[dweaver]

Quote:

Thanks - I do try to be objective.  I still think with just a little sub-bass, these would have been excellent cans for me.  I agree with you on their suitability for jazz, female vocals, folk and most classical.  Unfortunately they never sounded 'right' for me with rock.  A cross between the 840 and 940 would have been really interesting .......
 

I do actually increase the bass for rock. here is my simple EQ settings in iTunes. I will use a similar setting when using Media Monkey or other players. I do not EQ my iphone very often as I find the presets suck and EQU is good but generally to much hassle to bother with, so on my iPhone I just listen to everything flat.
 
For those interested I use a small desktop amp made locally that is in my signature along with a Little Dot Dac1 using an optical cable from my PC for my home setup and use a combination FLAC and 256kbps to 320kbps MP3 files for my music, almost everything is ripped from my own CD's.
 

 

[Robn13]

Hey Guys, I'm a newb, just joined.

 
I was attracted to this site seeking headphone Nirvana, actually looking for a consensus view of what that might be at this particular point in time. Seeking to objectify an innately subjective issue as SQ is akin to seeking an honest politician. But I completely understand the concept of "sound signature" and was looking for a "bright, dynamic, energizing, and FUN" headphone. I am also very aware of "listening fatigue" and that the type of can I am describing can produce that reaction very quickly if not done right.
 
I encoded all my CDs to WMA and APPLE lossless using the dbpoweramp encoder. I am acutely aware of the maxim, "garbage in, garbage out" and its indisputable validity. I stream through usb on my desktop and laptop and through the camera kit for the Ipad. I have a Headroom Total Bithead pushing Shure 530s bought years ago and never previously used. I am NOT impressed with this sound , but maybe have not given it a fair chance, enough burn in, etc. But then I read your posts dweaver and now I think I understand 

 why I am not impressed.
 
dweaver, "My name is Rob. Can we be friends?"

 Seriously, your reviews are very thoughtful, well done, and very informative. And you don't seem to take it all too seriously. You could smack me if I tried to start a flame war!

 
So I get an email from "Earphone Solutions" and that takes me to their website and the 940s and this incredibly lengthy thread. I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on the $250 940. I would gladly pay another $100 to get rid of the plastic, but hey, it's a reflection on real life. I would like to compete with the stylized garbage they sell at Best Buy but can't build my own. Everybody is waiting for a full sized can with the SS, style, and price of the vModa M80 but who knows when that will be.
 
So, whaddya think pleez? I also need a setup for skiing and mountain biking with the kids. I was hoping the Polk Ultrafit series or the Yuin PK1 might be good for that since I HAVE to be able to listen for trouble during those activities. I hear the Polks are garbage and the Yuins just scare me for some reason, not secure enough for intended use. I know this is a little off thread but dweaver you (and others) seem to have already THOROUGHLY navigated the path I am now on. I really relate to a lot of your statements which you had to know, as you were writing them, were going to draw fire. That's COURAGE Son! Good job and THANKS!

 

[PleasantNoise]

Well I have a friend who didn't believe that there was much of a difference between different headphones (he has HD201's) So I got him to listen to his headphones, then the Srh940.
His face lit up, and he went and ordered them straight away, suddenly he thought the price was very reasonable. So that's a positive.

 

[nikp]

Okay, let me quickly summarise the consensus here.
 
Consensus: Bright, extremely detailed, great treble and mids, decent soundstage, great extension
 
Where the SRH940 owners split views:
- Artificial sounding
- Coloured
- Lack of bass
- Headband pushes down on the head
- Sounds like an HD800
- Thin sounding
 
 I personally agreed that the SRH940 is coloured, bass is under-neutral and timbre is mediocre at best (thin sounding). Even though I don't even need emphasised bass because I mainly listen to classical, the SRH940 still fail to deliver.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[dweaver]

Quote:

Hey Guys, I'm a newb, just joined.

 
I was attracted to this site seeking headphone Nirvana, actually looking for a consensus view of what that might be at this particular point in time. Seeking to objectify an innately subjective issue as SQ is akin to seeking an honest politician. But I completely understand the concept of "sound signature" and was looking for a "bright, dynamic, energizing, and FUN" headphone. I am also very aware of "listening fatigue" and that the type of can I am describing can produce that reaction very quickly if not done right.
 
I encoded all my CDs to WMA and APPLE lossless using the dbpoweramp encoder. I am acutely aware of the maxim, "garbage in, garbage out" and its indisputable validity. I stream through usb on my desktop and laptop and through the camera kit for the Ipad. I have a Headroom Total Bithead pushing Shure 530s bought years ago and never previously used. I am NOT impressed with this sound , but maybe have not given it a fair chance, enough burn in, etc. But then I read your posts dweaver and now I think I understand 

 why I am not impressed.
 
dweaver, "My name is Rob. Can we be friends?"

 Seriously, your reviews are very thoughtful, well done, and very informative. And you don't seem to take it all too seriously. You could smack me if I tried to start a flame war!

 
So I get an email from "Earphone Solutions" and that takes me to their website and the 940s and this incredibly lengthy thread. I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on the $250 940. I would gladly pay another $100 to get rid of the plastic, but hey, it's a reflection on real life. I would like to compete with the stylized garbage they sell at Best Buy but can't build my own. Everybody is waiting for a full sized can with the SS, style, and price of the vModa M80 but who knows when that will be.
 
