Shure SRH1840 - real or not

SouthPark

Hi Burkey! Recall this …

It arrived today hehehe. Interestingly. Very interestingly - when I now search on google, the ali site where I ordered it from is gone!!!!! Zero links to that item. The very nice thing is - I can report on my opinion about this item, which was less than one-quarter of the prices I see for the 'real' deal.

After testing on the P-515 this afternoon, during lunchtime, I can say that this feels (weight and texture and material etc), and looks genuine (even though it might not be genuine/authentic).

It sounds excellent. I reckon this is probably up there with the real deal. The connectors are just pristine and top notch -- these are the ones that plug into the left phone and right phone. The jack is a 3.5 mm stereo plug, so I had to dig around in my audio kit to find a 3.5 mm stereo to quarter inch stereo plug -- which I fortunately found one to do the testing. The verdict is -- very nice sound.

I was at first surprised to find (after a search) that there are currently no more links to that item, even though we all know that the link was actually there at ali before. We all saw it. But after thinking about it, not so surprised if it got shut down - as the price is after all less than one-quarter of the regular. I don't know if the item will pop back up online later. But I can genuinely say that this particular item is really good. It definitely looks, feels and sound genuine. It sounds really good. That was lucky!

The only mod I'll do later is just replace the 3.5 mm plug with a quarter inch one.

Khuja Wangtishvili

But why? You already paid quite a lot of money, for which you could have original new headphones from promo or very slightly used ones... people are buying and selling them like crazy nowadays... look at head-fi forum marketplace...
Instead you purchased counterfeit chinese thing 😐
Yes I know what is their retail price, but please... Beyerdynamics, HIfiman, AKG, Sony, and list goes on, is still in your budget...

SouthPark

Khuja Wangtishvili The answer to the 'why' is -- it just started from a thread on somebody posting about headphone shopping for connecting to their clavinova. And this model was seen among others. So a chance search (by me) came up with an aussie 150 dollar SRH1840 from ali.

So I decided to just check out (for interest) what it really is like - and what it can do. The outcome of that - more than excellent value - for 150 aussie dollars that is. Probably performs like the real thing. And that's because it probably is the real thing - or equivalent to the real thing. But it looks like I just 'got in' in time. As google searches for 'srh1840 aliexpress' still has links that do come up for it, such as 145 dollars (aussie). But clicking on the link leads to no item found at the ali site.

I don't know if it is actually 'counterfeit'. It actually looks like this one came out of the same factory or production facility as the regular ones. It might well be a 'regular' one. But just sold from some other outlet. I don't know at all. I can say that it sounds very good indeed.

xooorx

SouthPark I don't know if it is actually 'counterfeit'. It actually looks like this one came out of the same factory or production facility as the regular ones.

What do they weigh? My hopefully real set are 268 grams without the cable.
Also my cable came with a threaded 3.5mm plug, plus the quarter inch adaptor that screws onto it.

If you got the threaded plug but no adaptor then its available separately as the HPAQA1.

SouthPark

xooorx Thanks for mentioning the nominal weight! I put mine on a digital kitchen/cooking scale, and mine comes out to 254 gram. Approximately 5 percent under the nominal.

Thanks for mentioning the threaded adapter!

xooorx

xooorx My hopefully real set are 268 grams without the cable.

SouthPark and mine comes out to 254 gram. Approximately 5 percent under the nominal.

It seems that 268 grams is the correct answer so something is different about them, unless your scales are off.

SouthPark

xooorx I can weigh again with other scales, or use the same scales after I cross-check with standard weights. The 254 gram measurement is 5 percent under the 'nominal' weight. Another piece of information that would be interesting is to find the variance in weight from say 100 of stock Shure SRH1840 headphones. Eg. is the variance 1%, 5% etc?

MacMacMac

It used to be all about piano key downweight.
Now it's all about headphone weight.
I think Pete14 needs to weigh in on this. 😊😊😊

SouthPark

When I purposely purchased (from ebay) just this morning some weights for double-checking the performance of the kitchen scales for weighing a pair of headphones, then that's starting to get 'serious' heheh

SouthPark

Oh geez --- the ali site is 'alive' again!!!!!

'SHR1840'

SouthPark

And - because I'm impressed with the first pair - I decided to just order a second pair, for backup. They are good stuff.

SouthPark

Also very interesting that the other day - typing Shure SRH1840 in ali's own search box will return a hit/link to these items. And now, even though the link is still working, there is now no hits/returns when typing 'SRH1840'. So looks like business is still open - but only for people 'in the know' hehe.

I don't actually need another set. But decided to get another set for spares anyway. But also -- because my set of standard weights for scales calibration is going to arrive any moment now,, it will then be interesting to see what difference (if any) in weight there is between the two head-phones. As in +/- 1 gram? +/- 5 gram? etc.

Also, that site reckons they have approximately 1000 of these things, which is a good stash.

SRH1840

SouthPark

The weights finally arrived! And surprisingly, the reading on the scales match exactly the weight (or accumulated weight) such as 10g, 50g, 100g, 250g, 260g. So 254g is the weight of the first headphone set - without cable. The second on is on its way to North Queensland. Will see what weight it is when it gets here.

xooorx

SouthPark Will see what weight it is when it gets here.

My prediction: 254 grams.

Meanwhile, if you pull the ear pads off does it look like this?

(The stickers are on one side only and the top one looks plain black until you get it under some light).

SouthPark

xooorx I just took this pic 10 minutes or so ago. My set has a silver-coloured foil finish, without that patterned or silk-screen cloth lining, and no stickers.

On the 'top' part of the pic, the rectangle for where the '720' sticker is meant to go is there. It looks like it really is possible that this set came off the same production line. Except they didn't put in the silk-screen cloth and left out the stickers.

carlos

I wanted to order some but I doubt if the driver is the same

SouthPark

carlos I even purchased spare drivers (but probably won't be using them in a hurry). Headphones tend to last for ages. Although, it's usually the head-phone pads that are the first to break down with age. But I think that even a new set of head-phone pads can just self-destruct after sitting there for ages. Sort of like brand new shoes sitting in their box (not being used) for a long time, can self-destruct (plastic/rubber/foam/glue/material etc breakdown).

Khuja Wangtishvili

SouthPark
It looks also like your plastik has different structure than original ones, but your photo is more pixeled, but still looks like more smooth than the originals. Also making mold is easy, hardest part is to make specialist structure signs like the one showed above, as those often needs some high quality production methods.

But there is also a change that they are made on the same production line, and just have second route to market, but this is quite unlikely as otherwise Shure would found another manufacturer on the next corner.

carlos

but if these drivers are not original they will not sound the same as the genuine shure ones

SouthPark

Khuja Wangtishvili That is true. The inner surface of the ones I bought appear to be smooth/smoother than in the pic with the silk-screen cloth cover. I reckon the same production line. The main thing is the audio sounds very good. And I have very good 'ears' (listening). The weight of 254 g is really good, although, I'm used to wearing significantly heavier ones as well.