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Technical Details
- Exceptional audio quality for professional monitoring and mixing
- Collapsible design ideal for easy portability and convenient storage
- Adjustable padded headband for comfort during long mixing/recording sessions
Product Details
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Product Description
Designed especially for professional monitoring and mixing, the Audio Technica ATHM50 Studio Monitor Headphones feature an efficient collapsible design for space-saving portability and storage. Circumaural ear pieces swivel 180 degrees for easy one-ear monitoring and luxuriously padded ear cushions create an outstanding seal for maximum isolation. The adjustable headband is generously padded for ultimate comfort during long mixing sessions. A straight cable at the left earpiece terminates to a gold-plated mini plug with included screw-on 1/4 inch adapter. Audio-Technica’s sophisticated driver technology and superior components deliver exceptional power handling and very high SPL capabilities while maintaining clarity of sound throughout their extended range, with deep, accurate bass and outstanding high-frequency extension. The headphones feature propriety large-aperture drivers with neodymium magnet systems for ultra-efficient signal transfer. With the ATHM50 Headphones, Audio-Technica has achieved an exceptionally accurate response and long-wearing listening comfort.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
73 of 80 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
I've had these headphones for about a week and a half now, and I love 'em. They are not ideal for all listening situations, however. I typically use the M50s with a FiiO E11 Portable Headphone Amplifier connected to my iPad via a FiiO L3 Line Out Dock (LOD) Cable, or connected to my laptop via the cable the E11 comes with (which plugs into the headphones/audio out jacks on computers, MP3 players, iPads and iPhones, etc). This gives me great sound when I listen to various alternative and rock stations through the TuneIn Radio app for iPad or to lossless music on my laptop. But when I watch a movie on my iPad or laptop, I prefer to listen through my Sennheiser HD555 Professional Headphones, because they have a better soundscape than the M50s. Open back headphones, such as the 555s, typically have more spacious soundscapes than closed back headphones such as the M50s. ("Soundscape" refers to perception of distance from the source. If an automobile is approaching from the rear left in a movie scene, with the 555s I can easily discern its location and can hear/"feel" its approach, whereas I do not get such a sense of depth or soundscape with the M50s. But when listening to rock with the 555s, I do not get the sense of immediacy and presence - nor anywhere near as much bass - as I do with the M50s, which is why I'm glad I own both headphones.)
I wanted the straight cable version of the M50s because of previous experience with coiled headphones cables becoming stretched out and unsightly over time. The straight cable is 11 feet long, which means that it needs to be folded up and rubber-banded or twist-tied when the M50s are used with a portable music player by someone who is out and about or moving around a lot.
I like that the M50 ear pads can be replaced for around $20 a pair (at present, and apparently not through Amazon). I own a pair of Sennheiser HD580s that are now over a decade old, and the ear pads are pretty much worn out, making wearing the 580s very uncomfortable as well as no doubt negatively affecting their audio quality. Replacement ear pads for the 580s cost around $50! (Replacement ear pads for AKG's Quincey Jones Q701 headphones retail for about $35 EACH or $70 a pair!) The M50 headphones are circumaural, meaning that their ear pads cover the ears (as opposed to sitting on the ears like supra-aural headphones), and cover my ears just fine (I'd say that my ears are somewhere between medium and large in size).
And I like that the M50s can be folded up and stored and carried in the soft pleather protective pouch they come with. When folded up the M50s and folded up cable could fit, tightly, in a box that is approximately 5" x 7" x 4".
My hat size is about 7 5/8 (about 23 7/8 inches), and while the M50s fit me fine and are reasonably comfortable, after an hour or so they begin to feel a tad uncomfortable, meaning that I start to get that "clamping" sensation that headphone wearers talk about. At this point I begin adjusting the headphones a bit. Some folks deal with this kind of problem by putting their headphones over, say, a head-sized speaker cabinet to stretch them out, but I'm reluctant to do that because I take it for granted that my head will cause the M50s to stretch over time, and I wouldn't want to risk pushing them in the direction of becoming not tight enough. And as many reviewers of the M50s note, they get hot after a while (very quickly when I wear them while working out on an exercycle or elliptical, otherwise after about an hour). When wearing them during exercise I need to have a towel, rag, or cloth handy in case I need to wipe sweat off the pads. I'm bald but find the headband reasonably comfortable.
