Upgrade SHP9500 for up to 200$

Headphones Headphone Discussion / Help
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Looking for a new pair of headphones to replace my shp9500s (open-back only).

I mostly use them for gaming, currently connected to a v-moda mic, no amp/dac (don’t want to get one either). Other than gaming, I listen to 70’s rock, modern pop and some electronic as well.

I love balanced headphones, and really like the sound signature of my 9500s - most important for me is soundstage and imaging I guess.

Considering upgrading because I really hate how poor their build quality is - sound improvements are welcome as well of course!

Preferred site to buy from is Amazon, due to easiest way to deal with customs when shipping to Israel (literally twice the price if I buy anything local). I’d like to keep it under 200$ - not including shipping. Closer to 150$ but can go up a bit something if is worth it.

I’ve considered X2HR, but some folks said they are not worth the money. Thought about 58x from massdrop but people say they are bad for gaming. Considered dt990 but people said the treble is horrible. I’m kind of frustrated with it right now.

Thanks for reading.

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Hey there welcome to hifiguides,

So, couple things are you still wanting to make use of the v-moda boom pro? There isn’t a very big selection on detachable 3.5mm jack connector headphones that will work here in particular to my knowledge. Most are duel sided connectors, 2.5mm, or some form of mini xlr. Also, upgrading from the shp9500 I highly suggest you get an amp/dac unit while you may not think its necessary it does increase your sound quality by quite the margin and you open the doors to a very large selection of headphones your only limiting yourself to a very select few that will work without an amp.

I would say I am confused here. Have you used balanced connected headphones? By balanced do you mean neutral? The 9500s are not by any means a balanced or neutral sounding headphone they are a Bright headphone as the treble is raised on them. Other terminology would be utilization of a balanced cable which the 9500 are not as they use a single ended 3.5mm connector.

Not going to find much that can beat out the shp9500 in this price point unfortunately. Only side grades in my opinion. SHP9500 hits above the price point and is quite good outside of build qualities.

Depends on what your looking for. X2HR Fidelio is a warm headphone with much more bass than the shp9500 and definitely not as bright. It’s very smooth and can be seen as a little muddy with the bass bleeding a little into the vocals. It’s by no means a bad headphone but it would just simply be a different signature I wouldn’t particularly call it an upgrade.

I would honestly try to educate any person who walked up to me and said of all things that the 58x jubilee is “bad for gaming” because this is an absolute 100% incorrect statement. It is by no means bad nor is the fidelio x2hr or the shp9500. Fidelios are awful for competitive gaming but great for casual while shp9500 is better for competitive gaming and not so grand for casual gaming. 58x jubilee on the other hand is a very neutral sounding headphone with a fairly average size soundstage and good imaging it’s a very jack of all trades headphone and can fit just about anywhere and in any genre in my opinion due to it’s natural neutrality as is customary of the Sennheiser house sound in most cases the only downside really is that you may find yourself wanting a bit more out of the headphone as the signature can be seen as boring to some as it’s not super bassy or bright for that matter. All 3 of these headphones are different sound signatures and really depends what your looking for.

So, the 990 is a bit of a hard sell in my opinion. The treble is an issue for a lot of people myself personally, not so much. You can of course run a test if you have some audio equipment even in the case of shp9500 if you use a pc as you just need an equalizer or a stereo with a 3.5mm jack turn up the treble on it or a radio and listen. The 990s are very sharp on their treble so the SS sound of vocals or cymbals or other annunciations can be found very uncomfortable for some or even in some cases painful. 990s are a V signature an a sharp one with a lot of bass and a lot of treble behind them with a large soundstage and very accurate imaging the vocals or mids are recessed and pushed in the back. If you wanted a more “neutral” headphone similar to the shp9500 that still has some brightness and that’s just good and more rounded out look into the DT 880 instead while the soundstage and imaging isn’t -as- good it’s plenty for gaming and listening and sounds great in multiple case scenarios. The only issue with the beyers is they do not sound good in their respective lower ohm variations. 80 ohm is kind of pushing it and is decent… 250 ohm is probably your middle ground best bet and 600 ohm is the best sound of the headphone bar none. However, regardless on the beyers you need an amp to drive them.

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I’m just gonna add that the SHP9600 is releasing this week. Might wanna keep an eye on it…

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Not sure the release in israel on that one but yeah that is on its way though people from the other countries have said it has a different signature

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First of all, thanks for the reply.

are you still wanting to make use of the v-moda boom pro?

