Often times when we read reviews about products that reproduce sound above par the common claim is “we heard things that we didn’t hear before.” At some point, one spends so much money on sound equipment that one feels they have reached the plateau and that sensation is lost; we thought we reached that point. Oops, mistake on our part. Our first thought when hearing Shure SRH440s was, “We can’t wait to hear the 840s.” That was a good call. Our first thought when hearing the SRH840s, prior to burn-in, was that we didn’t see a real difference. Mistake numero dos. For the first time ever, TheMacFeed is truly grateful for the opportunity to review a product. Words can’t describe sound, but we are going to try, hopefully this won’t be “epic fail number three.”
Introduction
We have mentioned a couple of times that Shure makes good stuff. Also, we have mentioned that Shure has progressed from: cartridges to microphones, then to monitoring systems and earphones and most recently headphones. All along this we continue to reminisce about the standard that is Shure. Just like with our beloved e5 and SE530s, the SRH840 is the flagship model of the Shure family and that means something. You ask what, that means that your favorite artists uses these to make music, which means you are going to get to listen to music the exact way they want you to hear it, the exact what they heard it – truly reproducing sound.
Design
The SRH840s share a lot of similarities with their younger brother, the SRH440; but, there are a lot of differences and we think for the better. Returning is the same collapsable black studio looking design, the same detachable coiled cord on the left cup and the same overall look. The SRH840s are bigger in every dimension and while we classify it as “slight” it’s noticeable if you spend time with both and easily noticeable if you have both in front of you. The top leather is of a tad bit higher quality on the top of the headphones, the left/right logos on each cup look slightly more professional and a couple of other pieces have slightly different molds. The biggest difference externally (or shall we say non-internally) are the ear-pads – they are so different they are going to be discussed in a second. If at this point you feel we are getting to audiophile-esk, fear not, we aren’t going to be describing the hz or the importance of buying $300 power chords. (Just to clarify, we understand the former, the latter makes no sense – but we diverge to somewhere we said we would not)
It’s a Professional Product
These are professional headphones designed by professionals for professionals. Don’t get us wrong, TheMacFeed House Band isn’t going to be playing at your local club any time soon, but we can appreciate the professional nature. By professional we don’t mean that there are twenty-five knobs to adjust the direction of the left speaker, rather everything is done with the professional in mind. While you might use these to enjoy music, Shure made these for people that create music. This means that not only does the sound need to be up to professional standards, but everything needs to be up to professional standards and while we haven’t tested their toughness, these headphones are sturdy. They might be designed for studios, but taking these are definitely ready to go on the road.
Out of the Box
The box is near identical to the SRH440 box, included are the headphones themselves, a leather case, a 1/8″ to 1/4″ adaptor, a set of SRH440 pads (in case you want to switch those out) the coiled cable and some product information. One note, Shure isn’t messing around with making these 1/4″ headphones. The adaptor is a gold-tipped threaded adaptor, so when you screw the adaptor on you have 1/4″ headphones, not some garage-made solution.
When we were reviewing the SRH440s, we wrote about the SRH840s. We had about ten hours of burn-in on the SRH840s, compared to nearly 140 on the SRH440s. We made a judgement about their sound, it was not fair, accurate or thoughtful. You might get the SRH840s and put them on out of the box and we hope you are dissatisfied, because there is a lot more to be desired. We stuck with the program and after 75 hours, we put the SRH840s back-on, played Dispatch’s The General (Remix) [Yes, Official Remix, it can be found on their 2002 album, Under The Radar: Patchwork CD] and then played the six minute and two second song via the SRH840s. Then we decided we could write this review. (So, incase you missed our points: Dispatch = good band & Shure SRH840 headphone burn-in time = 75 hours)
The Pads:
We never thought these would be that relevant, but they are. There is a huge difference between the pads from the SRH440 and SRH840, especially side-by-side. Sound wise the SRH840’s pads allow for a deeper bass, now it’s not a huge difference, but it’s noticeable on both headphones. (That’s right, if you have the SRH440, we highly recommend buying the SRH840 pads, they can be purchased for $19.99, [Shure Model Number HPAEC840] and more then worth it) The isolation that the headphones provide is quite impressive, considering that’s not what they are made for, but it’s what they are made for that is truly spectacular. Take a step back: these are made for studios, people at studios work with music for a living, hence they listen to music for a lot of the day. The last part of that equation is that they wear headphones for a lot of time, Shure took note. What they made was the most comfortable headphones we have ever tried on. We had these headphones on for five hours (long car ride) – forgot completely about them for three hours and then when we realized we had headphones on, we thought how comfortable these are. We never realized how important having comfortable headphones was, but we have seen the light and once you get to experience that level of comfort, you don’t go back.
Where Do We Start
Seriously, we pondered that question for a while. We suppose with the sound. We have listened to a lot of headphones. Headphones from all different countries, of all different sizes and colors, all different styles and all different prices. We can truly say, this is one of the best soundstages we have ever heard. Never was an instrument overemphasized, nor a voice overlooked – never were we disappointed. The richness, yet crispness of sound was a blend that we never thought possible. More importantly, we never thought we would take off the SRH440s and put on something-else, especially something only costing twice, and have the feeling we did.
