At first, I want you to notice that I bought these headphones for listening to music, not for studio -monitoring- purposes and I will share here some thoughs I made and posted in head-fi.org about them.
The first day I received them I posted this:
They remember to me to my Beyer DT 150 cans or my Beyer Soul Byrd IEMs, althought the soundstage of the 840-A is smaller (respect to the Beyer cans).
Remember to me to those cans because all sound "correct", they don't emphasize anything, but at the same time they are fun and not sterile. I find the mids more forward when comparing to other closed backs (that are known for their recessed mids), the bass don't have the definition of the Denon AH-D9200s, but you can notice very well them and even the sub-bass. And there are not piercing highs. I only listened to "Supertramp - Classics", "Draconian - Under a Godless Veil", "Epica - The Divine Conspiracy", some OST songs and jazz songs and now I'm enjoying "Melody Gardot - Sunset in the blue" with them.
Regarding to comfort, I had to elongate them at maximum (just 3 positions to elongate the headband) and thankfully they fit me very well... For reference, I use the 9200s at 7 position and the Sony Z7s at 6... For people with bigger heads they won't fit). Also, the headband padding is very thin, but, again thankfully, no hot spots in my case. After a few hours with them you notice your ears a little hot (but less than with my Z7s) and when I first looked at them I was horrorized thinking that my ears will touch the inner mesh, but not at all.
At the end, I like very much them because they offer a different approach to my music, and is a enjoyable approach... That's what I'm looking for in this hobby.
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And the next day, I wrote the following (with a briefly comparison with the well-known Beyer DT 150 studio headphones):
Some other thoughs about the Shure 840-A (althought I liked what they offer, I've decided to return them), and a mental comparison with the Beyer DT 150 I had:
At first, when I was trying the 840-A with some rock and metal I liked the direct sound, the balanced signature and I found them "multi-genre" headphones, which is one of the characteristics I valorate a lot about headphones. When swapped to some jazz, OST songs and the entire "Melody Gardot - Sunset in the blue" album, I started to find a small soundstage (all sounded very congested, like I had experienced with some other closed-back headphones before: Sennheiser PC 350 or Beyer MMX 300), that was very evident with something like "Hiromi Uehara (Trio project) - Voice", althought I found the sound balanced with a good bass presentation and no treble peaks, all the instruments sounded together with no separation... Maybe I was accostumed to closed-backs with more soundstage, like the DT 150 I had or the Sony Z7s, even the 9200s has more soundstage comparing to the Shures.
Also, when listening to Hiromi Uehara or Melody Gardot, there were some details at the background that sounded like noise and I couldn't perceive them... These Shures 840-A gave me the urge to take my HD 800s again (you know: master of details and with the biggest soundstage), now on my head.
A little comparison with other closed back I've tried in similar price range, Beyer DT 150 studio headphones:
- Comfort: I decided to get rid of my DT 150s because of that, the clamp pressure of the earpads and headband was too much for my head. With the Shures (if fits you, because there is not much margin to elongate the headband, just 3 positions) you get average comfort (more or less the Denon AH-D9200s comfort but with a little less clamp pressure).
- Sound: the DT 150 have a very good, balanced, and enjoyable sound register, they present the bass and sub-bass with impact and don't have treble peaks, like other Beyers. Surprisingly, the soundstage is very big, one of the biggest I have found in closed-back headphones. Like I said, the 840-A have a very little soundstage, all sound very closed and that is good for certain genres of music, but you miss a bigger soundstage for other genres. Anyway, the sound is very good for the price, balanced with good bass (not as good and impactful as the one of the DT 150s) even you can notice the sub-bass (more evident in the DT 150), forward mids (sometimes I found them very forward, specially the voices) and good treble without being annoying.
