I bought some audio technica ATH-M50x on the back of quite a few reviews and am left a little underwhelmed…
Used through my amp they sound great so they’re doing the job here but through any portable media device they just don’t pick up and are too quiet. I could easily turn these up another couple of notches past full. They also sound quite low and muted through my electronic drums so aren’t really what I was in the market for?
Previous phones that just died were much cheaper AKG451 and they sounded good through any device.

So I’m wondering before I have to send them back does anyone have these and noticed similar or are these more geared around being driven by a good amp and not quite so good through smaller devices…… or is there a tiny loud switch hidden somewhere?

you can get a wee amp for your portable devices I think, never used one as I allways use cheaper inear sony/sennheiser, but I’d imagine that’d do the job for you.

Hmm.. whilst that is a solution it won’t work for train journeys and some other situations. I’d rather not have to introduce another device.

A quick google would suggest that small devices like iPods and iPads don’t have amps with big enough clout to drive these headphon,es.

I just came to the same result! Maybe need to find others that cope with smaller amps well.
So much for my research.

The impedance can make them easier /harder to drive with a weaker amp, but the impedance on both seems pretty similar.. So I’m not sure really.

My phone has a crap amp, so I considered one of the compact portable headphone amps, but i don’t really want the hassle of cable and carrying another device that needs charging etc.

It doesn’t sound like your source amp phone /mp3 player is the issue though if it was driving your older phones ok.

depending on media player it might be worth trying to switch it to USA region. This makes a major difference on my Sandisk.

Switch region to US. There’s an EU loudness regulation.

Then go a bit deaf.

Sorry xora had already said it, but I didn’t hear him.

did you say something?

Android? PowerAmp.

Have a look at the ifi nano iCAN.

Poweramp can help to an extent as you can really fine tune the EQ and turn the preamp up a bit, but if your limited by the physical amplifier of the device, turning up the preamp will just result in distortion rather than more volume.

I use power amp on my phone, I have to it’s a great app and turned my phones audio from rubbish to reasonable, but if the hardware isn’t up to scratch it can’t work miracles.

Is it Tony Blair?

I really like that micro amp actually but not sure I could justify a further £175.

Not sure how to change region on phone and tablet?

There are much cheaper portable amps available https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.bestproducts.com/tech/gadgets/gmp578/portable-headphone-amps-for-quality-tunes-on-the-go/

The little Fio preamps are fantastic….top value

Install the Onkyo HF Player app – it’s got an EQ across eleven frequencies and you can push the baseline up to give a boost to quieter music, plus there are a number of EQ settings from various people you can install, set up different EQ’s for different headphones and if you pay a bit more for the upgrade you can play HD tracks on an iPhone which the standard music player won’t see.
It’s really very good, it’s my default music player now, and it does a superb cross-fade between tracks which is great on shuffle mode.

Saw a very good review earlier on these:
https://www.whathifi.com/news/phiaton-announces-new-bt-390-wireless-headphones
Problem is Amazon.com won’t export to the UK, and so far nobody seems to be doing them over here.
The review, in Business Insider, was very positive, and for $70 they seem to be a steal for folding BT4.1 ‘phones.
Might be worth investigating, but try the Onkyo app, it’s free unless you want HD audio, so nothing to lose and lots to gain…
(See what I did there?) Oh well, please yourself… 😉

…

Install the Onkyo HF Player

+1

Downloaded onkyo player so will check this with my music and see if it boosts the play from a mobile device but it doesn’t look like I can play video through it.

For your portable devices get some decent bluetooth headphones with noise cancelling.

I bought some Philips ones half price from £80 in the black friday sales. Really very good. Can be used with a wire too when discharged.

Great for noisy train journeys and cutting out all the IT and A/C noise in the office.

So I’m wondering before I have to send them back does anyone have these and noticed similar or are these more geared around being driven by a good amp and not quite so good through smaller devices…

Look at the sensitivity specs: The K451s are 126 dB, but the M50x are only 99 dB

The M50x will need to be driven much, much harder to get the same sound level.

The headphones you’ve bought are designed as monitor headphones so they won’t discolour the sound like some more funky headphones do. They’ll give a true representation of the recording.

They’ll also show up poor recordings or low bit rate files.

Onkyo app can give them a bit of a lift though.

I’ve got the M70x’s. They sound amazing in a very precise sort of way. I play them almost flat on the Onkyo app equaliser. Bit of lift in the midrange, toned the treble down.

Popped into richer sounds this morning and tried a dragonfly dac device and this did make a big difference to music recording from my phone. Apart from the £90 outlay the device is very small and no real faff so worth considering but it still didn’t improve film media.
I even tried some AKG equivalent headphones and these were also noticeable quieter than the old cheaper AKG on anything but a well amplified source. Plus I’m not sure how well the dragonfly would work with drum kit.

So perversely I’m now considering keeping the audio technica’s for quality listening through the main amp or via a portable DAC device but getting a second cheaper (portable device orientated) pair for other duties.

I’d forgotten what a mine field decent audio Gear can be. It’s a bit like high spec bike bits in many ways where you simply can’t always just throw them together with your old stuff and expect good results.

Downloaded onkyo player so will check this with my music and see if it boosts the play from a mobile device but it doesn’t look like I can play video through it.

Nothing was said about film media. Whole different type of player.