Recording - March 2014 - 26

Reviews by Mike Metlay
Microphones and headphones are both transducers,
devices that cross between the realm of audio as air
particles in motion to audio as electrical signals; a
mic turns moving air into electricity and headphones turn electricity into moving air. So it's
not completely unheard of for a company
that has specialized in one sort of transduction to become interested in the other.
Shure is the latest in a number of wellrespected mic companies that have
made significant waves with their offerings in the pro headphone world.
We've reviewed a fair number of
Shure headphones in the last year or
two, since the introduction of the SRH
line; our most recent reviews have been of
the highest-end Shure models, the openbacked SRH1440 and SRH1840, which
impressed us with their immaculate sonics.
Now Shure has added a closed-back phone to its
top end; how does the new SRH1540 measure up?

Listening experiences
In use, the SRH1540 offers good but not utterly soundproof isolation in the tracking room, a small tradeoff for the headphone's
light weight and extreme comfort. Unless you're blasting drums in
your ears while recording a whispered vocal, bleed isn't likely to
be a problem. I found the soundstaging to be very wide indeed;
hard-panned sources present themselves that way with very little
leakage toward the phantom center. When the recording plays
with the stereo soundstage (common with artists like Björk, for
example), you'll hear the placement of sound sources with an
exaggerated precision that is almost hyper-real.
Bass on these headphones is a revelation! Shure
has always gotten the low end really right on its
fancier phones, but those designs were openbacked models where there's no artificial
enhancement of the low end like you get
from a closed-back headphone. I had
some initial trepidation that a closedback SRH might clobber me with bass
that was overemphasized and
smeared and lacking in definition.
The first time I threw on my favorite
jazz recordings with exposed and
impeccably recorded acoustic bass,
that fear was promptly laid to rest. If
anything, the incredible detail may give
the impression that you're hearing a tad
bit more solidity and power in the bass
than you might be used to.
The SRH1540 is a delight when working
with vocals. The midrange is smooth and not at

Shure SRH1540
A closed-back phone from a rising name in the headphone world
Specs and stuff
The SRH1540 is a closed-back dynamic headphone with 40mm
neodymium drivers; the enclosure and headband are made from
carbon fiber and aluminum alloy for sturdiness combined with light
weight-so light, in fact, that upon first donning the phones one
might be forgiven for thinking they're an open-air design. This
sense of airiness, of a very different ergonomic experience than
one might expect from closed phones, is accentuated by the very
light and breathable earpads, made of a material Shure calls
Alcantara™ and filled with slow-recovery foam for a tight but not
suffocating fit. The headband is padded with two narrow pads
with airspace between them rather than a single wide band; this
light and breathable design extends wearability and comfort.
The SRH1540 offers a 99 dB/mW sensitivity and a 46 ohm
impedance; these combine to mean it will get nicely loud when driven by a solid headphone amplifer like you'd get in a mixing console or premium audio interface. In my listening tests on portable
devices like iPods, the SRH1540 didn't get quite as loud as other
phones with significantly lower impedances; this might be a factor
in your buying decision if you plan to do a lot of recreational listening on portable devices with weaker amps, but shouldn't affect
your results in the studio. The quoted frequency response is an
impressively wide 5 Hz to 25 kHz, with no tolerances given.
The SRH1540 comes with one set of replacement earpads
and a spare cable in a rigid zippered storage case. The cable
is 6' (1.8 meters) long and connects to both earcups, with the
other end offering a gold-plated TRS miniplug with screw-on 1/4"
adapter.
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RECORDING March 2014

all hyped or spiky, and voices, male and female, translate well
from recording to what you hear. I confess to having a preference for hearing less raucous styles like jazz and country or
Americana with these phones, but they work brilliantly with rock
vocals as well. The Beach Boys' vocal harmonies have rarely
been brought across so clearly over cans.
The high end on the SRH1540 is impressively clear and laidback, mirroring the nuances of recorded material beautifully.
There's a bit of concern when you hear treble that's this polite,
that it might not let you know if there's harshness or stridency in
your recorded material, but fear not! Picking out my test tunes
that suffer from harsh treble due to poor translation to CD from
analog masters in the 1980s, the crunch and sizzle are all there
in all their painful glory. If you've pushed your cymbals too hard
in the mix or miked them with a tizzy cheap condenser mic, the
SRH1540 will let you know.
So
Shure has done it again with the SRH1540, a beautiful-sounding and well-balanced headphone that provides the low-end
solidity of a closed-back design with the clarity, smoothness, and
comfort you might expect from an open-back headphone. If
you're looking to boost your game in the tracking room or behind
the board with headphones, they're worth a serious listen.
Price: $499 MAP
More from: Shure, www.shure.com
http://www.shure.com
Recording - March 2014

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