SendyAudio Aiva Planar Magnetic Headphones Discussions | Drop

Oct 15, 2019

From what I read so far, I think the impressions on Aiva seems like a love/hate experience. This used to be the same polarising impressions I used to read with the then TOTL headphones of the old (remember the HD800/Beyer T1?) I am actually considering the hifiman Edition XX which is also offered here. But after some research, I got actually curious about the Aiva and Ananda. So when I learned the Aiva is offered at a 100USD discount I immediately pulled the trigger. However, It left me worried after the mixed-bag impressions and no personal experience with the headphone myself that I might get disappointed. So afterwork today, I went down to a headphone shop to try the Hifiman Ananda. My objective was if Ananda impress me enough, I will cancel my Aiva order and get the Ananda instead which is already available. To my surprise, the shop has a demo set of not only Ananda but Aiva as well. I was delighted that I can try both headphones and do a side-by-side comparison. It is a weekday, the shop does not have much customers walking in and out. Hence, the ambient noise level is perfect for critical listening of open-back cans. As far as my listening preferences go, I give higher importance to clarity, detail retrieval, cohesiveness and timbre. I usually prefer neutral to bright signatures. But bight headphones tend to be piercing and fatiguing in the treble (e.g HD800). I like good quality bass and deep slam but hate bloat. My daily driver so far and my favorite is the CA Cascade. For me it nailed the attributes I mentioned above and love the bass. The only thing I hate about it is the comfort (mostly the headband). I tried the Aiva first, soon as I hit play (Maroon 5's Sex & Candy) my jaw dropped. The clarity and the presentation is like nothing I heard before. The layering of each musical instruments is immediately identifiable. I can't remember the last time I had this experience. Yes the bass(sub-bass) like many impressions I read is noticeably rolled off especially compared to Cascade. But you know what, I can still enjoy the music at or more than the same level as how I enjoy it with the cascade. It's just different presentation but nevertheless very much enjoyable. I find myself trying other music in my playlist and no matter what I play, my jaw keep dropping. When I switched to Ananda, the first thing I notice is it has a deeper bass and hits harder. However, it does not have the same level of clarity and detail retrieval across the board. It does sound more open but not deeper than Aiva. It feels like all the musical instruments are lined up horizontally and difficult to identify which one is in front or behind of another. To make it short, it felt boring listening to the same list of music compared to Aiva. When I switch back again to Aiva, I played as many music as I can on my playlist and it just makes me smile. In short, the Aiva is very high in clarity, have a lively treble but the sparkle is not the piercing or fatiguing kind. At least for me not the same as I usually heard with HD800. Also I find the timbre of string instruments sound more natural and realistic. One more thing, the Aiva is heavier than Ananda (same goes with the rest of my headphone collection except HE-6) but I never felt the comfort and stability like Aiva in my head did than any other headphones I tried/owned. So for me this is icing on the cake, together with the build quality and of course the price. Waiting to get my set come November.

Oct 15, 2019

headwhackerI just got Aivas 3 days ago, I love them. You won't regret it, I bought mine used but you'd be hard pressed to tell they weren't new. He even shipped them in the retail box, packaged exactly how they come retail so that was nice. My only issue is they sound a bit weird single ended, I'm not sure if it's because using an adapter on a balanced cable or what, but doesn't really matter, I only planned on using them balanced anyway. You're right about the detail, they are incredibly detailed, but without getting grainy or crunchy, truly hitting above their price point.

Oct 16, 2019

headwhackerYou sound like your being paid to say you like the aiva better. I am not as impressed compared to my ananda, but only a direct comparison may change that other than first impressions. edit: btw both pairs still need break in. While the sendy may need it more since I used it less so it might smooth out a bit.ect

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Oct 16, 2019

tooitchyFor a second I thought I had a bad adapter or going balanced to se just sounds funky (4.4mm balanced to 3.5m single ended). Looks like I am the only one who is going to mention this when I do my review on youtube. My sendy aiva also sound really terrible single ended, it's not even acceptable by my standards. I have not played much with the headphones yet but when you use the adapter the mid range sounds very sucked out and cave like sounding. When I use a 4.4mm to xlr adapter (use xlr amp, or put on another adapter to go from xlr to 2.5mm balanced for portable devices) everything sounds like normal. edit: oh and btw they do have good detail but I disagree the treble detail is a bit grainy/gritty.

