• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Audio Technica ATH-M50X Review (Closed Headphone)

Beershaun

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Oct 3, 2019
Messages
1,864
Likes
1,910
Thanks @amirm! I tried these settings out with my m50x in Android USB Audio Player Pro and Tonebooster. I could immediately tell the difference with the background noise dropping off and the voices being less harsh and pronounced. I was able to then turn the volume up to louder levels without discomfort or harshness. definitely preferred it!
 

jensgk

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 21, 2020
Messages
256
Likes
564
Location
Denmark
It is really interesting with these measurements of headphones, in that even with objective measurements as the basis, the final judgement is purely based on personal preferences.

RTINGS.com have done even more measurements on them, and they came to a completely different conclusion, since they have always recommended them in the affordable, but audiophile category.

I do believe all these measurements, and also that they give a clear picture of the sound, but the interpretation and weighting of the measurements differ wildly with personal preferences.

Apparently there is no objective truth with regard to headphones, as opposed to the relatively simple measurements of dacs and amplifiers?
 

PeteL

Major Contributor
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Messages
3,303
Likes
3,838
Sennheiser HD 280 Pro, 380 Pro (used), or 300 Pro (supposed to be the 380 replacement).

But my preference is to use IEMs for live gigs. If I need even more isolation, I can throw on a pair of safety muffs.

If it's a small enough gig, I'll get a basic mix going with earplugs half-in and mix the rest with them in.
Thanks, I'll look em out. I like the idea of IEMs for sound checks, but honestly for in show problem solving, the 10 sec it takes to put them on vs 1sec for cans would drive me nut.
 

Helicopter

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
2,693
Likes
3,941
Location
Michigan
Thanks for the review and EQ Amir! Add me to the list of people who bought this as a first 'hifi' headphone. This seems to be a solid implementation with intentional tuning for too much bass. The low distortion and good response above 300kHz is consistent with my impressions. I am much happier without the exaggerated bass below 300kHz in other headphones, but I did hear a lot with these that I had never experienced before.
 

Rick Sykora

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 14, 2020
Messages
3,514
Likes
7,023
Location
Stow, Ohio USA
A product on Amazon with an average rating of 4.5 stars?

View attachment 115830

Hi Rick. You made me look and I am shocked!

I have scrutinized Amazon ratings for other products and do not see many with 24,000 reviews and so highly skewed to 4-5 stars. Seems too good to be true...
 

samwell7

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2020
Messages
316
Likes
255
Location
Victoria, Australia
Great review @amirm, I'm glad the headphones measured pretty close to how they sound (to me). I often see people talking about the 'murder treble' on the M50/x but I've never noticed it.

I've got a set of M50 (not X, purchased around 2013) and they were one of only a few cans that I didn't sell years ago when I got rid of my collection.

They've been in use for travelling and desk duties at work for many years and generally I'm happy with them, I purchased a set of AKG K371s hoping the K371 would replace the M50 but the K371s went back and the M50 lives on.

I think that for me the M50 are better because I listen at fairly (read: very) low volumes, the extra bass definitely helps with engagement and makes them a more fun listen, especially the extra midbass which I felt was missing in the K371.

Given the fact that they're very well built I don't feel bad about shoving them into a backpack or leaving them sitting around at the office this also helps their case.

They're a bit of a guilty pleasure and often get teased, Crinacle jokingly calls them the cans the elites love to hate but go back 7-8 years and these were probably the most recommended headphone on Reddit.

Recently purchased a set of Brainwavz pads for these, much more comfortable, the sound is a little different but nothing drastic.

The M50 live on.

Edit: spelling (mobile/autocorrect)
 
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,368
Likes
234,384
Location
Seattle Area
It is really interesting with these measurements of headphones, in that even with objective measurements as the basis, the final judgement is purely based on personal preferences.
??? Measurements are the true compass here. Without it, we would be lost without it.
 

jensgk

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 21, 2020
Messages
256
Likes
564
Location
Denmark
??? Measurements are the true compass here. Without it, we would be lost without it.
Yes fully agree. I also want equipment that sound neutral, without distortion and noise. I would never rely on my ears only, because things that sound "good" does not necessarily sound "right".
But what I mean here, is that the interpretation of the same measurement results (RTING vs yours) , due to different weighting, and personal taste, gives a different final conclusion. This of course only happens, when the measurement results are not completely bad.
 
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,368
Likes
234,384
Location
Seattle Area
Yes, given the complex deviation from target in just about every headphone, listening tests are needed to characterize them fully.
 

Tks

Major Contributor
Joined
Apr 1, 2019
Messages
3,221
Likes
5,494
Yes fully agree. I also want equipment that sound neutral, without distortion and noise. I would never rely on my ears only, because things that sound "good" does not necessarily sound "right".
But what I mean here, is that the interpretation of the same measurement results (RTING vs yours) , due to different weighting, and personal taste, gives a different final conclusion. This of course only happens, when the measurement results are not completely bad.

