Shure SRH840

I bought these about a six weeks ago for $180 at Guitar Center (They retail for $250, and I have since seen them for $160) after reading a number of stellar reviews and trying them out in the store using my iPod. The Shures replaced a 10 year old pair of AKG K501, and are a very different type of headphone.

I bought the AKGs because of their incredibly open and natural sound, even though they were designed for classical music and I listen mostly to jazz, R&B, house/electronica, rock (some), and movies. What the AKGs lacked in bass slam they more than made up for in other areas. Plus the bass improved significantly when I replaced the stock ear pads a couple of years ago with ear pads made for the 701. You can order these from AKG for $45/pair. They are held on with a bayonet clip -- so you unscrew the old pads and install the new ones as if you were changing the lens on an SLR camera. The 701 ear pads are a significant and worthwhile upgrade for the 501s if you have a pair and would like to stick with them.

My headphone amp is a Rega EAR, for which I paid about $350.

Back to the Shures:

They sounded great right out of the box -- open, clear, and precise with accurate (tuneful) and deep bass, though perhaps not as airy as you might prefer if you listen to a lot of orchestral music (which I do not).

They had (and still have) me digging through my music collection to listen to CDs that I haven't played in years -- almost to the point where I just started at one end of one of my shelves of discs (I have 600+ CDs) and started working my way through the shelf to find out what long-neglected tracks would sound like through the Shures. To me, that says a lot. The Shures really let me hear "into" the recording, in many cases revealing rhythmic cues or other details that helped define the musical passage. Missing these cues with the AKGs had caused me to put aside many recordings that I now find myself enjoying as if they were new.

An obvious possible reason for this is the difference in efficiency between the Shures and the AKGs. It could be the the Rega EAR is not good enough to extract what needs to be extracted from the AKGs. More on that below.

The Shures are so revealing that they called to my attention a shrillness (and perhaps a degree of electrical interference) with the Grado headphone extension cable I'd been using. They also have revealed the weakness of the Rega EAR, which I now feel has lots of gain, but not much finesse.

I replaced the Grado cable with a Mogami Gold extension cable ($56 from Amazon) and heard an immediate reduction in the noise floor and other irritating artifacts of what I presume was some degree of electrical interference (hash; harshness; a sense of compression when listening to high notes). So now I'm focused on replacing the Rega.

I listened to the Shures through a Perreaux headphone amp ($800) last weekend, and it was a night-and-day improvement over the much less expensive Rega. I'll be auditioning the Shures through the PS Audio GCHA (recently reduced to $499) next week, and also will be curious to hear what the PS Audio does for my old AKGs.

Possible negatives:

The Shures are heavy, and some may find that they clamp too tightly. Also, because they are closed, you may find them a bit warm compared to an open-back 'phone. I think they're fine, but they are not as comfortable or as lightweight as the AKGs. Also, I wear eyeglasses, but do not feel that either of these 'phones is uncomfortable for eyeglass wearers.

The rest of my living room system:

- Oppo BDP-83 Universal disc player

- PS Audio Digilink III DAC

- Naim preamp and power amp

- Wiremold power strip (recommended by Naim)

- Shunyata Research power cables on all non-Naim equipment

- DNM interconnects and speaker cable

- ATC loudspeakers

- RealTraps room treatment panels

- Base equipment platforms, Vibrapod feet, and other vibration control tweaks

In my office, I listen to an iMac via a pair of Alesis M1Active 320USB desktop monitors, which have a very good headphone jack through which I use a pair of Grado SR60s. The Alesis M1s are extremely versatile and a lot of laughs for $90.

If you listen to anything other than orchestral classical (and perhaps even if you do), the Shure SRH840 should be on your list. Check them out at a pro music store like Guitar Center or Sam Ash (bring your own MP3 player) where they'll let you listen for a while.

Highly recommended, especially at this price.

Disregard my earlier hate for these have come to appreciate these for what they are.

COMFORT

To start off my review i would like to say my opinions on comfort with these. Lots of people complain about them being uncomfortable or heavy, the truth of the matter is they feel rather light to me. Are people here really weak or something? i find these really comfortable, but just like all pairs of headphones i have tried they become irritating on my right ear after a while. This is due to my ears lately being really sensitive to touch, and is not the fault of the headphones. 

DURABILITY

Lets go to the next thing on the list, Durability. the common belief is that these are highly durable and can take a bit of a beating. yes to some extent this is true, the headband is very bendable and can survive day to day bending and twisting. BUT the plastic extender is very cheap feeling to me and i feel it could snap with the slightest twist or stretch. I also find the metal piece that connects the headband to the headphones is rather weak and with slight pressure it would snap. I know these things occur as i have read about it occurring from members of this site, and i can see it happening. I also fear for the cords jutting out the side of these headphones, i feel that the slightest pull or snag of that cord would cause it to rip or snap. Overall i give the durability/design a 3/5 as its not bad but still has it's faults. These headphones can last a long time with proper care, but be careful.

