I want to buy Shure SRH440, persuade me to buy them, or not. - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by randomkid 

hey guys, im pretty much set on buying a pair of Shure SRH440's at christmas, but if you can persuade me not to, or to buy a different pair of headphones, im all ears. My budget is 70 UK pounds.
Circumaural preferably
closed back
not too heavy/bulky (as i use them on a bus)
balanced/neutral sound
comfy
im open to IEM suggestions too, if they are comfy and sound better than the Shures.
My source is a iPod classic with mainly apple lossles and 320kbps, a fiio L3 and a miu audio DIY amp, with LME49720 opamp.
Thanks guys.

I had these for about 3 weeks with around 75 hours of burn in but ultimately returned them.  Sound wise they are great bang for your buck.  Neutral, crisp, and clear, but I have sensitive ears and it was a bit bright, harsh for me due to that spike in the high frequency.  I prefer the laid back sennheiser sound signature.  Yes they are circumaural, closed back, and they are a bit heavy/bulky but you can collapse the headphones and they fit nicely in the nifty bag they provide.  Yes they are balanced and have for the most part neutral sound  Comfort wise they were the most uncomfortable headphones I have ever worn.  They have extremely shallow ear cushions so your ears will be squished against the hard plastic.  The 840 pads are just as shallow but will help dramatically because it provides a bit of padding between the hard plastic and your ears and are made of a softer cushion.  In addition to having to change the ear pads, there is absolutely no padding on the headband so it puts pressure on the top of your head which felt really awkard for me.  Overall the sound is good, comfort was extremely poor for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by randomkid 

are they well defined? Sorry about lots of questions, but if someone could explain the sound of the treble for me, that would be great. Do they lack sparkle?

They have nice detail, but you have to be concentrating on your music to hear it if you know what I mean. I still would not say that they have sparkle. Extension basically stops at 10k. Which isn't to say they sound bad, but they don't excel at treble I should think. If you're looking for shimmery, sparkly, lifelike treble, I think these definitely won't blow you away. The way these headphones strike me as being is that they don't do any frequency range very badly, but they don't excel at any either. They really are "balanced" in that sense.

Hope you like them. Don't forget to infecting your other friends with this disease hobby :D

From what I heard last week, 440 is pretty good, with up-front vocal, almost grado-like, but very smooth compared to grado SR60i. Vocal is crystal clear, although tad bright imo (maybe those spike at treble area?). bass is bit light, not grado-light but definitely not bass monster. The sound-stage (or head-stage if you prefer) is small, more on-stage or maybe first row kind, not very deep, layering is ok. Didn't has airy-sound to it, but everything is just so clear and coherent, it make Goldring SR150 sounded bit veiled in comparison. Isolation is good for closed back, but I don't know how well it isolate outside.

The sound-stage is deal-breaker for me (I was shopping for sound-stage and airy vocals) that's why I picked Goldring DR150 over it (Jaben Jakarta didn't has any low-end Sennheiser series, so I can't try HD518 nor HD558).
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by randomkid 

just ordered my pair, i paid £4.40 haha! I got a £50 voucher from amp3.co.uk, then they had an open box pair as new, and free shipping.
Cant wait to get them, if i like the sound i am gettin 840 pads for them

The SRH-440 is a very good headphone, you won't be disappointed. Get the 840 pads if you can, huge difference in comfort and the sound is a little better (more balanced), imo.