Shure SRH440

[rohizzle121]

Background

I am very new to the whole audiophile scene. I have been using my standard iPhone headphones since I got it, and I didn’t know headphones even made a difference! One day my friend left his Sony 7506 at my house, so I decided to plug them in and see why he was always raving about them. My mind was blown. The bass was SO much clearer and it almost sounded like my old headphones were muffled.

So I did some research on this forum and headfi and I found out about FLAC and uncompressed audio. Mind Blown 2s. I didn’t even realize I was listening to shitty 192kbs MP3’s the whole time and YouTube music has been forever ruined for me. I then redownloaded my favorite songs in FLAC and started listening to them again; it was like I was hearing a better version of the same song! At this point I was convinced I needed to buy new headphones and my future music should be in ALA [FLAC for Apple Devices]. When I had to give his headphones back, I felt like I was giving up a child.

So I started my endeavor for buying new higher end headphones. I asked for money for Christmas so I could put it all together and buy a nice set. After all in all I got 100$. After comparing these headphones to the 7506 & HD555 I decided to go with these because of the closed design and the shure name.

Design

These feel very solid! They don’t look as nice as the beats by dre or diddy, but then again they only cost 1/3 of them! Even the box I felt was well designed. The plastic seems very thick and each ear piece can rotate outwards and it folds to a compact shape. It came with a 1/8th converter and a leather pouch. The ear pieces are kind of stiff and get uncomfortable after I wear them for a while, but I heard you can change them out with the 840's earpieces and it improves comfort by a long shot, I still have yet to try this though. The cable is detachable from the headphone, which is really nice because if the cable gets frayed or cut for whatever reason, you don’t need to buy new headphones. The connection that goes into the headphone isn’t a standard jack, which would have been awesome, but nonetheless still cool.

Sound
I listen to Acoustic, Metal, Rap, trance, reggae, and dubstep. So I needed a versatile headphone, which this defiantly delivers on! Sometimes the bass can be slightly weak, but one switch in the EQ preset can change that, and it still doesn’t sound like the bass is "boomy" [I don’t know if that the right term] the songs sound whole, and I can hear little minute sounds in the mixes. Especially in nine inch nails ghost's. I don’t even have to turn up the volume up too loud. The sound isolation is amazing! Only, when I am playing a song at about 60% does the sound leak out, and at that very slightly. The solo's in metal sound so pristine. The sound of these is just phenomenal.


When listening to Kid Cudi's Pursuit of Happiness, I felt like this was the first time the bass sounded perfect. normally it sounds too overpowering and you cant hear all the words clearly, but this have might been the song. The hihat's in Young Money's Pass the dutch was so satisfying. I could hear the echo effect they used in fruity loops! Trent Reznor released his album "The Slip" in wav 24/96 and each sound is about 200mb. This just sounds amazing. I could hear the drum machine and I could exactly tell where there were errors. Bob Marley's Three little birds made my mouth literally fall this song in FLAC with these headphones is just redic.

PROS
Sound quality to Price Ratio, I Got these for 94$ on amazon
Detachable Cable
Foldable

Cons
Slightly Uncomfortable after long use :/ but can possibly be fixed. [i need to get more cash to try that out]

[CrowdAds]

[WalkGood]

Interesting con you state and that’s good to know, I haven’t tried the SRH440’s but did test the SRH840 and I was really impressed with the feel, comfort, sound quality and overall build quality. The only thing I didn’t like about the SRH840’s was the coil cable and the locking proprietary plug they use into the headset. But aside from that I'd certainly like to have them and I would just mod the cable

[JK98]

How does the SRH840 compare to the Sony V900HD(7509HD)? The V900HD is only 24 ohms so it is much easier to drive than the V6. I don't have the V900HD, but have some other high quality Sony headphones with 50mm drivers.

[gleipnir]

Wow, great reivew! It's like a breath of fresh air huh?


...As a side note, most people (and even some audiophiles) can't differentiate between well-encoded 192kpbs mp3s and FLAC in blind ABX tests, so some of your "shitty 192kbs MP3’s" may not be so bad after all!

[sassafras]

Well there is a clear distinction between CBR 192kbps and VBR at ~192kbps. The VBR may be indistinguishable but the CBR is clearly inferior.

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When you say you "redownloaded" your music in FLAC, I am only going to assume that meant 're-ripped' from CD...