Well I had a day. Last night I was practicing and dialing in some sounds. I have lots of gear that’s not cheap. But I couldn’t get my guitar to sound good. Many overdrive changes later (both external pedals and captures of my own making as well as downloads from the community) amp model changes, thoughts of pickup changes, I had a sleepless night. I usually use my IEM I’ve had for years (JH Audio JH11) but I had been using a pair of studio headphones the night before. Audio Technica ATH50x. Today I used my in ears and oh my god the difference was incredible. Not sure if the headphones are broken but they sound like complete crap compared to the IEM. Anyone else use IEM and have a similar experience?
I have the ATH50x and various IEM’s. That you’re experiencing such a difference isn’t a surprise since the two behave very differently. Which is better is user dependent. What sounded different to you?
My headphones may have a blown driver but they seemed to sound okay during low gain cleans but as soon as I dig in and add any overdrive they were ice picky. Shrill. Looking through and seeing how many people are using them makes me think it’s gotta be my set of headphones.
Whilst I’ve not used them, many consider the 40x the better balanced, if you’re considering getting a new pair.
Not a fan of the ATH50X or 40’s. Especially for anything broad frequency critical - studio monitoring as a player is fine. But have had many other headphones that are more accurate.
Which would you recommend?
Just recently I compared the beyer dynamics dt990 & 770’s to the 50x on a live mix from a control room. Both the 770 and 990 (especially) provided considerably more separation and fidelity (night & day). The 50’s and 40’s are decent headphones for an instrument monitor, but there are better options if your looking.
Sometimes you just gotta forget about the tone and just play for feeling 