Shure SRH440A and SRH840A

[Alchemist_]

I was just about to buy the SRH840A until I saw this:

View attachment 191871
Way too much bass for me (about 4dB above Harman) and too much 'muddyness'. Also the almost obligatory 10kHz sharpness peak.

The SRH-840 I tested:

Seems like the newer one has more bass extension. Better headband and construction it seems. Passed on this one.
Maybe with some modifications it could be interesting.

I have 840a. And the chart attached here for the 840a doesn't look like what I'm hearing.

It's still Shure 840, but it seems sharper, with cleaner bass, more highs, still good mids.

4 holes were added to the cans to unload the bass.
It's bad, only that they spin)
In my opinion, these are good headphones.

I wonder how they would have ear pads 1540/940.
And in general, how does 440a differ from 840a, otherwise the difference is not clear on the shure website from the description)

 

[solderdude]

the chart attached here for the 840a doesn't look like what I'm hearing.

That's because their target is quite a bit off from reality. They seems to prefer bright headphones.
Because of the price and me having to either return them (which is unethical to me when I know upfront I am not going to keep them) or try to sell them at considerable loss prevents me from buying them.
They do seem to have better build quality. Sharpness can be removed passively and actively in general.

see post #14 for more accurate measurements

 

[Alchemist_]

I had old 840s. And I think shure's 840A upgrade succeeded in both sound and comfort.
What is important for me: the cord is straight, the weight is much less, the bass is cleaner and deeper, in general the sound is better, detailed, everything is audible, there are no gaps in the frequency response.
(I apply the equalizer to both models.)
In my opinion, the new version has a more successful cup structure due to holes (phase inverter).

Of the minuses, the cable is not flexible, it is rough.
The cups spin horizontally, but I solved this issue.
There are no spare ear pads in the kit, but new ones made of better quality leather.
A friend of mine has a 440A and he likes them a lot too.

 

[solderdude]

I had old 840s. And I think shure's 840A upgrade succeeded in both sound and comfort.
What is important for me: the cord is straight, the weight is much less, the bass is cleaner and deeper, in general the sound is better, detailed, everything is audible, there are no gaps in the frequency response.

Agreed...

My review is up.

SRH-840A

back to Shure back to measurements home Published: Feb-04-2024, edited Oct-24-2024 NO SMOOTHING is applied to the shown plots. Most measurement sites have some smoothing applied which ‘irons flat’ …

diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com

Good closed headphone, certainly for this price point.
Does need a little EQ or mods but the foundation is great.

 

[Alchemist_]

Agreed...

My review is up.

SRH-840A

back to Shure back to measurements home Published: Feb-04-2024, edited Oct-24-2024 NO SMOOTHING is applied to the shown plots. Most measurement sites have some smoothing applied which ‘irons flat’ …

diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com

Good closed headphone, certainly for this price point.
Does need a little EQ or mods but the foundation is great.

I read your review and my thoughts about the 840A completely coincide with yours!

I don't like the cups rotating horizontally, but they can easily be blocked with fabric wire ties, which is what I did.
I remove the sharpness with an equalizer.
I bought a twisted cable/cut it/soldered a 3.5 mm plastic socket/now I connect any cables.
I put the shell from the guitar cable into the ear pads on the side of the ear. The result is angled ear pads and the ear does not touch the fabric.
(The clamping force can be easily released.)
I also have ear pads from 940/840/1540/840A.

I would just add that the seat for the ear pads has changed a little, the width of the “A” version is slightly smaller.
And it seems that in the old 840s the plastic of the cups themselves was thicker, but they also weighed something like 400 grams))) Sound insulation also seems to have been higher, but their hearing got tired faster.

Will you be reviewing the 440A? I have them from a friend, he is a beginning music lover, he listened to 840a, 440a, m50x, 770 in the store and bought 440a, he says they sound best.

 

[solderdude]

No plans to buy the 440A. From what I saw they are more of the same and just below the 840A.
My modded 940 and modified 840A are too close to keep both of them.
The 940 I had was totally disintegrated when I got them (all plastic hinges broken, pleather complete gone) so used the cups, modded them and spray painted the cups as they were heavily damaged/scratched. Shure is a bit underrated. Probably because of the sharpness (which can be cured) and build quality.

 

[Alchemist_]

No plans to buy the 440A. From what I saw they are more of the same and just below the 840A.
My modded 940 and modified 840A are too close to keep both of them.
The 940 I had was totally disintegrated when I got them (all plastic hinges broken, pleather complete gone) so used the cups, modded them and spray painted the cups as they were heavily damaged/scratched. Shure is a bit underrated. Probably because of the sharpness (which can be cured) and build quality.

