SIVGA Luan Review
SIVGA Luan Review
Introduction:
SIVGA Electronic Technology Co., Ltd, is a Chinese brand located in Dongguan city of China, focuses on designing and producing high-end audio products include wooden earphones, In-Ear Monitors with multiple drivers and planar magnet headphones. All products of the company are designed and produced internally.
The Luan is the brand new open-back over-ear headphone of the company that features a new 50mm diameter Nickel Coated Composite Carbon Diaphragm Dynamic Driver that has been integrated in to a premium looking hand processed wooden ear cup with a CNC machined metallic bracket.
Disclaimer:
I would like to thank SIVGA for providing me the Luan Open-Back Headphone for review purposes. I am not affiliated with SIVGA beyond this review and these words reflect my true and unaltered opinions about the product.
Price & Availability:
The actual price of the SIVGA Luan Open-Back Headphone is 299.00 US$. More information’s can be found under the links below;
Package and Accessories:
The SIVGA Luan came inside a square shaped box in black color that sports an illustration of the headphone in form of a sketch and some product related brandings on the front.
This box contains the following items;
- 1 x SIVGA Luan Open-Back Headphone
- 1 x Detachable Cable with Dual 3.5mm SE Headphone Plug
- 1 x 3.5mm to 6.35mm Male Adaptor
- 1 x Premium Storage Box
- 1 x Carry Bag
Design, Build Quality, Comfort:
The Luan is the latest Open-Back Headphone of the company, which shows a very premium appearance and decent built quality like all other headphones by SIVGA. The Luan features a new 50mm diameter Nickel Coated Composite Carbon Diaphragm Dynamic Driver that has been integrated in hand made wooden ear cup with a CNC machined metallic bracket design.
The ear cups are made from solid wood material and do have a very esthetic look and feel, which are hand grinded, polished and painted, a main highlights of every SIVGA product.
The Luan open-back headphone is available in two different color options, which are the one in brown (light brown) and the one in black (dark brown) color.
The surface of the wooden ear cups does have a smooth surface thanks to its polished glossy surface.
The front of the ear cups features stainless steel grille with a black backing varnish, which is part of the open-back design.
The ear cups do come with fairly large ear pads that do have a pretty thick and are ultra soft padding, which makes the Luan to a very comfortable over-ear headphone. The ear pads do have a nicely soft & skin friendly fabric surface.
The bracket and the connection parts on the headband are made from CNC machined metal that do have a finish in matt silver color.
The headband adjusting mechanism is quite robust.
The outer surfaces of the ear cup holders do have L (Left) / R (Right) markings.
The soft padding, low clamping force and the lightweight design with just 354g makes the SIVGA Luan ideal for longer listening periods.
Both ear cups do sport 3.5mm female headphone inputs, which is a nice addition since all past model did have 2.5mm connectors.
The SIVGA Luan comes with a detachable cable that has fabric isolation in black color, which has a total length of about 160cm.
The cable has two 3.5mm male connectors, one for the left and one for the right ear-cup. Each of the connectors features a metal housing with left and right marking, while the plugs do have extra ring indicators (red for the right and green for the left channel).
The 3.5mm headphone jack has a straight profiled metal housing that sport the SIVGA logo in black color. The headphone plug has also a flexible strain relief in form of a spring that offers extra durability.
Technical Specifications:
- Model : Luan
- Headphone Design : Open-Back / Over-Ear
- Driver Type : 50mm Diameter Dynamic Driver
- Frequency Response : 20-40 kHz
- Impedance : 38Ω / ±15%
- Sensitivity : 100dB / ±3dB
- Cable Length : 160cm
- Headphone Plug : 3.5mm Single Ended
- Ear Cup Plugs : 3.5mm
- Weight : 354g
Drivability & Pairing:
The SIVGA Luan is a relative easy to power open-back headphone thanks to its fairly low impedance of 38 Ohms and a sensitivity of about 100dB. This makes the Luan quite compatible with portable sources that do have a relative weak amplification capability. It pairs best with sources that do have a mildly warm tonality, which do offer a smoother overall upper midrange and lower treble experience same like the Oriole.
