0Hz
Active Member
Due to recent circumstances with my SX-636 being down, and needing an audio output, I initially borrowed some wireless (Corsair something or other) headphones from my brother, and realized I kind of missed owning a pair in general.
I opted for a pair of studio monitors for a variety of reasons, but my primary intent will be eventually to use them for when I play around with my audio production toys. I haven't had a decent set of headphones in years, my last were some $50 Sony's with active noise canceling I got at target in the late 2000's.
but I also wanted something I could use to listen to music, and maybe for gaming or late night content consumption. I've seen plenty of Zeos' reviews and he seemed to regard these pretty well. If not for the fact I wanted something I could use for audio work, I'd probably have opted for the 1More Triple (really interested still) or perhaps AudioTechnica M60x.
So for an all around accurate pair and with monthly payments available from Amazon, I decided to go with the Shure SRH840's. They are available for $199 via 5 monthly payments as an option.
My Unprofessional Impressions:
Appearance: They look a bit bulky, almost "too big" in a kind of way but I don't think it's a negative. Styles change, I have always been used to smaller consumer headphones anyway, even when they were "studio monitor" style. I do wish there was a bit of chrome to accent it somewhere though, in particular the headband which I will address later. I like the colored L/R indicators. It is a nice touch.
Build Quality: I have somewhat mixed feelings about this. As Zeos pointed out, it's "meh, plastic" but the grade of plastic is more than sufficient for its price-point. They don't feel fragile or anything, not worried about breaking them. I don't like the exposed wires for the drivers.
Also I wish the headband adjusters had been made of metal in some way. I have trouble getting them dialed in just right, I always have had trouble with these style of "snap" adjusters when they are just plastic. I wish there was an actual "firm" mechanical interface to really keep you from overshooting your adjustment goal.
Comfort: This is where I had my first real major disappointment. When I put them on my head I could immediately feel that "something hard is touching the top of your head, almost enough to become painful but not quite there" feeling. the wireless Corsair headphones I have in addition to feeling much lighter, also have much better padding on the headband.
Also a secondary concern here is clamping force. With the corsair's I can bop my head around quite a bit without fear of them coming off, even when tipping my head backwards. The pads on the corsair's are considerably thicker which may give it more grip around the ear edges I suppose, but with the Shure SRH840's I am only confident bopping my head forwards, just leaning my head back too quickly can cause them to slide right off.
Accessories: I was quite pleased to see they come with an extra pair of replacement pads, and they do come with a 1/8 -1/4 adapter as well. They also have a carrying bag. That's all there is, and about all I would have expected. To be honest I wish they had perhaps designed an alternate set of thicker pads. If I could choose between thin pads and thick pads, but keep the overall frequency response the same, it might be possible the thicker ones would stick to my head better.
Sound: I'm not even really an "enthusiast" so this is all just my subjective opinion. I don't have a methodology and this is just a first impression so here is what I did.
I plugged the 840's into my Behringer UMC404HD audio interface which I use to run all my PC audio in/out of. It has a dedicated 1/4 headphone output on the front of the unit however I don't know off-hand what it's putting out for power. I have the knob turned to about noon for volume, and windows internal volume set at 20.
I listened to a variety of music sources from FLAC files, to lower bitrate MP3s and youtube audio as well. I didn't do extensive testing with any games, but I think I did play some X-Wing Alliance with them for a bit and it sounded alright to me.
In general I think they are doing a good job. I have noticed especially in hip-hop/rap songs which are my favorites, the very low end is there, and it is tight and accurate. Overall the bass is not "boomy" or muddy. Some of my favorite songs clearly have bass tuned in certain frequency ranges, which stand out, but still sound clean. Sometimes drums do feel a little "empty" in various styles of music but I think this is more a byproduct of my brain being conditioned by boosting my low-end like the bass-head that I am.
In terms of bass response, I believe what I am getting is pretty transparent, it's just that I'm not used to hearing "accurate" reproduction so it leaves me artificially underwhelmed sometimes.
I did not have problems with vocals or other midrange content, and importantly, I did not have a lot of trouble with high frequencies - which typically tend to hurt my ears. I feel like things blend nice across the spectrum and feel pretty natural whether it's a guitar solo, a cymbal crash, or a drum fill.
I played around with a tone generator as well, and they are definitely audible in the 20 - 30 Hz range although the lower you go the more you have to crank up the volume. but it was an interesting test because I noticed those familiar "headspace" vibrations (SPL?) you usually get in the low end, minus the physical body sensations a subwoofer would provide.
These headphones will probably serve me well in their primary role as monitors for when I play around with my expensive music toys. But I think they will also confidently deliver a pleasing experience for pleasurable music listening and playing games. I am actually eager to get my SX-636 back up and running so I can see what the headphone out sounds like on the 840's, especially my vinyl albums.
Final Nitpicks: I wish the cord were not coiled, and also were a bit longer. But nothing a replacement cable can't fix at some point.
the impedance for these headphones is listed as 44ohms @ 1khz. This puzzled me and slightly raises an eyebrow because I would have expected something being billed as a "professional" (even if only entry-level) grade set of headphones to at least have something closer to 80 or 100
beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO are $50 cheaper (!!) and 250 Ohm (oddly the 80 Ohms cost more than the 250)
My understanding has been more impedance means harder to drive, but better sounding if the power is there and its clean. I guess that's my only major concern. I don't know what kind of power I'm dumping into them (can't find a proper spec sheet for my interface), and I wonder how that affects the listening experience so far. I'm worried that I might drive these into clipping/distortion if I'm not careful. Probably boosting windows volume back up and then turning the volume down on the interface would be a good idea.