I mostly game by myself so I don’t really have to use the V-Moda mic, so if it really widens the variety of headphones you could suggest, I could just use the 9500s when gaming with friends.

I highly suggest you get an amp/dac unit

I guess if it could fit the 200$ bar, or slightly over (around 220$ total), including the headphones I could get it, if it’s worth it.

By balanced do you mean neutral?

Sorry, I guess I got the terminology all wrong, I’m pretty new to all of this “audiophile” stuff, as I’ve been using headsets my whole life. Let’s just say I’m open to all suggestions, and I’ll research the matter further when I get some suggestions to compare and watch reviews on.

Fidelios are awful for competitive gaming but great for casual while shp9500 is better for competitive gaming and not so grand for casual gaming.

Could you further explain the reason behind this? I mostly play FPS games (usually Battlefield franchise), so soundstage and imaging would be my most critical features in a headphone. I don’t really care about bass, but I do like the “fun” part of it.

58x jubilee on the other hand is a very neutral sounding headphone with a fairly average size soundstage and good imaging it’s a very jack of all trades headphone and can fit just about anywhere and in any genre in my opinion due to it’s natural neutrality as is customary of the Sennheiser house sound in most cases the only downside really is that you may find yourself wanting a bit more out of the headphone as the signature can be seen as boring to some as it’s not super bassy or bright for that matter.

So I guess 58x wouldn’t really fit my need due to lacking in the soundstage department? I wish I could actually try some of these to get more of a feeling for what exactly I’m looking for, but unfortunately the whole headphone-craze never got to Israel. 99% of the products here are either gaming headsets or low priced closed-back headphones.

If it helps, I was absolutely amazed by the sound quality of the SHP9500 as I’ve never heard any open-backs beforehand. So I’m very uneducated and will probably enjoy most headphones you’ll suggest.

The 990s are very sharp on their treble so the SS sound of vocals or cymbals or other annunciations can be found very uncomfortable for some or even in some cases painful.

My hearing is very sensitive to high frequencies, it really annoys me, so as far as I understand, the DT990 is a no-go either.

Never thought I would be so hard choosing headphones haha.

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Probably not, most useful amps are going to be in the $100 range outside of a very select few that can power up to I believe 250 ohms though it’s something worth looking into. If I recall correctly I just had this conversation where a guy was picking up a Mackie HM-4 which is like $40 and can power a dt 770 at 250 ohms so there are options they just won’t sound the best.

No worries, Take your time on it, takes a bit to pick it up.

Certainly, so since you play FPS heres some explaination for you. Ideally in Competitive FPS there is a sound signature to look for. Bass aka Low end is actually a bad thing in competitive fps as it gets in the way of hearing things such as footsteps, glass shattering, among other fps sounds that help with placement however Low end is typically what someone who wants more casual gaming immersion looks for as more thump in your sound especially in horrors or rpgs is nice for most people to my knowledge. The other things to look for is brightness aka Treble you want this generally raised. Treble can enhance the sounds of those subtle footsteps, gunshots, glass, among others and make them more forward and apparent so you can better place where they are this goes hand in hand with imaging. So imaging is your actual sound placement if you have bad imaging well your not going to place anything to put it simply. Sound stage is the size of your sound placement the larger that soundstage the further out you can hear and place a sound and in a game like battlefield you definitely want that large soundstage for not only placement for but definite immersion. The other two to look for that aren’t particularly all too important but help are seperation and upper mids being raised or neutral upper mids can help the treble in placement and your seperation of sound allows you to better pinpoint a sound amidst a huge shootout with all the amount of gunfire and explosions going on without seperation all the sounds will be very melded together and make things a bit harder to pinpoint.

In the fidelios case it’s a Warm headphone this means it’s bassy with the other frequencies falling more on neutral. It’s practically the opposite you would want ideally of a competitive headphone. SHP9500 on the other hand is Bright or rather more neutral lows and mids with the treble aka highs increased making it the more ideal headphone. You can of course switch the pads on the shp9500 or equalize it to make it more fun sounding, I have my own shp9500 swapped to zmf universe suede pads which are very nice and bassy alongside some velour pads just for when I want that neutral bright sound back.

