em
The ATX M50 Headphone build quality is shit, the hinge mechanism will break with the slightest of twists. They look like they are built like a tank but they are not. If they were built like a tank then every critical piece of its construction would be made of metal and designed better overall. It doesn't matter how well you look after them, they will break with regular use. Audio Technica knows this problem but refuse to fix it because they know people will probably go and buy another pair. The quality of the materials used is just poor and will wear out in no time. Don't believe any reviewer that says the ATH headphones are good quality because none of them are when it comes to build quality. I've had 11 years of experience with them.
since they are studio monitoring headphones are they good for making music?
second, are they good for gaming?
I bought M50x in 2014. Immediately changed the earpads along the way because I don't like the way original pad clamping my ears, I change it with Brainwavz and it much bigger and could contains my ear completely so it's more comfortable. Still using it today in 2023, modding it with small portable HiFi DAC bluetooth receiver (sticking that bluetooth DAC with strong double tape on it), and then on source I'm using AutoEQ to tune it more leaning to Harman Curve. This is the way.
The Shure SRH840A would destroy both of those headphones the AKG 371 and the abomination of a headphone the m50x
I hope I can get your help to choose: I'm between the dt 770, dt 700 pro and the m50x; the thing is, I owned de Sony mdr-1a and I hated them, sound way to sharp for me :( and they have the same peak around 8K that seems to be the same in the dt770 so I looked into the m50x, but everyone keeps saying the dt770 are better.
I could also save a little and go for the dt 700 pro x, if they're better, but I do look for kind of the same sound profile, good rumbling base but with good enough definition to actually listen the instruments and music.
Thank you!!
M40x is what M50x should have been (e.g. avoids that mid/bass boost) - so yea, M40x - cheaper and better.
i love my m40x .... and hated the m50x .... but in the mids, the m50x was just more precise. (precision).
@@ChrisBessy oh okay.... wasn't aware of that !! cheers.
im thinking of going with the m50x simply because the calmping force. 1.2 lbs on the AKG sounds like a headache.
Yeah. You lost a lot of credibility on this one. This is why you shouldn’t listen to guys on the internet who cannot even wear their hat straight. Bizarre suggestion to go buy super cheaply built headphones at a high price.
Who tf would ridicule you for a crooked hat lmao, nice video I’m copping
Bought the M50 back in 2012 (before model X). Was pleased but not blown away. Base was ok, Treble was terrible, way too sharp for longer gaming or music sessions. I still have them. Great looking. Work as they should. Had to swap the flaking plastic pads and flaking plastic headband to real leather and they feel amazing after that.
- Do i regret buying them? = No
- Did they open up my world to HiFi HeadPhones = Yes
- Am i gonna spend ALOT more on my next pair = Also YES
M50x is clearly made for solid DJing.. and that is why the precise punch base is dominating for a reason. Does not make sense to compare it to a daily driver in my opinion
i am now kind of confused. you claiming that this is a bass boosted headset, while other reviewers claim that the bass here is more on a neutral level, some claim that the bass is not really that high.
this is what i hate about headset reviews.
mkbhd swears about the sound quality of these cans 6 years ago.
if you want a dumb voice telling your battery is high or low and wait about 30 seconds for it to turn on this is the head phones for you! 6 months later bluetooth keeps droppping stay away from this BRAND AT ALL COST!
These are wired though
This set is superb. To my ears there is no bass bloat or bleed, yes the bass is thick, but it’s not interfering with mids to my ears. The treble is done well too, theres no sibilance to my ears. These are fantastic headphones.
I suggest adding a good quality DAC and the base will be spot on!
@@dennispelaez187The bass is spot on as it is. Nice and thick and very weighty, just how I like it.
I had an original set from years ago. The originals were terrible. I have the m50xbt2 and the tuning is different. Bass is tamed by comparison. Doesn't bleed anymore like it used to. I'm glad they did though. Cause I use them regularly
M50’s are “audiophile” headphones for non-audiophiles.
8:22 wtf was that? Is that a gunshot?
