Shure SRH440 Unboxed & quick review - added pics!
Aug 29, 2009 at 10:25 PM Post #46 of 65
Quote:

Originally Posted by swbf2cheater /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The pads hurt my ears and make me sweat after about 15 minutes. They are not as comfy as some of the sonys or senns. However, the 440 and the 840 are vastly superior to the ATHes7 and yes, even the ews9. For the Price, like 75-100$US, I would avoid the 440 for mp3 player usage and go get a Sennheiser 485. 440s are inferior in every single way except sexyness and bass...the 440 and 840 line have incredibly powerful bass...like...wow thats painful at times bass lol.



I have the Senn 485 that I use with an Ipod. I was thinking about getting the 440's or 840's as an upgrade to block out my wife a little better seeing as they ae closed cans.

Are you saying the 485's sound better than the 440's?
 
Aug 31, 2009 at 1:29 PM Post #47 of 65
Quote:

Originally Posted by Sinty /img/forum/go_quote.gif
ill have to give shure a call tomorrow and ask them what that is exactly, I read the manual for it and it didn't list....


response from sure to an email i sent them asking about the cord:

Response (Michael Pettersen)08/31/2009 07:51 AM
Sorry, we do not. But I will send your request to the product manager for headphones. If there is enough demand, perhaps other lengths will be offered in the future.
 
Nov 13, 2009 at 3:53 AM Post #49 of 65
Just got those today. It's on maybe its 3rd hour of burn in(2 hr of a movie and 1 hr of COD: Modern Warfare 2. It's not pink noise but it's noise). The soundstage is real nice and I can thank the can for half a dozen kills in COD that hour. But when I plugged it into the ipod to listen to some music, a lot of what I'm hearing are just really unnatural. Starting with the bass, which the can has plenty of quantity but it doesn't seems like it can catch up to quick basses. Another problem is that when there is more than say 3-4 instruments at once, especially when there is a lot of bass going on, the other instruments really lacks detail. It may be my hearing, it may be the fact that it's not burned in, or that I have been listening to too much RE0 lately, but the details are really disappointing.

Anybody else with this experience?

Also, on a plus note, besides the small cable on the side that gives me some durability concerns, the thing is build like a tank.
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Nov 13, 2009 at 4:09 AM Post #50 of 65
Thanks for the nice review and the pictures. I've been looking into a Sigma 50mm F1.4 for my D90 and these pictures just sold me. Thanks head-fi. Breaking my wallet with headphones and camera lenses now.
 
Mar 28, 2010 at 7:12 PM Post #51 of 65
Hello all. I've had my Shure SRH440s for about 3 months now and couldn't be happier with them. I use them mostly for mixing music and the clarity is superb. However, if you use low quality sound files, the low-qualityness is apparent, which could be what you're experiencing, Playingwithfire. Also, any clipping in the files is also exaggerated because of the 10k boost.

Also, the coiled cable, although it's a little bit heavy and cumbersome, is important as it acts as a "shock absorber" or sorts, keeping out the boomy noises that can result from moving cables (as a test, when wearing the headphones, hang the cable freely and tap the coiled part. Compare the noise to when you tap the straight part above the coil).
 
Aug 7, 2010 at 10:37 AM Post #52 of 65
i own the SRH 440 and they are awesome headsets that are clean clear with smooth base mids and highs  thay are strong flexable i have  tested them took my RODE NT-1A  microphone with the shure srh 440 turned mic gain up open cups 2 inches away and skweeeeeel  then closed cups 2 inches from the mic SQUELL WAS GONE!!!  I THEN PUT THEM ON MY HEAD AGAIN TURNED UP moved around mic NUTHING NO SQUEL DUE TO THERE NATRAL SOUND CAN USE THEM WITH EQ TO ME BEST HUNDRED BUCKS I SPENT!!!  got mine at sam ash i had a the day planed my A/B day...LOL i tried every thing on display of headphones ash had to offer  when i got to the shures started with srh240 these are in your face headphones all music was one solid wall of sound no seperation f  THAY ARE BUILT CHEAP THIN WIRES THIN PLASTIC  NOW !!!!   AHHHH NEXT THE SRH440 OTHER NOTE: NON LOCKING HEADPHONE CORDS WILL WORK IN THEM  I LISTEND TO ALL TYPES OF SINGERS AND MUSIC ALL WAS CLEAN AND CLEAR then i had a ELVIS live concert cd WOW!!! THE KING WAS BACK JACK  wow!!! i was at the concert JD SUMMNERS BASE VOICE MY GOD  THESE WERE GOD SENT    NOTE:  PLEASE A/B THE SRH 440 SOME HAVE BASE SOME DO NOT ON THE SAME SONG?? BUT WHEN YOU HEAR THE GOLDEN PAIR TO YOUR EARS. grab them or someone else will  NOTE:. THAY ARE 10HZ-22KHZ   BUT THE HUMAN HEARING HEARS ONLY FROM 20HZ-20KHZ  THE REST IS USLESS IN MY OPINION  NOTE SAID I GOT MINE AT SAM ASH   WAS 25$  OFF THE $99 LIST AND TOOK $1O 0F THAT FOR A 3 YEAR LONGER WARENTY WITH SHURES 1 YEAR OUT OF THE BOX I KNOW HAVE A 4 YEAR WARENTY    I SPENT 3 HRS OR MORE A/B  BUT IN THE END I WALKED OUT WITH AWESOME!!!! HEADSETS... FOR YEARS OF LISTENING PLESURE....  RFWAVE.  
 
