[DecentLevi]

Hello thanks for your ideas. I like the way the 940 presents the treble - very detailed and organic-ish, but a little too harsh. So I've been playing around with trying some tubes in my amp that are somewhat rolled off in the highs.
 
I will search this thread for that headband mod - I just hope it doesn't break the wires to swap that out.
 
I actually already have the DT 150 from Beyerdynamic. While I'm not sure if it's a fluke of manufacturing inconsistency, my particular pair seems to have a medium/small soundstage. Yes it's very rolled off in the highs as you say. And a lot of other owners of it say that it's nor impactful enough in the dynamics.
 
The 940's have basically 0 soundstage though, so I think they are better suited for mastering, like in a studio for critical listening. 

 

[pmarrison]

When people say the 940 is bass light, do you mean neutral? is it quite tight and analytical? im asking because im looking for a set of headphones to produce electronic music on. Im not keen on emphasized bass in headphones  as long as it is tight and accurate. How does the bass in these compare to sennheiser 558 and grado 325is?

 

[DecentLevi]

Yes the bass of the 940 is superbly neutral. I actually use it for sound-design and most of my mastering because it's about as analytical, detailed and linear as you can get - the exception being the upper high's which are exaggerated by around 2.5db. The way I advise around this it to put an EQ at the end of your track that cuts this high treble peak around so much in order to give you a truly linear picture of the sound - then just turn off that EQ compensation before bouncing the track. 
 
I have tried modding mine by way of filters over the earpad to reduce the treble, but by doing so I only muddied up the whole sound. I would still be interested in hearing anyone else's modding idea to reduce its' piercing highs? But other than that this is my reference studio monitoring 'can, and even another electrostric buff told me it sounds like an electrostatic headphone, which is good.
 
The bass is 2-3db less than the HD 558, 598 and 650's, which is good since those are slightly boosted in the bass.
 
EDIT: The 940 also are astoundingly clear and have dynamics hard to beat
but I find them very fatiguing for normal listening

 

[MacedonianHero]

  When people say the 940 is bass light, do you mean neutral? is it quite tight and analytical? im asking because im looking for a set of headphones to produce electronic music on. Im not keen on emphasized bass in headphones  as long as it is tight and accurate. How does the bass in these compare to sennheiser 558 and grado 325is?

Oh no...when I say it's bass lite...I'm saying that it is less than neutral...quite a bit so in fact to my ears.

 

[trellus]

My favorite Bluetooth headphone setup right now -- Shure SRH940 + Super-short third-party cable + TROND AptX-enabled Bluetooth receiver with clip ... very clean sounding, comfortable, loads of detail! Picked up the Shure for $65 used... had to do some therapy on them to recover them from a seriously smokey smell, but worth it!

 

[manueljenkin]

Yes the bass of the 940 is superbly neutral. I actually use it for sound-design and most of my mastering because it's about as analytical, detailed and linear as you can get - the exception being the upper high's which are exaggerated by around 2.5db. The way I advise around this it to put an EQ at the end of your track that cuts this high treble peak around so much in order to give you a truly linear picture of the sound - then just turn off that EQ compensation before bouncing the track.

I have tried modding mine by way of filters over the earpad to reduce the treble, but by doing so I only muddied up the whole sound. I would still be interested in hearing anyone else's modding idea to reduce its' piercing highs? But other than that this is my reference studio monitoring 'can, and even another electrostric buff told me it sounds like an electrostatic headphone, which is good.

The bass is 2-3db less than the HD 558, 598 and 650's, which is good since those are slightly boosted in the bass.

EDIT: The 940 also are astoundingly clear and have dynamics hard to beat
but I find them very fatiguing for normal listening

May I know your setup. I own srh1540 but I have heard 940 and actually prefer the 940, except for its ergonomics and build quality. These cans are very source picky and a tweak to the source chain can set things right.

I would recommend you to

1. Make sure your dac data stream is sent in ASIO. If ASIO is not supported, try wasapi.

2. Use a good quality music player software. For windows, musicbee is fairly good. If you are ok with putting a little more effort, I highly recommend wtfplay. It is a Linux live cd os, just for music playback and imo sounds fantastic. If you're a working professional you might have a copy of a good DAW that you can use for audio playback.

3. Make sure your dac volume is set at the maximum level supported by the amp.

They are also amp/dac picky but we'll save that for latter since both of them cost. The above tweaks are free.

I think you're spot on about the 2.5db emphasis around 8khz though, but the effect of it is less pronounced when the rest of the chain is made better.

 

[DecentLevi]

I've upgraded / changed my chain more dozens of times that I can recall since when formerly owning the 940's a few years ago, along with trying about 300 more headphones and customizing a few. I can get a better look at your post above tomorrow. None of my setup is the same since then aside from the HD-600 & 650's. In the meantime can you tell me what is your current setup? What kind of sound signature are you looking for, and/or what are you current sonic issues?

 

[manueljenkin]

I've upgraded / changed my chain more dozens of times that I can recall since when formerly owning the 940's a few years ago, along with trying about 300 more headphones and customizing a few. I can get a better look at your post above tomorrow. None of my setup is the same since then aside from the HD-600 & 650's. In the meantime can you tell me what is your current setup? What kind of sound signature are you looking for, and/or what are you current sonic issues?

