[Landis]

Quote:

 

Amping will get rid of the midrange congestion while burn in will tame the mid bass hump. A well burned in and amped SRH840 is a very balanced sounding headphone. Unamped, it is still good after proper burn in (100 hours+) but not that impressive.

I didn't find a notable improvement from amping or burn in. There was a little bit more noticeable of a bass impact with the amping, but to be honest, I find these just fine with a portable player as well (I use these for passive noise canceling at home from my amp and recently used them out of my Sansa Fuze at my cottage).
 
I can't say I've found congestion to be an issue with the 840s either. They're rather responsive and moderately detailed headphones and I've only heard them sound a little congested when a wide variety of instruments (orchestral) or noise (distorted electric guitars) is thrown at them.

 

[mibutenma]

Quote:

 

Amping will get rid of the midrange congestion while burn in will tame the mid bass hump. A well burned in and amped SRH840 is a very balanced sounding headphone. Unamped, it is still good after proper burn in (100 hours+) but not that impressive.

I agree with this it really does sound congested without an amp.
But once amped it wipes/cleans it out and then it does sound a lot cleaner and clear.
I also sometimes think of it as trapped,boxy, and bass confused unamped as well.
The only problem is its still closed back so it won't sound as good as a open can does with its breathing room.
But if you don't A/B with an open headphone you might never hear this flaw or pick up on it.
 
The only problem really is if your going with amps and etc... might as well get it a better headphone too.
Myself I have a Beyerdynamic DT 880 600 ohms which blows the SRH 840 away for me.
Sometimes I think I might just sell my SRH 840.

 

[electropop]

Quote:

 

Amping will get rid of the midrange congestion while burn in will tame the mid bass hump. A well burned in and amped SRH840 is a very balanced sounding headphone. Unamped, it is still good after proper burn in (100 hours+) but not that impressive.

Burn in indeed cleaned the bass-department up, but it's still bad compared to many other of my references. All of my amps tend to even make it more unbearable, so I prefer it unamped actually. I don't find any other improvements with amping as well.
 
But yeah... That's a good 10dB's. That might be them straight out of the box though, but don't know, since there are not comparable graphs from the same measurer.
 

 

[mark2410]

i must say upon buying a pair im little disappointed, where are the shure mids?
 
and what the hell is this treble doing here?

 

[mythless]

lol Mark.  Though, the mids shouldn't be recessed and what about the treble?

 

[bixby]

 
Quote:

Electropop, I understand exactly where your coming from FWIW.  I've been auditioning a pair of SRH840's over the last week, listening unamped through an iPod with a variety of different styles of music within the genres of music that I like.  For the most part, I find that there's a mid-range focus on the 840's that is somewhat unnatural.  It results in a congested mid-range that makes it difficult to decipher complex passages, and also causes some sibilance in the upper part of the mid-range.  However, it also produces that "euphoric" presentation of female vocals that can please some people.
 
I find that the bass is easy to hear and follow (though it is what I'd consider to be lean) in simpler arrangements, but when the mid-range gets congested with guitars/vocals/pianos/etc., the bass drops out completely and all I hear is that congested mid-range.  IMHO, this isn't a balanced piece of gear.
 
FYI, I'm not a huge "headphone" guy, I'm much more of a HiFi guy...and have spent good money on my HiFi gear to avoid 2 problems which seem to plague this headphone:  1) congested mid-range; 2) mid-bass hump.  These are 2 fundamental items that make a piece of gear sound somewhat clinical IMHO, and a clinical-sounding piece of gear impedes my ability to follow the music.
 
That said, these are not what I'd call bad headphones.  Their sound signature is somewhat comparable to most in-ear monitors that I've heard...that's just not a sound signature I'm looking for in a full-size headphone.

 
 
Your comments seem to indicate a source problem.  I don't think many would characterize the 840s as lean in the bass, nor congested in the mids nor sibilant. Midbass hump, yes!
 
My experience with the ipods I have as sources were not good.  I would never use them with the 840s unamped.
 

 

[mark2410]

Quote:

lol Mark.  Though, the mids shouldn't be recessed and what about the treble?

well the mids arent recessed but on shure IEMs they tend to be somewhat forward and frankly i love that.  they alse told to be rather rolled off in the highs and i love that too.  the treble here is of o good quality but i really was rather hoping these would be close to the shure sound that i know and love than they are.
 
someone needs to make an amp with a treble reducer button i think

 

[bixby]

Quote:

 
someone needs to make an amp with a treble reducer button i think

Any vintage receiver will  do

  or buy some iems that don't burn your ears off

 

[Solrighal]

They do get a lot smoother as they burn in.

 

[mythless]

Quote:

well the mids arent recessed but on shure IEMs they tend to be somewhat forward and frankly i love that.  they alse told to be rather rolled off in the highs and i love that too.  the treble here is of o good quality but i really was rather hoping these would be close to the shure sound that i know and love than they are.
 
someone needs to make an amp with a treble reducer button i think

Hrmm, give it some time if needed.  Though I do know the mids are quite balanced and aren't very forward.  Treble I don't remember anymore in that detail.

 

[mark2410]

well its not tha treble is bad or forward, i just had hoped it would pushed back a bit and the mids a bit forward.  basically i wanted them to sound much more like the shures that im used to and enjoy so much.
 
of course they are still adding burn in time but still they arnt quite what i hoped they would be.

 

[D4R]

The sound doesn't change much or at all.  I recently bought a new 840 to replace a damaged 8 month old unit and they sound identical.  Whatever refinement happened during the 8 months wasn't much to my ears to differentiate the new unit from the old unit.  Still like it though.

 

[mark2410]

okay they arent still exactly what i hoped but...........
 
 
they are just excellent, just truly excellent

 

[csokane]

How are they excellent for you?

 

[mark2410]

just everything but largely their clarity for their price.  very very balanced, no harshness or surprises anywhere.  so far i cant actually find fault with them acoustically. 
 
not how i was hoping shure would have tuned them but thats as far as my complaints can go so far.  its very impressive.