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In this article, we will review the Shure SRH240A, SRH440A, SRH840A series of closed-back headphones, which, according to the manufacturer, belong to the "professional studio headphones" class despite their low price. We will look at all their features, make a comparison of these headphone models, and tell you about their sound, ergonomics, and overall construction. The variety of closed-back headphones available these days is astounding, and it's easy to get lost even among the top brands, let alone the new entrants that seem to pop up almost every month. Shure's star has been rising for quite some time, and even on the way to creating headphones, they are not the first day, but they have started to cover many segments with their product range.
Finally, the time has come for us to lay out all the major models of the budget and mid-budget segment of the company's lineup. Namely: Shure SRH840A, which have been placed in a niche where competition is simply unbelievable and survival skills and "killer features" are simply a must; Shure SRH440A, which swing not only to the senior model, but also aggressively "squaring off" between the successful relatively new Rode, weighty Sennheiser and the still controversial but notable offerings from AKG and Audio-Technica; Shure SRH240A, which have notable flaws and missteps, but at the same time impressed us the most with the lowest cost among this line of headphones.
In general, the lineup is positioned as professional, and there is no argument about that. All the models mentioned are not just marketing products, but have a similarly oriented sound profile, which is as neutral as possible (as for a closed-back type of headphone), and this is the main attraction of the lineup. In fact, there is a consistency here that not all brands adhere to.
All three models can be characterized from the first minutes as being able to reproduce music well and with high-resolution details. In other words - the frequency responses are truthful, and the modern drivers have a high speed, which results in a high level of sound details. With all three models, you can listen to music without the risk of getting tired or not enjoying it. But we'll talk about the sound and all the other features of these headphone models later in our Shure SRH240A, SRH440A, SRH840A review. Let's first look at the specs of these devices, which will allow us to get a more detailed "picture".
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Best Price on Shure SRH240A Headphones
The Shure SRH240A Professional Studio Headphones are designed for home recording and everyday listening, offering a balance of sound quality and affordability. |
Classic Package
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Best Price on Shure SRH440A Headphones
The Shure SRH440A Professional Studio Headphones are designed to deliver accurate audio reproduction for tasks such as podcasting, home recording, and critical editing/mixing. |
Classic Package
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Best Price on Shure SRH840A Headphones
The Shure SRH840A Professional Studio Headphones offer a balanced and detailed sound profile, comfortable design, and durable construction, making them a reliable choice for studio professionals and audio enthusiasts. |
Classic Package
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Shure SRH240A
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Shure SRH440A
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Shure SRH840A
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Shure SRH240A - the most cheap ones, have a lot of gloss on the sides, the design is quite difficult to call reliable, all height adjustments of the headband are accompanied by clicks, and they often skip divisions when adjusting, which is quite unpleasant. In a few words, the overall impression is a reminder of the good old Chinese headphones "for PC" from 2000-2005. The cable goes into both earcups, which is a very controversial decision, especially if the company has figured out how to run the cable from one earcup to the other, as is done in the senior models. We understand that the interchangeable cable here adds to the budget, but two cables to connect, (rather odd decision) right? The cable itself is quite thin, slippery, but has a quality connector, utterly identical to the two older models. There is no articulation on the earcups, the ear cushions are quite small, but overall the fit is adjustable and the Shure SRH240A can be worn comfortably even on a rather large head and not insignificant ears. We sat in them for quite some time, and thanks to their light weight, they were not noticeable on the head at all. This is a plus for the fit, but the durability of the design is still a bit questionable. Given the budget, there is a big "counterweight" here, which will be discussed further in our Shure SRH240A, SRH440A, SRH840A review.
Shure SRH440A - have all the trends of modern standards and approaches to the construction of headphones: detachable cable of good quality (which goes only into the left earcup), articulation of the cups, comfortable adjustment of the soft headband with clear clicks and without skipping divisions, large ovals of ear cushions made of leatherette. The fit is comfortable, but the compression is quite noticeable. In fact, it is not uncomfortable, but has one big plus - if you move a lot and aggressively (like playing drums), they will not fly off your head like most headphones. The materials are not premium, but they are high quality and pleasant to the touch. The construction is tight, and there are no squeaks. The fit is excellent, and because they are relatively light weight, there is no reason to think that they will be uncomfortable for you. By the way, the cable turned out to be quite comfortable to use.
