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The SRH-840, top of Shure's first line of headphones, is perhaps the best bargain in mid-level cans out there today. With an MSRP of $199, and a street price significantly lower, it can hang with cans costing three or four times as much.

The best aspect of the 840 is its' balance, which allows it to approach all kinds of music and listening tasks with an even hand. While perhaps not ruler-flat, the 840 has a nicely balanced sound, outperforming many so-called "audiophile" headphones costing much more.

The bass depth and punch are the other standouts to the performance of the SRH840. The bass is able to go quite deep without becoming bloated or flabby, or impeding the midrange.

The midrange performance is relatively uneventful, with a slight tilt toward the lower-midrange, as seems to be the case with a number of past Shure earphones.

The 840's treble errs ever so slightly towards the analytical side, with a tiny bit of extra bite than I'd say is natural. Most similarly-priced headphones do far worse in this regard, and I don't find it to be a distraction.

The 840 is certainly built to take the abuse of professional use, and with an extra set of earpads packed right into the box, it comes equipped for longevity. Comfort is somewhat compromised by the strong grip required to produce very good isolation for a closed headphone.

One the whole, I can think of no better headphone for the money, let alone a closed model. If someone had $130-150 to spend on headphones, this is the model I'd recommend.

These headphones are fantastic! My best pair of headphones to date. They have a rich, mellow, buttery sound that is a pleasure for the ear. Maybe they can be too soft for some, but for me it's perfect. They excells most with vocals, classical and jazz or acoustic instruments, but also with any genre of music. For example, Dance/Trance/Hip-Hop is very fun to listen with them.

The bass go very deep with the right amount of impact. The midrange is a bit laid back and incredibly smooth and natural. The highs are... perfect! Very detailed and fine, never irritating.

The Shure SRH840 are easy to drive, I can reach a high sound level with my Sony Walkman A726 MP3 player, and a lot more out of my PC soundcard. I don't feel the need for an external amplifier.

Compared to my Sennheiser HD280 PRO, it's like night and day. Don't get me wrong, the HD280 are very good, but compared to the SRH840, they are analytical, clinical and detached from the essence of music. With the SRH840, I feel the music as if it was live and natural.

If I had to describe the Shure SRH840's sound in a few words, it would be : intimate, graceful, sweet and musical.