I opted for a pair of studio monitors for a variety of reasons, but my primary intent will be eventually to use them for when I play around with my audio production toys. I haven't had a decent set of headphones in years, my last were some $50 Sony's with active noise canceling I got at target in the late 2000's.
but I also wanted something I could use to listen to music, and maybe for gaming or late night content consumption. I've seen plenty of Zeos' reviews and he seemed to regard these pretty well. If not for the fact I wanted something I could use for audio work, I'd probably have opted for the 1More Triple (really interested still) or perhaps AudioTechnica M60x.
So for an all around accurate pair and with monthly payments available from Amazon, I decided to go with the Shure SRH840's. They are available for $199 via 5 monthly payments as an option.
My Unprofessional Impressions:
Appearance: They look a bit bulky, almost "too big" in a kind of way but I don't think it's a negative. Styles change, I have always been used to smaller consumer headphones anyway, even when they were "studio monitor" style. I do wish there was a bit of chrome to accent it somewhere though, in particular the headband which I will address later. I like the colored L/R indicators. It is a nice touch.
Build Quality: I have somewhat mixed feelings about this. As Zeos pointed out, it's "meh, plastic" but the grade of plastic is more than sufficient for its price-point. They don't feel fragile or anything, not worried about breaking them. I don't like the exposed wires for the drivers.
Also I wish the headband adjusters had been made of metal in some way. I have trouble getting them dialed in just right, I always have had trouble with these style of "snap" adjusters when they are just plastic. I wish there was an actual "firm" mechanical interface to really keep you from overshooting your adjustment goal.
Comfort: This is where I had my first real major disappointment. When I put them on my head I could immediately feel that "something hard is touching the top of your head, almost enough to become painful but not quite there" feeling. the wireless Corsair headphones I have in addition to feeling much lighter, also have much better padding on the headband.
Also a secondary concern here is clamping force. With the corsair's I can bop my head around quite a bit without fear of them coming off, even when tipping my head backwards. The pads on the corsair's are considerably thicker which may give it more grip around the ear edges I suppose, but with the Shure SRH840's I am only confident bopping my head forwards, just leaning my head back too quickly can cause them to slide right off.
Accessories: I was quite pleased to see they come with an extra pair of replacement pads, and they do come with a 1/8 -1/4 adapter as well. They also have a carrying bag. That's all there is, and about all I would have expected. To be honest I wish they had perhaps designed an alternate set of thicker pads. If I could choose between thin pads and thick pads, but keep the overall frequency response the same, it might be possible the thicker ones would stick to my head better.
Sound: I'm not even really an "enthusiast" so this is all just my subjective opinion. I don't have a methodology and this is just a first impression so here is what I did.
I plugged the 840's into my Behringer UMC404HD audio interface which I use to run all my PC audio in/out of. It has a dedicated 1/4 headphone output on the front of the unit however I don't know off-hand what it's putting out for power. I have the knob turned to about noon for volume, and windows internal volume set at 20.
I listened to a variety of music sources from FLAC files, to lower bitrate MP3s and youtube audio as well. I didn't do extensive testing with any games, but I think I did play some X-Wing Alliance with them for a bit and it sounded alright to me.
In general I think they are doing a good job. I have noticed especially in hip-hop/rap songs which are my favorites, the very low end is there, and it is tight and accurate. Overall the bass is not "boomy" or muddy. Some of my favorite songs clearly have bass tuned in certain frequency ranges, which stand out, but still sound clean. Sometimes drums do feel a little "empty" in various styles of music but I think this is more a byproduct of my brain being conditioned by boosting my low-end like the bass-head that I am.
In terms of bass response, I believe what I am getting is pretty transparent, it's just that I'm not used to hearing "accurate" reproduction so it leaves me artificially underwhelmed sometimes.
I did not have problems with vocals or other midrange content, and importantly, I did not have a lot of trouble with high frequencies - which typically tend to hurt my ears. I feel like things blend nice across the spectrum and feel pretty natural whether it's a guitar solo, a cymbal crash, or a drum fill.
I played around with a tone generator as well, and they are definitely audible in the 20 - 30 Hz range although the lower you go the more you have to crank up the volume. but it was an interesting test because I noticed those familiar "headspace" vibrations (SPL?) you usually get in the low end, minus the physical body sensations a subwoofer would provide.
These headphones will probably serve me well in their primary role as monitors for when I play around with my expensive music toys. But I think they will also confidently deliver a pleasing experience for pleasurable music listening and playing games. I am actually eager to get my SX-636 back up and running so I can see what the headphone out sounds like on the 840's, especially my vinyl albums.
Final Nitpicks: I wish the cord were not coiled, and also were a bit longer. But nothing a replacement cable can't fix at some point.
the impedance for these headphones is listed as 44ohms @ 1khz. This puzzled me and slightly raises an eyebrow because I would have expected something being billed as a "professional" (even if only entry-level) grade set of headphones to at least have something closer to 80 or 100
beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO are $50 cheaper (!!) and 250 Ohm (oddly the 80 Ohms cost more than the 250)
My understanding has been more impedance means harder to drive, but better sounding if the power is there and its clean. I guess that's my only major concern. I don't know what kind of power I'm dumping into them (can't find a proper spec sheet for my interface), and I wonder how that affects the listening experience so far. I'm worried that I might drive these into clipping/distortion if I'm not careful. Probably boosting windows volume back up and then turning the volume down on the interface would be a good idea.