Aug 7, 2010 at 10:59 AM Post #53 of 65
Extremely well made monitor, but I don't really think it is for music enjoyment. If it's on the recording, or if there is some compression artifact, oh yes you are going to hear it.
 
There are some little mods to bring this back a bit without affecting the midrange, where they excel so well. Tubes are the best friend in the world to this phone. It also fools you into thinking it doesn't need some more serious power, but it does. As a studiophone, generally, on a good console, the headphone jack is made to drive high impedance phones, so you are going to get enough power to this guy, but on a DAP, or straight out a sound card, it isn't going to be giving it's 100%.
 
I used to hate this thing... because it was so well built, but I could never get it to sound right. After a few system changes and upgrades, plus a little mod to tame the HF, I have a really nice headphone. Taming the HF will cause you tyo raise the volume a bit, so it will begin to sound less bass shy and more balanced.
 
Overall, however, I see it as a high quality monitor for a studio, because during production, I would certainly want to make my music sound good on these headphones. If I do, then I know it is going to be of a higher quality than if voiced on a different headphone, like the AKG240s or something. The K271 is in the same league as the 440, maybe a bit better overall, but it is going to give you what you give it.
 
One constant about the Shure 440 is garbage in garbage out. I take back may of my negative comments about it because I have finally heard what it can *really* do. It is built very well, as it just feels like a quality set, and the pads feel like they will last forever, they certainly won't be flaking like sony or senn pads in the same class. The AT m50 probably is a better phone for me, but I respect the Shure 440, as you have shown in the pics, it certainly isn't some toy headphone. Sony copied it in their "v600" the muddy BS they put under the v700 and after the mini v700, the v500. The v600 is nothing at all like the v6, so be aware of that, but it looks almost just like the Shure 440, but feels like a toy compared to the Shure.
 
Anyone that buys a 440, their money is certainly not up in smoke. Just make sure you like it first, or that you can drive it properly. I have heard it on a portable sounding good, but the word "synergy" would need to be used. I like it for my 1992 Sony Walkman... Chrome tape recordings sound great since the bias setting on a walkman for chrome/metal made them sound a bit muted. Add Dolby B, and you have a muted playback, but on the 440, you hear all those details that tend to get pushed way back. Old walkman players usually could output more power than, say, an iphone.
 
EDIT: Haha, I just noticed how many people in this thread echoed what I heard from them, or the feeling they are a great headphone to have in the studio.
 
Aug 8, 2010 at 2:21 AM Post #55 of 65
You know? Yes. They can obviously give you the orchestral value, but rap is interesting in that it doesn't have a TON of HF energy, in fact, rap/hiphop done right, would use a little sampling, turntable work, or even electronic production, all which the 440 work well at. If I was going to listen to a recording of someone spinning a sample of a dub plate, a recording itself, then you get the copy of a copy effect eventually, and a lot of rap is all about mixing it up, quite literally where I live, we have been screwed and chopped since forever. I have most of the original screw tapes and the fidelity is not good, so to use that example, when you have something that may not be the original reproduction being recorded again, mangled, dubed over, then you want to hear as much detail as you can within reason. The 440s bit that bill, and I swear the concert grand has a weight on these that is not there with phones that you would think it would be. Rap would be fine on the m50s, but orchestral music, not as much as the 440s, which would do very well reproducing 100% electronic sounds, or a sampled re-recording of sounds, while trying to extract as much as you can get (think acid jazz, it is a really good acid jazz can, which isn't very far from hiphop and rap when you think about it) I find the 440 has a place. IT is a genre phone, but they are some vast genres. Other headphones perform well in the same class, but not combination, usually, anyhow. They are unique that way and why I didn't like them at first... not the right music!
 
