Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Review: The Modern Studio Workhorse

The Audio-Technica ATH-M50x is an interesting headphone, not necessarily because it does anything particularly extraordinary, but because it reminds me of something that used to be extraordinarily common in recording studios. The AKG K240. Now, before anyone gets excited, I’m not suggesting that the ATH-M50x sounds exactly like a K240. It doesn’t. They’re quite different designs. What I’m suggesting is that the ATH-M50x has assumed much the same position in today’s recording studios that the K240 occupied for decades. It’s a dependable, reasonably priced, professional headphone that sounds good, is built well, and can be found in studios everywhere. And there’s a good reason for that.

Remember When the AKG K240 Was a Professional Headphone?

For much of the 1980s and into the 1990s, the AKG K240 was practically a studio standard. You saw them everywhere. And the original Austrian-made K240s were beautiful headphones. They were well engineered, carefully manufactured, and built to a standard that reflected their position as serious professional equipment. I still have several pairs of the older professional versions. Some engineers preferred the Sony MDR-7506 and related models, but I always found the Sonys considerably too bright for my taste. The AKGs had a more relaxed, natural balance that I found much easier to listen to for extended periods. Unfortunately, the K240 that’s sold today isn’t the same product in any meaningful manufacturing sense. Yes, it carries the same model designation, and the basic concept remains recognizable. But the modern Chinese-made K240 Studio is a much less expensive headphone, and the construction quality reflects that. In inflation-adjusted dollars, today’s K240 costs a fraction of what the Austrian-made professional versions cost decades ago. And having recently compared some of my older K240s directly with a current-production pair, I found the difference in construction quality rather astonishing. It’s difficult to believe they’re supposed to occupy the same position in the market. The old K240 was a professional product that happened to become ubiquitous. The modern version is an inexpensive headphone that happens to have a famous name. Those aren’t quite the same thing.

Enter the ATH-M50x

The ATH-M50x is the sort of headphone that makes me think Audio-Technica understands what working professionals actually need. It’s a circumaural, closed-back dynamic headphone with a folding design, rotating earcups, and a detachable cable. It’s not particularly exotic. It doesn’t use some unusual driver technology, and there’s nothing especially extravagant about its appearance. But it’s very nicely made. The mechanical construction feels substantial, the headband and earcups are well executed, and the overall impression is of a product designed for years of regular use. Audio-Technica has refined the design over time, with the ATH-M50x building on the earlier ATH-M50 and adding detachable cables. That’s an important improvement, because cables are among the first things to fail on headphones that are used constantly in a studio. The detachable cable also makes the headphone more practical to maintain. And while I wouldn’t suggest that every component is intended to be replaced by the end user, replacement earpads and cables are readily available. These are headphones you can actually live with.

A Restrained, Polite Sound

The sound of the ATH-M50x is what I would describe as restrained and polite. That’s not to say it’s perfectly flat or entirely neutral. It isn’t. But its overall presentation is quite agreeable, and it avoids some of the characteristics that have always bothered me about certain competing studio headphones. I’ve never been particularly fond of the brighter Sony models. To my ears, they tend to emphasize the upper frequencies more than I would like. At the other end of the spectrum, some Beyerdynamic headphones have a darker or more laid-back character, depending on the model. The ATH-M50x strikes a pleasing middle ground. It has enough high-frequency information to be useful without constantly drawing your attention to the top end. There’s a solid bass response, and the overall sound is balanced enough that I can listen without feeling that the headphone is imposing an especially unpleasant character on everything. It’s a very listenable headphone. And for a general-purpose studio headphone, that’s a significant virtue.

Closed Back, but Not a Drum Isolation Headphone

One thing worth understanding about the ATH-M50x is that although it’s a closed-back headphone, that doesn’t mean it provides extraordinary isolation. It doesn’t. The circumaural earpads surround your ears, and the closed-back construction provides substantially more isolation than something like the semi-open AKG K240. But this isn’t the sort of headphone I’d choose for a drummer who needs to hear a click track over a loud acoustic kit. In that situation, you need considerably more isolation. Otherwise, the musician tends to turn the headphones up to compensate for the ambient sound, which can create hearing-level problems and increase the likelihood of click-track leakage into the microphones. For that application, I’d rather use a headphone specifically designed for high isolation. The ATH-M50x is much better suited to general tracking, overdubbing, monitoring, and everyday studio use. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. Not every headphone needs to be designed for someone sitting behind a drum kit.

A Modern Studio Standard

What I find particularly appealing about the ATH-M50x is that it has become something of a standard without being an especially glamorous product. You see them in recording studios, broadcast facilities, editing rooms, and all sorts of other professional environments. They’re reasonably affordable, they’re comfortable enough for extended use, and they’re built to a standard that inspires confidence. That’s exactly the position the AKG K240 used to occupy. And while I still have considerable affection for my older Austrian-made K240s, I think the ATH-M50x is a more sensible purchase for someone looking for a dependable general-purpose studio headphone today. The fact that Audio-Technica has maintained the design and continued to support it is another point in its favor. As with the company’s microphones, there’s a reassuring consistency to the engineering. Nothing particularly flashy. Just a good product that does what it’s supposed to do.

The Verdict

The Audio-Technica ATH-M50x is an excellent general-purpose professional headphone. It’s well made, sounds very good, has a sensible tonal balance, and offers the practical advantages of a folding design and detachable cables. Its closed-back construction provides useful isolation, although I wouldn’t recommend it for situations requiring exceptionally high isolation, such as monitoring while playing acoustic drums. I also appreciate that it avoids the exaggerated brightness I’ve never particularly liked in some Sony studio headphones. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay it is that the ATH-M50x reminds me of what the AKG K240 represented when it was still an expensive, Austrian-made professional headphone. Not necessarily in sound, but in purpose. A reliable, well-designed studio workhorse that you can purchase with confidence.

Highly recommended.