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Oct 16, 2019

Z0d1AcSingle ended usually has half the power of balanced out.

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Oct 16, 2019

Z0d1AcI've heard that from other people with the Aiva, maybe it's my pair, the guy I bought them from said he had the regional distributor for Sendy get him a specific set that had the least/didn't have any graininess, or planar "crunch" sound. So it might be this specific set, but I don't hear them get grainy at all. As far as single ended, ya it's a significant drop in quality, but I find it hard to believe the headphones require more power than single ended THX amps can put out, and thus only balanced will work. So it has to be something with the adapter, or the cable altogether, possible not handling the grounding into single ended properly. I'll try to get my hands on a single ended cable that works with the Aiva and see. Either way not a huge deal to me, as I only plan on using it balanced anyway, but definitely something people should be aware of.

Oct 16, 2019

headwhackerThat shouldn't cause the lack of quality that you get from the Aiva. It has to be the stock cable, I refuse to believe they're not getting enough power from a THX AAA 788 on single ended. They are 32 ohm, 96db sensitivity, they should be getting plenty of power from my amp from the single ended output, none of my headphones have that kind of change in sound when going from balanced to SE, much harder to drive headphones sound almost the same, Aiva's are pretty easy to drive.

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Oct 16, 2019

tooitchyThank make sense. I though the source used is a DAP. I have the THX 789. I will definitely going to check if my set would exhibit the same behavior.

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Oct 16, 2019

headwhackerThe headphones sound funky (like a demo unit where the midrange needs to be fixed) when you use the stock cable with the included 4.4mm to 3.5mm adapter. I don't know yet if the problem is a faulty adapter and/or going balanced to se just sounds funky (going balanced to se works and produces audio, you cannot go se to balanced tho with an adapter for those that are reading). I still have not gotten around to testing a single ended cable yet, I probably have one lying around to try. If I have spare time I will update my findings. Was not planning on investigating this at this given time but I will maybe just do it now. I already ruled out that the headphones with stock balanced cable and using balanced adapters into a balanced amplifiers sound just fine. (The included adapter is probably the problem, not the lack of power, yes balanced will have better sound quality but I am talking about an actually issue in sound and not sound quality).

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Oct 16, 2019

Z0d1AcYeah, stock cable into a 4.4mm to xlr adapter sounds fantastic. I hope it's the adapter, but if it's the headphones just not working right single ended (which just seems weird, I can't even imagine how that could happen), then I'll be a lot less positive about them to potential buyers, but it could explain why they ship these with the stock cable for balanced use. They obviously want people to use them balanced, could be the reason why, but I kinda doubt it. I'd check myself but I don't currently have any cables that work, only sennheiser plugs, and mmcx on hand.

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mattris

1266

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Oct 17, 2019

headwhackerThanks for posting those sound impressions. Can you confirm that the HIFIMAN headphones were far more comfortable? I own the Aiva pads, and they are stiff, weirdly-shaped, have small ear openings, and limit the potential sound-stage.

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Oct 18, 2019

mattrisIt's hard to put this into only words. The hifiman head strap is comfortable enough to not be a pain in the (bleep), but it's not perfect. For example the ananda it digs in a little off to the sides of you head. The edition xx I like a little bit better but then it needs a bit more padding because after awhile you will fill the metal inside it. As for ear pads they both are the same, plenty of room around the ear and my ear does not touch the driver, there is a bit of clamp out of the box but I like the comfort. While the sendy aiva. The head strap is one of the best I have tried (may need to spend time with headphone to know for sure) which rivals the comfort from something like a mr speakers. The ear pads on the other hand I agree, oddly shaped the pads don't quite fit around my ear and my ear tends to touch the driver and other things making it not comfortable.

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Oct 18, 2019

Z0d1AcSo i bought a single ended cable (monoprice 2.5mm monos to 3.5mm) and a different 4.4mm to 3.5mm adapter. both sound the same as the stock cable and adapter, so it's not that, it's the headphones. I am at a loss at what would cause it, it makes no scientific sense, the outputs are basically identical in terms of what they're feeding. just one is seperated grounds, and one has shared ground. but the drivers should not have a completely different sound from single ended.

