After reading glowing reviews of both of these in ear monitors I was still unable to decide which one would be right for me so I bought both, first the Shure and a few weeks later the Sennheiser. I already own the JH Audio 16 Pro, Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10 Pro, HiFi Man HE-500, Sennheiser  HD 650, Shure SRH940 among others. My music files are all in FLAC format and I play them through an Astell & Kern AK120 and also used a Samsung Galaxy S4 for comparison purposes. To boost the signal for some of my headphones I use an ALO Rx Mk2, a Schitt Lyr, and...

INTRODUCTION:   I have owned the AK120 since September and listen to it every day, several hours a day. I use a variety of headphones depending upon where I am. When I'm home, I prefer my HiFiMan HE-500 Orthodynamic cans or my JH Audio 16 Pro and when I'm out I generally use my closed back Shure SRH-940, UE 5 Pro or my custom fit ER4 MicroPro. I have used it with a variety of amplifiers though it really doesn't need external amplification to drive any of the headphones I listed to a reasonable volume level. I was in fact surprised to discover just...