Audio technica ath-m50 vs grado sr80i headphones?

[kogo50]

I have been looking for headphones with a budget of $150 or less for a few days now and have narrowed it down to these 2. I read multiple reviews on both but I'm still not sure what to get. They will be used for mainly home use with my desktop and I will use them with a mp3 player sometimes. I listen to mostly metal with a little bit of some other genres like classical and dubstep.

 

[ssddx]

i own a pair of audiotechnia ath-m50's. the m50s has a straight cable and the m50 has a coiled cable for reference.

as with most products built in these times, they are of mostly plastic construction with some metal parts where it matters most. however, they are rather solid and unless you plan on throwing them up against a wall i wouldnt fear them breaking. they have a rather thick cable with a nice metal plug end. this fits into amplifiers and receivers which use a larger plug then most other devices. this end screws off to reveal a 3.5mm plug. due to the large nature of the plug you might have to cut a larger hole in mp3 player cases or take them out of the case to use this plug. this is almost a non-issue though as most high grade headphones will be the same way.

due to the rather low resistance of the speakers (35ohm if i remember) you can drive them with regular cd players and mp3 players. i use mine with an ipod classic, my android phone, my laptop and my home theater receiver unit. while they do sound slightly better amped (as most high end headphones will) they sound great with mp3 players as well.

since these are studio headphones they are not bass heavy or muddled like some other headphones. they can deliver both crisp highs and lows very nicely. i've played games through them, rock, vocals, electronica including dubstep, etc without problems. in fact, i can no longer listen to low quality internet radio streams since i can hear the static now when i could not on the cheaper earbuds i had before.

i cannot comment on grado headphones since i dont own them...but i can say i am happy with my purchase of the ath-m50s.

the only cons i would say are:

-the cable is rather long. personally i dont mind but for use on a plane, train or bus it might be excessive. you might want the coiled cable for these purposes. the long cable does come in nicely for use where you want a little more freedom of movement. i can have the cable run 4ft across the desk and still have enough to sit comfortably at the desk with slack at my side. yeah.. its a long cable.

-after awhile the leather or pleather (honestly i'm not sure which) earpads will start to get a little stiff and hard from sweat. there is a place you can get replacement earpads for a decent price and some users have used headphone socks to protect them. keep in mind that this can happen with most any headphone pads so it is not a particular problem with the model.

i would say you will be happy with them.