So, the 58x jubilee will do the job fine it just won’t be in the most -ideal- sense of use. It’s amazing in smaller fps but in larger fps games is where you notice it can struggle a little but not by much it still does the job just fine even though it has a relatively average soundstage. The closest to the 58x jubilee I would say is the HD 598 if you can get your hands on one as they are discontinued though HD 598 had a larger soundstage than the jubilee it’s just that the Jubilee has a better quality of sound. Gaming headsets are just universally around the world and it’s obnoxious as they are so terrible in comparison to actual headphones. The only two I would even remotely recommend from the headset lineup for competitive gaming is the Coolermaster MH751(go with 752 if you wanted software equalization though) or the Sennheiser PC37x(the massdrop version of the Sennheiser Game One).

The sound quality on the shp9500 is quite something special even more so if you consider the fact that here in the USA you can find that headphone for like $50 which is dirt cheap. It’s hard to beat until you get up there in price tag. The step up I would say is easily the DT 880 from Beyerdynamic as they share a signature but I find the DT 880 to be much better however, dt 880 has an attached cable(though this can be modified to be detachable to still use the v moda).

It really boils down to your experience. Think of it kind of like a journey if you plan to get into this hobby. Start out small which you have a great starter already than slowly work your way forward. If you are at all sensitive like you say definitely skip the 990 it wouldn’t work for you speaking as someone who owns that headphone and knows better. I tried to get several friends of mine to like the 990 it didn’t work at all it really is that bright. I would recommend the DT 880 at 250 ohms(not 600 as it’s brighter) if you can get an amp as that would probably be your best bet for an upgrade from the shp9500. Beyers are built like tanks with amazing comfort behind them they also tend to have extremely good imaging. In the 880s case the soundstage is large and has the perfect signature for battlefield as it’s another bright headphone like the shp9500. If you are struggling with the higher frequencies and on pc look into a program called PEACE apo Equalizer it’s two downloads and completely free I use it myself. It takes a bit of setup but it can let you change your headphones sound.

The only upgrades I can think of in this price margin would be finding a cheap DT 880 since you play competitively alternative to the DT 880(only if you can find it cheaper) would be HarmonicDyne Helios but I find the dt 880 to be better in most cases for gaming than the Helios however Helios doesn’t technically need an amp which may work in your favor. It’s build quality is… questionable but better than shp9500 in my opinion. DT 880 on the other hand would be your best bet result here in my opinion you’d need an amp/dac unit. If at all possible I would save up a bit to get the setup.

If you have any way of trying the beyers beforehand I would say to do that first though in your location I can imagine this stuff may be very difficult for you. @M0N may have some more helpful lower budget insight into this or some lower tier amp/dac setups you can go with on a heavy budget he may even have some other headphone suggestions. Also @RiceGuru uses the dt 990 so he may know of some more budget friendly amp ideas that can drive the beyers

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Awesome, so I guess I’ll go with DT 880. Since the dollar is really low right now I guess I could squeeze in a few more bucks. I saw the 880s are almost out of stock on Amazon and are currently priced at 200$. Say I order that last pair, is there any amp/dac combo under 100$ that is actually worth rushing and buying before the next restock of the 880s?

Considering that pair of headphones will be my main pair for the next 3 years, I’m willing to spend some more and actually enjoy their potential.

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depends, first is this console gaming or pc gaming? Console gaming needs an optical port which is why I ask

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PC gaming. Also, should I got with the DT 880 or DT 880 pro? both are the same price.

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DT 880 Edition not the Pro. Pro has a coiled cable for a gamer I find the straight cable from the “edition” or “premium” whatever its labelled better.

Amp/dac combos that should work. Fiio E10k, Schiit Fulla, Ifi Zen Dac. Zen Dac would be best imo as it has that bass boost on it giving your 880 a bit more fun option and it can roll off that treble a bit more making it more comfortable for you however they are usually $120. Fiio E10k has a bass boost as well but not as powerful

Fiio should be around $50-$75. Schiit Fulla 3 is always at $100 and Ifi Zen Dac is kind of all over the palce but usually at like $130

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I’ll be getting the DT 880 paired with the Fiio. I appreciate your help and patience, thanks a bunch!

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Sounds good man, glad I could help. Oh and definitely do look into peace. In the event that for some reason you feel the sound could be alterred or you want to experiment it’s a handy tool it can also mess with your microphone settings and quality.

You can also later on look into modifying the dt 880 to have a detachable cable(or pay someone to have it done for you) so you can attach a mic to the unit.

Be sure to chime back in with your thoughts on it

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