Summary
The Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones are pretty good for gaming, delivering full-range sound performance with crystal clear clarity and deep bass. That being said, they can feel a little uncomfortable after prolonged periods of wearing due to the relatively smaller over-ear design and the clamping force of the headphone size.
We really liked that the ATH-M50x can produce serious bass output and yet maintain a good balance in sound quality in-game. These headphones pursue better sound quality and ergonomics, resulting in exceptional clarity throughout an extended frequency range, with deep bass response at the low end. The ATH-M50x are equipped with proprietary 45mm large-aperture drivers with rare earth magnets and copper-clad aluminium wire voice coils.
The circumaural design around the ears provides good sound isolation in noisy environments, but we found that it does exert some force on your ears which may affect your gaming experience. So while we don’t have any issues with the sound quality, the design of the ATH-M50x may cause some ear fatigue during long hours of gaming.
One key disadvantage of the ATH M50x is that it doesn’t come with a built-in microphone, so you’ll have to find other ways to communicate in multi-player online games.
Sound Performance in-game
The ATH-M50x produces very good exceptionally clear sound, and sounds best when connected to a portable DAC. That being said, we were generally impressed with the sound performance of these headphones when plugged into the iphone or Android output.
The volume is great, the highs are present and not over exaggerated and sound true to the music. The bass sounds true and goes really deep; you can really hear the low end from these headphones but the bass does not get overpowering and flood into the mids.
These headphones are really good at picking up the minute details in the music and sound best when input with high quality audio soundtracks. The ATH-M50x will expose flaws in bad recordings and low quality audio files will not sound as good on these headphones. They will literally expose the truth of the audio output of the device they are connected to.
Pairing these headphones to a headphone amp is not necessary, and they can be powered during from your gaming PC’s auxiliary port.
Design & Comfort
The Audio-Technica ATH-M50x are primarily closed back headphones and connect to your gaming console via auxiliary input. While these headphones are generally comfortable to wear, they have a relatively small over-ear headphone cavity which means less space for your ears. This may result in some ear-fatigue after prolonged periods of wearing especially when you first use them straight out of the box.
The good thing about the ATH-M50x is that they are pretty lightweight and have good padding on the ears and on the head, so you probably won’t notice them during the first hour of gaming or so.
Another factor to consider is that these headphones don’t have a built-in microphone for easy communication, which may be an issue for multiplayer online gaming.
The Verdict?
The Audio-Technica ATH-M50x are pretty decent headphones you can get for gaming at a good price point. They have a very good balance between the highs and mids, and produce deep low ends making them especially good to listen to for electronica, pop or rock genres. We liked the bass from these headphones as the bass feels tight and punches deep.
You can also hear environmental sound effects in-game and get a pretty good sense of where each sound is originating from. The sound reproduced from the ATH-M50x is very detailed and crisp, and produces vocal performances very well with clean details.
The only drawback to the ATH-M50x is their relatively small ear cavity and lack of microphone for in-game communication, but if you are willing to overlook these points, you would enjoy listening to the ATH-M50x for video games.