I have burson fun, swapped with ss3601 opamps as my amp. Dac is apogee groove, fed through my laptop through ALSA, from wtfplay OS. Cable used is uptone uspcb.

I've kind of nailed down my preferences tbh. Will most likely buy the srh1840 soon. Eventually someday I hope to audition or own a raal sr1a or qualia 010 on a good source chain.

 

[DecentLevi]

Interesting, thanks. Looks like you focus more on a transportable desktop setup. My transportable setup is the iFi Micro iDSD Black Label amp/DAC which pushes some solid performance out of such a modest size! My Current desktop setup is Chord Qutest DAC via a DDC from Audio-GD model DI-20 (still testing) to Quad PA One + tube amp with aftermarket tubes. I'm upgrading to Neotech 2001 RCA cables and have a Glenn Studios amp in que. Openbacks are mainly HD-600 and a Stax Lambda e-stat system (L300 Limited Edition highly recommended), closedbacks are Senn. HD-380 Pro for 'fun' / 'dark' listening and and custom modded SoundMagic HP-100's. Those SoundMagics replaced my SRH-940 sometime around 2016. The plastic headband broke on the Shure's and I've had enough of the piercing highs that almost could not be tamed. The bass definition is good but seems rolled off and IIRC the Shure's also seemed to have a modestly higher than neutral timbre. For SoundMagic I actually recommend avoiding their newest HP-1000 model for a very artificial sound and to go for their older cheap HP-100 or 150 models. Contact me for simple DIY mod instructions or check out this thread.

If you're in the market for a top closedback you'd also not want to skip the ZMF Verite closed or Dan Clarke Audio Ether C Flow. I liked SR1A but was not sure about the bass quantity so you may also want to try the HEDDphone One from Heinz Electrodynamic Designs. I've not heard about the Qualia 010, is it comparable to the others in this paragraph?

 

[manueljenkin]

Thank you very much. I was interested in ifi idsd but later on decided to have a desktop setup. I definitely am interested in chord dacs but also in NOS DACs like dddac 1794 (since I personally play around with custom oversampling and also have a fair collection of high sample rate music to boot with).

I do own the l300 but I am less than impressed. I have tried l300 Ltd and sr009 to and have similar impressions, I prefer my hd800 and srh1540, paired with a good dac/amp over any of the estats/planars I've tried.

I am unsure of hd380 but I really liked the hd25 I tried. Really great headphone. I have been fairly lukewarm about hd600/650 having heard it in atleast 4 occasion on different amps but I would still try to audition them oj other amps to see if they grab me.

I would definitely consider the soundmagics, I really liked their e10 iem. At the same price I am also looking at sony cd900/krk8400, and other studio monitoresque headphones, and I could very well include the soundmagics to the list. Srh940 do have a bit of a shout at 5khz and 8khz I agree, just that it didn't bother me much at my listening volumes. My ideal tone would be srh1840 which is close to 940 without those peaks. It's a ruler flat line when referenced to diffuse field target.

I would love to try both sr1a and heddphone, but heddphone is too heavy. 400g is already too much for me tbh, and I'd still pick the raal even if heddphone sounded better because of this reason.

Regarding qualia 010 it is a very elusive headphone. It's from the same lineup of monitoring sets - cd900, ex800, ex1000, sa3000, sa5000. It apparently needs a lot of power but known to be laser precise sounding. Considering the fact that they have been using the cd900 as their main reference headphones at sony offices (or so I've heard) I would believe the hype. I have been less than impressed by the cd1700 (though it's got a unique coloration that impresses me from time to time) I have which is their consumer lineup, cd3000, r10, z1r apparently following that suit of tonal balance.

Apparently hd800 is Sennheiser's attempt at qualia technicalities, but not sure. There is a lot of visual similarity though for sure.

 

[iFi audio]

Thank you very much. I was interested in ifi idsd but later on decided to have a desktop setup. I definitely am interested in chord dacs but also in NOS DACs like dddac 1794 (since I personally play around with custom oversampling and also have a fair collection of high sample rate music to boot with).

If you'd like to go desktop, we have several products that fit the profile

If I may ask, how much would you like to spend?

My transportable setup is the iFi Micro iDSD Black Label amp/DAC which pushes some solid performance out of such a modest size!

I can easily agree on that

 

[manueljenkin]

Haha. Thanks for the offer. I already have bought burson fun though. Being able to swap opamps readily, and still covered by manufacturer was kinda appealing. Have swapped to ss3601 and have been happy so far. Would reach out when I start to get an upgrade itch lol.

 

[iFi audio]

Haha. Thanks for the offer. I already have bought burson fun though. Being able to swap opamps readily, and still covered by manufacturer was kinda appealing. Have swapped to ss3601 and have been happy so far. Would reach out when I start to get an upgrade itch lol.

All good, enjoy your Burson then

 

[pelican9]

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/have-the-shure-srh940s-been-updated-at-all.958580/

 

[robertom]

Anyone tried the SRH940 with the brainwavz angled pleather HM5 pads? On the SRH840, these pads have the effect of lowering a lot the 9Khz peak and raising the bass below 80Hz: I have them in my SRH 840 and I like very much these changes in FR. Since the 940 has a very similar peak (centered on 9 Khz) and would also benefit from a bass elevation from 80Hz down, these pads could do well. Currently I do not own 940 of course (otherwise I would try myself).