The Audio- Technica ATH -M20’s are pair of studio headphones, which i have been using for the past four months. The first thing that I noticed when I put them on is how tight they are; I actually thought they were too small for my head. Turns out that super tightness is something that helps a lot when you don’t want your headphones to leak. I am not saying these are leak proof because when you turn your headphone volume up they will leak, but if you keep it fairly low/medium the leak is not really noticeable. I had used other earphones in the past, although they were not studio types and the ATH-M20’s where a huge improvement from ear buds. They feature one chord coming out of the left earphone which I love, I don’t know about you but I hate when headphones have two wires, it makes using them very annoying and they just get all tangled up. Also, it uses a phone cord, which just looks cool. It has a mini jack input but comes with a gold quarter inch adapter. It’s up to you if you like this or not, I personally like it because I can use these earphones with say my iPod when I go out. The M20’s are great for earphone monitoring as well, not perfect, but do a damn good job for fifty bucks, I have mixed on them a few times and the songs sounded great on other systems. One thing I would change about them is a removable cord, I am always so scared that I will break it, and then bam, I’m out 50 bucks. All and all I think that the ATH-M20 headphones from Audio-Technica are a solid pair of beginner studio headphones. However if you have to extra 30 bucks, which isn’t much, I would advise you to get the ATH-M30’s. They are all the better for those extra thirty dollars and wish I had slowed down and gotten those instead, take my advice and spend the extra thirty, buy the ATH-M30’s and become a very happy man or women.