Today, we kick off proceedings with one of the staples of the modern recording climate and in many ways, a product group that has a much bigger influence on production quality than most probably realise – the humble studio headphone.
Shure SRH1540 Premium Closed-Back Headphones
Distributed by: Jands | RRP: $899
Key Features: With their lightweight moulded construction and incredibly broad, lush soundstage, Shure’s futuristic SRH1540 professional headphones are just as comfortable as they are cutting edge.
Featuring 40mm neodynimum drivers sealed with Shure’s APTIV film technology for improved linearity and minimal harmonic distortion, the SRH1540’s provide professional, reference quality reproduction, ideal for the musician, engineer and audiophile alike. Sonically they have all the makings of an awesome, multi-purpose studio headphone, with a broadband frequency response extending between 5hz-25000hz and enough output to make them a more than serviceable option for a variety of different monitoring situations.
Employing aircraft-grade aluminium alloy yoke and carbon fibre into its ergonomically moulded chassis, the SRH 1540 provide a level of durability and lightness, rarely encountered in the world of studio headphones. The steel driver frame with its vented center pole piece also improves linearity and eliminates internal resonance within the headphone body, allowing for consistent performance at all listening levels.
The breathable Alcantara earpads, made of a slow recovery, low density foam are designed rest sympathetically over the ear, providing exceptional comfort on those long nights in the studio where fatigue is creeping in and everything is starting to ache.
Shure’s SRH1540 headphones also come complete with a six foot detachable copperwound cable, terminating in gold connectors at both ends, providing the highest quality transduction whilst also liberating the user from the often insufficient, shortened cable lengths that usually tether engineer to studio desk (often with very little freedom of movement.)
Mixdown Says: Comfort is king and with the SRH1540, Shure may well have the most comfortable of them all. An extremely forward thinking headphone employing some incredible product design nous, the Shure SRH1540 is the kind of headphone that can very easily transcend the studio, doubling as an awesome choice for general listening or everyday use.
It’s so lightweight that you’ll forget you are even wearing it and offering a level of audio reproduction generally reserved for the very highest of high-end Audiophile headphones, the Shure SRH1540 is the headphone most likely to become part of your daily ritual. It’s a headphone that invites continued use.
Overall: In the control room, the SRH1540 is an incredibly adept reference headphone with crisp detail, impressive frequency response and a dependable real world translatability all of which combine to make make it . In the live room, the SRH1540 offers more than enough in the way of isolation and general output to see it capable of handling all but the most extreme live monitoring environments.
Check out the entire range of Shure headphones today.
