Shure SRH440A and SRH840A

[Cradi]

i also bought the 440A for my desktop PC, it has the ALC4080 Realtek soundchip.
Do you recommend a budget DAC Solution to have the full potential or is this soundchip strong enough for the bass and the volume? I am on a real budget so if you recommend a DAC i need a good but very cheap one only for this

 

[Alchemist_]

i also bought the 440A for my desktop PC, it has the ALC4080 Realtek soundchip.
Do you recommend a budget DAC Solution to have the full potential or is this soundchip strong enough for the bass and the volume? I am on a real budget so if you recommend a DAC i need a good but very cheap one only for this

Any external DAC/sound card/audio interface will be better. Especially if you use an equalizer. (Built-in sound does not respond well to an equalizer)

Choose based on the functionality of the device, and not on the laudatory reviews about how good this or that DAC sounds. Save yourself time and money.

 

[stoo23]

I purchased an S.M.S.L. C200 mainly due to the great reviews and reports here and (at the time), being able to take advantage of a great discount deal.
Transformed my listening experience !!
It is More than capable of driving my SRH440's

 

[Anderlfs]

I measured the SRH-440A too.

SRH-440A

back to Shure back to measurements home Published: Sept-24-2024 NO SMOOTHING is applied to the shown plots. Most measurement sites have some smoothing applied which ‘irons flat’ sharp peaks and ‘wi…

diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com

SRH-840A is slightly better to my ears.

I have a question. I saw on diyaudioheaven that the isolation of the SRH-840 is "pretty decent", while the SRH-840A is just "decent" (same for the Creative Aurvana Live! SE). And in the Summary It says more "The isolation is not great for a closed headphone, but there is some attenuation of external noise". Does the Shure 840A have the same level of attenuation as the Creative? Was the isolation better on the 840 than on the newer 840A? I ask this because I returned a Creative Aurvana Live! SE due to this lack of isolation (It was like an open-back headphone so bad It was).

 

[heraldo_jones]

I have a question. I saw on diyaudioheaven that the isolation of the SRH-840 is "pretty decent", while the SRH-840A is just "decent" (same for the Creative Aurvana Live! SE). And in the Summary It says more "The isolation is not great for a closed headphone, but there is some attenuation of external noise". Does the Shure 840A have the same level of attenuation as the Creative? Was the isolation better on the 840 than on the newer 840A? I ask this because I returned a Creative Aurvana Live! SE due to this lack of isolation (It was like an open-back headphone so bad It was).

I have a pair of 840A and the isolation is pretty poor. EG: my Sony WH-1000XM4 passive isolation (without ANC ON) is much higher.

 

[Alchemist_]

I have a question. I saw on diyaudioheaven that the isolation of the SRH-840 is "pretty decent", while the SRH-840A is just "decent" (same for the Creative Aurvana Live! SE). And in the Summary It says more "The isolation is not great for a closed headphone, but there is some attenuation of external noise". Does the Shure 840A have the same level of attenuation as the Creative? Was the isolation better on the 840 than on the newer 840A? I ask this because I returned a Creative Aurvana Live! SE due to this lack of isolation (It was like an open-back headphone so bad It was).

I also think that the isolation of 840a/440a is not the best ((((. For example, if you put superlux nd 660 pro ear pads on DT770, the isolation will be much better!! And if you also plug the holes in 770, the isolation is even better, and the sound is worse.
But I like the sound of 440a much more, now these are my only closed headphones.
I like that they do not have the effect of plugged ears.

The old 840 have better isolation, the sound is formed differently there, there are no holes! Therefore, the isolation is better (but how much I don’t remember anymore....) and there was an effect of plugged ears.
And you also get tired faster in them. In 440a, excess sound goes into the holes, and in the old 840 holes it does not go anywhere and hammers on the ears, 30 minutes and you want to take them off)))

 

[solderdude]

I have a question. I saw on diyaudioheaven that the isolation of the SRH-840 is "pretty decent", while the SRH-840A is just "decent" (same for the Creative Aurvana Live! SE). And in the Summary It says more "The isolation is not great for a closed headphone, but there is some attenuation of external noise". Does the Shure 840A have the same level of attenuation as the Creative? Was the isolation better on the 840 than on the newer 840A? I ask this because I returned a Creative Aurvana Live! SE due to this lack of isolation (It was like an open-back headphone so bad It was).

SRH-840A has less attenuation from outside noises than SRH-840.

CAL-SE isolation is not great either nor that of the other Denon (Foster) headphones.

Don't have the CAL SE anymore so can't compare them side by side.
Not all closed headphones have good attenuation from outside noises but some do.
HD620S for instance isolates a bit better than 840A, so does the Hi-X60 by the way.

For really good isolation you need to look into noise cancelling headphones but those require to be charged on a regular basis.

 

[Anderlfs]

Thank you all. Actually, I don’t really need a noise cancelling, wired with good passive isolation is fine to me. But Creative was really disappointing in isolation. My reference is a cheaper Anker that passive isolation (without ANC On) was good as expected for a closed-back. DT770 with passive filter seems a good option, except It's too bulky for the office.

 

[Anderlfs]

I like that they do not have the effect of plugged ears.

The old 840 have better isolation, the sound is formed differently there, there are no holes! Therefore, the isolation is better (but how much I don’t remember anymore....) and there was an effect of plugged ears.
And you also get tired faster in them. In 440a, excess sound goes into the holes, and in the old 840 holes it does not go anywhere and hammers on the ears, 30 minutes and you want to take them off)))

I’m thinking about It lately. How can I say If a headphone has or not these holes? For example, HD 620s or Fiio FT1? I tried in the past some headphones that I couldn’t keep in the ears for too long: Sony MDR-1A and Sennheiser HD-25. They were painful to me. Maybe something to do with these holes.