[godmax]

Posted my impression/review of the Audivina in the Head Gear section: Hifiman Audivina - inoffensively exciting!

 

[Jaytiss]

My review came in today. I’m very excited to listen to it!

 

[thecrow]

Posted my impression/review of the Audivina in the Head Gear section: Hifiman Audivina - inoffensively exiting!

you mean exciting?

 

[godmax]

you mean exciting?

good catch - did correct it. Thanks for pointing out

 

[thecrow]

good catch - did correct it. Thanks for pointing out

It happens to the best of us

 

[Jaytiss]

Hi, I'm posting this here and in the offical review thread. Thanks for the opportunity!


Pros
Classy presentation
Great cable selection
Cables are replaceable
Comfortable ear pads
Headset is light
Very open and big sounding soundstage
Extremely comfortable.

Cons
Sound signature isn’t for me
Very costly, so many won’t be able to afford it.

"All you need is Love" is one of the greatest songs and Iconic to me. The world needs love, and more Closed-Back headphones. Closed-back headphones are one consideration as others around you can’t hear them. So many closed-back headphones just sound off, and it's a hard place in the market with many people preferring iems, or open-back headphones, or even dare I say it... Speakers. So the market for Closed back headphones are unique and Special. This headphone is special to me, as I've tested dozens of headphones in my day in a search for audio bliss and excellence. This is the most comfortable, premium headset, not perfect, but no King is. This headset is a true king in the audio world.


Thanks for the opportunity to test this headphone and I am reviewing this as part of the Audivina Review Tour. I wanted to say that I am extremely grateful to test this headphone as I think it is a very interesting piece in the market. I have been gifted an experience that is remarkable, and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity. This is a remarkable product and Hifiman continues to do amazing work to produce such high quality beautiful products.


Song Choice: Tidal list here:
I listen to a wide variety of music. I pick the songs because of various reasons. But I picture myself locked away like Andy Dufresne from Shawshank blasting music and shut off from the world. It’s a blissful image.
The Marriage of Figaro -The opera song from Shawshank Redemption, terrible recording but fun and gets me in the mood to listen to music.
O mio Babino caro -This is a modern less operatic version but a song with great female vocals.
Video Rigoletto - “La donna e mobile” Sung by one of the three Tenors, great song for high-performing male vocals. Pavarotti is the greatest classic singer maybe ever. Fight me!
Iron man - The sound at the beginning is hard to make sound great, great drums, and cymbals, and if done right it feels like an old-school band.
I Will Survive (1981 recording, I like her voice, and the old vocals, the drums, and various natural instruments really make this a favorite for me.
There is a light That never goes out - Smiths ( A classic, I just love it. It’s mellow, and I can tell a lot of the tuning if this song is done right.)
Jump (I like how the sound effects are in this!)
Star Child Someone recommended this song to me, and I like how funky it sounds and has nice vocals and a mix of music and things going on.
Dicke Titten Ramstein The beginning is amazing and the bass hits hard. Great song. I love rock and metal. The German language fascinates me
Master of Puppets: Very fast song. Helps me determine if the driver can keep up.

Cable I wanted to keep the cables nice for others so I tried to keep them in their packaging and got the opportunity to use a cable I had for my Focal Celectree. The cable selection is very strong. It has an XLR cable, 6.5 mm, and 3.5 mm cable connections for a total of 3 cables. It’s a nice touch and feels good for various uses that might be needed. I can’t see a need not met for this headset as it has all that one could think of. Very strong choices and the Cables are extremely premium, classy, and a nice touch.

Ear Pads These ear pads are very strong. Thematically they match the headphone, and they feel great on the skin for long listening sessions. They allow me to breathe and I don’t feel any pressure on my head. I am amazed and impressed at the feeling of these pads. I almost always swap ear pads, but I wouldn't swap these. They are just fantastic and so comfortable and breathe very well.