The bass, no matter what we tried to reproduce always produced the same result. Never were we in belief that we were suffering from classic headphone lack of low-end, never did we feel like there were two 12’s in the back of our head and never once, at any volume we dared to challenge the SRH840s at, was the bass distorted. From Lil Wayne’s A Milli to Jack Johnson’s Do You Remember there was bass and there was correct bass. Of equal importance, we got to hear the highs. Often times we feel that upper-tier headphones over-emphasize the higher-ends, possibly to over-compensate – not the case. The high end was incredibly accurate and always heard, never over-stretching any of their bounds. As for the mids, often-times the part that headphones just get completely wrong, Shure got this right. The mids are a perfect harmony in the SRH840, and it’s the mids that make this headphone shine. It’s not because we uniquely hear the mids above anything-else, it’s the exact opposite: the thing we call “mids” blends a truly amazing rich bass with the incredibly crisps highs to create breath-taking sound.
The Competition:
Our first thought is there is none. That’s our second thought as well. When most people hear of “studio headphones” they think of the heavily advertised Beats by Dre Studio Edition by Monster. We like Dr. Dre and we really hope that Detox drops in 2010, or just at some date – but his headphones aren’t studio headphones. We like the looks, but the sound is dreadful and the word “studio” is insult to the man himself and the industry that he represents. These belong in a studio, no more then an off-the-lot Ford Focus belongs running NASCAR. For $100 less, the Shure’s offer sound that is on a different planet – and that’s all that needs to be said. We suppose on a more serious note, Sennheiser HD595s might be the closest, even if they are open. The overall sound isn’t even close, but are largest gripe is the lack of depth on the low-end and the sub-par mids. We can explain this further, but the SRH440s produce better sound then the HD595s and their big brother takes it to a different level. We have no clue what Grado model would compete against the SRH840s, but solely off price the SR225i seems like the right choice, but it’s the wrong choice. In addition to being terribly uncomfortable (a problem with all the Grado SR line in our opinion) the bass doesn’t come close to the accuracy and richness of the SRH840. (And the Grado’s without a proper amp are an absolute nightmare) All three options aren’t necessarily “direct” competitors as the former is noise-canceling consumer headphones branded and wrapped as “professional” and the latter two are open and non-studio oriented; in our opinion – it’s all irrelevant, the SRH840s are best in the studio or in your den.
Some Final Thoughts:
It’s a shame if you never get the chance to let your music collection spend some quality time with the Shure SRH840s. It doesn’t matter what you listen to – the SRH840s make it sound the way it should. It’s not about “improving sound” it’s about replicating it – and that mission is accomplished. We originally said that these were only for studios and audiophiles, we are wrong – these are for people that want to enjoy their music. It doesn’t matter how “geeky” you think your friends will think these are, give them ten minutes with them on and they won’t give them back.
We originally stated the importance of an amp, we were onto something there, but not completely correct. After we burned the SRH840s in, playing them through our MacBook Pro’s standard audio out became perfectly fine. A headphone amp makes them better, is it a lot? – that’s subjective, but it’s noticeable, even to an untrained ear (we tested that out). Not having a headphone amp is not a reason to not buy these – even without the amp, they are three times better then anything remotely close in price. (For those pondering the debate, we will take the unamped SRH840 over the SRH440 + amp) At first we thought the sound was flat and painfully flat – that is not the case. Don’t be fooled, you are still getting a headphone designed for mixing, but when’s the last time you went to a studio that didn’t have a subwoofer. One thing that is forgot about “studio headphones” is that studios have monitors that create incredible highs while remaining perfectly balanced, but all have dynamic subwoofers that can create booming sound with precision – that’s the SRH840. Lastly, there is nothing we would improve, no gripes, no mockings; we are satisfied and so we will avoiding making a joke.
In Closing
The SRH840s don’t bring you to show, they put you in it. We have listened to a lot of headphones and we own quite a few. The simple fact is none do them all better then the Shure SRH840s. You can’t take the Grado PS1000s out on an airplane, you can’t even take them out of your house. Most the headphones at the range of the SRH840 are worthless without an amp, the SRH840 bucks this trend. And no headphone is more comfortable, there is no debate about that. The closed nature allows for decent sound-isolation, yet providing a sound that we adore. As of right now, if were forced to live with one and only one headphone, we’d take the SRH840 from Shure. At the price of $149.00 from Amazon, we highly recommend you pick up the SRH840s for yourself. You really don’t need us to tell you the star rating, that’s quite obvious.
Related Posts
- Review: Shure SRH440
- Interview with Matt Engstrom
- Review: Shure SE530
- Review: Shure MPA
- Review: Shure X2u & Shure SM58
Categories: Audio, The Feed, TheMacFeed Reviews:
