amazon Audio-Technica M50xBT reviews
Audio Technica M50x is one of the legendary studio headphones of the Japanese audio company. This is a headset with a super strong design, extremely comfortable to wear and has a sound quality that few people can criticize. Anyone who has ever owned Audio Technica M50x will be satisfied with its quality. Recently, Audio Technica has launched the latest version of this headset called Audio Technica M50xBT. Whether this is a new trump card of Audio Technica in 2019, let’s find out through this article.
AUDIO-TECHNICA DESIGN M50xBT
At first glance, the Audio Technica M50xBT has an almost identical design to the Audio Technica M50x, except for the fact that this headset supports wireless connectivity. Studio design with thick plastic parts makes it feel very solid and trustworthy. The leather cushion is the same size as the M50x, the leather material is also very soft and comfortable. The large cushion covers almost every ear size and this part does not put too much pressure on the wearer’s head. The control buttons are arranged on a reasonable earcups, easy to manipulate. You can also use Audio Technica M50xBT like an Audio Technica M50x with the supplied cable.
Details of the design:
As a wireless version of Audio Technica M50x, it is not difficult to understand when Audio Technica M50xBT has very few differences from its predecessor. They share a common studio design language with a black color from top to bottom. They also share a silver circle and a stamping logo on the earcup. Even the words ATH-M50x remain on Audio Technica M50xBT. The most noticeable difference is the control key cluster at the edge of the earcups.
Fineness:
The perfection and robustness of Audio Technica M50x are undisputed. Audio Technica M50xBT inherits this structure with very thick plastic and a sturdy metal headband. The weakest point on this design is probably in the plastic holder so that when opening the housing, the earcup will not slip out.
Stability:
Audio Technica M50xBT is not designed for sports and outdoor activities at all. These headphones can easily slip off your head when you’re engrossed in training. This will not be a problem for people listening to music in the home or at the office. Especially when this headset supports wireless connectivity, you no longer have to worry about being stuck in drawers, doors or broken wires anymore.
Control
Unlike the Audio Technica M50x, the M50xBT is a Bluetooth headset so there will be controls on the ear. You have a power switch, control volume up and down buttons, music playback stop button and receive calls.
In particular, you have a touch key on the logo face to call virtual assistants like Siri or Google Assistant. All I have to do is hold this button for a few seconds, but it doesn’t seem to respond very quickly.
One more note is that there is not any button to switch to Paring mode (waiting for connection). Audio Technica M50xBT will automatically reconnect to the latest connected device. If the headset cannot find the device, it will automatically switch to the new connection detection mode. There is no way for you to disconnect directly on the headset. This can be a bit annoying for users of many different Bluetooth transmitter devices because they will have to turn Bluetooth on and off manually on each device. The plus point is that the physical keys respond very well. You can switch tracks by holding the volume up and down button.
Connector.
Unfortunately, at this time Audio Technica M50xBT still holds the Micro USB standard, not upgraded to USB Type-C. Although it doesn’t affect the experience much, the new standard will save you a cable when you can use it with your new phone. The 3.5mm port above Audio Technica M50xBT allows the use of headphones as a true wired studio ear. Audio transmitted through the wire will be better in detail and convenient in case the headset runs out of battery. One note is that when using the 3.5mm port, the headset will automatically turn off the Bluetooth function to save battery. At this time, the control buttons will no longer work.
AUDIO EXPERIENCE
Audio Technica M50xBT is still quite light despite the extra control panel and battery inside. The feel is still very comfortable to wear, not as much pressure on the ear as the M50x before. The headband is very smooth and fits snugly against the head, without being hit or click.
According to the results of the experiment, the temperature when worn for long periods of time can increase by about 7 degrees Celsius.
Since this is a closed-back headset and is not designed for sports, you will encounter sweat when listening to the headset in hot environments. It is better to find a room with air conditioning or a cool place to be able to enjoy this headset in the most relaxing way.
