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Showing 1 of 54 reviews about:
SendyAudio Aiva Planar Magnetic Headphones
trollchu_teh_manslayer
69
May 13, 2021
checkVerified Buyer
I have a few planars now, but the Aiva was my first planar and my first month of using it was very confusing, I ultimately concluded that this is the most vanilla headset I might ever own.
There's nothing particularly special about the tuning, it's very clean and true, audio is uncolored. Music reproduction is very fast, fast like HD 700 fast. It's a pinch bass heavy, but not overwhelmingly so, with good extension, yet not far reaching, nor ever bleeding into the mids. There's no treble sparkle to this headset, treble is entirely neutral, yet still pleasant. Soundstage is moderately wide, but not notably unique.
This headset has two things going for it, one, I think it reproduces strings better than anything I own, and two, if I needed any one headset to show someone unfamiliar with headphones a good headset, this is the one. It does nothing wrong, but at the same time, it's not special. If someone went from the HD-6XX as their daily driver to this, they would likely be very pleased and impressed.
The headset has a very clear sense of separation, with all parts of played audio coming through clearly, this is where the headset confused me. Although the separation is clear, it is sometimes cluttered, with tendencies to become very metallic in timbre, yet the change in timbre is not consistent. It took owning the headband a year to recognize the cause of this; the representation of this headphone is extremely source dependent.
Many headphones come with a house sound that can make your music sound better or worse. The Sendy Aiva is not one of those, instead, it's extremely revealing to what's in your chain, and does nothing in sound by itself, hence, vanilla. I found that it really shined with analytical amps like the Rupert Neve, and warmer DAC chips by Cirrus Logic and Burr Brown. I did not like this headphone at all with ESS nor AKM DACs; clean and dark representations were boring with vanilla, and not to my taste.
All in all, the Sendy Aiva Black Beauty being complete vanilla is what would make this headphone a wonderful choice for a collection, as I don't know of any other headset that does this to this extent, but as a singular headset, or collection of one, I would pass this one up and pick a more fun choice like the DT880, or the 99 Classics. This is something worthy of love, but not by itself.
(Edited)
trollchu_teh_manslayer
69
May 13, 2021
trollchu_teh_manslayerI forgot one thing, I focused entirely on the sound as I wrote. The pads, most reviewers state the pads as extremely comfortable, however, paired with the strong clamp force of this headset, I abhor the pads! They have a unique shape meant to hug your temples tightly, that's not for me, I wish there were options to change them out.
If you read this and you know something better, hook it up!
(Edited)
erfan_elahi
32
Dec 12, 2021
trollchu_teh_manslayerhow is the cable ? does this need any upgrade cable ?
trollchu_teh_manslayer
69
Dec 13, 2021
erfan_elahiIt's a very nice braided copper cable, I never saw a need to try and substitute it as it's quite manageable. It's a flexible mono 2.5 input with balanced 4.4 output and comes stock with a 4.4 to 3.5 adapter; cable's solid.
(Edited)
jaxtrauma
2105
Jan 20, 2022
trollchu_teh_manslayer
Thanks for an honest evaluation of this set, it seems to be a consensus among reviewers. Do they like power? and would it make a difference? Thanks again, nice review ;-)
trollchu_teh_manslayer
69
Jan 21, 2022
jaxtraumaThey're slightly less power hungry than a T-50rp and they scale well with power. When you give them a high powered source they become a bit more grand and airy, but they'll quickly remind that they're somewhat bassy. The added air and space will lend itself well to jazz, rock, and older recordings very well, but within reason; they wouldn't be my choice selection for some of Stéphane Grappelli or Django Reinhardt's more aged recordings, but not because the Aiva doesn't do it well, rather, there's always another choice that can do it better. The headphone has a very good sense of rumble and dynamics and it scales well with modern recordings, it's notably pleasant with tracks that contain layered and detailed bass like L'Impératrice's "Submarine" or Nao's "Bad Blood." With a sufficiently high current source, this headphone could almost be a basshead's delight, however, I do wish it had slightly more impact when it attacks.
I do want to reiterate, the Aiva is a very good headphone, unique in that it's a jack of all trades that's good at everything, but it's failure is that it's a master of none, because in every category of attack, there's something else that does it better. To put that into perspective, I can be quoted as saying the SR-80e is a good headphone if you've never heard a good headphone. The Sendy Aiva is a good headphone, great even, and easy to enjoy, but it's not the best at anything and loses out when compared to other great headphones. Uniquely still, it's slight shortcomings make it a particularly good choice for critical and active listening. In use, I consistently find that I never get lost in the music with this headphone, I stay conscious and alert with every note it reproduces and I stand by the assertion that the Aiva would be a wonderful choice for a collection, this just shouldn't be anyone's only headphone. I actually would have no problem recommending this to anyone. Actually, if I were to do a blind test with this headphone and Audeze's LCD-X, which is arguably a very politically correct headphone that's also good at everything, not only would I be able to tell them apart every time, I'd probably concede that the LCD-X is a better headphone, but if I had to pick between them, I'd pick the Sendy, and with a seriousness that would likely even confound some others in this hobby, claim that the LCD-X would bore me.
Don't take that with a grain of salt, Zeos wasn't necessarily wrong about this one, it's not a bad headphone, it's just not the best. If I had to compare it directly with the LCD-X, I would say this is a comparison of an apple with a sweeter apple, neither one's a bad choice. If someone wanted to take a chance on this one, I actually would strongly recommend it.
Edit: My current home headphone listening chain consists of a THR-1, a Microzotl 2, a CTH, and a momentarily unplugged P20.
(Edited)
trollchu_teh_manslayer
69
Mar 13, 2022
trollchu_teh_manslayerBetween these analyses, I'm surprised I didn't mention it anywhere considering how long ago I noticed it, but the Aiva has a slightly rich, smooth character to it's mids that's somewhat restrained by its perforated pads.
Tonight, I tried rolling ZMF Oval pads onto my pair thinking the little added space I would get would be very satisfying. While it was, the sealed pads also brought out it's rich, smooth tonality far more than I was expecting and yielded a much more musical and gratifying presentation than I have ever gotten out of these.
If you own a Sendy Aiva and coincidentally have any type of sealed angled pads that fit it, I would recommend giving that a try. They seem like they may have a far better affinity for sealed pads and you may be very pleased with the results.
(Edited)
jaxtrauma
2105
Mar 14, 2022
trollchu_teh_manslayer
I spent about $1500 on my entire headphone/IEM collection before I fell in love with the FOCAL Clear.
(Edited)
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