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Oct 18, 2019

tooitchyWow that's very interesting. Just to clarify. Did you try just the monoprice cable? and did you put the different adapter on the stock aiva cable? = If it's still doing it with just the monoprice cable into a single ended amp that would mean it's the headphones which I do not understand and is very interesting. I was too lazy but now I kinda want to try it myself. I have m1060c and I have that cable too plus a balanced that ends in 2.5mm and another single ended cable I have too.

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Oct 18, 2019

Z0d1AcYa i've been trying a lot of stuff. stock cable different adapter, monoprice cable alone, 4 different 1/4" adapters, my phone to amp SE back and forth. Last thing to try is my old schiit fulla 2, can't find a micro usb cable though, but I'm not anticipating any difference. Also worth noting you and I seem to be the only people who've had this significant difference in audio quality between balanced and SE, everyone i've talked to says they sound identical, some even said they only heard them on SE and were so impressed they bought them, and found no difference in balanced. So it seems to be a rare headphone issue. If I didn't have a balanced setup I would return them based on the sound I get from SE, however I only ever planned on using them balanced so I'm ok living with it, but it doesn't seem to be a common thing at all, in fact many people are saying i'm imagining it, and it's placebo, confirmation bias, etc. But that's bs, the only reason I care is because I know it shouldn't be happening, every headphone i have sounds basically identical SE to balanced, just the power discrepancy, which is not enough on anything I own to drastically change the sound the way SE changes my Aivas, it's like all the dynamics are gone, mids sound like they have a huge dip, and highs are sorta there but have absolutely no depth, or impact. The detail is all but gone as well. They're still listenable on SE, but once you hear them balanced it's immediately apparent that's how they're supposed to sound, and you don't want to go back. but ya, once i test with the fulla i'm returning all these cables and adapters i bought, and just gonna say screw it, when it was a potential adapter issue, I was on board, I could wrap my head around that, but it makes no sense whatsoever that it'd be something with the drivers themselves, it's like pouring water on a fire, and depending on whether you pour from the left or the right, the fire either goes out as expected, or becomes a H-bomb detonation. Same thing being fed to the drivers essentially, 2 completely different results, makes no sense at all, and my 788 has enough SE power to match volume easily, that does nothing to bring back the sound though, truly a strange phenomenon

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Oct 18, 2019

tooitchyOut if curiosity, when comparing balanced out to se out on your 789 amp, do you just switch quickly and hear the difference?

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Oct 18, 2019

mattrisComfort is too personal to make a meaningful recommendation. Ananda is lighter than aiva, but aiva fits better in my head because it is stable and does not wiggle or move when I move or tilt my head. I think it’s because the cup size fits perfectly around my ears. The ananda has humongous cup and I can notice a it has a stronger clamping pressure. But it still slides/shifts a bit when I move my head. I can take both headphones as long as I dont move my head much. But it’s a bit annoying on ananda if I have to adjust it once in a while.

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Oct 19, 2019

headwhackeri can hear the difference straight away no matter how i do it. The way I noticed it originally was I just wasn't paying attention, multi tasking at the computer and plugged them into the adapter, then SE output, and within 5 seconds I was like "what the hell is going on with my headphones???" because the song sounded so off, and it wasn't even like comparing to what they sounded like on balanced, i'd only had them a few hours at that point, it was a clearly bad sound in general. I then plugged them into balanced and was like "ok this sounds amazing wtf". Since then ive done rapid switching, listened to a song 3 or 4 times on one, then another 3 or 4 times on the other. At this point I think I'm getting used to the SE sound cause while it's still different and inferior, it's not shocking anymore. Like i'm burning in my brain to the SE sound. I still think it's my specific pair, nobody else but the other poster here has ever mentioned any difference with the aivas. Ours must have something weird going on, but I'm finding I care less and less every day, they sound so good on balanced that I just don't care if my pair sound bad single ended, I live for what these do balanced. listening to some insane orchestral stuff at a crescendo right now, and it's just perfect. Might FR graph a comparison between the outputs to see if i can get some sort of visual confirmation that somethings different, don't have testing equipment but only need to see the difference between the two, no accuracy needed. If i manage to figure out how to do that i'll post what i find here. but i wouldn't assume anything i'm experiencing will be present in any other aivas, numerous people, including reviewers who did testing with both outputs found no difference in their aivas.