Shure SRH840A - is a continuation of the 440A, but with design accents. No, there is no unique cup shape, because that would affect the sound - so this formula was more than satisfactory for Shure. But here they used contrasting stitching on the headband, gold accents on the Shure lettering on the cups, and there are gold circles and a small gold hex screw on the connection between the cups and the headband. Yes, of course, all these improvements are not worth the price difference between the 440A and the 840A, but the company wanted to emphasize the visual difference so that those looking from the outside can understand which model you are wearing. Or to make it easier to pick the right one out of a pile of headphones, because we're sure both models have a right to life in a big studio. The cables, headband, and ear cushions are identical between the two models, but the fit of the 840A is lighter, which will suit most users. But the main differences (which you pay for) are not visual, but sonic. Obviously a lot of work has gone into the sound settings of the SRH840A, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We'll talk about sound in the next section of our Shure SRH240A, SRH440A, SRH840A review.
Now we come to the most important part of our Shure SRH240A, SRH440A, SRH840A review. Of course, everyone wants to know how the headphones sound. We'll also do a comparison of this entire line of professional studio headphones from Shure, which will help to clarify the situation about their sound in general and the differences in sound at various ranges of frequency response.
Why not consecutively? Because we'll save the tastiest bit for last. The mid-range Shure SRH440A is in a very competitive price segment. As mentioned before - there's Sennheiser with Beyerdynamic, AKG, and everything else you can think of. How does a company enter the market that wants to be successful and does not have such a deep brand loyalty among headphone buyers? Only with a perfect calculation and the best sound for the money. So the Shure SRH440A performs with an almost perfect profile, where the unevenness of the frequency response is only at a ridiculous level of 1-2 dB in certain areas and has no noticeable problems.
The bass is deep, fast and detailed. A bit more relaxed than the older model, there is no aggressive punch in the bass, but this is the other side of the coin - the midrange is not overshadowed by the massiveness of the bass. EDM on a level with aggressive metal genres paints a good picture of bass and synths, without any problems and truthfully.
The mid-range is slightly attenuated around 200-300 Hz, but this is more to remove the "boxy" sound from the profile and to orient the headphones in a different niche. Not for critical listening, but more of a monitoring orientation. The upper midrange is clean here, there is a readability of the upper midrange with accents, but not "toxic".
High frequencies are boosted by 6-8 kHz, which may be a bit too much for some, but this is not at all the level of the Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO (for which we have a separate long review available at the link), where these frequencies can "scrape your soul" without proper habit and training. These headphones can be used at lower volumes if the high frequencies are uncomfortable and because of the well-balanced frequency response. If you are used to listening to music at a higher volume, you will either have to get used to it (we chose the latter) or turn the volume down a bit - this will not affect the readability, as the resolution is very good due to a good adjustment of the volume curve. Somewhere, depending on your hearing, there will be irregularities, but this is after 10 kHz, when you don't expect linearity due to the nature of short waves of high frequencies.
The bass on the Shure SRH840A is raised by a few dB compared to the Shure SRH440A, so it has a stronger punch in the 60-80 Hz range. But the lift ends much earlier, so it has even less effect on the midrange. In general, there's a slight shift toward the bass in the overall picture. The lows are just as quick to articulate, but the driver gives a little more detail in adjacent areas, and we suspect that this is a major difference and works in the breeding of the headphone models in the Shure lineup.
In other words, the midrange has a little more information (than in the SRH440A) closer to the bottom, which gives both the readability of instruments in the mix and the ability to separate them better by focusing on listening for specific aspects. The Shure SRH440A, on the other hand, has an elevated 1-2 kHz that reveals many instruments from a different perspective, bringing them to the forefront (e.g. female vocals, MF-oriented guitar recordings). Despite the closed-back design, the mids generally sound natural enough, and no instrument can be accused of being unnatural. There is no attenuation in the 200-300 Hz range, which is already a more linear approach and can result in more detail in the lower part of the range compared to the SRH440A.
