Looking for some help on what to get. My HyperX Cloud II’s ive had for a couple of years have started to wear down and I want to shell out on something that would sound nice. I have a budget of around 400-500$, but im not really sure to get. I’ve been playing mostly valorant competitively and i listen to a variety of music ranging from rap to country. Other than that not sure what would be good for my situation. Ive looked at t50rp’s, but not sure what amp/dac to get with them. If anyone could help me that would be great.
Welcome to hifiguides,
Falenkor's Competitive Headphone Write Up Wrote this up to help people with the more competitive oriented gamer. Please give it a look. If you prefer more “all rounder” headphones I can recommend those too just know those aren’t as ideal in competitive sense.
Also quick answer to the amps for T50rp. IFI Zen Dac would be nice for a combo unit. Dedicated amp use the $100 units I recommended in that listing guide at the bottom there.
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I think i might go for the t50’s, do you have a recommendation for a setup for it? Like which t50 mod to get or just the base. And im not really sure how balanced/unbalanced works regarding the t50
Depends on which signature you are looking for. Argons are some of the best modification and you can just grab those from modhouse directly if you wished but they have a real long time to obtain them. If you wanted a V signature dekoni blues are great.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a wide variety of recommendations for it you’d have to dig up some mods people use like the comfort straps and pad swaps. You can find them in it’s respective forum typically though 🔶 Fostex T50rp which your more than welcome to also ask what people like for their modifications too there.
They do tend to have quite a bass presence and rumble making them fairly not very ideal in a competitive sense without a fairly more specific set of modifications.
It’s a mod conversion to make it use a balanced cabling of which you will need an amp with a balanced cable plug to make use of it. makes the headphone sound better
Would the presence of the bass make that much of a difference? The footsteps in valorant are fairly loud, so im wondering if the sound signature of the headphones can have that much control over something like that.
It’s not so much of the punch in the bass that is the issue in competitive it’s the rumble. To quote myself explaining the ideal headphone for competitive gaming and why it is we look for this particular sound here.
Let me start by explaining the ideology of the competitive gamer and what to look for in the most ideal sense to get the most in your FPS games. So ideally, you want either a neutral or recessed bass with little to no rumble, mids to be present raised or not too recessed, treble raised, imaging to be as accurate as possible for sound placement, proper sound seperation so things don’t sound jumbled together for accurate placement while playing, and a particular soundstage depending on which type of FPS you are playing more linear games can make do just fine with smaller soundstages these are games like COD, CSGO, Valorant, Halo but the larger FPS games such as Battlefield, Arma, Planetside, etc will required a much larger soundstage to really have a lot of benefits ideally a large soundstage will take care of both linear and larger fps. The reason we recess the bass or just want no rumble in general as too much bass will get in the way of fps cue cards that are particularly very quiet and subtle in the sound such as footsteps, breathing, and other movements and the reason we want more treble is it brings out those subtle sounds as well as gunfire more in the sound allowing you to better place them and their locations.
You can however put something like a HM5 velour on the T50RP which will dial back that bass so it’s not an issue. It’s not that it cant be used in competitives it’s just that it needs modded particularly for that sound
Ah ok i got it, well thank you very much for your help! I really appreciate it.
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Anytime, though if you have any further questions especially about potential great modifications I would definitely say to ask in the respective thread for it. Theres a ton of us here that have that headphone and many more who have a lot more knowledge on that area than me on fantastic mods that will suit exactly what your looking for. T50rp is very interchangeable on it’s sound.
Hi! Welcome to HiFiGuides! I want to jump in on something:
I’m not sure if @Falenkor meant to say the iFi Zen would be a good match for the T50, but it won’t. T50rp and mods are power hungry beasts. I’d look into Monolith Liquid Spark or Schiit Magni 3+ or Magni Heresy for those headphones.
IMO, to maximize your gaming situation, I’d recommend A Beyerdynamic DT880 600 ohm for the headphones and probably a Magni 3+ amp to go with it. That’s about $300 for the combo. For a DAC I’d look into SMSL M100 ($70), EarMen Donald DAC ($99), JDS Labs Atom DAC ($99), or Topping E30 ($130).
The DT880 600 sounds really good for acoustic music (classical and jazz, for example) but doesn’t provide the warmth and bass needed for hip-hop, rock, or EDM, IMO. The T50rp with Shure 1540 pads does, though. That’s another $170 together if you want to run with a 2 headphone setup.
If you went DT880, Magni 3+, M100, and T50rp + 1540 pads you’re looking at a pretty damn good entry into gaming and music audio for $540 list. With sales and deal hunting you can likely get that down.
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The ifi zen dac can even power the argons though wave. You see zeos use this headphone for his review even at the very beginning of zen dacs review. Not the best match but not the worst.
He appeared to have wanted a more all rounder headphone though from the looks of it is more set on the T50rp. Pointed him to the write up I wrote which has that 880 on there of course. Fantastic headphone for competitives.
It can, and it will create sound. It just won’t make T50s sing. The bass will be really sloppy and uncontrolled. I tried running my Dekoni Blue off a Hip-Dac, which has even more power than the Zen, and no dice. That did not work out well. Step up to a Liquid Spark and 
Also generally, @ZeosPantera is a great reviewer for introducing a wide range of gear and doing deep dives into the functionality/ergonomics of gear. When it comes to sound and pairings, though, I caution all to take his recommendations with a grain of - or better a cow-lick size block of - salt.
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How interesting. Alright then my bad on that one then. Figured while utilizing its balanced plug it would sound good for a cheap option amp/dac for the budgeting gamer. Completely agree on the liquid spark. My absolute favorite $100 amp for headphones that have more brightness
I mean, he told people to buy a nuclear power plant for the 600 ohm dt 880s. lol
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If your priority is competitive gaming, the few characteristics you want to look for in your research is detailed highs/treble, imaging, then sound stage. Best of luck on your search.
This is correct but only partially. the less rumble in the lows the best, too heavy of bass hits and it gets in the way(nothing like hearing a giant explosion go off in your ears with a big deep thump but this clouds subtle sounds like breathing and footsteps), high mid frequency if raised brings out fps cue cards more, treble should be detailed and raised dark treble is unnacceptable, imaging is extremely important, if you lack seperation during more congested shootouts it could cause issues in placement, and soundstage would depend on the fps as linear soundstages are just fine for smaller arena shooters but large soundstage can be used for essentialy any shooter and be better in general.
Just to clarify, the only set of cables i would need to get would be rca cables in order to connect the dac and amp, right?
Check to see if your chosen DAC comes with a USB cable. Some do. Some don’t. If not, you’ll need one of those or an optical/coax cable if you went that route.
Update: Everything came! I could not be happier with how good these headphones sound. I got the Liquid Spark and Atom Dac and it sounds great! Love both the t50rp and 880’s. Thanks everyone for helping me out.
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