Back in the halcyon days of wired headphones, Audio Technica’s ATH-M50s were somewhat legendary for offering high end sound quality at an affordable price. In fact, they won our Kinja Co-Ops for the best headphones not once, but twice. But it’s been impossible to recommend them over the past couple of years, or any wired headphones for that matter, now that we’re squarely in the age of Bluetooth.
Audio Technica has long promoted a big, clunky Bluetooth adapter to bridge the gap, but now, they’ve finally done the sensible thing just built wireless connectivity and a 40 hour battery directly into the headphones. Audio Technica claims they sound exactly the same as the wired models (which you can still buy), and you can even plug in the included headphone cable and use them in wired mode whenever you’d like. It’s a year or two overdue, but it’s nice to have an old favorite back in the fold.