My own fault for not updating sooner. The past Holiday season brought many gifts for reviewing, as did my birthday, not to mention several little gifts I purchased myself in the meantime. Maybe I'll start reviewing my frequently. I'll aim for once a month for now, and then perhaps more as time marches on.+++
I love music. And for the longest time I had been wanting to buy some really nice sound equipment to fully enjoy my ever expanding music library. Now, after far too long, I broke down and bought myself a decent pair of midrange headphones - the Shure SRH440's.
When I first decided it was time to take the plunge and lay down a few bucks for a good set, I initially started looking at earbuds. I liked the fact that I could pop them in and exercise or walk around listening to my iPod and be able to enjoy my music without any stray glances. the other thing that originally turned me away from traditional headphones was that so many of the popular sets are battery powered. Call me old fashioned, but I just thought it would be a chore to have to worry about charging my music player and my headphones.
Then I started listening. I first tried out a pair of Bose In-Ear headphones that I bought a relative for Christmas. They sounded much better than anything I had heard previously, and was surprised that something so small could produce such a wide array of sounds. But I wasn't about to end my search that quickly. After talking with a work friend, I was recommended to try out a pair of Shure Noise-Isolating earbuds. I liked what I heard, and bought a pair for a friend for her birthday. After spending about a week testing them, I decided they indeed were superior to the Bose set. I also had some experience with some other Shure equipment, most notably a microphone I bought a few years ago, so I knew that the company made high quality products that lasted and tok their share of abuse.
I thought I was all set to make a purchase when I noticed over the ear headphones start to become more common. I was always attracted to them because they looked more comfortable than sticking something in my ear. Even though I realized that I would be losing the ability to work out or run with the headphones in, I decided that the amount of actual exercising I actually did with headphones on wasn't worth factoring into consideration. After all I was looking for sound quality, not size. It was then I tried out a pair of beats by Dre. The bass was much better, if not just much louder, than the small type headphones I had been trying in the past.
Then the breakthrough happened. Shure announced their new SRH line of headphones, which consisted of three different levels of headphones, intended for professional recording. I figured the middle level would fit my needs, and purchased the SRH 440 set. My computer speakers were very upset.
I have been listening to my music solely though the 440's for the past week, and can safely say that they are fantastic. Even if you're not a professional you will love these headphones, and they are very sturdy so don't worry about wearing them out. Wear them like you would your normal headphones. They also fit very snug, so walking is no problem. They are adjustable too, so don't worry about them being too tight.
In the box is a carrying case, a detachable cable with a mini (1/8") jack on one end, and an adapter that screws in to accommodate larger (1/4") jacks. They aren't noise canceling, but they do a pretty good job of blocking out common noises like the washing machine and vacuum. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to test them on an airplane (and probably won't anytime soon) but they make the world fade away when your listening to music.
I can definitely recommend these to the average music listener, so don't let that big "designed for professionals" sticker on the front of the box scare you away. They really are phenomenal. I wish they folded up like their more expensive sibling (the 840), but I wasn't going to spend the extra money for just that feature, since I probably wounldn't be able to tell the difference in audio quality since I'm just using them for personal use (as Engadget would call "poseur" use). I like the fact that they come with the detachable cord, but if I could have had a dream pair they could have come with a USB or Toslink (or mini-Toslink!) adapter to use them digitally. In-line volume control would have been nice, too, but again these were designed for the studio. They really weren't created with the mindset that someone was going to walk around with a pair hooked up to an iPod in their pocket. If you can live with adjusting your volume through your pocket, then these are for you.
The bottom line is that for what they are (and the market they were designed for), the SRH440's deserve the best rating. However, for casual consumer use, these cans get a 4 out of 5. The quality matched with the price point really makes these headphones hard to resist. Negatives from a consumer perspective are the lack of a inline volume control and inability to fold up for travel. Looking for a reasonably priced set of high quality cans, and aren't interested in hitting the gym every day? The Shure 440's definitely deserve a look.
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