Comparison: The dreaded comparison: Hifiman Audivina vs the Audeze LCD-XC (2021) While the headphones are a 2000 vs 1300 MSRP I don’t have a lot of experience with other good closed headphones to compare. So I’ll try to do my best.

The packaging is 100% a win to Hifiman, the additional cables are very nice, the case is very manageable and easy to take with you places, and the comfort is to die for. The hifiman is the most comfortable headphone that I’ve ever used. The added case I think is better than the Audeze LCD-XC as that case is much larger and the headphone is made for production.


Target Demographic: I love headphones, but I don’t claim to understand everything. This is a headphone made for travelers who want to have a wooden headphone with them. It’s comfortable, portable, and beautiful. It looks amazing, has an easy-to-swap cable, and comes with a case that is perfect. I can see a Billionaire wearing these as a statement on a flight. The wood design rivals that of any DMF or any headphone that I’ve seen. The easily swappable cables mean you can use many other cables with it to customize it extremely easily. It’s a great option. This is a premium headset that is fun, but to me, this is a specialty traveling headset with some flair. This is your Neymer considered to be one of the greatest flair players of all time in soccer. He scores a ton, and assists, but causes some controversy off the pitch. But on his day, nothing and nobody can touch him he is a true legend, just like Audivina.


Graph:




Comfort:
The comfort of this headset is insane. It’s just premium with the headband being nice to wear, the design is very light. I feel that I am not wearing any headphones at all. It’s an amazing feeling to be honest, as most of the other headsets make feel like I’m balancing something on my headset.
I have a tradition whenever I get an over ears headset I go around the home and have both kids and the wife try it on. Everyone liked this one. The littlest one told me quickly it was cozy! So from the mouths of babes, we have our truth. This is a cozy headset, and I absolutely love it!




Recommended EQ: This headset needs eq with how it is tuned out of the box for me. I’m leaving two EQ’s for you, the first is my simple eq from Dolby that I did myself, and the second is what I got from the Squiglink tools.



Gifting/who is it for: This is an expensive headset, but it’s premium as can be. Great unboxing experience. Wonderful case, with multiple cables, and it is a fun experience overall. This is a premium headset in so many ways, that is a recommendation for those who can afford it.

Pairing: I used Topping DX1 dac through an SMSL SH-8s AMP. I find this headset easy to drive and needs a fair amount of power and I typically push my amp up to high gain, compared to most of my other headphones and iems. But I found this easy to drive even off a computer, but this is a headphone where I'd recommend an amp but it's not necessary.

Summary

Overall I am giving this an B- for tuning and an S- for technical abilities, but with a little eq it quickly becomes a classic with a smoothe presentation that makes everything sound so good and the Tuning score goes up to an easy S-. While not for me, the tuning of it isn’t that bad and the music is enjoyable on it. If you never use eq and are after sonic excellence in music as your primary quality, I wouldn’t recommend it, if you don’t mind trying EQ and can afford this, this is your flair headset and will find a home in your collection. With Eq, it’s just a mint headphone with great sonic characteristics. I would love it if a different tuned headset came out that had this headband and feeling that I could easily afford. I would love something in my lineup like this as the build quality is out of this world. I can wear it forever, without pain or weight to my head. And with EQ it’s just a delightful experience with fantastic drivers. While something like the Audeze LCD-XC is also a good headphone, it's so much heavier, the Audivina could tactfully be put in a backpack and run off a phone, and that is what makes this beautiful premium headset the King for audiophiles wanting a wired headphone for travel, or a premium headphone for home use.

Thanks for reading. Any feedback is welcome.

 

[robthemac]

My two weeks with the Audivina have come to an end. Thanks to April and the team at HIFIMAN; it has been a pleasure, as always.

No other reviews were read prior to listening impressions being recorded.

Most of my listening was done with an iBasso DX90 DAP. Alternative sources were a Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100 into JDS Atom, or a variety of USB-C headphone adaptors for listening from a phone.