Aug 8, 2010 at 10:23 AM Post #56 of 65
a lot of rap is wave samples beats if you like then mixed on pro tooles unless your snoop dog gear is not hi end so SRH 440 SHOUD HAVE NO PROBLEM.. as far as clasical AGAIN with a freq responce  of 10hz-25khz  all insterments highs base tremble shoud be clean and clear providing compression was at least 3:1 and propper prossesing was used on the final track.
 
Aug 8, 2010 at 11:46 AM Post #57 of 65
Well...My reply assumes lossless or extremely good lossy, such as 320k LAME.
 
These phones were headphones I could not stand for a long time, I quite hated them. They were just too bright. I gave them a 2nd chance recently when I reconfigured my system, as well as upgraded my amplification. I am beginning to have to eat some crow, because most of the things I sighted as problems are simply gone. What did not suprise me is how less fatiguing they are, and that is because I am using more tubes in my setup, but what got me was the quantity of bass that just was not there before, I would have never considered these for electronic music production of any sort, sampled or produced. Today, I am very happy with them, and consider them to be a great headphone for produced electronic IDM, and sample based electronic productions, whether it is for hiphop or not, because they do very well when it comes to getting back to that original sample... like if you could take a xerox or two of your copy of a copy of a copy of a copy.
 
I have produced two electronic music albums that used a combination of samples and generators/synths, and of course VST effects/automation. I often used a singe wave shape, looped, as a generator, since it was an easy way to save some CPU, but I also would take string and flute loops and put them through processing, offeset severl of them layered for a fat harmonic sound, and so I know all about profuction methods, though I rarely sampled more than a single instrument, and I often would construct my own samples from combinations of the attacks and decays of different percussion elements, I have to say that these do a very good job at reproducing the 100% digital generated synths and effects as well as sampled instruments, and their complex harmonics as several offest streams would interact, even, with each other, with loads of reverb then EQed, then sampled and done again... most cans can't capture a lot of what I was trying to do, but these are one of the most least expensive sets that can. Their performance on complex IDM is to be praised, for example Autecre, both old school from 1994 and Confield (to me, their peak), to their most recent record. The first track on Confield has the punch and then the beauty of the synthetic notation that decays slow slowly later in the song. When it first comes in, I get goosebumps.
 
I think the solid build lends a lot of what makes these a good choice for these genres, and their accuracy w/ relatively flat response makes them great fr symphony music. I always thought they sounded goot with orchestra pieces, but for more than that, to me they were just too ear shredding, but it is amazing what some new components can do to open up a more broad set of headphone options. I prefer them as I do my other headphones, with my Mackie mixer taking in the source, and then going out to the Grace 902, but back when I didn't have as much synergy with my source and the Mackie, or when I didn't have a high end headphone amp (either the console monitor port or a Presonus HP4), I was so very close to selling the Shure 440s.
 
If you want to get the most out of a wide range of music with complex harmonics, and listen to lossless or very high quality lossy, such as 320k LAME, then these phones aren't going to do a bad job of being true to the source material, as well, they will sound good enough to sit back and enjoy the music. I just don't see them as a headphone for a DAP. I still maintain they are a can that someone into music production in some way, maybe not even in a serious way, but respects the art of sound engineering, would enjoy. They are definitely made for the studio first and your portable, like an ipod, last.
 
Aug 8, 2010 at 1:50 PM Post #59 of 65
You have the right formats, and the cmoy changes the game. They should work fine. I just would not plug them straight into a portable. The little amp from the line out on the ipod, the 440s, even the 840s, should be alright. Certainly without the extra power you wouldn't get the benefits of a headphone that can be at home in any studio, but you should be alright, my friend. I say go for it.
 
Aug 8, 2010 at 3:58 PM Post #60 of 65
Deep down I always wanted the SRH440s. They had good reception, but other users made me unsure. Plus they look great and their closed back so I can use them in public. Thanks for the help. 
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