SOUND QUALITY

Time for the most important feature of any pair of headphones, HOW IT SOUNDS. The sound is very clear for the most part. They emphasize mid range so vocals and guitars stand out really well. These have the perfect amount of bass for me, although bass heads wouldn't be satisfied. The highs are presented well also. But for all the good of these headphones there is still some bad. these are very revealing so if you listen to a lot of poorly recorded music it will sound bad. These have strident upper mids/lower highs which cause a bit of irritation, they don't bug most people but they sure as heck bugs me. These are also sibilant, but that is understandable when musicians use these to record their albums. In terms of genres these sound good with, these do everything fairly well, but these tend to be a little slow for fast genres of music.

I found classical and old country/rock sounds really good with these.

Rap also sounds good as does pop.

Rock sounds good but like i mentioned its a little slow and some people might not like it.

Metal is the same as rock.

Folk music sounds impressive.

Unfortunately i haven't tried jazz.

But i have come to appreciate these for what they are and ignore the shortfalls. These are excellent for the money, especially if you get them for what i got them for. For $130 i can't complain. 

VERDICT

If you are a beginner in the field of audio and want something to start with these are a good buy, is there better out there? You bet, but for the price to performance ratio of these you can't go wrong. They don't do anything to badly and are decently cheap. They also make a good alternative to the Audio Technica ATH M50 as these are more neutral and have better mids. I would say these are great for entering the field of audio. Anyone have any doubts? Then go try a pair at a local shop if you can, you might just wind up with a pair.

These are way overhyped, the bass is lacking, the midrange is slightly off, and the treble range is downright pathetic like a drunken sailor, simple as that.

I couldn't believe how bad they are after all the hype, in terms of overall presentation they are unbalanced, and well, really quite inaccurate; i must admit i never amped them, but i can't see how that would improve things anyway, since the 840 characteristics are already shonky; there's no way these would be any good for monitoring with, and even for portable use the only good thing about them is the looks, since the bass is lacking, the midrange is not authentic, and the treble range sounds quirky, also the sound stage is all over the shop ...and there you have it, I lie not!

Maybe i would concede that they do have a smooth silky tone to them, but you better ask yourself, how does that make up for general overall skewed presentation.

These others in here giving them a good review are either dreamers or need to get new ears.

After burn-in and listening to them for a hundred hours or so, plus live mix time this is my perspective on their audio.

Coming from Sennheiser HD280 Pros and Shure SE215s, these seem to be amazingly balanced. 

They have the incredible Shure warmth and vocal clarity, but still extend their highs extensively. I have always found problem frequencies in all the other headphones I use, like the HD280 Pros have the weird 200Hz lump which is a constant annoying humming espesh during live sessions, biggest turn-off for me. But the SRH840s seem to be perfectly matched to the system I work with. Boominess when there is, sibilance when there is. Simply great monitoring cans for a large-ish system.

And the detail! Basically, if I can hear the string slap in the third minute of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and hear pages turning throughout the masterpiece, I am completely satisfied.

The soundstage is OK. It's not amazing and a tad forward at times which you'd least expect, but those incredible highs help spread it out.

The cans do well above average for most genres but there are times you wish you had something more like the Beyerdynamic DT880 Pros or AKG 701's with a lot more air and breath to them simply because they're open, but then again, these ARE meant for professional use, and open cans would be damn annoying when you're trying to PFL/solo anything live with 90dB of background noise.

I seriously have been on the hunt for the best live monitoring headphone and can't find anything better for even double or triple the price.

There is a lot of plastic on this can, but the back of the inner circle driver housing is metal, adding to that definition I mentioned earlier while the outer casing is plastic adding to that Shure warmth. The main headband of the phone is metal based, simply because plastic will never have the same kind of elasticity, but the frame that holds the earcups is pure plastic because of the rigidity required to hold the shape.

I do have to complain about a few things though, mainly design-wise. Most significant is probably due to my big head. When using my HD280 Pros, dropping each side to its maximum length causes only the bottom half of my ears to be covered, but with the SRH840's I have to drop them down the whole way for them to perfectly cover my ears. Now you might ask, "then what's the problem?" As a Sound Engineer I am trained in my thinking to always have a little headroom for everything. Save some for a rainy day, that kind of thing. It's already at its limit and that leads to another problem.

This one would the be smaller cables leading to earcup. Because the side lengths are at maximum, these smaller cables are almost at full stretch and I don't know how good the strain relief is, but if there was ever to be some serious snaggage, it could mean the death of the sound in the right earcup.

These cans are also the heaviest, and the 4m of coiled cable doesn't help either. But it does fold away quite neatly, with the cable detachable. Too bad it doesn't fold flat.