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Published on 06/29/11 at 19:39The Audio-Technica ATH-M30 are a pair of closed studio headphones that are at that price that spills over into the mass consumer market. For this, they are fantastic. For consumers who have never used anything but a pair of iPod headphones, the Audio-Technica ATH-M30 headphones are something that will blow them away completely. This is where I absolutely am enamored with Audio-Technica as a company. Their headphones, down to their cheapest, offer some bizarrely and disproportionately high level of fidelity, transparency, and clarity.
I wouldn't really use them to mix, having a set of higher quality headphones at my disposal, however, as with the ATH-M40FS's which I may have blasted earlier, I do certainly feel that at their price point, they aren't bad. They're noticeably lower in quality than the next tier of headphones, but that doesn't mean they're bad. Personally, I wouldn't mix with these at all, having a pair of Sony MDR7506's lying around. However, I would not have my standards discourage anyone from mixing on these. While I wouldn't do it, it's certainly doable.
They're also quite comfortable as long as you don't move around too much while you are tracking. It's unfortunate that they do feel slightly cheap when this happens. That's why the Audio-Technica ATH-M30's are best suited for sitting around.
If you're serious about mixing however, you'd buy a pair of monitors. Barring that though, since they are prohibitively expensive for the home studio owner, if you really want to mix, I would suggest investing in a quality pair of headphones, like my Sony MDR7506's, some of the Sennheisers that come between $100 and $200, or the Audio-Technica ATH-M50's. Those are a true investment, and even then, I wouldn't discourage getting some ATH-M30's for tracking and monitoring and A/Bing.
The Audio-Technica ATH-M30's are a solid pair of headphones that you can't really go wrong with, but you could certainly go more right.
I wouldn't really use them to mix, having a set of higher quality headphones at my disposal, however, as with the ATH-M40FS's which I may have blasted earlier, I do certainly feel that at their price point, they aren't bad. They're noticeably lower in quality than the next tier of headphones, but that doesn't mean they're bad. Personally, I wouldn't mix with these at all, having a pair of Sony MDR7506's lying around. However, I would not have my standards discourage anyone from mixing on these. While I wouldn't do it, it's certainly doable.
They're also quite comfortable as long as you don't move around too much while you are tracking. It's unfortunate that they do feel slightly cheap when this happens. That's why the Audio-Technica ATH-M30's are best suited for sitting around.
If you're serious about mixing however, you'd buy a pair of monitors. Barring that though, since they are prohibitively expensive for the home studio owner, if you really want to mix, I would suggest investing in a quality pair of headphones, like my Sony MDR7506's, some of the Sennheisers that come between $100 and $200, or the Audio-Technica ATH-M50's. Those are a true investment, and even then, I wouldn't discourage getting some ATH-M30's for tracking and monitoring and A/Bing.
The Audio-Technica ATH-M30's are a solid pair of headphones that you can't really go wrong with, but you could certainly go more right.