Do you mean the ATH-M30X? They are about $69 while the M50's are close to the same money as the Beyerdynamics, at least for the pricing I saw on Amazon...
I am interested to know more about the Beyerdynamics...
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Best headphones?
- Thread starter thejumpcat
- Start date
Do you mean the ATH-M30X? They are about $69 while the M50's are close to the same money as the Beyerdynamics, at least for the pricing I saw on Amazon...
I am interested to know more about the Beyerdynamics...
I managed to pick up some ATH-M50's for about $150 at Guitar Center during one of their monthly "Biggest Sale of the Year" events. Back when I bought my Beyerdynamic's they ran me around $250, but your'e right, it looks like the price has come down over the years. For the extra $50 the Beyerdynamic's are a no brainer, IMO. The sound quality and imaging of the DT-250 is superb. If you are just listening to music they are simply amazing. You will hear things in the music you have been listening to for years that you never knew were there. The thing I really like about them is that they also sound great for bass. Headphones are a lot like speaker cabs. There a lot of voicing differences between them when it comes to the bass and mid regions and some work better for monitoring bass than others. The DT-250's just sound "right" for bass. Deep, full lows, with a very slightly relaxed upper mid response and very sweet, accurate highs with no hint of harness whatsoever.
The ATH-M50's aren't quite as full down way low and have a bit more upper mid bite. For bass, I almost feel like they have a little bit of an SVT vibe to them, compared to smoother, more hi-fi sound of the DT250's. Both sound great for bass, but IMO, there's no caparison when it comes to comfort level. The DT-250's a much more comfortable to wear for extended periods. The DT-770's are supposedly better phones and while they sound spectacular for music listening, I didn't like them as much for bass monitoring. In fact, when we were developing the Valkyrie's preamp, all the critical listening was done with the DT-250's. Any mix that sounds good on these phones will translate very well to other playback systems.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_articles/dec95/beyerdt250.html
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edwinhurwitz
Supporting Member
My favorites (in my budget) are Ultrasone 650s for closed back cans and Senn HD600s for open cans. I also like the ATH M50s for tracking and general messing around. They aren't very flat, so for my usual purposes (recording and mixing), they are usually pretty misleading. But they are great to give to the client for the wow factor. They make everything sound good. Soundprofessionals.com often has them on sale for $100.
I also liked the AKG 702s quite a bit but they are discontinued. They can be a bit bass shy, require a very long break-in time and, like the HD600s, work best with a higher quality headphone amp (i.e., not all that great with iPods, etc. Not terrible, but definitely not at their best).
I also like Grado's pretty well. I've had a pair of SR125s that I've enjoyed for about 15 years now. I'd love to explore the higher end of their range. The SR60s have been called the hifi deal of the year many times over, so they are well worth checking out if you are on a budget and don't need sealed cans.
Here's a recent survey of 3000 headphones: http://time.com/74886/best-headphones/
I also liked the AKG 702s quite a bit but they are discontinued. They can be a bit bass shy, require a very long break-in time and, like the HD600s, work best with a higher quality headphone amp (i.e., not all that great with iPods, etc. Not terrible, but definitely not at their best).
I also like Grado's pretty well. I've had a pair of SR125s that I've enjoyed for about 15 years now. I'd love to explore the higher end of their range. The SR60s have been called the hifi deal of the year many times over, so they are well worth checking out if you are on a budget and don't need sealed cans.
Here's a recent survey of 3000 headphones: http://time.com/74886/best-headphones/
My vote goes to the ATH-M50. I've been using them for well over a year for pretty much everything: tracking, mixing, listening to my iPhone, listening to vinyl, etc. Personally, I've never really had a comfort issue with them, and I wear them a LOT. Hours and hours, every day. I will agree they aren't the flattest response though. As R Baer said, they have some more pronounced mids than other cans, but that's what I love about them, I like a strong and present mid-range. It fits with how I EQ my bass rig actually, less emphasis on the low, dime the mid range and treble. I've had a couple people try them out and then go out and buy a pair for themselves, and I've noticed more and more people wearing them around my college campus within the past 6 months or so. Which is great, because now I don't get asked the question "Why don't you use Beats?"
I really have to give the folks at Beats credit for brilliant marketing. How do you explain so many people buying mediocre sounding (at best) headphones at professional level prices.
I agree although I can't explain why people in general have accepted MP3 as an audio source
I've got cassettes that sound better
Gotta completely agree with this! I have/had(I broke them)a set of the Monster Ncredible Npulse headphones(Monster makes Beats, so these are comparable to the Beats Studio). They're, like $200, and they sound like CRAP! Plus, they aren't very comfortable! I got them for free, and it's a funny story how I ended up with them.
My "good" headphones are Sennheiser HD 280s. I really like them, but they will sometimes slide out of position. I'd like to try the ATH-M50s and the CAD MH-510s-they're both about $100-$150
Beats are a fashion/status symbol, plain and simple. Same things as the kids wearing absurd looking $250 Nike shoes, because they have some basketball stars name on them.
Absolutely, they're total $****. I'm a bass player, I love bass, but those things are like having a poorly tuned bass drum taped to the side of your head. As you said, mediocre at best and even that's a bit generous. They totally are a status symbol, and I'm perfectly happy not having those slick pieces of plastic adorning my head. Clunky studio cans suit me just fine.
The only good headphones Monster makes are their high end earphones. Turbines sound pretty dang good
You're not going to get anything outstanding for $50 or less. If you get close to $100, Sony and Audio Technica have several selections. I use AKG K271 Studio myself and they sound good and are comfortable - but they aren't $50
I use Sennheiser HD280Pro headphones these days, nice deep bottom end that sometimes makes me think I have my subwoofer in my stereo going. At times the bass can be a bit indistinct, but they have better depth than any of the AKG headphones I had (K140, K340, K401 - I still have the latter). One consistent issue I have had with the AKGs is the elastic cords that suspend/hold up the ear cups fail after some times which makes it very difficult to wear the headphones properly (the cans hang down too low); the Sennheisers have been excellent in that area, plus they are closed back and do a great job of isolating external sound sources, unlike the open back AKGs.
Correction: Monster used to make Beats headphones. Beats headphones have been made in-house since 2012.
The ones i use are fairly cheap. I've got some sony mdr-zx100 headphones that i paid about $20-$30 bucks for at target. They work great. Another set I've used that works well is actually my USB powered turtle beach x box headphones.
Is there anywhere besides the Phil Jones website to find these? I've been thinking of getting them for quite awhile, but so far that was the only place I've seen them
Any PBJ dealer can get them, but I don't know of any other online retailers. However, contact Jer @ Invalid Link Removed in Albuquerque. Tell him Jon McMillan sent you.
