Shure SRH440A-EFS

Sound is good, they punch in their price category imo, but the sound signature is not ideal to my taste, and they become uncomfortable if they are used for work, 7 hours a day with few breaks.

The problem for the comfort for is 2 fold, it is the top head pressure and the fact the interior wall touches some parts of pinna, above all the crux of helix, without padding(unlike the higher priced version I heard, the SRH840A, might have been a better idea to take this one instead ...), and those are very bearable at first for the first couple of hours, but then the pressure adds up and it really is a relief when you take them off ...

Bending open the headband will help tremendously, but it doesn't completely fix this. I need to look into it but now that I think about it adding padding might be an option.

They are sturdy, I dropped them from a desk a few times, they never had any crack or any problems, took the hit like no problem.

To get back to the sound signature, the spatialization and sound stage are somewhat disappointing but that has to do with the fact I almost only used semi open or open back headphones the rest of the time. Sound signature, there's too much bass to my taste, also a tad too much highs, a typical V basically, otherwise they are fine for the price, music definitely is enjoyable, detailed, , the higher frequencies more so that lower, which are a tad bloated imo, but still enjoyable too.

Compared to a good'ol ad500X I would take the AD500X all day for instance when it comes to the sound quality. But those don't isolate so well and leak sound. While those passively isolate quite well, and don't leak at all, unless you put the volume loud enough to make you deaf, maybe. And they aren't really far away sound quality wise either too, for a closed back I believe they punch in their price category, although can probably shine a lot more with some EQ too than stock, didn't try to EQ them to be honest, I just don't to spend time on it so I don't do it unless it's something as basic as a low-pass filter for instance.

A good contender for its price I believe, specially if you want something that lasts, I think those can take a good amount of abuse. Maybe look into the higher priced SH840A for a tad better comfort, I didn't try them but I think they should be better thanks to the padding on the interior of the earpads. Probably not the best if you want something neutral sounding out of the box.