Goes the other way as well. Lets say the headphone or a DAC is the best measuring. If the headphone feels like hot irons on your head, and the DAC keeps clicking after every song like someone taking a spoon to your table. I doubt it would get recommended.
 

jensgk

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 21, 2020
Messages
256
Likes
564
Location
Denmark
Goes the other way as well. Lets say the headphone or a DAC is the best measuring. If the headphone feels like hot irons on your head, and the DAC keeps clicking after every song like someone taking a spoon to your table. I doubt it would get recommended.
Agree completely. It is just that it seems that the listening is more important for headphones and speakers, than for dac and amplifiers, - maybe because the technology for the last air-moving equipment is still relatively far from perfect.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tks

mkawa

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Sep 17, 2019
Messages
788
Likes
695
i've owned a couple pairs of these and i've never liked the tuning. sounds like i'd like it with eq though
 

restorer-john

Grand Contributor
Joined
Mar 1, 2018
Messages
12,579
Likes
38,274
Location
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Does the 3.5mm earcup plug firmly latch in on these AT cans?
 
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,368
Likes
234,384
Location
Seattle Area

lawk

Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2019
Messages
24
Likes
25
It is popular to hate on this headphone but I always liked it. There is a bluetooth version that doesnt have the 4khz peakyness. Unfortunately the BT version has a touch too much upper-mid bass.

I never heard the M50X as upper bassy at all, my unit was rather cool "cold" from 200-300hz.

Treble was always a bit tizzy, but a good exciting listen.

The MSR7B is a great upgrade.
 

PeteL

Major Contributor
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Messages
3,303
Likes
3,838
It is popular to hate on this headphone but I always liked it. There is a bluetooth version that doesnt have the 4khz peakyness. Unfortunately the BT version has a touch too much upper-mid bass.

I never heard the M50X as upper bassy at all, my unit was rather cool "cold" from 200-300hz.

Treble was always a bit tizzy, but a good exciting listen.

The MSR7B is a great upgrade.
Visibly quite popular to like it too... heck 24k amazon reviews, that’s just crazy, how many did they sell!
 

Helicopter

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
2,693
Likes
3,941
Location
Michigan
Yes, it has a friction fit on the outside of the plug and is quite tight.
Mine are really tight too... in a good way. They would never come off unintentionally.
 
Last edited:

Maiky76

Senior Member
Joined
May 28, 2020
Messages
440
Likes
3,703
Location
French, living in China
This is a review, detailed measurements and equalization for the Audio Technica ATH-M50X. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $149 on Amazon including Prime shipping. There are an incredible 24,000 reviews on Amazon! It averages 4.5 stars

Nothing looks fancy here:
View attachment 115764

The fit was more or less the same as other closed headphones in its class with cups a bit rubbing against my ears. The cable is removable:
View attachment 115765

The sample I had was well used with some of the pad surface starting to disintegrate.

Note: The measurements you are about to see are preformed using standardized GRAS 45CA headphone measurement fixture. Headphone measurements require more interpretation than speaker tests and have more of a requirement for subjective testing as a result. In addition, comparison of measurements between different people performing it using different configurations requires fair bit of skill. So don't look for matching results. Focus on high level picture. Listening tests are performed using RME ADI-2 DAC and its headphone output.

Mounting the headphone on my test fixture was challenging, resulting in quite a lot of variation between channels and overall response. I optimized this as best as I could but like there are some error in low frequencies.

Audio Technical ATH-M50X Measurements
Let's start with frequency response of M50X and comparison to our preference target to figure out tonality of the headphone:
View attachment 115766

Due to the dip around 425 Hz, I actually referenced this headphone to the response at 600 Hz (otherwise the whole curve would be above our target). Once there, we see good agreement from 500 Hz to about 3000 Hz which is very good. Sub-bass is nice too unlike many headphones I measure. The hump centered around 150 Hz of course is a glaring fault as are a couple of peaks between 4 and 6 kHz.

Subtracting one curve against the other we get:
View attachment 115767

I liked the impressively low distortion from midrange up:
View attachment 115768

View attachment 115769

After we pull down the hump around 150 Hz, distortion should improve even more there.

Group delay shows some indication of why the response is so clean from 500 Hz and up:

View attachment 115770

Impedance is dead flat and low so look for amplifiers that have good current capability:
View attachment 115771

Sensitivity is very good:
View attachment 115772

My RME ADI-2 DAC could drive the M50X to ear bleeding levels.

Audio Technical ATH-M50X Headphone Listening Tests & EQ
Without equalization the sound was fine. Bass was exaggerated a bit depending on content. Spatial qualities were low with sound on each side of the ear. You could live with it if you didn't have EQ. I have EQ so I went to work on that. :)

View attachment 115773

Getting rid of the bloat in upper bass let more of the detail in music to be heard. There was too little bass though so I put in the other two boost filters around it. I found the treble a bit annoying so dialed in two small filters for the two peaks we saw in frequency response.

At this point, the sound was quite good. Power handling was superb with me not be able to find the limits of the headphone as noted earlier. You can put an early end to your hearing without the headphone complaining with heavy distortion.

Note: I did not spend too much time fully tuning the filters. I got the results I wanted so I stopped there. Due to large difference between the two cups, more optimization may result in slightly better response.

Conclusions
There is no feeling of fanciness here which goes with the cost of the unit. Performance without equalization benefits from lots of good bass but that can be too much of a good thing. Equalization took the headphone from just "OK" to "yeh, this is sounding really good!"

I am only going to recommend the Audio Technical ATH-M50X with equalization.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Hi,

I can't find the raw data to calculate the score and have a look at the EQ.
Are you going to post it?
 
Top Bottom