[nicholars]

  I might be bit of Shure 1540 basher; I thought they had a flaw considering the price, overpowering bass and U shaped frequency that may sound impressive on first listen but would get tiresome after 15 mins. Mind you other qualities were good like comfort, imaging and separation, hf sparkle.. 
Expensive "studio" headphones as these are referred to, (in my opinion) should strive for balanced-neutral signature and not try to follow a bass heavy signature.
After returning the Shures, my current headphones are the Focal Spirit Professional - flat response and bass sounds like it should - no mid bass bloat and tight bottomless sub, comfort is not amazing but its quite good (gets much better over time), and they sound much more balanced and natural than the Shures to me, essentially what I expect the original recording to sound like and not EQ'd for XXXtra bass - for half the price!
I really wanted to like the Shures, the comfort is great and they sound like open back headphones, but I couldn't live with their frequency curve.

 
With the Xonar STX they sounded "U" shaped and a bit irritating at higher volumes... With the D1050 dac they sound neutral to me and higher volumes do not sound irritating at all... very smooth treble and no grain at all with the D1050 using async USB and a QED USB cable... much bigger difference than I expected from a DAC/AMP... I got it on demo and bought it the next day because it sounds so much better than the STX with these headphones... if you are looking at the "harman target resonse curve" they are almost exactly in line with that.... If you consider neutral as a straight line then they are not neutral, but to me a flat response sounds thin, the D1050 makes these headphones sound very good, I definitely recommend the D1050 and 1540 combo!

 

[dakanao]

   
With the Xonar STX they sounded "U" shaped and a bit irritating at higher volumes... With the D1050 dac they sound neutral to me and higher volumes do not sound irritating at all... very smooth treble and no grain at all with the D1050 using async USB and a QED USB cable... much bigger difference than I expected from a DAC/AMP... I got it on demo and bought it the next day because it sounds so much better than the STX with these headphones... if you are looking at the "harman target resonse curve" they are almost exactly in line with that.... If you consider neutral as a straight line then they are not neutral, but to me a flat response sounds thin, the D1050 makes these headphones sound very good, I definitely recommend the D1050 and 1540 combo!

I wonder how the SRH-1540 would compare to the JVC HA-S680... I'm looking for a headphone with accentuated bass, and neutral mids and highs with a lot of clarity.

 

[nicholars]

  I wonder how the SRH-1540 would compare to the JVC HA-S680... I'm looking for a headphone with accentuated bass, and neutral mids and highs with a lot of clarity.

 
I cannot stand very bright, sibilant headphones but I like clear and extended treble, the 1540 are almost perfect for this as they have a slightly exagerated treble but the mids are good as well, looking at what you said I think you would probably like them, if you increase the bass below 50hz with EQ you can get good sub bass with them, not as good as some headphones for sub bass eg. Denon/fostex but still good. All I use for EQ on these is an increase below 60hz and either leave the rest of it flat or with some recordings have 10-12khz lowered by about 2db and they sound very smooth in the treble. One of the only headphones I have tried that has a slightly "U" shaped sound but does not sound harsh at all (with a good dac/amp).. These headphones did sound a bit harsh and irritating when I first got them and was using Xonar STX, the D1050 though is like magic and smooths everything out... Even watching freeview TV through the DAC it manages to smooth out the horrible 96kbps compressed sound they use on freeview, the JVC you mentioned are £40 so I would expect the 1540 to blow them out of the water in every department!

 

[emilsoft]

With the Xonar STX they sounded "U" shaped and a bit irritating at higher volumes... With the D1050 dac they sound neutral to me and higher volumes do not sound irritating at all... very smooth treble and no grain at all with the D1050 using async USB and a QED USB cable... much bigger difference than I expected from a DAC/AMP... I got it on demo and bought it the next day because it sounds so much better than the STX with these headphones... if you are looking at the "harman target resonse curve" they are almost exactly in line with that.... If you consider neutral as a straight line then they are not neutral, but to me a flat response sounds thin, the D1050 makes these headphones sound very good, I definitely recommend the D1050 and 1540 combo!

