My Shure 840 Mod - Warning! Lots of pictures.

First let me say this is just a weight reduction modification. I grew so tired of the pain and heaviness on my head, I just had to do something about it. It was causing too much pressure on a small spot on my head. They've got an odd [ design instead of a ( design like most headphones. They are not form fitting even in the slightest...but the sound produced from the 840s are just incredible awesome...too awesome to get rid of. This mod will be finished likely tomorrow. I am currently testing to see if I should keep the memory foam piece currently on, or make it WIDER more like a small hat instead of a strip :3

I originally tried to fashion some memory foam to the headband via some fabric and straps to hold it in place, some of the glue bled through and got onto the headband. A big boo boo. I wanted to cry.

The boo boo


After this I got upset and decided to hell with it, lets just mod the entire thing. So I clipped off the headband gently and I almost fell right off my chair. See that giant piece of something to the left of the 840s? Well that is a giant piece of rubber that is immensely heavy, seriously heavy...i cannot tell you how heavy that thing was. Holy crap heavy...look at that strip of padding. For shame. No wonder they are so uncomfortable. They practically do not have ANY padding at all. You can also see the piece of memory foam I cut with a nice moon shaped groove down the center to better fit the headband to come later.


Removed the padding and placed some Velcro to later be the foundation for the new padding I will install


I then snipped that padding with a plastic back end that was part of the 840s originally to now better fit the headband. Velcro was also added to the back ends.


This sliding piece is useless right in the center, so i removed it. Remember, this is a weight reduction mod. Any pieces that are not needed are coming off! The piece that held the wire in place was also CAREFULLYYYYY removed and was a pain to get rid of.



I used a hair clip and broke off the end pieces to replace that enclosure, glued them on right over that piece to make sure the wire cannot float around and stays in place. Made sure to leave just enough slack to let the headband expand fully and not resist the new piece. This was done to both sides.

From here I went back to my memory foam piece. This is a beta model. I may cut a wider piece out to further take the load off my head. I installed some Velcro on the back ends and placed it on top of the original two pieces laid down earlier. The slack from the wire was too great, it just dangled there originally under a giant HEAVY piece of rubber, which was very upsetting. So I again Velcroed it in place,making sure again to leave slack below.


I then noticed something terrible. The piece that was holding the wire in place, a sliding plastic piece, was literally pinching the hell out of the wire. This is the piece right above the red and blue dots that also holds back the wire. Good lord, that thing could easily slice right through the wire if it were dropped directly on it or mishandled. It had to go.


Right now she is naked as can be, and another piece of foam will cover the top. I have not decided to use leather or some type of velor to cover the memory foam. However, right now it is an IMMENSE improvement over what it originally was. It is much lighter and comfortable, more tolerable for extended usage, and also a bit safer due to that removal of that certain piece that could easily slice the wire in half.

Meh, may seem like a waste to some others, but I use the 840s all day every day and I feel the mod was required. This drastically reduced the weight of the 840s. I'd say a solid 25%, with the added memory foam in place of NOTHING...it seems worth it. The headband can still retract and expand normally without catching wires or crunching the memory foam, its all got just enough room to function normally and without the extra plastic pieces and giant rubber useless piece. Again the final wrapped fabric of w/e I choose will come soon and I'll post pics right away of the final product.

Nice mod. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Awesome man, good to see it all went well. I can't wait to see the finished project

oh dear... I am wearing my SRH840s right now and I literally felt them wimper. hehe, kinda curious to see how this is going to turn out though!

Where were you able to get the memory foam from? I've been looking to get some small pieces of it (about 1-2 square feet), but the smallest I've been able to find so far are mattress toppers.

Nice mod BTW. I would have left out the part with the hair clip though

lol, well I couldn't think of anything else laying around the house that would work in that sense. And I've a crap load of memory foam left over, I do a lot of mod work on other and got good sized piece of it a while back. A buddy of mine got it for me and I never asked where from. :[

Decided to go with the Sennheiser 580 headband, I custom fit the original Shure leather as best I could. It's actually much more comfy without anything there and just bare with the leather over the metal band. It is much skinner, as I removed everything from it and added a strip of memory foam over the top side for cable protection. I'm sure with the 580 band it will be divinely comfortable. Pictures of the final piece as soon as the band arrives.

White glossy strip is the shine from the leather and the camera. Hard to snap a pic of it without it reflecting the light.

May I ask how you clipped off the headband?  Also is there a way of removing it so that if I wanted to put the original headband back on I could do so without a problem?

You need to cut the fabric off gently and carefully making sure not to clip the wire inside.  After that remove the giant massive heavy rubber piece and foam.  Start snapping off the other sliding plastic pieces.  Re-cover the top with your choice of coverings.  Perhaps add a 580/600 headband for comfort.  
 
It's an easy mod, somewhat dangerous but the weight reduction makes it worth it.  Also, the shure 840 are so badly designed, they get my pick for the absolute worst and most dangerous design of a headphone of the last few years.  The headband is stupidly large and heavy, the rubber piece is so heavy and didn't even need to be there.  The wire is exposed on each side, why?  I have no idea why as its immensely stupid in its design and placement.  So dangerous, as I've recently found out.  Mine took a tumble and got caught right on that exposed wire and got shredded.  
 
But they sound amazing just a lot of stupid design flaws.

Follow up pics?

Looking forward for Shure to design more comfortable and practical set in their next update of the 840s. I hope the company has someone reading these forums.


~ Andrei.

Cant wait to see the final result!! 

You stole that hair clip from your GF? 
 
I look forward for pics when you finish it. 

These were lost in a disaster way back in October.  One of many sets that didn't make it.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/516713/lost-almost-all-my-gear-in-a-fire-salutes-my-journey