Hey there!
Currently I have a pair of AD500X’s I’m wondering what upgrade options I’d have for something that feels more quality and hopefully sounds on par or better for pure competitive FPS gaming. I have a sound blasterx G6 and use a PC to game on.
Any help is appreciated, thanks!
G’day
As far as I’m concerned, the AD500x is one of the best headphones for pure competitive gaming. I personally une the AD700x with Brainwavz XL pads (my ears are bastards). They’re mildly better built with mildly more bass, but not worth replacing the 500x’s with.
As you go up the model rrange, you get more bass, better build quality and lesser imaging, so I’d stay with the 500x and maybe get a diffferent headphone for music and other stuff.
Depends on what your budget is, definitely don’t agree with the thoughts on it being the best headphones for competitive gaming.
As of right now I’d be willing to spend up to $300 CAD or $240 USD all that matters to me is having every edge sound wise I can have in comp FPS I’m not concerned about music or immersion
should be pretty simple honestly, ad500x is a bass recessed mids and highs forward headphone like the headphones later on down it’s line, it’s alright but doesn’t become a really good headphone till you reach ad1000x imo and ad2000x while very very good is quite expensive.
At your budget I would suggest a few, look into AKG k702 for a signature like your AD series, this does have some minor imaging issues but a much much larger soundstage and better build quality and comfort.
Better alternative would be the Tygr 300R, very large soundstage on par with akg and laser accurate imaging… this headphone has practically zero issues with fps despite having a more warm tuned signature. tygr is a redone up variant of the DT 990 and shares it’s sound placement characteristics however, it’s not a bright headphone which is why I would say 990 is slightly better in this particular regard… however it can be written off as marginal benefits
Beyerdynamic DT 770/880/990… these three are different from one another… 770 is your closed back it has a minor bass issue but works fine if you prefer isolation, 880 is a sound quality champion it does pretty much everything splendidly but could do with some better sounstage… this is a neutral bright headphone thats semi open back so no issues outside of it’s own limitations(depends entirely on the fps… if your playing smaller fps like cod or something this headphone has absolutely zero issues), 990 is the hit or miss headphone… very sharp V signature bass and treble emphasized… bass is slightly in the way but more than makes up with it due to the very large staging and incredibly good imaging topped with the treble pushing forward all fps sounds in that sound frequency, highly recommend avoiding 990 if your at all treble sensitive… Make sure if you buy an 880 or 990 to get them in their “edition” variants at 600 ohms since you have a g6 this can run them fine and you will get the best sound quality out of them this way(higher grade amps will scale with the beyers giving better sound quality).
Lastly, is just a jack of all trades which would be 58x jubilee… balanced signature. average soundstage slightly less than the ad series you have… around the same imaging, no downsides just fits pretty much anywhere except the largest of fps
Thank you for that info! Unfortunately the 300’s seem to be difficult to obtain at least in Canada anyways I am looking into the DT series I’ll stay away from the 770’s only use open back now. Main games I play are CoD, Siege, Hunt and escape from Tarkov. I didn’t know my g6 could handle the 600 ohm versions either so that does change things a bit.
Would you say that 880’s, 990’s and even the 300’s are a significant upgrade over what I currently run?
I personally thought the ad series quite a bit boring due to the lacking bass, though they do sound alright. In terms of competitive though… yes, I would say they are a definite upgrade though 880 may be a bit of a gamble in terms of soundstage due to its semi open back nature
I’ve been looking into more options would the HD599’s be a step up from AD500x’s? For comp FPS DT990’s are all back ordered till the end of February with the exception of the 80ohm version but can’t find much information on them at the moment. also I’m curious on the hifiman 400i’s as an alternative
too much bass so no.
not gonna lie, 80 ohm 990 sounds pretty bad
2020 version is more reference grade neutral, it’s alright but I would not rate it better than the beyers in competitive