Equipment’s used for this review:
- Headphones : SIVGA Luan
- Sources : Topping DX5 Lite, HiBy R6 GEN III, FiiO KA5
Albums & tracks used for this review:
- Dave Gahan – Kingdom (Tidal Hi-Fi)
- George Michael – Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
- David Bowie – Heroes (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
- Elton John – Rocket Man ((Flac 24bit/96kHz)
- Barry White – Just The Way You Are (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
- Isaac Hayes – Walk On By (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Sting – Englishman in New York – (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
- Eric Clapton – Wonderful Tonight (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
- B. King – Riding With The King (Tidal Hi-Fi)
- Adele – My Little Love (Spotify)
- Randy Crawford – On Day I Will Fly Away (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Hayley Westenra – Odyssey Album (Dezzer HiFi)
- Dionne Warwick – Walk On By (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Sarah McLachlan – Angel (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
- Sertap Erener – Aşk (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Edith Piaf – Non Je Ne Regrette Rien (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Diana Krall – So Wonderful (DSF)
- Aretha Franklin – I Say A Little Payer (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
- Sonya Yoncheva – (Giuseppe Verdi) II Trovatore, ActI (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
- U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Bro Safari, UFO! – Drama (Deezer HiFi)
- Armin Van Buuren – Vini Vici (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Daft Punk (feat. Panda Bear) – Doin’ it Right (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
- Jo Blankenburg – Meraki (Spotify)
- Lorde – Royals (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
- Massive Attack – Angel (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
- Toutant – Rebirth (Deezer HiFi)
- Gogo Penguin – Raven (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
- Gogo Penguin – Murmuration (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
- Photek – The Hidden Camera (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
- Portishead – It Could Be Sweet (Spotify)
- Max Richter – On the Nature of Daylight (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
- Charly Antolini – Duwadjuwandadu (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
- Abel Korzeniowski – Dance For Me Wallis (Deezer HiFi)
- Ferit Odman – Look, Stop & Listen (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
- Chopin – Nocturn No. 20 In C-Sharp Minor (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Fazıl Say – Nazım Oratoryosu (Live) (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Vivaldi – Le QuarttroStagioni “The Four Season” (Deezer HiFi)
- Otto Liebert & Luna Negra – The River (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
- Lunatic Soul – The Passage (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Deftones – My Own Summer (Shove it) (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Metallica – Sad but True (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
- Metallica – Master of Puppets (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
- Opeth – Windowpane (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Megadeth – Sweating Bullets (Tidal Hi-Fi)
- Muse – Hysteria (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Rush – Leave That Thing Alone (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
- Slayer – Angel of Death (Spotify)
- Liquid Tension Experiment 2 – Acid Rain (Spotify)
- Yosi Horikawa – Bubbles (Spotify)
The Sound:
The SIVAG Luan offers a relative balanced overall sound tuning that has an emphasis in the midrange, which creates a slightly mid-centric atmosphere. The timbre of instruments and vocals is in fairly realistic and the tonality is a tad warmer than neutral. The Luan shows a linear bass response that is quite controlled and moderately emphasize. The midrange is the main highlight of the Luan open-back headphone that is produced with a good level of transparency, airiness and resolution. The treble range on the other hand has a fairly smooth, textured and controlled tuning, which makes the Luan to an ideal over-ear headphone for longer listening periods.
This review has been written after a burn-in period of 60 hours. I have used the stock ear pads, the stock cable and have pair the Luan with sources like the Topping DX5 Lite (Desktop DAC/AMP) HiBy R6 GEN III (DAP), FiiO KA5 (USB DAC/Amplifier)
Bass:
The SIVGA Luan shows a relative linear characterized bass response, which has a slightly roll-off in the subass area, while it offers in general a good sense of clarity in this area. The subbass region is produced with a moderate level of depth, intensity and extension, which was audible in songs like Massive Attack’s “Angel”, Daft Punk’s (feat. Panda Bear) “Doin’ it Right” and Lorde’s “Royals”.
The midbass region sounds more pronounced compared to the subbass, which stands out with its efficient sense of tightness and overall clarity. This tuning helps to avoid any unwanted negative conditions such as a midbass hump, muddiness, while the speed of the dynamic driver is on a decent level. The bass shows in general an adequate level of body, fullness and impact. I believe that bass tuning of the SIVGA Luan will satisfy most listeners with exception of bass-heads.
Midrange:
The midrange is the main highlight of the SIVGA Luan that offers a very good grade of clarity, airiness and resolution. The lower midrange of the Luan sound fairly natural and shows a realistic amount of body and depth, while the most remarkable character of this area is transparency and naturalness, when I do listen to male voices like Sting, Elton John or Dave Gahan. Instruments like violas and acoustic guitars or brass instruments such like a trumpet on the other hand are reproduced in a fairly natural and realistic manner.
The SIVGA Luan shows a decent performance when it comes to female voices that are reproduced in a quite detailed and transparent way. Female vocals do sounds slightly more detailed and rich compared to male voices due to a mildly boost around the 2- kHz region.
The general midrange presentation of the SIVGA Luan can be defined as lively, detailed and airy thanks to its good adjusted 50mm dia. Dynamic Driver unit and its Open-Back design.
Upper Midrange & Treble:
The SIVGA Luan has an upper midrange tuning that adds the overall sonic presentation a decent sense of resolution and clarity. The extension of this area is on an efficient level and the transitions towards the lower treble region do sound in general pretty controlled, especially after a burin-in period of 50+ hours.
The SIVGA Luan shows a quite natural and smooth treble tuning, which makes it ideal for longer listening periods. The overall treble tuning offers a good sense of clarity and airiness, especially while listening to genres like classical and jazz music. The treble range of the Luan sounds in general relative detailed and textured, which meets my expectations from a mid-tier headphone, while the extension of percussions such like hi-hats or snare drums is on a sufficient level.
Soundstage & Imaging:
The SIVGA Luan offers a decent performance in terms of soundstage atmosphere thanks to its open-back design, which creates good conditions for a fairly precise separation and placement of instruments and vocals. The soundstage of the Luan sounds in general pretty airy and wide, while the depth of the stage is on a moderate level.
Conclusion:
The Luan is another fantastic looking mid-tier headphone with a solid craftsmanship by SIVGA that offers a pretty balanced, natural and easy going sound tuning with great sense of transparency and airiness, thanks to its well adjusted 50mm large Dynamic Driver and the its Open-Back design. The Ear Pads of the Luan are extremely comfortable, which makes it ideal for longer in combination with its balanced sonic presentation. Moreover, the premium looking hard case is a great addition for a product at this price level that is missing with much more expensive headphones on the market.
Pros & Cons:
- + Balanced Sound Profile that is ideal for longer Listening Periods
- + Transparent & Lively Midrange Presentation
- + Pretty Smooth & Natural Treble Tuning
- + Spacious Atmosphere
- + Esthetic Design & Excellent Build Quality
- + Beautiful Hard Case is a Great Addition
- + Class Leading Comfort
- – Has not the most exciting Bass Response for Bass Heavy Genres
- – Missing some of the Dynamism that previous models did have
- – Maybe a cable with 4.4mm Headphone Plug would be Welcome
