Audio Technica ATH-M50

So finally got this "poison" today, as much anticipated for this while.

Dealed with Akabane at Ampang Park station's platform. Chatted abit bout these headgear stuffs. Oh boy, he's the pro in audiophile stuffs. He told me bout modding the headphones, amplifier stuffs, etc. He even consider to build an audio setup which is similar to the legendary Sennheiser Orpheus.



At this moment my budget wouldn't allow me to get anymore audio stuffs for now, except a few CDs if I came across it. Amplifier is out of my list, for now.

So let's have a look at this ATH-M50...

The box, nothing fancy bout it, but do not underestimate the stuff that it holds.


General description.


Specifications for the geeks.


Unboxing the headgear.




Audio Technica logos.


Comparison with ATH-M30. Both looks similar as they're from the same "family". However, performance-wise there's a gap between both models.




Unlike M30, the M50 can be folded up for portability, which is one of the reason why I wanna get it.


The leather pouch that carries the M50. Plain, but it served it's purpose.


End of the pictures. Now let's test this thing's performance.

I've read positive reviews of this headphone so I had high expectations on it. Safe to be said, this stuff is as good as they reviewed.

M50 feels more comfortable than M30 the first time when I put it up. M30 seems like squeezing my head, while M50 doesn't really have such issue. It sits nicely on top of my head.

I plugged in both M30 & M50 onto my laptop and play the usual songs I listen to. Immediately I can hear the difference between both units.

M50 sounds louder than M30 at the same volume setting. Must be something to do with the driver's unit. According to Akabane, the impedance & sensitivity plays a role in this, but I'm not quite sure which figure affect this the most.

Another notable improvement is the bass. I'm not a basshead, but I do appreciate the clear bass produced by M50. I tried to sample it with one of the songs' intro, which is quite bassy. M30's bass sounds much softer, while M50's bass is much "exciting", more punchy.
It's hard to describe the sensation, only when you try it you'll know how it's feel like. :D



M50 still got a bright potential to improve it's scores. It's just barely few hours of burning-in process, and it sounds better than the M30 already. I wonder how it'll sounds after 100 hours of burning-in? Monstrous? Hahah....

But of course, looking at the cost, the performance of M50 justifies it's pricetag. This would be the 2nd most expensive purchase I ever made so far by my own money (most expensive would be the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic).

From this review you can see that M30 is inferior towards M50, but that doesn't mean M30 is not a bad headphone.
Before I get hold of the M50, M30 is the best headphone I had at the moment. It definitely beats all the ordinary Philips headphones I used so far. The previous Philips SHP2000 can't really compete with Audio Techinca headphone!

So what's next for me? A wooden headphone? :P

Next level "poison", ATH-W5000. Cost: MYR 5,000.


Or perhaps ATH-ESW10?


CLY said she might get me an iPod Nano, but I didn't put much hope on it. ^_^"
If she kept the promise, then I'll be very, very happy guy. :D