Do you mean that 440A is worse than 840A? Or are they tuned lower in tone?
(440a may have higher sound insulation; there are no holes like 840A. They are a "closed box".)
I had suspicions that the 840A and 940 are similar, even the fabric in the ear pads is the same.
I wonder which one you will keep, the 940 from the photo or the new 840A?

 

[solderdude]

Looking at plots it looks like the 840 has slightly more clarity.

Still not decided. Maybe the 840A with 1540 pads... I usually prefer velour or cloth pads over pleather/leather.
The 840A pads feel warm and sticky after a while.

For open I use HD800 (EQ) and S5X (filter + mod) most of the time.
For closed mostly modded+filtered DT1770Pro and modded SRH-940.
Portable DT1350.

 

[Eddie_Vanjovi]

We now have some data from oratory1990:

Shure SRH440: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wq2c7tdt6kodkl1/Shure SRH440.pdf?dl=0
Shure SRH440A: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1vt4eoyo4bdo7y0/Shure SRH440A.pdf?dl=0
Shure SRH840: https://www.dropbox.com/s/66dznl84dn2r4jx/Shure SRH840.pdf?dl=0
Shure SRH840A: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z4kfrvxw92hlz7t/Shure SRH840A.pdf?dl=0

Looks like out of the box the 440 is the way to go. After eq, 440A.

 

[staticV3]

Looks like out of the box the 440 is the way to go. After eq, 440A.

Please don't read too much into the Post EQ Preference score.

That the 440A has 103 points where the 440 has just 96, does not mean that the 440A is a better headphone with EQ.

It just means that oratory stopped optimizing his EQ preset at 96 points.

Virtually all headphones can be EQed to have the same 106 preference points. That number is simply not an indicator of headphone quality.

 

[Dazerdoreal]

If this is what he meant, you are correct. His post correct in a different way as I thought about the better comfort etc.
EQing them doesnt seem to be too hard on the A models and if it possible, they seem to be the better choice.

 

[Alchemist_]

It would be cool if Shure released something similar to the 840A/440A, but in an open case. Exactly the same headband design, same low weight, single-sided cable, same size ear pads, same soft ones, but made of soft velor. With prices up to $149. And also for Bassheads, it would be a hit! I talked about this in support, but I don’t think they implement this idea)

ps the ear pads from 1540 didn’t work for me(
60*40 is tight for me, and I was surprised to find out that it is very hot in them, a large area of the ear pads touches the face and ears.

 

[Dazerdoreal]

It would be cool if Shure released something similar to the 840A/440A, but in an open case. Exactly the same headband design, same low weight, single-sided cable, same size ear pads, same soft ones, but made of soft velor. With prices up to $149. And also for Bassheads, it would be a hit! I talked about this in support, but I don’t think they implement this idea)

It's not like no one would come up with this idea. It is technically extremely difficult to produce good quality, bass-strong open headphones. Strong, good quality bass is technically much more difficult to produce with open headphones than with closed ones.

 

[solderdude]

ps the ear pads from 1540 didn’t work for me(

Yep, when you love bass the 1540 pads won't work well

 

[Alchemist_]

Yep, when you love bass the 1540 pads won't work well

It’s easy to add bass with an equalizer; they are also good for bass; the small holes in the ear pads are an advantage. But nothing can be done about the temperature and cramped conditions.

 

[Alchemist_]

It's not like no one would come up with this idea. It is technically extremely difficult to produce good quality, bass-strong open headphones. Strong, good quality bass is technically much more difficult to produce with open headphones than with closed ones.

But the closed ones are prone to muttering, and it’s also not easy to make bass in the closed ones.

 

[Rick63]

I just ordered a pair of 840A's, can't wait to give them a listen.

 

[Rick63]

They're here. More later.

 

[Rick63]

I'm pretty happy with the 840A'S so far. It's been too long since I've had the K371s to make a subjective comparison (plus I never used them a lot), but the 840A's are more comfortable and built better, no doubt about it.

They definitely need some eq with most tracks I've played so far, so they sound better with my portable rig (Fiio M3K DAP/Fiio A3 amp) than they do with my Audiolab M-DAC+ since the M3K has eq built in. The A3 amp easily drives my IEMs on low gain, but the 840A's need high gain to achieve my listening levels.

Time for more listening and playing with eq.

 

[stoo23]

Interesting .... I'm Still Really happy with my 440's, with and Without EQ ... there would have to be a seriously compelling reason to consider upgrading.
My only criticism is down to mechanical noise (but hey Many headphones exhibit similar issues, including Stupidly expensive ones !!)
So far I have had zero issues with the 'Build Quality' (maybe I don't use them as much as some) but I was carrying them about a lot (in their bag), when doing Gig's and they are still in almost perfect condition now.

I Did 'change-out' the 'Coily' Cable for a nice 2m Cloth covered super flexible cable, which was an improvement, movement wise
I can only recommend them to anyone wanting a decent sounding set of headphones, at a reasonable price.