So, whaddya think pleez? I also need a setup for skiing and mountain biking with the kids. I was hoping the Polk Ultrafit series or the Yuin PK1 might be good for that since I HAVE to be able to listen for trouble during those activities. I hear the Polks are garbage and the Yuins just scare me for some reason, not secure enough for intended use. I know this is a little off thread but dweaver you (and others) seem to have already THOROUGHLY navigated the path I am now on. I really relate to a lot of your statements which you had to know, as you were writing them, were going to draw fire. That's COURAGE Son! Good job and THANKS!

Rob, I would look to see if any local sores carry the SRH-940 before buying it just to make sure you like the signature. If not take advantage of earphone solutions 20% savings this weekend to help reduce your loss if your not happy with the sound. As for sound, I think you will find the 940 to be a brighter livelier signature than the 530's which are known to be mid centric but not treble centric, I also think the bass will be slightly bigger as well. anyway I have to run as I am heading out of town. Hope this helps you get started. BTW your bithead amp will work well with the SRH-940 so your covered on that front .

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikp /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
 I personally agreed that the SRH940 is coloured, bass is under-neutral and timbre is mediocre at best (thin sounding). Even though I don't even need emphasised bass because I mainly listen to classical, the SRH940 still fail to deliver.
 

Too bad, because the 940 is not that at all. You want to hear thin and bassless, try the AKG K142 or K172
 

 

[skyline315]

Quote:

Too bad, because the 940 is not that at all. You want to hear thin and bassless, try the AKG K142 or K172
 

It's all relative.  
 
After listening to my DT880s for a while and then throwing on the 940s, my first impression is THIN.  After listening to the 940s for a while, though, the impression of thinness goes away and I'm left with a pretty smooth and balanced sound that I enjoy quite a bit.
 
As a side note, I was really missing out on how smooth these headphones can sound before I purchased a dac/amp to pair with them (Audinst HUD-mx1).  They certainly don't need an amp for volume, but I really feel that they smooth out and sound a little more full with the right pairing.  They sound far less grainy to me now than they did before.
 

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Quote:

As a side note, I was really missing out on how smooth these headphones can sound before I purchased a dac/amp to pair with them (Audinst HUD-mx1). 

They can sound awful with the realtek onboard soundcard
 

 

[dweaver]

Love my DAC and I definitely get better bass with a bit more amplification that my amp gives over a regular sound card or portable.

 

[clarknova]

Quote:

Rob, I would look to see if any local sores carry the SRH-940 before buying it just to make sure you like the signature. If not take advantage of earphone solutions 20% savings this weekend to help reduce your loss if your not happy with the sound. As for sound, I think you will find the 940 to be a brighter livelier signature than the 530's which are known to be mid centric but not treble centric, I also think the bass will be slightly bigger as well. anyway I have to run as I am heading out of town. Hope this helps you get started. BTW your bithead amp will work well with the SRH-940 so your covered on that front .

This. If you are brand new to the high end headphone game you need to start by going slow or auditioning before you drop hundreds of dollars on cans and gears. You can easily end up with buyers remorse.

 

[skyline315]

Quote:

This. If you are brand new to the high end headphone game you need to start by going slow or auditioning before you drop hundreds of dollars on cans and gears. You can easily end up with buyers remorse.

Yep.  Guitar Center carries the 940 and was kind enough to open a box up and let me listen.  Give them a shot if you've got one near you.

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Okay, let me quickly summarise the consensus here.
 
Consensus: Bright, extremely detailed, great treble and mids, decent soundstage, great extension
 
Where the SRH940 owners split views:
- Artificial sounding
- Coloured
- Lack of bass
- Headband pushes down on the head
- Sounds like an HD800
- Thin sounding
 
 I personally agreed that the SRH940 is coloured, bass is under-neutral and timbre is mediocre at best (thin sounding). Even though I don't even need emphasised bass because I mainly listen to classical, the SRH940 still fail to deliver.
 
 
 
 
 
 

I think the only time the SRH-940 was thin sounding (actually...thinner, not thin) was when I was driving it out of an Ipod Touch or similar device. As long as I had a DAC/amp, everything was OK. It wasn't just taking on the signature of the amp/dac.
 
SRH-940 seemed to be some weird mix of a bright and warm headphone. How does that happen? Wish I knew.
 
If someone's coming from an HD-600 or SRH-840, sure it could be thinner sounding. Well, duh.
 
If people thought the 940 was thin, I'd hate to see what they'd think of the K550 or KNS-8400 (not thin to me).
 
 
 

 

[Cheezerme]

http://www.amazon.com/Shure-SRH940-Professional-Reference-Headphones/dp/B004MTE7EK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333772246&sr=8-1 I'm sorry if i am ignoring anything previously, but i just want to point out they are at a better pricepoint (including the 20% on earphone solutions) from amazon. Don't want anyones money wasted, and i am DREADFULLY sorry if i missed you living in another country or something.

 

[nikp]

Quote:

Too bad, because the 940 is not that at all. You want to hear thin and bassless, try the AKG K142 or K172
 

Too bad, I'm hearing them that way. 

 Thanks for the suggestions, I will do my ears a favour and avoid the AKGs.
 
@tdockweiler Fair enough. At that time, I listened to them through my iPod Touch and Macbook. My reference point at that time is the DT880. I don't like the SRH940s - bass is too weak (coming from a guy who listens to classical). I'd rather get the ATH-M50 or SRH840 although I will surely miss the level of detail on the SRH940.

 

[FlobHobNob]

I'm a classic rock guy through and through and I'm going to be upgrading from my sr60s. Do you guys think this will give me what I need.