Why dont I feel what everyone else's feeling with the Audio Technica M50X

[square_wave]

This headphone is an outstanding value for the price you pay. It is not as refined as a 400 $ headphone but AT has tried to balance things out as best as possible for the retail price. It is a long running model with a very good reputation among headphone enthusiasts so they wouldn’t screw up the latest iteration. See the review from innerfidelity. This is one guy who knows his headphones well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usjF3XBR6M8

There are at least 5 of them in my office. Some are 50s while others are the x version. Some being run with outboard dac / amps connected to a pc running flac files. Nobody uses them on a phone.

It could be that you are used to headphones that are easy to drive with a phone. The AT AX50x is a 38 ohm impedance headphone. Have you explored if your phone is upto it ?

The source file and source equipment quality is important with higher quality headphones.

 

[shibashis]

For an on the go setup without frills just use a LG V series phone with quality IEMs.
I find my pairing of Soundmagic E80 with LG V30+ is heavenly for the meager price.
Does not even have to be expensive IEMs, try the Signature Acoustics Elements C12, available for mere Rs. 1200 on Amazon, give it a 50hr burn-in, play good source and exclaim in disbelief how something that cheap could sound that good.

 

[square_wave]

For an on the go setup without frills just use a LG V series phone with quality IEMs.
I find my pairing of Soundmagic E80 with LG V30+ is heavenly for the meager price.
Does not even have to be expensive IEMs, try the Signature Acoustics Elements C12, available for mere Rs. 1200 on Amazon, give it a 50hr burn-in, play good source and exclaim in disbelief how something that cheap could sound that good.

Yes, the LG V series are very good. They use dacs from ess tech who also make the popular sabre chips for high end dacs.

 

[docharsha89]

Thing is different people hear differently. A headphone which has been awarded for its performance by one person, may not appeal the same to another. An example is the Chord Hugo 2 - It received plenty of rave reviews, some even calling it the best DAC upto $5,000. But, THE VERGE website editor, Mr. Vlad Savov, gave it a score of 5.5/10. Why you may ask..Is Mr. Savov incompetent as a reviewer ? I don't think so, as he has written plenty of beautiful and accurate reviews. So, the bottom line is, you may not appreciate, what others may regard highly as. Always go by ears, rather than reviews, that's my opinion. ATH M50X isn't the be all, end all headphone. There are plenty of other equally good options. An excellent alternative would be the Massdrop Sennheiser 6xx. It's an amazing headphone, which MAY be to your interest.
Good day -- Dr. Harsha