Audio-Technica ATH-M50

The ATH-M50S are great for using while recording; they are very comfortable and affordable costing just over 150.00. The sound of them is clean and crisp but still giving enough low end to really feel the music while you are recording. I did not like using these to mix music with because I could never get a good mix with them. But if you use them for monitors while recording they will put you right in the middle of the music and give you that sound you need to excel behind the microphone.
The padding on the ear cups is truly amazing. They way that they feel sitting on your ears is so comfortable. I have not found many headphones that have ear cups this comfortable. The frequency range on these is also very good being at 15Hz-28kHz. Right out of the box you will get a 12 foot long cable which is perfect for reaching across your studio to the vocal booth. They also come with a ¼ adapter but it is standard 1/8. These closed circumaural headphones are perfect for your recording booth. You can even fold them up and take them with you anywhere. They do not come with a carrying pouch or case though which would have been a plus. I just used one of my Shure headphone cases for these and it held them fine. I have used a lot of Audio Technica headphones recently and these are one of my favorite ones they make because of the comfort level. They are not the best ones Audio Technica makes but with them being so affordable and comfortable you can afford to have a few pair of these in your studio. If anything where to happen to mine, I would probably by another pair right away. I am even thinking of buying a back up pair for when I travel.

I was comparing these to a pair of Shure SRH440's and AKG K240 Studios and these came in dead last. While they weren't awful or even exceptionally bad I feel they weren't even in the running compared to the AKG's. The high end on these was ice picky so I couldn't wear them too long without ear fatigue. The low end was flubbier so at higher volumes everything just started to mush together. These also aren't very natural sounding. They're more like audiophile headphones, EQ'ed to sound better so everything sounds good but doesn't give you a good representation of what something really sounds like. And since these are studio headphones that's a big problem. I prefer very natural sounding speakers so the heavy EQ'ed audiophile sound is a big turnoff to me. The problem with audiophile headphones vs flat response heads is that when mixing if the speakers are heavily EQ’ed to make things sound better then once you take your mix and put them through less than ideal speakers it’ll sound awful. If you have flat response headphones it’ll give you a true representation of what your mix really sounds like. So if you put it on a bad system it’ll sound fine, but on a great system it’ll sound even better. Another example would be, if you use EQ’ed speakers, made to have heavy bass, low mids, and heavy treble then in a car stereo it’ll have ice picky highs, muddy bass, and be so hard to understand from the lack of mids. If you use flat response headphones it’ll sound normal cause your reference tone with the headphones wasn’t EQ’ed heavily.

Also these had a pretty bad clamp feeling on my head. They press together crushing your ears so I got a headache pretty fast as well as my ears stung. These may be great for just listening but that's not what I was looking for, these were to be strictly studio headphones. I sometimes wear headphones for hours on end so they need to be very comfortable. All headphones will start to hurt eventually but these were within minutes. I don’t have a big head so that wasn’t the problem, these just squeeze too much for me.

A pair of Audio-Technica's ATH-M50's can go a long way. People talk about not mixing on headphones, but the truth is, even if monitors may provide a better response and soundstage than headphones, great headphones are still cheaper than awful monitors, and infinitely more portable and versatile, so if anything, the utility of headphones far outweighs that of monitors if you have a pair that can sonically stand up to them.

That being said, the Audio-Techinca ATH-M50's are a treat in every way. It's a shame I don't personally own a pair of them, but when I tried my friend's pair on against my trusty Sony MDR7506's they blew them out of the water (and you all should know that the Sony MDR7506's are a very VERY respected pair of headphones).

First, they feel like a dream. The ATH-M50's have that inexplicably difficult to achieve quality of being neither too tight nor too loose. They sit right on your ears and you feel like you could wear them for hours if it came to it. While my MDR7506's are quite comfortable, I tend to take breaks after every hour or so.

Second, they are some of the most accurate sounding headphones I've ever heard this side of $200. Even when using them purely for music-listening, they pick up things that you would never hear, even against other studio headphones. I heard from my friend that even before the burn-in period, they blow their competition out of the water. According to his often dubious testimony, (he's a bit of a joker) he put them on and stared at the wall listening to an album just for the sake of hearing things he never heard before. The one thing he mentioned that improved after the burn-in was the soundstage. The sound, according to him, felt slightly narrow before the burn-in. When I tried them, they were wide-open.

So there's not much more to say about a pair of great headphones. They feel great, and they sound great. As a monitor-deficient person, I am searching for the headphones that will get as close to monitors as possible.

Headphones aren't exactly capable of that, but I would certainly buy the Audio-Technica ATH-M50's instead of my MDRs if I could do it over again. They're that good.