I still have no idea.
The M50x (and by extension the M50) does feel like a sturdy headset
HOWEVER
There is a major design flaw with their hinge that is likely related to their clamping force. There is a small plasic tab on each hinge that prevents the cans from swinging outward. These tabs take the full clamping force and are notorious for breaking. I own the original M50s and just had my second hinge break after having them for 7 years or so. My first hinge broke after about 3 or 4 years.
Unfortunately my latest attempt to repair them was unsuccessful and I have to retire them. They have gotten a lot of use and abuse so I feel it's time to upgrade anyway. I may consider going back and repairing them because they are fantastic for traveling with.
Can confirm this, one of these broke for me as well.
I fixed it by super glueing in a plastic shard from a smashed up pen casing
Thats true. I have a m40x for about 8 year and they heave been abused as well, lots of travel in a backpack, were my main headphone to mix and track i fixed it couple of times ultil the last fix were not so great and the headphone dont clamp as good as before i used to wrap a band on my head to high pressure the headphone on my ears. haaha
Than i bought a second hand old m50 that was well treated and it became my main mix headphone. Last week i found on aliexpress a full replacement band to those m50 and ordered hoping i can save my m40x.
Conclusion is. Treat well your m40/m50x otherwise they will break. if you need to travel with then buy a case and dont lend your main headphone to people in studio, if its just to tracking, buy some cheaper headphone. :P
Damnit gotta return the M50x and get K371 now...
It boggles my mind why the M40X's were always being in the shadow of M50X. Their frequency response is more neutral and they cost less.
The build quality is worse. I see countless reports of plastic moving parts breaking.
This mirrors my experience with the original M50s. Boomy and fatiguing, but good enough to serve their purpose, with excellent isolation for instrument tracking. Acceptable imaging, but too narrow. The shitty fake leather on the headband will peel off over time, but aside from that they stand up to a lot of punishment. 10 years and still going on mine.
After running several sets of studio-grade headphones through both a basic Audigy soundcard AND a full-sized Yamaha mixer... The m50'x have a nearly perfect sonic representation.
You can't really give a good review of ANYTHING from your desktop PC that wasn't designed for high fidelity sound, regardless of what kind of file format you've downloaded, LOL.
90% of all online reviews come from someone who has plugged these into a motherboard's sound jack and are therefore irrelevant.
Get a soundcard. Turn off the built-in EQ and Studio mode; we are just using this to route the audio, not modify it.
Now, run it into your mixer via USB (not analog, that introduces noise) and set all of your dials to their respective infinity points.
Now realize that's how your headphones ACTUALLY sound...When not crippled by your motherboard.
Have a great day. ♥
PS: That graph is so inaccurate as to border on propaganda, LMAO. (smoothed = modified = biased = irrelevant.)
Type "Reference Audio Analyzer, ATH M50x" into Google, since this channel blocks all links correcting them.... Which is why i will also be nesting this reply into several dozen comments.
@@soundscapemedia1700 Agree dude. This headphone is meant to whose work with audio, especially monitoring and checking mixes but also for tracking Its a goodheadphone to tracking, bleeds almost nothing. But to track drums i still going dor those vikfirthm they sound like crap but does not bleed metronome into the drum mics.
The normal 50 is not the 50x. The 50x fixed a lot of those issues.
My hats all go croodedly on my head, don't worry, there are dozens of us
i want a good headphone with zero clamp like the shp9500
Your hat's so crooked it could run for president.
Please review M70x hyped as the most neutral M series headphones
Tame the bloated bass and sibilance with EQ and get some decent pads to improve the comfort and they are a detailed and durable closed backs. My M50’s feel indestructible.
Or just buy a better product, that got it right to begin with.
I bought the M50x in 2012 and used them everyday until now when they just broke under the swivel. Just looking around to see if anything is better and I might buy another pair.
Dont buy anything else from Audio Technica. I dont know if its their newer build or not, but they are now notorious for crap QC. I and many people I know have had similar issues with the swivel breaking.