Recording - November 2011 - 62

B Y M I K E M E T L AY

In our June 2010 issue, I reviewed two new headphones from Shure, the SRH440 and SRH840. The renowned mic maker’s first forays into studio headphone design, the two headphones represented a very good value for the money, with slightly different audio “signatures” that would appeal to two different sets of users. The most difficult part of the review was trying to explain the differences between these two similar and both quite appealing headphone designs! This review of the new SRH940 will be a bit simpler. As a step up in price and specs from the SRH840, the SRH940 stands alone at the top of Shure’s headphone line, and I came to it with the simple question: what does this new headphone bring to the table that makes it worth the step up?

Shure SRH940 Headphones
The newest SRH offers a luxurious listening experience
To the eyes Like the other SRH headphones we’ve reviewed, the SRH940 is a sealed circumaural dynamic headphone with 40mm drivers and neodymium magnets, intended for both control-room and critical-listening applications; Shure says it is designed to “deliver accurate response across the entire audio spectrum for smooth high-end extension with tight bass. Superior transient response provides minimal distortion”. Well and good; let’s poke around in the box a bit, then read the spec sheet before we settle in for some hard listening. The SRH940 stands apart from its less costly siblings in its sexy metallic-silver enclosure, and it comes nicely appointed right out of the box. The SRH940 is designed to be usable for a good long time without the niggling component-damage failure points that take cheaper phones offline and leave them in the studio trash; it comes in a semirigid zippered case, with two cables (one 2.5m straight, one 3m coiled), a replacement pair of earpads, and the obligatory 1/8"–to–1/4" screw-on adapter, gold-plated as are all the relevant plugs. The cable can be replaced without tools; on the headphone end there’s a subminiature TRS plug that twist-locks in place.
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Shure stocks all of these parts, including the zippered case, as field replacements... no planned obsolescence here! The SRH940’s specs are similar to the SRH840’s at first glance, with a more extended high end. The rated frequency response is 5 Hz–30 kHz, but that spec has no tolerances attached to it. The impedance of 42 ohms means that even a small headphone amp circuit will drive the SRH940 to loud levels; it can handle 1000 mW of input power, which is ear-blistering, and has a sensitivity of 100 dB/mW at 1 kHz. Weighing only 11 ounces without the cable, its padded velour earpads and headband are designed to contribute to a fatigue-free listening experience. To the ears I broke in the SRH940 with 48 hours of loud music before starting my listening tests. During that period, I tested the phones for isolation, and determined that the sealed earcups are designed with audio quality as a primary (perhaps the only) consideration. If you’re listening at moderate levels, the sealed cups will effectively isolate what you’re hearing from any live mics nearby, but if a client wants his or her audio cranked way up, the phones will bleed a lot more

than purpose-built isolation phones like models from Direct Sound. That’s not a downcheck, just a reminder that some phones are happier in the tracking room or iso booth than others, and the SRH940 is only suitable for use in the booth with talent that likes levels low. With the break-in period behind me, I racked up my collection of reference tracks, alternating between rock, classical, jazz, country, and ambient electronica, at file qualities ranging from 320 kbps MP3 to 16-bit/44.1 kHz WAV up to 5.6 Mbps DSD (thanks to Korg’s lovely—and free— AudioGate software, currently available at www.korguser.net/audiogate) through a variety of audio interfaces and converters, and settled in to take notes over the course of several weeks. I also listened to my own music—fully mastered albums, homemade CD-R releases, and unfinished tracks and mixes—knowing where to listen for the problems I knew were there. I started out wondering if the SRH940 would present any of the frequency nonlinearities of the SRH840, which were pleasing to the ears but perhaps a bit worrisome to the listener wanting a ruler-flat, brutally honest listening experience. My listening tests led me to the eventual conclusion that

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Recording - November 2011

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