Features:

  • Critically acclaimed sonic performance praised by top audio engineers and pro audio reviewers
  • Proprietary 45 mm large-aperture drivers with rare earth magnets and copper-clad aluminum wire voice coils
  • Exceptional clarity throughout an extended frequency range, with deep, accurate bass response
  • Circumaural design contours around the ears for excellent sound isolation in loud environments
  • 90° swiveling earcups for easy, one-ear monitoring, and professional-grade earpad and headband material delivers more durability and comfort
  • Professional grade studio monitor headphones with a detachable cable. Magnet - neodymium
Very pleased for the price

I am not a pro audiophile, but at 66, I've been listening to music at least an hour a day for 50 years. I know what I like. I have put this headphones (I hate "cans") through it's paces. I have compared them to my B&O H6, B&W P5 and Bose SoundLink 2. I am putting all through a FiiO E17K amp. I have listened to Santana's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", Lincoln Center Jazz Orch's "Take The A Train and St Paul & The Broken Bones "Call Me". The M50's really hold their own. The B&O were the clearest, or some would say flat. Bose came in second and the P5's are just uncomfortable, although good sounding. The M50's have a warm sound with pretty sharp bass tones. The bass is more pronounced than the B&O and as good as the Bose. You do not have to adjust the bass or treble levels on the amp. On the B&O's I do have to increase the bass a bit. If these headphones were $350, I would return them. But at this price level they are a keeper. I would recommend a portable amp (especially the FiiO products) to really bring out the warm, friendly sound these headphones are capable of producing. Now that I am familiar with the quality of Audio-Technica, next step should be the R70s.

I love these!

I had a pair of ATH-M50s for roughly 4 years, before a recent trip to Vegas where they stopped working! (We'll leave that one in Vegas). I use them every day at my home PC for my primary means of sound output. Anywhere from 4-12 hours a day, every day, for four years. They worked perfectly, and these are even better! Bass heavy profile, isolated stage, blocks exterior sound fairly well but not entirely. The M50x has a detachable cable, which may have prevented my M50S from breaking if they had that feature. If I had to make any reccommendations, it would be to source a pair of velour ear pads. They change the sound stage a bit, but reduce the sweat-factor by an order of magnitude.

TECHNICAlly the Best Headphones at this Price Range!

Okay. If you're a audiophile like me, but do not have the money to spend ludicrous amounts of it for headphones... These are the headphones for you. BUT, with that being said, do not think the price compromises the quality of these headphones. The clarity of these headphones is perfect for mixing music or just relaxing at home jamming. I read plenty of reviews before purchasing these and I read that they were lacking presence in the low end, but I have to disagree. If you truly enjoy music in it's entirety (highs, mids, and lows) these will give you that and won't drown everything else with head thumping bass. The lows are there and it does offer some good thumping, but just not over exaggerated like Beats. Honestly, these headphones are like having studio monitors on your ears so if that doesn't say anything than I don't know what will. Just trust me and the thousands of other reviews on here. Check out already. Happy Amazon shopping!

Unmatched sound quality for the price!

As someone who has owned countless sets of cans and really demands good sound quality out of my headphones, I have to say these are the best. I currently own the ATH-30's and although they are good, they simply don't match the ATH-M50x. I can hear so many more of the musics nuances. The bass is more clear, the definition of movies through my iPad Pro are amazing. I love the neutral reference of the headphone and that it doesn't color the sound like Beats or Sony. For a little over 100 bucks you cannot find anything comparable. Sure, they might get out matched by a set that is 3 or 4 times the price, but could you really justify paying that much for a likely dead heat in sound quality? Maybe if true monitoring in a professional studio were the case, maybe. Other than that I cannot think of a better set for the common listener. The headset is comfortable and fits nicely over my ears. The folding action of the cans is also nice. I wish the carrying bag was bigger and the fact that you must use the included cables (nope, your 1/8" cables will not work). If you want a killer set of cans and you want the best sound quality and style does not hurt your feelings these are for you. Cheers!

The Truth.

