Shure SRH840 vs Sennheiser HD558

The Sennheiser HD558 and the Shure SRH840 are decent Over-Ear Headphones at their respective price points, but don't manage to stand out from their direct competitors in any meaningful way. We suggest that you also look at some alternatives that can be found for around $310 or $150.

If you're still interested in learning a bit more about the Sennheiser HD558 and the Shure SRH840, however, read on for a summary of what we could gather about them:

The Sennheiser HD558 hasn't managed to earn a top spot in any roundups from sources that conduct trustworthy hands-on testing. Nevertheless, reviewers from sites, such as Expert Reviews, TrustedReviews, Head-fi, and What Hi-Fi? all gave it a spot on their list.

Moving on to the Shure SRH840: it was unable to reach the very top of any roundups from sources that conduct reliable and unbiased testing. Nonetheless, it still managed to impress reviewers from a number of such sites, like Headphone Review, TrustedReviews, Head-fi, CNET, and Wirecutter (NYTimes), enough for them to include them on those lists.

To get a better idea of how they fare when compared directly to each other, we analyzed review scores of sources that tested both. Head-fi, for example, preferred the Sennheiser HD558, while TrustedReviews rated both of them the same.

We also took a look at which sources had the best things to say about them. We learned that the Sennheiser HD558 got reviewed the highest by Expert Reviews - it gave it a rating of 10, while the Shure SRH840 most impressed reviewers at Headphone Review, which gave it a score of 9.1.

Lastly, we averaged out all of the reviews scores that we could find on these two products and compared them to other Over-Ear Headphones on the market. We learned that both of them performed far better than most of their competitors - the overall review average earned by Over-Ear Headphones being 7.5 out of 10, whereas the Sennheiser HD558 and Shure SRH840 managed averages of 8.9 and 8.7 points, respectively.

Due to the difference in their prices, however, it's important to keep in mind that a direct Sennheiser HD558 vs. Shure SRH840 comparison might not be entirely fair - some sources don't take value for money into account when assigning their scores and therefore have a tendency to rate more premium products better.