Shure SRH1540 Review
Mar 30, 2021 at 4:20 PM Post #2,341 of 2,658
I used a pair of 650's for over a year, as my primary cans. If they're your primary phones your brain will adjust somewhat, and the non-fatiguing nature they have can be nice.

However, they will never sound bright, or even neutral. They will always be warm, although whether they're just "warm" or flat-out boring, rolled-off, and muddy depends on your desires from a headphone.

Keep in mind, I did amplify them with a balanced beta 22, which is one of the top-tier solid-state amps you can buy. Amplification will not magically fix them although I heard significant but not night-and-day subjective improvements from the amplifier upgrade.

Thank you! I appreciate the link. I think it looks good, but not exactly what I'm looking for. I think I may just bite the bullet and get the Surf cable. I have completed my current headphone/ amp goals at this time, so this would be my last purchase for the, hopefully, forseeable future. Lol.
Surf cables sound great, but they can get very stiff. I have not had that problem with lqi cables and they're only about $50 to $60 more
 
Apr 1, 2021 at 3:28 PM Post #2,342 of 2,658
Thanks for your opinions. In my experience I have found srh1540 to be very revealing of filters used in music. You can visually check this by loading it up on some spectral analysis tools like spek for windows. Band passing typically causes grain. A lot of headphones don't show this because they are themselves acting like low pass in a parametrized way in terms of their transients and don't show this grain. Underdriving the shures to make them also a low pass or using a dac with low pass made them as grain free as possible (but with the obvious effect of losing accuracy). I'm just enjoying playing "guess the filter" game now on my srh1540.

I have also added a general eq profile for the srh1540 to convert to 940 tone which blends well if you want to inspect the signal 1:1 wrt spectrogram. Also works fantastic for binaural and live.

I'm pretty much on my path to audio enlightenment now. Realised I don't like what people call as "hifi sound". The only high end headphone I've heard and actually liked somewhat was hd800 and hd820 (both of which I still had issues with). I'm going back to roots. On my purchase list now are - Sony cd900 ,etymotic er4b, shure se425 and shure srh1840. Gonna sell off most other gear I have soon. They get zero listening time with the 1540 around.

I'm looking more into professional lineup of headphones.

Cd900 is used by Sony entertainment division for coding game audio ambeance and even in some movies/music's I guess. The shure 1540 I've seen people typically use in pro environments like, same coding spatial ambeance in games, coding synths. Btw when I mean pro I don't mean some random dj dj who moves knobs and pedals (though that also requires some skill, but it's not engineering most of the time. They are served fine by stuff like m50x which provide decent sound and good isolation). I mean people who really need accurate 1:1 reproduction, spatial accuracy and need to hear each filter and equation of trajectory used. With certain binaural recordings I can even judge the orientation of the singers head on my shures:


Anyone knows of any such other headphones. I know for sure that barely anyone uses hd800 for any pro stuff. I heard two albums apparently mixed in hd800 - Nigel Stanford's automatica and Ottmar liebert up close. Both of them had forced de essing and other artefacts very easily audible.

I've heard good mentions of names like krk kns6400/8400, phonon smb02, but I don't see their names being enunciated in pro circles as much as I see srh1840, srh940, cd900 and er4b. Se425 is something I'm interested in for personal live signing use. It's intentionally tuned to be mid forward so as to make sure you don't overblow your voice.

I do not know if I am just blind. But where is the EQ profile for the srh1540 to the srh940?
 
Apr 4, 2021 at 12:21 AM Post #2,343 of 2,658
I do not know if I am just blind. But where is the EQ profile for the srh1540 to the srh940?
I'm sorry. I think I couldn't attach my image back then. The eq is to drop down the 100-300hz region by about 3db and boost up the 7-9khz region by about 1.5db.

Almost all the free eq tools I've tried have audible aberrations though and I don't have much budget for a pro grade daw, so I am trying to code the same in octave.
 