The highs of the Shure SRH840A are quite similar to the mid-range model in the lineup (440A), but less biting at 6 kHz. There are fewer questions about its veracity, and that's quite an achievement in the closed-back & full-size headphone form-factor. No, it's not a great invention, and no manufacturer has yet to beat the physics, but it has some pretty strong potential.
Now we come to the icing on the cake of our Shure SRH240A, SRH440A, SRH840A review. It isn't easy to make such loud statements, but the sound of the Shure SRH240A headphones seemed to us to be the most balanced of the lineup in many respects. We don't know why and how this happened, but the manufacturer knew what he was doing and such decisions are never made blindly.
The bass here is elastic and articulate, but less deep in the range - it appears noticeably in the area of 30 Hz and above. It is not as accentuated as in the older model. And in general, it makes sense that the older and mid-range models are noticeably better at reproducing the low frequencies from 5-10 to 20 Hz. That driver speed makes excellent detailing, perhaps unique in this price range.
The midrange is natural and has a similar coloration in the 1-2 kHz range to the SRH440A, which logically unites the lineup. The timbre of guitars, vocals (all instruments in general) is natural, which is no small accomplishment for headphones in this price range. This unexpected orientation towards even more neutrality is not at all what you would expect!
The treble is more restrained than in the older models, noticeably lighter, and the edges of the range are quite far away, so it's a question of how much you can hear, what are the limits of your hearing at that moment. In our opinion and feeling, the treble is generally similar across the line, except for the coloration in the SRH440A and SRH840A at 6-8 kHz, which is added there more for sense and function. The younger Shure SRH240A model is kept as neutral as possible.
We should start with a brief reminder of why manufacturers make exaggerations on closed-back headphones. First of all, such headphones give you the ability to control quantitatively critical areas. For example, the famous and legendary Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro has strong accents at 6 and 8 kHz, and therefore in multitracks, on instruments where these frequencies are present in excessive amounts, it will be impossible not to notice with these headphones, and you will naturally start to equalize, trim this range on the track. With bass (which is also quite exaggerated in the DT 770), it is the same story - if there are exaggerations on instruments in a specific range, it will overshadow other instruments, and by equalizing, you take away the excess of a particular range. Literally making room for other instruments, or artistically correcting the sound of a particular instrument if the track is not very busy with instruments in that spot. In other words, engineers need not only linear instruments to work with, but also those whose flaws/peculiarities they clearly know, those that allow them to control certain frequencies and prevent conflicts (frequency conflicts) already at the mixing stage.
This is how you should approach understanding the Shure SRH lineup, but surprisingly, in all the models described above, these exaggerations are done differently from the competition. These are tools for work as well as good headphones for listening to music.
In this part of our Shure SRH240A, SRH440A, SRH840A review, we start with the younger model SRH240A, which proved to be very pleasant to listen to. Our overall impression is very positive, and we can say that despite the unpleasant creaking of the construction and external imperfections - here all the money went into the sound! This model can be hung in your studio, it's not a pity to give it to children because of its cost, it's easy to replace, or you can repair it yourself if there's a problem and one of the musicians steps on the headphones in the middle of a rehearsal. But the most important thing about them can not be taken away - it is a very mature and detailed sound (as for the price and their closed nature) and not a biting frequency response setting, which tends to be as linear as possible. Monitoring musicians, music playback, video production, gaming or casual music listening - they can do it all. We see no reason to pay attention to the Sony MDR-7506, for example, which is often recommended as a budget option for the studio and which we have been criticizing for years because we once believed in it and paid for our personal experience with a year of uncomfortable fit and very inaccurate sound. The only justification for MDR-7506 may still be its ease of repair, as parts are plentiful and the construction is the opposite of the SRH240A - it's sturdy and durable.