Interesting, sounds like you found a good synergy between the D1050 and the 1540. I tested them with Lavry DA11 which is a good reference dac, the bass was just always there and asking for too much attention - they certainly made bass light recordings sounds better but any "normal" recording had too much. The frequency curve certainly shows more bass and compared to the nad hp50 which follows the harman curve closely they sounded much more bassy.

 

[dakanao]

   
I cannot stand very bright, sibilant headphones but I like clear and extended treble, the 1540 are almost perfect for this as they have a slightly exagerated treble but the mids are good as well, looking at what you said I think you would probably like them, if you increase the bass below 50hz with EQ you can get good sub bass with them, not as good as some headphones for sub bass eg. Denon/fostex but still good. All I use for EQ on these is an increase below 60hz and either leave the rest of it flat or with some recordings have 10-12khz lowered by about 2db and they sound very smooth in the treble. One of the only headphones I have tried that has a slightly "U" shaped sound but does not sound harsh at all (with a good dac/amp).. These headphones did sound a bit harsh and irritating when I first got them and was using Xonar STX, the D1050 though is like magic and smooths everything out... Even watching freeview TV through the DAC it manages to smooth out the horrible 96kbps compressed sound they use on freeview, the JVC you mentioned are £40 so I would expect the 1540 to blow them out of the water in every department!

Hmm alright, so I need a good amp/DAC so they won't sound harsh at all.... In my country the D1050 and the 1540's combined are almost 1000 euro's, that's way out of my budget..
 
The JVC's are 40 euro's, but they sound clearly better than the Sennheiser Momentum in the mids and highs departement. Only thing that's bothering me about them is their muddy, too emphasized upper bass and sometimes they sound a bit slightly too laid back in the treble. But the treble quality is the best I ever heard. They actually turn sibilance into clarity if it's in the recording, that's how their driver works...

 

[nicholars]

  Hmm alright, so I need a good amp/DAC so they won't sound harsh at all.... In my country the D1050 and the 1540's combined are almost 1000 euro's, that's way out of my budget..
 
The JVC's are 40 euro's, but they sound clearly better than the Sennheiser Momentum in the mids and highs departement. Only thing that's bothering me about them is their muddy, too emphasized upper bass and sometimes they sound a bit slightly too laid back in the treble. But the treble quality is the best I ever heard. They actually turn sibilance into clarity if it's in the recording, that's how their driver works...

 
Well if you like them just keep them and save yourself the money... But if you buy some mid/high end headphones like 1540, th600 etc etc. you will be amazed at how much better the quality is compared to cheap headphones.... The 1540 still sound good out of the Xonar STX or similar, but a good DAC/AMP  makes a big difference.

 

[nicholars]

Interesting, sounds like you found a good synergy between the D1050 and the 1540. I tested them with Lavry DA11 which is a good reference dac, the bass was just always there and asking for too much attention - they certainly made bass light recordings sounds better but any "normal" recording had too much. The frequency curve certainly shows more bass and compared to the nad hp50 which follows the harman curve closely they sounded much more bassy.

 
The D1050 makes them sound even thicker in the bass/mid, so you probably wouldn't like it...I tried the NAD HP50 in a shop for about 10 mins with a bad source / bad music and they sounded quite good but they had less bass than the 1540, the cups were too small / uncomfortable and the soundstage was nowhere near as good as the 1540, they did sound good but the comfort was not good for me as they are supposed to be "portable" headphones not full size.

 

[Delance26]

I think the 1540 is perfect evidence that trying to "rank" headphones is an almost impossible task.  Each person is unique, just as their sound preference.  As people have repeatedly said on this forum the 1540 is remarkably versatile.  It neither excels, nor does it really fail in any category.   Essentially it is a jack of all trades.  I agree if you needed to pick one headphone this should be one the short list.
 
To further expand on the body of listening to the Shure 1540 I really enjoy using the Fiio X1.  It noticeably expands the sound stage.  So much so I actually thought the music was coming from outside the headphones (but still very clear not muffled).  So on that note if you are in the market for a new DAP the X1 is a superb option, especially for only 99$ USD.
 