SOUND ON AUDIO-TECHNICA M50xBT
Overall, the Audio-Technica M50xBT is an over-closed closed-back over-ear headphones that sound great. It shows a deep and solid bass, well-balanced mid, sweet and detailed treb range. This sound quality is suitable for many purposes as well as different types of music, especially music with lots of bass. However, the bass range is sometimes overexposed, making the sound buzzing, the mid range is sunk. That means the vocals tend to be a bit thin and the treb band is uneven. In the S and T centers sometimes lack of control, sharpness. Bass range is affected by the way of wearing, especially for those who wear glasses when the earpad does not fully cover the ears of the listener.
Bass range
The ability to reproduce the bass is very good. Bass has good mass and body. The whole strip graph is quite balanced but is lightly pressed about 2.5dB. This gives the bass a bouncing better and more powerful, especially suitable for bassheads. However, the bass sometimes lacks control due to the high-bass range being hit quite a lot.
Mid range
Mid range performed well. The overall negative feedback is relatively flat, not much stressed at all. However, as you can see, the low-mid and mid-mid bands are overlapping. This causes the vocal to be thin and sink to the background. Through practical experience, the mid sound still has good details, it is true that the mid sound is not thick but not too sunken. The sweet, easy-to-hear mid sounds are typical of Audio Technica.
Treb strip
The treb band performed very well. Good control and balance. Surrounding around 6kHz will make the cymbal less bright and slightly less sharp. The sharp peak at 10kHz can make T and S sounds sharp in music with bright treb bands like rock for example. Practical experience, the treb up very fit, not too bright and not harsh. When plugged in, the sound is smoother and more crisp.
where can you get a Audio-Technica M50xBT online
Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT Wireless Bluetooth Over-Ear Headphones, Black: Buy it now
Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT Wireless Over-Ear Headphones: Buy it now
Sound
Audio-Technica M50xBT has good picture. The latency of the left and right channels is very low, only 0.36ms. The graph shows that throughout the negative bands, there is no difference. This gives a solid bass and clear treb sound.
In addition, the phase response frequency of the left and right channels almost coincides with the ability to reproduce the sound of musical instruments and vocals accurately.
Soundstage
The soundstage of Audio-Technica M50xBT is average. Due to the close-back design, the sound is not as wide and airy as open-back headphones. The stage is arranged in the middle of the listener’s head instead of going forward.
Ability of sound insulation
Audio insulation of Audio-Technica M50xBT is average. The headphones do not have active noise cancellation. The sound is only blocked by passive earcups and earpad tightness. Voice and higher tones are more blocked.
The sound when playing on the headset is still coming out even though it is very small. The most is from about 400Hz-6kHz which means mainly the singer’s voice. If in office conditions, this headset can completely use well without affecting the users around when you are wearing the headset on the head.
Duration of use and APP to be included
According to the manufacturer announced the continuous battery life of Audio-Technica M50xBT up to 40 hours. We tested Audio-Technica M50xBT in real conditions, the results were 37.6h. Quite close to the theoretical figure. Charging time is 5.3 hours, quite long because the headset does not support fast charging technology. The headset also does not have battery saving features. Luckily, you can still use the Audio-Technica M50xBT as a wired headset via a 2-pin 3.5mm cable when the battery runs out.
The application that comes with Audio-Technica M50xBT is called Audio-Technica Connect. This application does not extend many features, only displays some basic information about the battery life as well as the connection codec used. Sadly, you can’t change the hearing experience because there is no option to change the EQ. Hopefully in the future there will be new updates for this software. The application supports 2 popular mobile platforms, Android and iOS.
CONNECT
Audio-Technica M50xBT uses the latest Bluetooth standard 5.0 for very long and stable connectivity. Actual test up to 20 meters with obstacles and 50 meters when there are no obstructions. However, sometimes you will encounter the situation that when starting to play music, the headphones will start to take about 3 seconds to run smoothly, then all will be normal. Anyway, this is a product that must be eliminated to Audio-Technica M50xBT to become more perfect.
The lag of Bluetooth connection is a limitation on this headset. The average delay is about 0.2s, so when playing games or watching videos, the phenomenon is ahead of annoying sounds. At such times, it is better to use the 3.5mm cord that comes with the headset for the best experience.