Rode NTH-50 Review

Introduction

The Rode NTH-50 are moderately affordable on-ear headphones made for audio production, with a focus on DJs and podcasters rather than studio producers. 

It’s an angle that suits the pair well. The Rode NTH-50 are tough, practical and provide surprisingly good passive noise isolation. I do not think they have the sound to make ideal studio monitor headphones, though. 

The Rode NTH-50 are the lower-end siblings of the NTH-1000, and cost £99.99. They are among the more affordable pairs of DJ headphones, and lack any real lifestyle-led features. There’s no wireless, no ANC, which is entirely normal for this category.

Design

• Aluminium cup caps
• Removable cable
• Coiled cable

These are not the kind of headphones you see released every day. Wireless pairs and Chi-fi IEMs are everywhere, but pro-leaning headphones like the Rode NTH-50 tend to have a long shelf life. That doesn’t leave masses of room for new models. 

As a pro pair, you have to come to the Rode NTH-50 expecting what they are. These headphones have no wireless, no remote, no active noise cancellation. 

Even their cable, a 1.7m coiled type, is not ideal for casual portable use. You’d have to stuff it in a pocket or leave it dangling heavily from your head. 

There are several handy elements to the Rode NTH-50 design, though. The cups have dual-sided 3.5mm inputs, despite using a single-sided cable, meaning you can insert the cable on either side. I assume the idea is you can get the wire out of the way, regardless of your dominant hand. 

The Rode NTH-50 are also clearly made for the long haul. Their headband padding clips in. No glued parts to make repair tricky. And the cabling that plugs into the top of the cups is removable too. 

Rode uses a twist-to-lock mechanism on the headphone cable itself, to keep it secure while letting you also easily replace the cable. 

The Rode NTH-50 build is not exactly I’d usually expect from a lower-cost pro headphone, despite looking just the part. While most of the body is plastic the cup caps are aluminium. Real benefits? Very little. It’s seemingly not structural and there’s nothing wrong with tough plastic in the first place. 

I find the Rode NTH-50 comfortable for a pair of on-ear headphones. Despite not having massively thick padding, their clamping force is well distributed. However, as with all of these pairs, they tend to cause a bit of ear cartilage discomfort if you use them for a few hours while walking around. All that slight motion takes its toll after a while. 

The Rode NTH-50 also lack a folding cup stems. Instead, they have a fairly flexible headband to allow for easy one-ear monitoring. 

I’ve also used the Rode NTH-50 on the London Underground and on trains to try out their passive isolation, which is above average for this style of headphone. In this era, though, it’s worth mentioning they don’t offer anything like the background-blocking of an ANC headphone.

What’s in the box? The Rode NTH-50 do not include a carry case but there is a 3.5mm-to-6.3mm adapter.

Sound Quality

• 40mm dynamic drivers
•  5 – 35,000 Hz frequency range
• Fairly bass-heavy sound

Rode claims the NTH-50 deliver sound with a high level of accuracy and low distortion. They sound fine but I would not personally choose them for home studio use. 

The Rode NTH-50 do not fare too well with complex and busy arrangements. They end up sounding cluttered and confused, largely thanks to an emphasised and resonant-sounding mid-bass that gums up the works. 

Closed headphones tend to sound just that — closed — when compared to open sets, but this character further closes up the soundstage, and gives it a more veiled character with some music. Treble is conservative too, so there isn’t that sparkiness to offset the general thickness. They are not particularly transparent, and imaging can seem muddled. 

Your ears will become accustomed to the tone fairly quickly, of course. And as they bed in you start to appreciate the Rode NTH-50 do have solid dynamics, despite a lack of sparkle, a cogent stereo spread and admirably punchy bass. But having to work through their core tone to get to that is not ideal in a pro headphone. 

My best guess is that because this is geared more as a DJ headphone than a studio one, piling on the bass is seen as a good look rather than a potential issue. 

Not of that mindset? The Rode NTH-50 do seem to react well to EQ applied through a phone or laptop/PC app. Slicing off a handful of decibels of the bass and mid-bass using a graphic equaliser can hoover out all that audio bloat, leaving you with a cleaner, clearer sound that still doesn’t seem too thin or light. 

Should you buy it?

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