On another topic I would be curious or interested to try nice leather pads on the 1540 to see if it improves the isolation a bit.  I know people have used the Alpha pads, but they are too angled I fear.  If they were flat (and not 70 USD) I would definitely give them a try!

 

[emilsoft]

I agree about the hp50 - i sold them because of comfort issues, too much pressure on center padding on top of head. The focal pros however were also bit uncomfortable at first because of clamp force but after bit of wear they're fine now. I tried lot of headphones and ones that suit my taste/comfort are the focal pros, grado rs1 and sens hd600 - the focals are incredible value as they easily go head to head with headphones many times their price. I really wish they balanced the frequencyies of the shures to be more neutral, they could have been a great candidate. I wonder what the 1840s sound like..

 

[nw130d]

If you look at Tyll's innerfidlity youtube video of the 1540... In the comment section Tyll himself thinks at lower listening volumes the 1540 is better than HP50. I bring this up not because I think Tyll's reviews is end all of reviews. But more he himself is a massive fan of the HP50 and still thinks 1540 is technically better.
 
I personally think the comfort and accessories is easily worth extra $200. That and the looks of HP50 is daft in public, IMO of course.

 

[nicholars]

  If you look at Tyll's innerfidlity youtube video of the 1540... In the comment section Tyll himself thinks at lower listening volumes the 1540 is better than HP50. I bring this up not because I think Tyll's reviews is end all of reviews. But more he himself is a massive fan of the HP50 and still thinks 1540 is technically better.
 
I personally think the comfort and accessories is easily worth extra $200. That and the looks of HP50 is daft in public, IMO of course.

 
To be honest the srh 1540 sound really good at high volume with the D1050, with the STX loud volume sounded bad, I don't know what hocus pocus the D1050 does but it sounds great using the async USB and headphone amp at any volume... Don't know what amp / dac tyll used but maybe it was a bright one which would make the D1050 sound bad at loud volume.
 
 I think the D1050 + 1540 is my end game setup until I hopefully at some point buy some LCD planars!

 

[chailee80]

Quote:

  Hmm alright, so I need a good amp/DAC so they won't sound harsh at all.... In my country the D1050 and the 1540's combined are almost 1000 euro's, that's way out of my budget..
 
The JVC's are 40 euro's, but they sound clearly better than the Sennheiser Momentum in the mids and highs departement. Only thing that's bothering me about them is their muddy, too emphasized upper bass and sometimes they sound a bit slightly too laid back in the treble. But the treble quality is the best I ever heard. They actually turn sibilance into clarity if it's in the recording, that's how their driver works...

You dont need anything fancy to drive these imo, they sound great plugged into my computer, receiver, tablet and mobile phone and definitely don't sound harsh at all. The treble is relaxed enough to even make sibilant tracks sound fairly good. The srh1540s are easily a step up from the momentums and nowhere near as congested.

 

[nw130d]

   
To be honest the srh 1540 sound really good at high volume with the D1050, with the STX loud volume sounded bad, I don't know what hocus pocus the D1050 does but it sounds great using the async USB and headphone amp at any volume... Don't know what amp / dac tyll used but maybe it was a bright one which would make the D1050 sound bad at loud volume.
 
 I think the D1050 + 1540 is my end game setup until I hopefully at some point buy some LCD planars!

Agreed, at higher volumes I find the sound signature is very much similar to the HD25, one of my all time favorite headphones exp for comfort... wearing the HD25 for any duration is torture! I didn't find the 1540 very picky with dac/amp set up, unless amp or dac has a really dark tone. For my personal taste it can get a bit too dark but really that goes for any headphone.

 

[Delance26]

Another reason which makes these so great is the  fact that I can easily wear glasses with them.  If any of you know finding headphones that sound great AND and comfortable with glasses is pretty damn hard.  These I must say have done it. That is why they have easily taken the top pedestal in the headphone world for me! 
 
Also I would agree, not a very "picky" headphone as far as amp/dac being used.  Can it be improved yes, but it is still great with "regular" equipment! which is always a nice plus!

 

[nw130d]

Looking forward to the release of the Audeze EL8 closed and Oppo PM3... Wonder how they will stack up against the 1540. Both should be voiced darker and bassy similar to the 1540.