SIVGA P-II Headphone Review

 

 

 

 

 

SIVGA P-II Headphone 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 SIVGA P-II is the flagship Open Back Headphone of the company that features a 96x67mm ultra nano composite planar diaphragm which is integrated in to CNC machined and hand polished earcups made of black walnut wood material.

 


 

Disclaimer:

I would like to thank SIVGA for providing me the P-II Planar 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:

The MSRP price for the SIVGA P-II Planar Headphone is 399,99 USD and can be purchased under the links below;

 

 

Package and Accessories:

The SIVGA P-II came in a pretty big cardboard box with some product brandings and an illustration of the Headphone on the top.

The box of the SIVGA P-II came with the following items;

  • 1 piece x SIVGA P-II Open-Back Headphone
  • 1 piece x Detachable Cable with 4.4mm Headphone Plug
  • 1 piece x 4.4 Female to 3.5mm Male Adapter
  • 1 piece x Headphone Carrying Case
  • 1 piece x Cable Carry Bag

The Headphone Carrying Case with zipper mechanism is made of leather and sports the SIVGA branding on the top. The case has a lanyard and zipper mechanism is of very high quality.

The inner surface of the hard carry case has a fabric coating to avoid the P-II from any possible scratches.

The SIVGA P-II comes with a nice looking detachable cable with a braided design.

The cable is made of high purity 4 core 6N purity “Single Crystalline Copper” wire material which has a soft plastic insulation with very low amount of microphonic effect.

The cable has two 2.5mm male connectors, one for the left ear-cup 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 cable of the P-II sports also a metal Y splitter and chin slider in black color.

The cable features a 4.4mm TRRRS Pentaconn headphone jack with a straight profiled metal housing in black color that sport the SIVGA logo in white color. The headphone plug features also a flexible strain relief in form of a spring that offers extra protection.

The SIVGA P-II comes also with a 4.4mm TRRRS Balanced female to 3.5mm Single Ended Adapter which is made of the same cable material and offers the same high quality look and feel.

 

 

The Design, Build Quality, Comfort:

The SIVGA P-II is a full sized Open Back Headphone that features a Planar Magnetic Driver which has a premium look and feel thanks to the use of black walnut wood material.

The build quality of the P-II Planar headphone is of high quality same like the little brother Phoenix that I have had reviewed before and I couldn’t see any imperfections like such like burrs, gaps or cracking parts.

The production of the CNC machined wooden earcups needs according to SIVGA a lot of time and man power because of multiple painting, polishing and drying processes, while the final result is a luxurious and beautiful appearance.

This process makes each P-II to a headphone with a unique looking earcups.

On the top of each earcup is a protective metal mesh in silver color which is under the cloud shaped metal grill in black color. Each metal grill features the SIVGA brand logo and the overall appearance looks pretty nice.

The main parts of the headband system are a combination of stainless steel, aluminum and plastic material. The crown of the headband system is made of stainless steel spring metal in black color and is fixed to headband holders which are made of plastic material.

The headband holders do have the SIVGA logo on both sides and do have Left (L) and Right (R) indictors in white color.

The headband padding is made of protein leather with a bulged design to avoid pressure and to offer extra comfort for longer listening periods. This headband is adjustable thanks to the elastic band that is integrated to the padding.

The earcup holders are made of aviation grade of aluminum material and are in black color.

The holders can be rotated up to 90° and do have a solid look and feel.

Each ear cup has a 2.5mm female connector that offers a tight and secure connection.

The ear pads of the SIVGA P-II do have a unique shape and are according to the companies advertising, based on a wide range of data that was collected from peoples with different head shapes.

The ear pad are very comfortable and do show a very low pressure to my ears.

This ear pads do have a protein leather (pleather) surface on the outside and a very skin friendly velvet fabric surface that is ideal for skin contact, especially in warm summer periods. The fabric surface offers better anti-sweating compared to ear pads with a pleather/leather surface.

The SIVGA P-II has a weight about 420grams, which is quite ok for a full sized headphone with planar magnetic driver that I could wear for several hours without to feel any comfort issues.

 

 

 

Isolation:

The SIVGA P-II is an Open-Back headphone Planar Magnetic Driver that offers an bellow average isolation due to the nature of any Planar Magnetic Headphone. The noise/sound leakage from the outside to the inside and from the inside to the outside is pretty high which makes the P-II not to an ideal headphone for the use in environments with high noise.

 

 

Drivability:

The SIVGA P-II has an impedance of 32ohm and sensitivity of 98dB and can be driven with Portable Players like the FiiO M11 Pro or iBasso DX220, while devices like Smartphone’s or Tablets with relative weak amplification are not ideal for the use with Planar Magnetic Headphones like the P-II.

