The answer to all this previous posted gibberish (from guys who clearly have too much time on their hands), is that a headphone amp makes more than a minuscule difference. Quite simple really.   ummm, next you'll be pointing-out that the phrase "two much time on your hands" is a play on words...

holy cow batman, ummm, i mean gelocks, i will have to question your hearing buddy boy, and why? Because i can hear A HUGE FU_KING DIFFERENCE between amped and unamped with the 440. Clearly you're not gonna be a mixing or mastering engineer at a local million dollar music studio any time soon.

Geeez man, obviously i have to be a rhodes scholar to do a review around here, then have it checked by the National Publishing Association for any minuscule inconsistencies before release LOL... ohhh man, you guys are funny. Anyway, Dynamic or Planar, i don't really give a frogs ass what the...

I can easily agree with gelocks about the Shure 440's, they are the bomb.   The 440's are by far a better headphone than the M-50's by a country mile. They also sound easily superior to the Pro 700 MK II's, and they definitely sound better than Shure's own 840's (i was A/B/ing between them...

Well, Argyris, i'm definitely harmless, because i believe in live and let live. BUT, i also believe in 'absolute' freedom of speech.    Anyway, i saw this on a review for that Pioneer killer you lot are so horny about...The Pioneer SE-A1000 headphones sound amazing and in some cases seem to...

Right you are!

Wouldn't do that if i was you. The 840's are only good within their own family camp, and yet which is better between the 840 and 440 is purely down to opinion, those graphs don't really demonstrate squat. I deem the 440's better than the 840's. There are many headphones of any brand that are...

I have all three and the 439 is the better sounding of the three; it is more balanced overall and puts out a reasonably good sound compared to other headphones but as a recommendation the Shure 240 sounds even better than the 439 and it is cheaper.

The Shure 840 is far better than the M-50. That's a true statement, assuming it's amped of course.

The FiiO E12 does 'significantly' increase the sound performance of headphones; i simply can't listen to any headphone without an amp now, it's just not worth it, it's like going from a car to a motor-bike, the comfort and luxury is simply not as good.    Without an amp there is no power and...

iPods and Macbooks have a pretty clean and decent built-in amp 'for most people' so all you need to get is a FiiO E12 ($129) and you won't regret it.I had a FiiO E11 but my new FiiO E12 beats the crap out of the E11.

The 440's **** all over the M50's, that's a fact without a doubt, no question. The 440's are a very good headphone, better than a lot of well-known ones. Plug in a good amp and the 440's excel something wicked. I have the M50's and the 440's and the 440's leave the M50 in the dust. The 440's...

The ATH-M50's have a meaty (not punchy) bass which becomes annoying after a while, well it did to me, and its bass does not have a smooth linear respone because the M-50 bass has been designed to boost at specific points in the audio spectrum, but actually in all the wrong places IMO. The M-50...

I came to the same conclusion, the lower priced 6400's sound better than the 8400's, as is the case many times, the lower cost headphone in the line-up can quite frequently be the better performing one. People don't seem to realize that it's ALL ABOUT THE MONEY, these companies are taking us all...

The KRK 8400 blitzes all other headphones, detachable cord and everything, comfortable to wear and lush accurate sound, reference class; makes Sennheiser and Grado look like child's play. The Shure 840 doesn't even come close. You're onto it now, the guys in here are not aware that Sennheiser...