First up, just wanna say Fishmonkey, could you not drive the 250ohm cans on the 2Box, or even 600Ohm and they would be fine by maybe using 2 line outs to drive them - best to have a headphone amp too for control but I guess the line outs would provide tons more power than the headphone out? What do you think, maybe you could try with your 250Ohms? It could sound amazing given the juice. I have a headphone amp now too so I may try this soon, once....
...well (original point of post) - after tons of reading and musing over it for an age (
and because no bloody shops will stock them, or if they do you can't try them out), I bought the
Audio Technica ATH-M50s with straight cable online as my first semi-pro headphone. Aside from reading up on reviews and articles which is par for the course, I took all the personal opinions from the HUUUUUUUGE V-Drum forum Headphone thread (I know, I know but the thread is just HUUUUUUU - well, you get the idea), Head-Fi, (because although some of them are a bit
too into there cans over there if you know what I mean, some of those guys really know their stuff), and all that generally good shizz.
Bear in mind that this information is only born out of research, and I can't even say whether the choice was correct until I burn them in and compare. But if I'm wrong I just send back within 30 days, no harm done. So why the M50's? Here's my list of 'reasons' ;-)
- They normally cost between £135 and £150, but I got a pair new for £110 so twas a good deal.
- M50's response curve is still a little bass end hyped (nice for drums), but not too much, mids apparently full and highs with no sibilance - can you tell I've learned some new words? ;-) Hopefully this means they will be a more honest monitor
- My budget was £150 at the most, and I cannot (according to my 'research') find a more recommended closed backed headphone for monitoring or drumming than the M50's on the web except for the other 'contenders' below.
These other 'contenders' were whittled down for various reasons:
- Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (Good praise/Comfort all round but still needs modding/amping for better mids and HUUUGE bass - next on the hitlist and if the M50's are pap then I'll try these)
- Beyerdynamic DT 770 M (frequency curve seems too pumped in the bass end as with 770 pro but thats how beyerdynamic f£$%in roll, and recessed in the mids - great for drumming but maybe not as honest a monitor)
- Ultrasone's Pro 550/HFI 580 (looked sexy nice, hard case, detachable cables + spares - but it didn't seem to get anywhere near as much favour as the M50s and so not worth £50 more (a whopping 45% more than the ATH-M50s)
- Shure 840 (sound is meant to be really sweet but apparently the head band and seal is not going down well with drummers (slippage with movement), at least on the posts I read anyway - its a shame because I nearly pulled the trigger on these - if you don't move about they would be my choice and are apparently VVVVVV-Comfy.)
- Custom in ear's + westone UM2/Westone UM3x/UE Triple Fi 10/insert really nice in ears here probably brilliant but 4 times the price. Anyway reason for dismissal is cost-performance ratio and a frightened wallet.
Please don't get uppity if you own one of the headphones I mentioned and don't agree - I am only passing on my thoughts and reasons behind getting the M50s based on the sources I mentioned.
I'm sure many of you can't afford to spend hundreds just on headphones alone, £100 to £150 is still a lot of money to me and that means its a lot to many of you too. So if you are like me and cannot try headphones before buying, can only afford up to say £130/£150 price range and you still need your monitor to be honest with you, I say give the ATH-M50s a try.
Further impressions will follow after delivery...
