Picture Sunday – Sendy Audio Aiva

Probably you’ve never heard about Sendy Audio before and that’s perfectly OK really. I didn’t know about them either up to the point where MusicTeck introduced me to the brand. And even then there’s not much info to find on the English world wide web and that ever since they showed the headphone at CanJam a few months back, they have been THE talk of the personal audio world.

SENDYAUDIO was founded in 2015 and is made up of  teams who worked in the audio industry earliest in China. They adhere to the use of traditional craftsmanship, coupled with the selection of high-quality natural solid wood as the material for the housing.

There are threads and reviews on Head-Fi, Reddit, Amazon and a whole bunch of other sites. That must mean that Sendy Audio is doing something good, and that good thing is the Aiva.

Aiva

The Aiva is a small full sized, over the ear, orthodynamic headphone with great looks and stellar build quality. You can find MT’s product page on the Avia right here:

The Aiva features 97 x 67mm planar magnetic drivers and it comes in at $599USD. For that you in the box get the Aiva Headphone, the Hard Leather Carry Case, aBalanced Cable with 4.4mm Plug and a 4.4mm Female to 3.5mm (SE) Male Pigtail Adaptor. Basic stuff but it all looks very nice.

According to MusicTech the planar drivers combined with the superior sound characteristics of the zebra wood housing, the overall direction of its sound signature is one that is very comprehensive, exhibiting natural coherence across the frequencies with airiness, detailed with distinct layers of clarity and transparency.

Specifications:

• Driver Type: Planar Magnetic
• Driver Size: 97*76mm
• Frequency Response：5-55Khz
• Sensitivity: 96db
• Impedance: 32Ω
• Weight: 420g

The Aiva really is a stunning headphone with that gorgeous wood. Also, the detailed grill reminds me of the quality of the 5 times as expensive Empyrean one. According to Sendy the whole production process consumes a lot of manpower and time, which include material selection, CNC machining, engraving, grinding, polishing as well as repeated oiling and drying. The finish texture of each individual piece is unique.

First impressions

The Aiva doesn’t only look good, but it sounds good straight out of the box. Is it a high end headphone that can compete with the HE1000(SE), no it isn’t but it is soooo much fun.

Someone sent me the graph and I have no idea where it’s coming from or who made it but as you can see it doesn’t measure exceptionally good. Does it have to? Not really, not for me as it sounds good. What’s “good” you ask?

The body from bass to treble is good and it’s a full sounding headphone. The tonality is a little warmer and the delivery is smooth. What impresses most is the spaciousness and airy presentation but it at the same time isn’t the best regarding separation, sound stage width, depth and layering. The Aiva is extremely relaxed sounding and it really makes you enjoy your music not looking at technicalities.

The bass body and impact is slightly above neutral, the mids a little recessed/more to the back and the treble more forward because of those mids. Does the Aiva always sound the same? No it doesn’t. Hook it up to a DAP without an amplifier and you won’t get the best sound possible. Maybe leaving you underwhelmed. Hook it up however to a nice amp such as the Mojo or Niimbus US4+ and you get a much better, impressive sound. And when the Aiva has enough power, it’s a headphone you can use and enjoy all day long. At the end of the day your troath will probably hurt from singing along so much.

The weird thing? The Aiva comes with a detachable cable terminated in 4.4mm balanced, with an adaptor to 3.5mm SE. And that’s not really logic seeing the Aiva performs best in combination with an amplifier. But of course there are other cables, so it’s not really a problem if you have some at your disposal.

You can expect the full Aiva review soon. For now we’re just enjoying our tunes on this great find.

Soon!