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Apr 18, 2021 at 9:40 PM Post #2,344 of 2,658
Bought these cans from a user here around 4 years ago and enjoyed them tremendously, but they're finally starting to show their end of the life for me. I've been getting a rather annoying (albeit somewhat subtle) distortion on the right side when it comes to some songs (particularly rock). Assumed it was some hair stuck in the driver, cleaned the insides a fair bit to fix this (mainly plucking at hairs behind the pads with a tweezer) but to no avail. Hopefully it's a cable issue since I ordered a replacement, otherwise I may have to retire these.

Otherwise, awesome sound and ridiculously comfortable, and served me well these past years.
 
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Apr 19, 2021 at 10:49 PM Post #2,345 of 2,658
Yes, it is MMCX, but different than most IEM MMCX cables.
Yeah, I got caught just recently trying to upgrade the cable using a cable meant for IEMs. I've managed to shave it down a bit, but not sure how well it will last. It was worth the experiment though, to make it bluetooth 5 compatible XD
 
Jun 5, 2021 at 9:33 PM Post #2,346 of 2,658
Hopefully it's a cable issue since I ordered a replacement, otherwise I may have to retire these.

While the SRH1540 is more consumer product than pro audio, Shure is still a pro audio company--if the replacement cable doesn't work they'll fix your headphones for a flat rate of $277 (US price). That's about half the retail price, which is traditionally the wholesale price, meaning once you have a pair you can get them repaired/replaced at roughly the then-current wholesale cost until Shure stops making them.

Shure US Flat Rate Price Sheet (scroll all the way to the bottom for SRH1540)
http://image.mc.shure.com/lib/fe3615707564047e711d78/m/5/fa47e73a-b609-42f0-9a8f-8a8fbea1480d.pdf
 
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Jun 19, 2021 at 4:42 PM Post #2,347 of 2,658
Thank you. I have a copper, Surf Cable, balanced cable now and like it, but I was looking for a second, more flexible cable. Your input is appreciated.

Based on my experience, I think your best bet (and best value) would be a custom made cable.

And while there are more than a few shops making custom cables, over the past 15 years or so
I've found the best is Redco Audio in Stratford, CT.
They offer several makes and types of cable as well as various terminations,
Everything is very well made in-house. Really beautifully made.
https://www.redco.com/Custom-Cable.html

As for a great sounding, very flexible cable, I'd go with the Gotham GAC-3
which has a nearly legendary reputation for sonic excellence (today Made in Switzerland).
I also like the Canare cables which sound great IMO and which are also quite flexible.

I have found their pricing to be very reasonable as well.
 
Jun 22, 2021 at 6:29 PM Post #2,348 of 2,658
After reading this entire thread, I went ahead and snagged a pair. My Senn HD650 is gathering dust, since I share an office and must have closed back cans - so I will be selling them to make room for the 1540s.

Dakoni Sheepskin pads did wonders for my Focal Elegia, so I also bought some sheepskins for the 1540, plus the Senn headband cushion.

I run all of my gear balanced, and happen to have an extra balanced mmcx cable.

I will be sure to post my impressions. Thanks for all of your posts, everyone - they were very helpful!
 
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Jun 23, 2021 at 12:06 AM Post #2,350 of 2,658
I have a feeling you will be very pleased with the 1540s
I am surprised the 1540 doesn't get more love, considering its critical acclaim. But then again maybe I shouldn't jinx it, and I should wait until I actually hear it... 🙄🙄
 
Jun 23, 2021 at 12:17 AM Post #2,351 of 2,658
After reading this entire thread, I went ahead and snagged a pair. My Senn HD650 is gathering dust, since I share an office and must have closed back cans - so I will be selling them to make room for the 1540s.

Dakoni Sheepskin pads did wonders for my Focal Elegia, so I also bought some sheepskins for the 1540, plus the Senn headband cushion.

I run all of my gear balanced, and happen to have an extra balanced mmcx cable.

I will be sure to post my impressions. Thanks for all of your posts, everyone - they were very helpful!
I've had them for years - about 6 months after their release - and liked them very much ever since.

