Over-ear and on-ear headphones are innately different. Over-ear headphones deliver better audio quality, generally, thanks to larger and better drivers; they also offer better natural noise isolation — less noise from the outside world seeps in. On-ear headphones, by contrast, are typically smaller and more affordable, and some people find them more comfortable. Either way, choosing between which style of headphone you want is usually the first purchasing decision you have to make, and it’s typically a binary decision: you’re getting one or the other. Not anymore.
Master & Dynamic just announced the MW50+ ($399), an updated model of its MW50 wireless on-ear headphones, that allows wearers to swap back and forth between over-ear earpads and on-ear earpads. The company has released numerous headphones with magnetic earpads that can be replaced, say if they become yucky or too well-worn, but the MW50+ is kind of rare in that its sets of earpads are both designed to fit perfectly. As far as specs and audio quality, the MW50+ has pretty much identical guts to the MW50. It has 40mm Beryllium drivers and supports Bluetooth aptX streaming. It charges via USB-C and has a battery that lasts up to 16 hours.
The MW50+ headphones are available for preorder today on Master & Dynamic’s website. They cost $399, which is actually $50 less than what the several-year-old originally went for. That said, the introduction of the MW50+ has effectively antiquated the MW50 — Master and Dynamic doesn’t sell them on its website anymore, though you can still find them on Amazon, though they’re more expensive than the MW50+ at the moment.
Three different colorways of the MW50+ are available: all black, silver and brown and silver and black. All are designed with M&D’s signature metal and leather.
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