Audivina review:
Many delve into the technical specs of the device they review. That is best left to the brouchure from the manifacturer.
Here is the completely one-sided, personal and subjective opinions of someone who has been a whopping 2 years coming from the humble ATH-M50x to the Audeze LCD-5. I have my tastes, and thus it’s 100% subjective review.
First impressions:
Aesthetically. the Adivina are quite eye cathing, with a suspension system similar to the HE1000, not to mention two quite generous earcups who are covered on both sides with beautiful wood, as these are closed backs.
The look is very unique, no quite other headphone has the same look. Comfyness well describes how light and firm they stand on your head, I’d say one of the best, reminding me on the featherweight R70X.
Now comes the musical part:
In my zero-reviews experience, i thought i’d try and use the comparison to another headphone to try and describe better the feelings i get from them.
I have the luck of owning other high end closed backs (LCD-XC 2021), and thus i’ll try and compare them to better describe their musicality.
Let’s start with the first thing when you hear the word “closed backs”: Isolation. On the Audivina, there is very little. All in all, i can hear through it almost like an open back. This is a big drawback because the headphone easily swivels and comes in a portable package that seems to encourage people to bring it on a trip and enjoy some music on the go (or maybe i’m the one that’s crazy to think about going around with 2k headphones on my head, but hey if i buy something you can bet i AM going to use it).
After isolation, closed backs are supposed to sound more bassy. That isn’t really a standard, and my LCD-5 would have a word with anyone saying open backs’ bass can’t be good. And the Audivina corroborate the importance of not letting their designation “closed back” trick you into thinking they are bassy. Quite the opposite thir bass is….let’s say featherweight. Little impact, texture and intensity makes the lower part of the frequencies feel almost missing. An example is the song from Far Cry 5 “Build a Castle – Choir Version”. The LCD-XC paint a deep, impactful voice, you can hear the impact of the vocals, the strings, it brings it all together very well.
On the audivina you have a shallow bass, good mids, and the strings are the ones ending up being heard the best.
The soundstage is very nice, quite open and spacious.
Another song, good for the mids/high, is “Nobody Does it Better” by Carly Simon. Being a little less bass heavy, the voice is well rendered and the highs are good. But again, missing the bass unfortunately doesn’t help with the impact of the voice.
To focus all-in with the bass, “Fukitsu” from the Bakemonogatari OST is a good instrument-heavy song has both highs and bass. Here being a string instrument audivinas are better than other songs, with very good definition but still lacking the “impact” of basses frrom the piano.
Conclusions:
They absolutely win in two categories: Comfort and Transportability
In these the audivina are world class.
They have nice technicalities, with a very large sound stage rivalling open backs.
Tonality is divisive, and would reccomend testing them to see if they suit your taste.
Isolation isn’t much to write home about and would need improvement in the future.
Bass is the real issue, and to me unfortunately a dealbreaker.
EDIT: revised the rating. Too many chances I had to try IEMs and HP that outclass it in price and features.
EDIT 2: revised rating because right now not only those who bought it at full price paid about 2k euros, but now it's offered NEW for the price of around 700 euros, meaning resale chances are nihil unless you accept a huge discount. Reducing an item's MSRP by 2/3rds shows that this was a really unfotunate product.