With respect to the earpads, the originals (made of Alcantra) are very comfortable and durable.
I haven't had to change mine since I got them.
 
Jun 23, 2021 at 9:23 AM Post #2,352 of 2,658
After reading this entire thread, I went ahead and snagged a pair. My Senn HD650 is gathering dust, since I share an office and must have closed back cans - so I will be selling them to make room for the 1540s.

Dakoni Sheepskin pads did wonders for my Focal Elegia, so I also bought some sheepskins for the 1540, plus the Senn headband cushion.

I run all of my gear balanced, and happen to have an extra balanced mmcx cable.

I will be sure to post my impressions. Thanks for all of your posts, everyone - they were very helpful!
Where did you get the sheepskin pads for the SRH1540s? Adorama says they're back ordered. They no longer show up on the Dekoni site.

I don't use balanced connections, nor do I cable roll. Neither of those things had made any audible difference for me, with all of the different headphones I've had.
 
Jun 23, 2021 at 9:44 AM Post #2,353 of 2,658
Where did you get the sheepskin pads for the SRH1540s? Adorama says they're back ordered. They no longer show up on the Dekoni site.

I don't use balanced connections, nor do I cable roll. Neither of those things had made any audible difference for me, with all of the different headphones I've had.
I got the Brainwavez angled sheepskin on sale from Amazon (Prime Day special). Normally $44, on sale for $35, but they are still $40 currently:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J53WTUQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_YF01VT5QWQ46PKFST78V
 
Jun 23, 2021 at 10:25 AM Post #2,354 of 2,658
I got the Brainwavez angled sheepskin on sale from Amazon (Prime Day special). Normally $44, on sale for $35, but they are still $40 currently:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J53WTUQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_YF01VT5QWQ46PKFST78V
Right. Think I will get a set of those. I don't think Dekoni ever had sold Shure pads to begin with; I was getting things mixed up. I had 1540s and the sheepskin pads before, but had sold them before moving out of the South Bay (a mistake). The seal doesn't seem very good with the stock pads. Audeze is better at this, but they are more than twice the weight.

My "new" 1540s which I had paid $275 for second hand, had come with a wonderful braided, heavy, aftermarket cable, tucked away in the case, but not one that I would have any use for. No SQ difference at all, for me. No surprise there, I had also not heard any difference between the DH Labs Silver Sonic BL II interconnects I had made and the cheap copper ones I had bought off of Amazon. I had also not bought any more fancy silver coated interconnect since 2010, but can still make new cables from what's left.
 
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Jun 23, 2021 at 12:09 PM Post #2,355 of 2,658
Right. Think I will get a set of those. I don't think Dekoni ever had sold Shure pads to begin with; I was getting things mixed up. I had 1540s and the sheepskin pads before, but had sold them before moving out of the South Bay (a mistake). The seal doesn't seem very good with the stock pads. Audeze is better at this, but they are more than twice the weight.

My "new" 1540s which I had paid $275 for second hand, had come with a wonderful braided, heavy, aftermarket cable, tucked away in the case, but not one that I would have any use for. No SQ difference at all, for me. No surprise there, I had also not heard any difference between the DH Labs Silver Sonic BL II interconnects I had made and the cheap copper ones I had bought off of Amazon. I had also not bought any more fancy silver coated interconnect since 2010, but can still make new cables from what's left.
1) which "South Bay"? I am in the SF Bay Area myself.

2) I much prefer sheepskin over velour/suede/Alcantara, etc, due to sonics and due to reduced leakage (I share an office). Switching out stock suede pads on my Focal Elegia absolutely transformed them (increased sub bass, reduced lower treble peak).

3) you got quite the score - well done!

4) I am a big believer in the impact of cabling on my main living room rig, but was less so on headphones. But as I moved up the food chain in headphones, it became undeniable for me. I didn't want to spend the money, but the changes have been worth it. But I draw the line at the point of diminishing returns though - I can't afford to chase the Nth degree of improvement.
 
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