However, to hear the true potential of the P-II, I would highly recommend you to use it with more powerful sources like Portable Amplifiers or DAP’s with good application like the QLS QA361 or iBasso DX220 MAX.

 

 

Technical Specifications:
  • Driver                         : Planar Magnetic Driver with 97mm*76mm ultra-nano diaphragm
  • Frequency Response : 20Hz – 40 KHz
  • Sensitivity                   : 98 dB +/-3dB
  • Impedance                 : 32 Ohm +/-15%
  • Cable Length              : 160cm (+/- 2cm)
  • Headphone Plug        : 4.4mm TRRRRS Pentaconn Plug
  • Weight                        : 420gr

 

 

Equipment’s used for this review:
  • Headphones             : SIVGA P-II & HiFiMAN Ananda
  • Paired Sources         : iBasso DX220 MAX, FiiO M11 Pro, xDuoo XD-05 Plus
     

 

Albums & tracks used for this review:
  • 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)
  • Elton John – Rocket Man (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
  • Eric Clapton – Wonderful Tonight (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
  • Chopin – Nocturn No. 20 In C-Sharp Minor (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
  • Edith Piaf – Non Je Ne Regrette Rien (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
  • Diana Krall – So Wonderful (DSF)
  • Sertap Erener – Aşk (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
  • London Grammar – Interlud (Live) (Flac 24bit/44kHz)
  • Laura Pergolizzi – Lost On You “Live at Harvard and Stone” (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
  • Fazıl Say – Nazım Oratoryosu (Live) (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
  • Vivaldi – Le QuarttroStagioni “The Four Season” (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
  • Otto Liebert& Luna Negra – The River (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
  • Casey Abrams – Robot Lovers (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
  • The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Take Five (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
  • Gogo Penguin – Raven (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
  • Armin Van Buuren – Vini Vici (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
  • Lorde – Royal (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
  • Massive Attack – Angel (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
  • U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
  • Portishead – The Hidden Camera (MP3 320kpbs)
  • Metallica – Sad but True (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
  • Megadeth – Sweating Bullets (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Rush’s – Leave That Thing Alone (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
  • Slayer – Angel of Death (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)

 

 

 

 

The Sound:

The SIVGA P-II is an Open Back Headphone with a slightly colored and warmish tonality with a great level overall detail retrieval, which offers a pretty fast and linear bass response, while the midrange and treble area shows good amount of clarity, airiness and resolution.

PS: The reviews is written after a burn-in for about 65 – 70 hours and is mainly based on my sound experiences with the 4.4mm Balanced output of the iBasso DX220 MAX and the xDuoo XD-05 Plus that do pair very well with the SIVGA P-II.

Bass:

The SIVGA P-II offers a pretty linear and fast bass response with good amount of transparency and fairly natural/quick decay.

The subbass region doesn’t show the depth and rumble that you can be hear from headphone with a dynamic driver which has a closed back design, but it is able to produce a good level of intensity and fullness especially compared to other Planar Magnetic headphone. The subbass area of the P-II shows a moderate quantity & fullness and has in general a fairly warm and soft tonality.

The SIVGA P-II is able to produce a pretty strong and punchy midbass rendering with fast decay and average level of depth. The general midbass presentation of the P-II is pretty fast and controlled along with above average transparency and detail retrieval. It doesn’t show any negative situations like muddiness or mixings even in complex bass passages.

As a result, the overall bass presentation of the SIVGA P-II can be characterized as fast and quite detail with moderate level of depth and extension.

 

Midrange:

The SIVGA P-II has a slightly colored and warmish midrange tonality with good amount of clarity, weight and level of airiness. The midrange is mildly recessed and shows a successful performance in terms of detail retrieval and separation of instruments and the vocals.

 

Vocals:

The SIVGA P-II 1 shows a good lower midrange depth and extension, especially for an open back headphone with planar magnetic driver which is an advantage for male vocals.  Male vocals do sound slightly warm, moderately thick and pretty musical and soft, while the clarity is on a moderate level.

The SIVGA P-II offers a carefully tuned upper midrange that sounds quite detailed and transparent, with good level of extension for Female vocals that do sound in general quite intimate and detailed. The female vocal presentation of the SIVGA P-II is pretty smooth, sweet and soulful.

Instruments:

The instrument presentation of the SIVGA P-II is in general pretty full bodied for an open back headphone with planar magnetic driver. For example, the pianos do sound a bit bright, while violins are soft and sweat in tonality without to show any remarkable harshness. String instruments like acoustic guitars are slightly bassy, warm and lush, while violas are warm, emotional and quite natural in its tonality.

The SIVGA P-II impressed me a lot with its pretty accurate separation & placement of the instruments. The P-II also doesn’t show any remarkable negative situations like muddiness or mixings.