I have owned these headphones for 6 months. I'm semi-audiophiliac. They've generally been my go to for listening to music. I'm only writing this review because I unlocked the truth i'd been missing out on for 6 months. That's my resume. Here are my thoughts on why you should choose these over budget or more expensive headphones. ( & yes, you should, but read on.) These are great no matter what you plug them into. I'll give them that. You will be generally impressed if you plug them into your iphone, android, mac, etc.. They're pretty darned good. The volume is perfect, the highs are there but tame enough while keeping truth. You won't blow your eardrum tweeter, but the highs are definitely there and serviceable to truthiness of the treble band. The bass is true bass. It's not overly exaggerated; these WILL NOT give you an ear massage, it will however give you pretty close to exact bass. That's actually a fantastic thing, learning to appreciate bass rather than it treating your ears as a trampoline is definitely an enlightenment. I mainly use these with Spotify for my music diet. I'm a premium subscriber which gives me the rights to their high quality streams. These WILL expose bad recordings. Certain punk rock will not sound good as high quality electronic or high end produced modern pop. The ATH-M50x's keep the recording quality obvious, but I would go on to say that they're pretty forgiving at the same time. If you picked up a pair of AT's higher priced cans, you'd probably expose even more, and is that worth it? Ehhhh it's up to you, but these are the sweet spot for the price if you're really looking to find flaws in recording, ya geek. The biggest take away for these cans is this: while plugging them into anything will get you great audio, what they're plugged into matters. They will expose the the truth of the audio output of the device they're plugged into. An Iphone won't sound as good as plugged into a macbook pro which won't sound as good as a pc with a good sound card. I'd been running these on my dell monitors headphone jack, which runs into an nvidia 980ti GPU, which serves up audio through the mentioned audio jack. It was okay. Today I pulled out the long 3.5mm male to 2.5mm male (the connection on the ATH-M50's is 2.5mm fyi) that came with these and decided to plug these into my gaming pc that has a decent realtek soundcard... Oh my lord panty dropping audio blissfulness, the gods have spoken, how the hell did I miss this, hot damn. It awoke the beast. I cannot say more until you try these in a preamp (coworkers recommended) or something that pumps out decent audio. These are a catalyst, you just need the correct crucible to handle it. You pair these babies with the correct output mechanism, and it will be one of the best 100$ range headphones you'll have ever have bought. Sky's the limit, just feed them correctly. Since owning these, I've bought other Audio-Technica audio and recording devices. Have a set of their ATH-CKS55XBT blue tooth headphones : Audio-Technica SOLID BASS Bluetooth wireless stereo headset ATH-CKS55XBT As well as the AT2020 usb microphone: Audio-Technica AT2020USB PLUS Cardioid Condenser USB Microphone It helps to live 3 miles from their main headquarters and warehouse, but my first venture with AT were these headphones bought from Amazon, and I haven't looked back. These can's established brand loyalty in me to AT. They are The Truth.

Amazing headphones for all-day listening!

I'm by no means an audiophile, I just appreciate a set of high-quality and comfortable over-the-ear corded headphones to listen to music. I am a software developer, so listen to 4-6 hours of music every day, and sometimes 8+ when working on a deadline. A few times I've had to pause my music because I thought I heard a crash outside. After pausing my music, I figured out it was just the headphones and the way it distributed sound that made it sound like a cymbal crash or drum sound was actually outside my headphones. Sound quality is amazing. There are probably much nicer headphones out there. But, for the $150 pricetag on this set, I wonder if there is anything better. My wife got tired of hearing me complain about how uncomforable my Sennheiser HD-202 headphones were. I wear glasses while I'm working on my computer, and the HD-202s clamp my head pretty well, and put inordinate amounts of pressure on the temples and earpieces of my eyeglasses. So, she went onto Amazon and found this pair of headphones that had amazing reviews, especially from people wearing glasses while using them. I was a little nervous about the cost, they would be, by a LONG shot, the most expensive headphones I'd have every purchased. Then I thought about how many hours a day I use headphones and it became a no-brainer if they were as good as the hundreds of positive reviews claimed. I can vouch for how awesomely comfortable they are. A perfect amount of pressure to keep them on my head, but loose enough that even though the earpiece of my glasses are underneath, it doesn't cause discomfort. See the attached picture, you can see that the frames of my glasses are pretty wide. I also REALLY like how the cord works. It is a thicker cord, but MUCH lighter than other headphone cords. There is a long coiled cord, a long straight cord (both with screw threads for the 3.5mm->1/4" component stereo jack adapter) and a third shorter cord. The short cord is the perfect length for me to have plugged into my iPod sitting on the desk next to my computer, I measured it out to about 4' long. There is no 1/4" adapter threading on the short cord. I always hated how I had to coil my Sennheiser cord or rubber band it since it was 10 feet long! But, if I ever needed a longer cord, I could also use the straight or coiled cord. Amazing value, highly recommended!

I expected these to be good. I just got them

Oh my God. I expected these to be good. I just got them, and I just started listening to them. I'm not an audiophile. I haven't even broken them in yet, but, I've read that's thing. I tell you what, though. I can sure as hell tell the difference between these and my Sol Republic V8 headphones I got a few years ago. Those, and, I imagine many of the same ilk, needlessly boost bass and people think that's a good thing. Listening to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, I'm loving how clear everything is. I have them plugged into a FiiO E10K USB DAC and Headphone Amplifier, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LP3AMC2, that's only $76 right now. I literally don't think I can listen to anything else now if I want to listen to music. This is absurd. It's amazing. Do yourself a favor and add this to your cart.