I like the M50s for listening to some classical music, whereas there is some classical music that I prefer to listen with the aforementioned Sennheiser HD555s (e.g., opera, which I find benefits from headphones with more spacious soundscapes).
If you are in the market for headphones and are considering the M50s, I recommend that you check out Tyll Herstens' positive (he recommends them) YouTube review of the M50s (which is available both on YouTube and at Mr. Herstens' excellent site, Inner Fidelity; there is also a written review at Inner Fidelity). Mr. Herstens has done some serious technical research on the question of headphone burn-in, and you can find his articles on that at Inner Fidelity (once at the site, search for "burn-in" or "break-in"). If you are interested in reviewing technical data and graphs for headphones, including the M50s, check out the "Build A Headphone Graph" section in the "Learning Center" of the HeadRoom site. There you can create and compare graphs for up to four different headphones at a time.
Finally, the M50s are marketed as offering "maximum isolation," so how good are they at noise isolation? I wouldn't wear them for noise-cancelling purposes (we don't want to confuse noise-isolating headphones with noise-cancelling headphones; see the Wikipedia entry for noise-cancelling headphones for more information), such as when I ride my lawn tractor. They are too nice for such use, but if I didn't care about that I would still prefer my AblePlanet active noise-cancelling headphones for such use, because they work really well at blocking out loud noise like the sound of a lawn tractor. The M50s are more than adequate for noise-isolation when I use an exercycle or elliptical, and probably do offer the maximum amount of noise-isolation that closed-back headphones which are not active noise-cancelling headphones can offer.
I wanted the straight cable version of the M50s because of previous experience with coiled headphones cables becoming stretched out and unsightly over time. The straight cable is 11 feet long, which means that it needs to be folded up and rubber-banded or twist-tied when the M50s are used with a portable music player by someone who is out and about or moving around a lot.
I like that the M50 ear pads can be replaced for around $20 a pair (at present, and apparently not through Amazon). I own a pair of Sennheiser HD580s that are now over a decade old, and the ear pads are pretty much worn out, making wearing the 580s very uncomfortable as well as no doubt negatively affecting their audio quality. Replacement ear pads for the 580s cost around $50! (Replacement ear pads for AKG's Quincey Jones Q701 headphones retail for about $35 EACH or $70 a pair!) The M50 headphones are circumaural, meaning that their ear pads cover the ears (as opposed to sitting on the ears like supra-aural headphones), and cover my ears just fine (I'd say that my ears are somewhere between medium and large in size).
And I like that the M50s can be folded up and stored and carried in the soft pleather protective pouch they come with. When folded up the M50s and folded up cable could fit, tightly, in a box that is approximately 5" x 7" x 4".
My hat size is about 7 5/8 (about 23 7/8 inches), and while the M50s fit me fine and are reasonably comfortable, after an hour or so they begin to feel a tad uncomfortable, meaning that I start to get that "clamping" sensation that headphone wearers talk about. At this point I begin adjusting the headphones a bit. Some folks deal with this kind of problem by putting their headphones over, say, a head-sized speaker cabinet to stretch them out, but I'm reluctant to do that because I take it for granted that my head will cause the M50s to stretch over time, and I wouldn't want to risk pushing them in the direction of becoming not tight enough. And as many reviewers of the M50s note, they get hot after a while (very quickly when I wear them while working out on an exercycle or elliptical, otherwise after about an hour). When wearing them during exercise I need to have a towel, rag, or cloth handy in case I need to wipe sweat off the pads. I'm bald but find the headband reasonably comfortable.
I like the M50s for listening to some classical music, whereas there is some classical music that I prefer to listen with the aforementioned Sennheiser HD555s (e.g., opera, which I find benefits from headphones with more spacious soundscapes).
If you are in the market for headphones and are considering the M50s, I recommend that you check out Tyll Herstens' positive (he recommends them) YouTube review of the M50s (which is available both on YouTube and at Mr. Herstens' excellent site, Inner Fidelity; there is also a written review at Inner Fidelity). Mr. Herstens has done some serious technical research on the question of headphone burn-in, and you can find his articles on that at Inner Fidelity (once at the site, search for "burn-in" or "break-in"). If you are interested in reviewing technical data and graphs for headphones, including the M50s, check out the "Build A Headphone Graph" section in the "Learning Center" of the HeadRoom site. There you can create and compare graphs for up to four different headphones at a time.