 

Upper Midrange & Treble:

The SIVGA P-II has a pretty balanced upper midrange character, which sounds neither dull nor too bright. The upper midrange is mildly bright and the transitions are in general quite controlled without to have audible issues like over sharpness or sibilance. The upper midrange extension is on a sufficient level while listen to female vocals or instruments like violins or pianos.

The treble range SIVGA P-II is mildly bright, slightly rounded / filed and controlled in most tracks I listen with it. The treble shows a good intensity, extension and overall sparkle with an efficient level of airiness. Instruments like hi-hats do come slightly from the background and the extension is a bit short, while instruments like ride and crash cymbals are more highlighted and do shows in general better extension.

The treble range of the SIVGA P-II can be described as mildly bright and silky smooth, which makes it fatigue free and ideal for longer listening periods.

 

Soundstage:

The SIVGA P-II is an open-back headphone that offers in general a better sense of space and airiness compared to closed back headphones, especially compared to headphones in the same price range. But the P-II has not the big / huge stage that I have experienced with other open-back headphones like the HiFiMAN Ananda or the Deva.

But don’t get me wrong, the P-II shows otherwise a pretty good performance in terms of separation and placement of instruments and vocals. The soundstage shows an elliptical extension with more wideness than its depth.

 

 

Comparison:

Both the HiFiMAN Ananda and the SIVGA P-II are open-back planar headphones. The SIVGA P-II looks and feels more solid compared to the HiFiMAN Ananda that is otherwise a pretty good in this regarding.  The ear pads of the P-II feels more comfortable, while the headband pressure of the Ananda is more ideal for longer listening periods.

When it comes to the isolation, both do have a open-back design with fairly low isolation and pretty high sound leakage which makes, while the SIVGA P-II offers slightly better isolation that comes from the outside.

When it comes to the sound character and performance I can say that the SIVGA P-II holds up pretty good with the more expensive HiFiMAN Ananda in many areas.

The SIVGA P-II shows a slightly warmer and fuller tonality with compared to the HiFiMAN Ananda that has a more neutral tonality with moderate warmth.

The subbass of the P-II has more depth, rumble and slightly better level of extension. Both headphones are very controlled and fast in this area without to show any unwanted mixings toward the midbass and midrange area. The midbass region of the SIVGA P-II is punchier and has also the upper hand in terms of depth and intensity, while the HiFiMAN Ananda has the edge when it comes to the decay and overall resolution.

The midrange of the HiFiMAN Ananda sounds more relaxed natural and shows slightly more clarity and detail retrieval compared to the SIVGA P-II which offers a warmer tonality with slightly more upfront midrange character.

The lower midrange of the SIVGA P-II has more depth and intensity which makes it more successful while listen to instruments like acoustic and bass guitars or violas and male vocals. The upper midrange of both headphones is nicely pronounced, while the HiFiMAN Ananda offers more relaxed timbre with slightly higher level of clarity and detail retrieval which gives it the edge for female vocals and instruments like pianos and violins.

The transitions of the upper midrange towards the lower treble area are pretty controlled with both headphones. The treble range of both headphones is detailed and well pronounced, while the HiFiMAN Ananda offers a slightly more natural tonality and higher level of extension and definition in this area. Both are quite successful in terms of treble control without to show any unwanted sibilance or over sharpness.

The soundstage of both headphones shows a nice sense of space and expansion due to the open-back design, while this effect is more noticeable with the HiFiMAN Ananda. The stage of both the P-II and Ananda is suitable for a precise placement and separation of instruments and vocals, while HiFiMAN Ananda has the upper hand in terms of soundstage wideness. The soundstage depth on the other hand is pretty close with both headphones in performance.

 

Conclusion:

The SIVGA P-II is a well crafted open-back planar headphone with very esthetical appearance, which offers also a good sound performance with its slightly colored warmish yet lush tonality and great detail retrieval. So, if you are looking for a full sized open back headphone with a fast and pretty linear bass response, along with a midrange and treble presentation that shows a good amount of clarity, airiness and resolution, the SIVGA P-II will satisfy you, while the high quality cable and the nice looking protective carry case are also some nice additions.

 

 

Pros & Cons: 
  • + Warm & Lush Presentation
  • + Bass Response (Speed, Decay, Control)
  • + Midrange Tonality & Detail Retrieval
  • + Treble Control and Definition
  • + Solid Build Quality & Beautiful Wooden Earcups
  • + High Quality Cable with Adaptor and Protective Carry Case
  • – Subbass Depth
  • – Treble Extension is Slightly Short
  • – Isolation & Weight

 

Thank you for the Read!

 

 

 

 

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2 Responses

  1. Ivan says:

    Thanks for review, very useful.

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