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Oct 19, 2019

tooitchyOk for the past 3 hours I finally put the sendy aiva on and did a bit of testing. Sadly my conclusion requires more testing/time and here is why. First off with the stock cable with the stock 4.4mm to 3.5mm adapter. Plug into any single ended amp, my headphones sound like they are out of phase or something. It's quite terrible, very noticeable for vocals. I would return them if this was how they would sound. But they sound so much better balanced, I also notice on balanced the audio is much fuller and not hollow. (Stock cable but with a 4.4mm to xlr adapter into balanced xlr amp). Now I started to use my m1060c cable (2.5mm into headphones and 3.5mm connection into amp, but I used a quarter inch adapter since the amp I am using today has quarter inch or xlr). Here is were things get confusing. The monoprice cable sounds much much less out of phase and a tiny bit fuller. So my findings seem to be with the stock adapter. But then I tested the monoprice cable vs the stock cable balanced and vs another cable but is 2.5mm balanced which I just use the massdrop 2.5mm to xlr adapter. My conclusion for now (will update because this is just a quick test) is that the stock cable with the stock adapter sounds way too freaking funky while the se monoprice cable was ok (not crazy out of phase but was still some of it left over) while the balanced cables sounded the best. = It's takes only like 5-10 seconds with the stock cable and stock adapter to tell there is something seriously wrong with how it sounds. While the monoprice se was not as easy.

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Oct 19, 2019

Z0d1AcSo I kinda noticed the same thing, but hard to put into words, it still sounded noticeably off from its normal sound, but not nearly as bad when i used the monoprice SE cable. You're right it sounded outta phase with the stock adapter. However I now cannot recreate that original out of phase sound with any combination of cables. I hadn't messed with it since that day, and know for sure i didn't imagine it, i spent a long time listening and being like wtf, and going back and forth from balanced, but after that day I didn't do it again. I didn't try SE until the new cables arrived. So now i'm kinda in my own head about did swapping cables to SE then back to stock and SE adapter somehow fix most of the weirdness? but they still sound distinctly worse, but not out of phase and REALLY fucked up. And I know it wasn't my amp cause when it was sounding like that I grabbed my shp9500s, my x00's and my iems to plug into SE and all sounded great, only aiva sounded completely wrong. But since that day, they've only been noticeably worse but at least sound like headphones. so i dunno, now i'm just thinking they might just take to balanced power delivery really well, the disparity in quality is without a doubt still there, and that's persistent across cables/adapters in SE, straight up songs sound utterly massive and so detailed and it's like intense in balanced, then i pause quickly go to SE and rewind the last 10 seconds and all that extra oomph has vanished, just the song playing kinda flat, and like a lot of the upper mids and highs are rolled off.

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masonHsieh

Oct 19, 2019

tooitchyMaybe you guys get defect adapters. Mine aiva sounds quite fine in SE with stock cable. I bought a 4.4mm to xlr adapter(Youkamoo), and I quite enjoy the sound on my x7s and SMSL m500. I agree that aiva sounds better in balanced out, especially when listening to music with various instruments. But SE isn't bad at all. And I agree with Z0d1Ac's point about pads. My left pad and right pad are not symmetric. Btw, mine comes with new version pads. The comfort is fine for a short listening session(<30mins), but I noticed the hp was pressing my right ear and felt uncomfortable for long session listening. I swap pads with the brainwavz sheepskins memory angle pads, and it's very comfortable. The sound is almost identical but with slightly more soundstage.

Oct 19, 2019

masonHsiehAfter a bit more time. It's definitely a faulty adapter for mine because it just sounds way too funky. For me the single ended monoprice cable sounds ok (sound mostly normal but I can still hear the weirdness a little), but these headphones do improve a bit in sound quality when going to balanced and I think that is like %10-%20 of the problem while the rest is part due to the adapter. edit: I also have the fenestrated pads, I only tried it once for less than like 30 minutes. I would assume you get less bass is trapped but it may sound a little more open.

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Oct 20, 2019

masonHsiehI love the pads that came on mine, they're weird shaped but it fits my head, it's more countoured for how a headphone sits on your head. And while I would agree about the adapter, it no longer sounds as bad as it did before, but still worse on SE. I am giving up on caring anyway, I returned the cables and adapters to amazon and am just using it balanced now.

MusicTeck

Oct 20, 2019

headwhackerWhere did you audition the Aiva?

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Oct 22, 2019

MusicTeckAV One in Singapore

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Oct 22, 2019

tooitchySame with mean. Even though it's heavier than most headphones I tried/have, it is surprisingly comfortable and very stable in my head.

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