Shure SRH940

It's no secret that many brands take different approaches when designing studio headphones versus regular models for music listening. In the case of the former, the model must meet a number of requirements (a fairly flat frequency response, sound detailing and dynamics, durability of construction), and they will be judged by professionals. In the latter case, meeting certain standards isn't necessary; bright packaging and advertising featuring Cristiano Ronaldo or Dr. Dre can drive sales. Therefore, it's not surprising that many audiophiles pair their hi-fi players with studio headphones.

A great example of this is the SRH940 over-ear headphones from the American brand Shure.

Studio Quality Sound

And it's this "studio quality" that is mentioned in numerous reviews on foreign and domestic forums and music gatherings: the sound is extremely detailed, with an excellent balance between the heaviness of the bass and the lightness of the high frequencies. Everything sounds exactly as the sound engineer intended when mixing the album, unlike Beats engineers who boost the peak around 100 Hz by 5-6 dB just to make the bass thump even in the subway. What we liked most was their, if you will, "musicality." With the Shure SRH940, you just want to keep listening to music; they don't tire you with dryness or excessive analytics like many other studio headphones.

This point alone is a serious reason to consider purchasing them. But don't rush, there is a downside. Shure messed up with the construction, which turned their lifespan into quite an expensive lottery. For some users, they work seamlessly for 2-3 years, while for others, the plastic headbands crack after just six months of use. Considering how comfortable the design is, this makes it doubly frustrating. It brings to mind the recent Focal Listen Pro, which also played at the level of headphones priced twice as high but could fail after a year or two of use.