Yup, Shure 840 pads are great with T50RPs. And yes, T50RPs without Shure 840 pads = treble murder (for me anyway – it sounds like a +10dB treble plateau with the stock “pancake” pads).
Yes, that’s what 840 pads will give you.
I haven’t tried the Shure 1840 pads, sorry! But they appear to be velour, and 840 pads are, fake leather or whatever it is called (pleather?), therefore will probably seal way better and give you way more kick/drum kick “slam”.
Also, your sound card output is apparently 125 mW @ 32 Ohms. Which is… ok for “standard” headphones, but not for planars. Lol. Another reason why you need an external headphone amp, is… volume control. I mean, trust me, you don’t want a computer, or any program, to control the volume of your headphones. You don’t want tinnitus for the rest of your life because you restarted windows and heard the “welcome” music @ 140dB or something like that.
…especially if you plan on having one, just one pair or IEMs, one day.
And @M0N is making me believe that a JDS Labs Atom or something like that will even out the frequency range even more, making everything sound smoother (less “thin” and more detailed).
Without an amp the T50RPs are cold and precise AF, I’d even say “robotic” compared to my HD58Xs. With an amp they should sound “warmer”.
Oh, and I know “warmer” and “colder” don’t make much sense. So… Yeah, If I listen to Rodrigo y Gabriela with T50RPs, it sounds like brand new guitar strings. A bit too much “brand new” actually. If I listen to the same song with HD58Xs, strings sound a lot less treble-y. Same with my HD280 Pros. And I trust my HD58Xs and HD280 Pros because, well, look at the graphs. Both sound neutral/natural. HD58Xs are basically “perfection according to Sennheiser (HD 580 Precision), massdrop edition” and HD280 Pros are often used for monitoring.
So, yup, T50RPs need an amp (and Shure 840 pads, IMHO).
Sure thing, you won’t be experiencing “planar bass” with the stock “pancake” pads.
Also, I fixed the graph for you, lol (just widened it). Some of these graphs are so damn unforgiving it’s just terrible – terribly unrealistic too. They’re not treble murder cans. I know, I bought Grados… lol. Let’s call this, two 5dB clarity peaks. And 5dB is really, really not much.
I’ll get the Atom anyway. It’s cheaper and it’s already 1 watt. The Shure 840 pads already made half the job (75% even), my guess is the Atom will make the other half of evening out the FR.
Maybe 50 watts is needed with the pancake pads but, gods, talk about killing a fly with a sledgehammer lol, just get good pads, even the manual says 3 watts max.
