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Hi! Welcome to Lachlan Likes A Thing, a show where I take a thing and see whether or not
I like it. Now the thing we're going to be looking at in this video is the Audio Technica
ATH-M50 studio headphones. Now the M50's are a community favourite. They're a really commonly
recommended headphone on Head-Fi, which is the audio and headphone enthusiast forum.
And the M50's were actually the first set of full sized headphones soon after I joined
Head-Fi. Now there's a number of reasons why the M50's are so popular. That's because they
offer a good reference level for neutral sound quality that you can get, and good build quality
that you can get for around this price point. That said, for a number of years I've owned
the M50's now, and I think they are a number of things they do really well, and a number
of things they don't do so well. So starting off with the build of the headphone the M50
is a professional studio monitoring headphone, so it's designed to last a long time and to
be used for production houses and recording studios. So what you get is a really chunky
durable design, really well thought out. You get sturdy headband mechanism that is very
easily adjustable, and it folds up really easily into this nice little contact shape,
which is really cool. The whole build is made out of plastic but it feels really solid and
reassuring. You get this 3m cable in this version. This is the straight cable version
and a metal plug at the end. There's also a coiled cable version that you can get with
about a 1.2m cable. There's a couple of things to note about the M50's design. Out of the
box, clamping pressure is quite high on the M50. So what that means is that if you wear
it for an extended period of time, especially if you have glasses, it can get a bit uncomfortable
after a while. The other issue with the M50's design is that the clamping force combined
with the synthetic material used for the earpads is not particularly breathable, so you'll
find that in hot weather they can get a bit study. The other thing about the M50's design
is that a lot of people recommend these or look at these as portable headphones, and
I personally don't think that they work very well as portable headphone. One thing is because
they're actually quite physically large as headphones. And they can look like you can
just stepped out onto the street from the recording studio. That said a lot of people
walk around nowadays with big headphones on their heads so I suppose that's not such a
bad thing. The other thing I find is that with a 3m cable it can be quite awkward to
use in a portable situation. Even if you tie it up with a rubber band you still have a
length of cable hanging out of your pocket. You can get the coiled cable version but I
find with coiled cables because they're coiled and quite dense, they're quite heavy and they
actually pull on one side of the head, so they're not the most comfortable type of cable
to be using for a portable headphone. The last issue with portable use of the M50 is
that the headphone jack is so chunky and big that it can be difficult and awkward to use
with portable players in your pocket, especially because when you're standing up or sitting
down the length of the jack and the spring that forms part of the strain relief can get
a bit awkward. In terms of sound the M50's are a meaty sounding headphone. They're a
bit on the warmer side of neutral, they have a chunky, visceral bass response, but they
also have a bit of a peak in the treble which is characteristic of a lot of Audio Technica
cans. It means that female vocals, especially stand out quite nicely on the M50. But it
also means that sometimes on badly recorded music or at higher volume they can sound a
little aggressive. So again if you're using this as a portable headphone when you turn
up the volume, it may not be so great for your ears. The other thing about the M50's
is that the soundstage, while it's quite well defined, can sound a little congested and
closed in. The bass can sound wooly at times because there is a bit of a mid-bass hump,
and overall it's not the most open sounding of headphones. But for the price the audio
quality out of the M50 is again, really good, a really good reference level. Now I find
that with the M50's, because they're so popular and they're so commonly recommended, you often
find people comparing them, or trying to compare them, with all kinds of headphones that are
in completely different categories, that are really inappropriate comparisons, So, you
know, people might be asking should I get these or some pair of open backed headphones
or a much more portable set like the Sennheiser HD25's. I think that the M50's are really
great headphones for the price but they aren't necessarily great all rounder headphones and
I think that in terms of portable headphones you can get headphones like the Sennheiser
Momentum, the Sony MDR-1R or the Logitech UE 6000, that offer a much more practical
and easy to live with package, even for home and portable use. That said the M50's will
always have a special place in my heart because they were the first set of full size quality
headphones that ever bought and they're especially good considering that they are so popular
on Head Fi, that if you start with your journey of getting headphones with the M50's its very
easy to make comparisons with other people on what something else might sound like. So
they're really invaluable as a reference level headphone. Anyway thanks for watching this
video, I hope you've enjoyed it. Thanks to everyone who's liked and subscribed to my
channel and happy listening!