Finally, the M50s are marketed as offering "maximum isolation," so how good are they at noise isolation? I wouldn't wear them for noise-cancelling purposes (we don't want to confuse noise-isolating headphones with noise-cancelling headphones; see the Wikipedia entry for noise-cancelling headphones for more information), such as when I ride my lawn tractor. They are too nice for such use, but if I didn't care about that I would still prefer my AblePlanet active noise-cancelling headphones for such use, because they work really well at blocking out loud noise like the sound of a lawn tractor. The M50s are more than adequate for noise-isolation when I use an exercycle or elliptical, and probably do offer the maximum amount of noise-isolation that closed-back headphones which are not active noise-cancelling headphones can offer.
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
These are the best sounding headphones I've had, even right out of the box, and the bass showed noticeable improvement after only a few hours of use.
They're light, comfortable, and have amazing clarity even with their bass response. No muddy bass at all, it sounds crisp and heavy even at lower volume. They're a noticeable improvement over the other sets I have, a Grado SR80i and Sennheiser HD280 Pro's; the construction seems better than the 280's, too, with solid mountings and rotation on the cups and a reinforced cable at the jack. The cable is long enough to reach across my living room to my receiver with extra slack to spare, and with this straight cable version I don't get the tangles I have with my 280's.
All around great headphones, and I'm really happy with them. Awesome music headphones, but the clarity makes them great with dialog in movies and the bass in games is powerful without being overbearing.
They're light, comfortable, and have amazing clarity even with their bass response. No muddy bass at all, it sounds crisp and heavy even at lower volume. They're a noticeable improvement over the other sets I have, a Grado SR80i and Sennheiser HD280 Pro's; the construction seems better than the 280's, too, with solid mountings and rotation on the cups and a reinforced cable at the jack. The cable is long enough to reach across my living room to my receiver with extra slack to spare, and with this straight cable version I don't get the tangles I have with my 280's.
All around great headphones, and I'm really happy with them. Awesome music headphones, but the clarity makes them great with dialog in movies and the bass in games is powerful without being overbearing.
27 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
After researching lots of closed back cans and listening to several I agree with all the other rave reviews for these. The ONLY criticism I could say is that they don't have a removable plug. For sound quality though you will have to spend north of $500 to come close to these. DONT waste $$$ on Beats! It's just marketing.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Novice Audiophile
I can't say enough good things about these headphones. I love the comfort on my semi-small head, and the impressive sound quality. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Trevor S. Behnsch
Great, as advertised
The reviews were excellent for the set and well deserved. I bought it for iRacing, sim racing. The sound is now so much better than my Lifechat headset. Read more
Published 3 days ago by L. S. Brodsky
They're okay.
I haven't used many top of the line headphones, but these ones only strike me as okay. They're crisp and clear, but not much more than that. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Keeyab
Defective
Only one channel worked with the miniplug. Neither channel worked with the larger size plug. Overall construction appeared cheap and flimsy, especially the cable. Read more
Published 5 days ago by JF
Only about four or five hours on them - but so far so good!
I have been using a garbage set of headphones for my music listening and decided to upgrade to a different pair. Read more
Published 9 days ago by D. Ripp
Just one thing missing...
If these headphones had a 3.5mm jack instead of a hard-wired cord, I would give them 6 stars!!! These headphones are excellent and I would recommend them to anyone. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Julie Ham
Very good for the low price.
waiting for a big discount!!! I hope there can be a discount before next week I come back to my country
Published 10 days ago by Vincent
Best Head Phones I've had
These are the best! I really like the clarity of sound and I use these to edit movies with and to listen to music.
Published 10 days ago by TomScott
Outstanding for the price
My old stereo went out the door when my wife downsized a couple of years back. I really missed my Polk SDA-2A speakers. Read more
Published 11 days ago by William J. Melton
Came running back to ATHM50.
I've been searching for the right headphones for the whole semester, what's that? Maybe 11 weeks? Either way, I originally bought the ATHM50 and loved them right off the bat. Read more
Published 12 days ago by mypenname
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