GREAT headphones, but come with some serious considerations for PC Gamers

I use these headphones for PC gaming. I recently switched to these from "gaming" branded headphones, and the difference is mind blowing. I have a $160 SteelSeries headset, as well as similarly priced headsets from other brands (Sennheiser, Razer), and I can't believe what I was missing. There are sounds in games that I didn't even know existed in these games. I'll avoid the more studio-oriented review parts as there are plenty of glowing reviews of people using these headphones in amateur and professional settings. I did a TON of research on headphones and audio, and finally settled on these due to the overwhelmingly good reviews across the web. A lot of review sites put these on par with high-impedance headphones that are several times the price. The thing you need to understand about monitor headphones is that they are designed to play audio as unbiased (true to performance) as possible. Most consumer headphones, especially gaming headsets, have very distinct V-shaped sound, which means they put a lot of emphasis on the highs and lows and reduce the mids. The most noticeable example to describe what monitor phones do is that the vocals in music will be much clearer and easier to hear, and the whole audio track will sound more "balanced". You'll notice this in video games too, as you'll hear a lot of things much more clearly and distinctly, and you'll actually hear sounds that you didn't hear before (this is due to the smoother signature). If you are looking at these headphones for gaming, stop thinking and hit the buy button. I won't sugar coat it, the sound these headphones put out will come as a shock, and you may not like it at first. I personally loved it, but I have some experience in recording studios and knew what to expect. If you have mostly been using gaming headsets or common consumer headphones these will sound really weird for a while. But listen to some of your favorite songs on them for a while (or play for a couple of hours on your favorite game), and then switch back to your old headphones. You'll realize just how terrible sounding your old ones are, and will wonder what else in life you are missing out on. I only have one major complaint about these headphones, and that is the ear pads. I don't know why headphone manufacturers refuse to invest in good ear pads, but they just don't. Luckily, there exist after-market ear pads that I would recommend and use EVEN IF these ones were awesome. No matter what headphones you use, pick up some Brainwavz Hybrid Memory Foam ear pads, they are life changing. (If you are a hardcore audiophile, these will slightly alter the sound stage, but not necessarily in a negative way). Another consideration worth noting is the intended use of these headphones: Studios and DJs with dedicated audio equipment. These headphones will work fine just by plugging them into the back of your computer or iPhone, but they will absolutely SHINE if you put a good DAC or audio interface between these headphones and the audio source (I use a Roland Rubix 22, highly recommend). Obviously these are headphones, and not a headset, so they lack a microphone. If you are considering these, you may need to consider an external microphone in your budget. As you can imagine, between a good audio interface, a mic, peripherals, and these headphones, you can sail right past the $160 price tag on these headphones just to get to where you were, functionally, with a similarly priced gaming headset (I spent almost $800 to replace my $150 SteelSeries Arctis 7's). So my final thought would be to thoroughly research the ENTIRE audio set-up you want before hitting the buy button on these. You'll need to get good equipment and properly budget to maximize your sound experience, but it is a life-altering experience, so if you can swing it, do it.

This is what almost 3 years of daily use looks like:

With the date of this review, I will have owned these wonderful headphones for 2 years, 9 months, 1 week, and 5 days. Back when I bought these, had previously gone though a multitude of various headphones that would be suitable for daily use while I worked. None of them lasted and I was always dis-satisfied with the audio quality. I finally did some hardcore research and found these beauties. When I first started using them, I was not a fan of how they felt on my head. I figured, well, maybe I just needed to break them in a little bit and they should hopefully get comfy. Glad I did! A week or two after purchase, they were snug and comfy on my head. I could easily wear them for my entire work day which wasn't less than 9 hours. Audio quality. I was blown away that headphones could have this rich of sound. However, it also depends on the quality of the music/sound/etc you are listening too. Honestly, listening to anything from streaming from Youtube to uncompressed FLAC files sound excellent. They're not kidding when they say these are "studio monitor headphones." They mean business. If you're checking out the pictures I have attached, you'll see that the earcup leather is FINALLY showing wear and tear. Like I said, I've used these daily for almost three years, at work and at home for gaming and video editing. Beyond that, the sound quality has not diminished. The sound is just as rich and full ad the day I got them. The reason I'm writing this review after so many years? To show a testament to how great these things are, and because I'm picking up another pair to keep at work, and keep my current pair at home. I love these darn things so much that I really felt compelled to review them. Audio-Technica... Thank you for these headphones. I am really not looking forward to the day these finally kick the bucket... but I know that won't be for a very long time!

Audio-Technica is fantastic, and these headphones are ABSOLUTELY worth the cost.

I have had the predecessor to these headphones, the ATH-M50s for the past 5 years. Five years of daily, 12-hours a day ABUSE, and they did not complain until two weeks ago when a small part broke. After realizing that revitalizing them overall would unfortunately not be cost-effective, I decided to purchase a pair of these, and it's looking like I'm going to have the same long lifespan with these that I had with the M50s. I had almost 22,000 hours into the old pair, and the part that gave wasn't the drivers themselves. They still work perfectly, they just won't rest correctly. When I bought the ATH-M50s, I actually bought a three-year all-coverage warranty...This isn't something you'll need. My M50s even got RUN OVER at one point and it didn't break them. They're monumentally tough, and I expect the same will be true of this new updated model!

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