The Shure SRH440A - here we are greeted with a great design, good materials and a definite step forward in terms of sound. The overall detail for us is not radically different from the SRH240A, but for long hours of recording, for those who have a lot of movement and need a tighter fit, for those for whom it is important to have headphones with a detachable cable and the ability to conveniently fold for transportation in a flat walking case (not included in the kit, but there are many on the market), it is better to choose the SRH440A. It is the "golden mean", "workhorse", "choice of mind", etc. Monitoring for a sound operator or videographer, record monitoring, radio broadcasts, gaming - all this and much more under the power of this model. And this is where AKG and Audio-Technica start to gnash their teeth, because many people bought them blindly and they did not live up to their expectations. And it is clear why - because many brands do not want to change what has been sold for decades, what people buy without even listening, because they trust their name. But time comes and goes. Alternatives arise. We confidently placed the Shure SRH440A next to the very successful debut of the Rode NTH100, which was such a kick to the old players. For those looking for something in this price range, there are plenty of options right now, but in our personal opinion, Shure and Rode are leading the way right now (professional headphones that are not disgusting to listen to music in). Now you no longer only have the specialized AKG 371, Sennheiser HD280, HD300. Also, the sane all-rounders Sennheiser HD200 and HD569, Audio-Technica M40x, and Shure are available to you. And that's about it. There is a lot to choose from, and considering the fact that many competitors are still without modern, updated designs and materials (driver manufacturing technologies), the 440A will appear in many homes and settle in many studios.
With the upper model Shure SRH840A, it will be a little more difficult to explain the positioning, if to correlate in the line with the SRH440A (because they are very, very similar), but it is more a specialized headphone model, logically something similar to Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro. The "killer features" here are not in the details (which are at the level of the competition), but in the allocation of certain areas for professional use. The Shure SRH840A is great for the critical frequency control described above, for monitoring keyboards, synthesizers, bass guitars, vocals, and for working with sound in video. They are great for mixing and even mastering (although we recommend using only studio monitors for mixing and mastering). In the middle and upper models of Shure's lineup, the degrees of compression and spatial effects can be heard well (overall, they are siblings). The Shure SRH840A has a bit more punch in the bass, and the Shure SRH440A is a bit quieter in the low frequencies. This does not prevent them from being excellent headphones for listening, which cannot be said of the Audio-Technica M50x or Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro - they require either an already tuned ear or some getting used to. We were amazed at how the more expensive Yamaha MT8 headphones "played with muscles" in the midrange, but is linearity a bad thing? Linearity is easier to sell because it makes sense. So, now we're not so sure that closed-back headphones in this price range are 100% worth recommending only the legendary Beyerdynamic 770 Pros for many tasks, as they have a worthy competitor in the form of the Shure SRH840A.
Here we are at the end of our Shure SRH240A, SRH440A, SRH840A comparison review, it's time to summarize the results. In the course of writing the text, we had to reorganize the sections several times, change the structure, because it is difficult to separate the inseparable. This line of Shure SRH goes hand in hand with others, and if you have experience with the above-mentioned competitors' headphones, you involuntarily exclaim "wow, wow!", "is it possible?" and so on. We're not saying Shure has come out with a new "banger," but they are impressive. Impressive in terms of price/quality ratio, impressive in terms of comfort and adequate choice of materials (except for the SRH240A, which didn't stop us from liking it the most). We can blindly recommend any model from the range, and it's important not to make a mistake with the purpose of your purchase. You want maximum sound as cheaply as possible - SRH240A! You want a professional instrument that's comfortable to use in rehearsal and at home, as ergonomic and reliable as a Swiss knife - SRH440A! You want a professional instrument, less fan-oriented and more professional - SRH840A is your choice.
Comment from the CEO of SoundGale.comAll the time I'm sitting there thinking - it's good that when I bought my first Beyerdynamic headphones I didn't have the opportunity to compare them with these Shure products, because I have no idea what I would have chosen then, because without experience it's just a blind purchase. And it's easier for you - you've read the review and (hopefully) something has become clearer and the choice will be much easier. Good luck with your shopping!
We hope you enjoyed our Shure SRH240A, SRH440A, SRH840A review. Please feel free to leave your comments, questions, and suggestions in the section below. We will be happy to answer them all as soon as possible. If you already own a headphone from the Shure SRH series, don't forget to share your impressions and tell us what you liked or disliked about these headphones.
Unfortunately, there were almost no technical comparisons (such as Frequency Response, Bass Accuracy, Sound Profile, etc.) of these devices in our review. We decided to write an article based only on our impressions of these headphones in everyday audio listening and professional work. More detailed reviews with technical basis for a particular model of headphones can be seen in separate reviews.