Comparisons were made with the Sennheiser HD-6XX, Beyerdynamic DT-990 Premium and 64 Audio U10 in-ear monitors.

Like everyone, I have personal preferences when it comes to headphones. I like headphones that adhere relatively closely to Harman neutral, with a touch of mid- or sub-bass emphasis. I'm a stickler for detail retrieval, but don't have the need for a massive soundstage.

Packaging: love the carry case, useful selection of included cables.
Aesthetics: personal preference I guess, but the bright orange stain on the wood doesn't do it for me. I like the brushed aluminium and tan leather combo, though.
Fit/Comfort: I love HIFIMAN headbands in general, and this is no exception. Despite being a weighty headphone, the leather strap and pads make it a pleasure for longer listening sessions. Personally, I'd want more clamping force. I'd only wear these seated, as the just moving around too much any time I even think about shifting position.
Isolation: I'm no expert when it comes to closed-back headphones, but I expected more. There's significant sound leakage both ways. I can pretty clearly hear external noise (although I do listen very quietly) and there's enough bleed outside that I wouldn't wear these in a library or in bed with my wife.
Device matching: surprisingly flexible. I could happily use even cheap USB-C headphone converters and get to a reasonable volume without any wonky tonal shifts or excessive noise.

Tone:

I think to do the review justice, this needs to be done in two parts: flat and EQ.

The first time I put these on my head, it was not what I expected. I could hear a huge dip in the 200Hz region, sitting between the upper bass and lower midrange frequencies. I didn't need to look at a frequency response chart to hear it, and I doubt anyone who has spent time EQ'ing music will need to either. Additionally, there was a small mid-bass hump and a spike in the treble at around 5Khz. The combination gives what I can only describe as a wonky frequency response. One of my go-to testing tracks is 'I Don't Trust Myself With Loving You' by John Mayer. It exemplified the issues with the frequency response perfectly. Mayer's throaty vocals were rendered hoarse and lacking in any body or weight by the 200Hz dip. The off-beat closed high-hat and was thrown forward in the mix by the treble spike, and not in a pleasant way

Needless to say, I was initially disappointed. I spent the first week listening without EQ, and psychological burn-in acclimatized me somewhat to the signature. However, I still felt there was something lacking in the vocal reproduction given the 200Hz dip. I mostly listen to indie, rock, hip-hop and 60s-70s jazz, and male vocals, electric guitars and brass instruments just weren't being presented in the way I like. I did enjoy the it with tracks where the vocals were less prominent, or female vocalists sitting higher in the midrange. 'Beachin' by Piri and Tommy worked particularly well. However, most vocal performances felt hollow.

Enter the equalizer. The DX-90 has a 10-band EQ which was sufficient to target some of the 'problem' areas. +1 dB at 33Hz, -1 at 63Hz, +2 at 100Hz, +3 at 330Hz, +1 at 630Hz, 0 at 1Khz, -1 at 3.3KHz, -1 at 6.3KHz, 0 at 10KHz, +1 at 16KHz.

Now, we have a different beast. The bass rumbled and hit hard, if still lacking the cleanliness of the best planars (e.g. LCD-3F, HE-1000). The lower midrange still had a throaty quality, but was now much closer to natural. Gone was the problematic treble spike, and there was a little bit more air up in the highest registers. We were now in the realm of what I'd consider to be a very tastefully-tuned, mildly V-shaped headphone. All genres of music were now listenable, and even male-vocal heavy pop music (e.g. The National) was accurately reproduced. Electronic music lost some of its excitement with this EQ setting, but this was a worthwhile trade-off in my view.

Technicalities: generally good. Soundstage was surprisingly broad for a closed-back, handily better than the HD-6XX and roughly on-par with the DT-990. Detail retrieval was good, although I think part of this was artificially coming from the lower-mid dip and treble spike. With that EQ'd out, it was still impressive, if not quite on-par with the U10. I didn't have an HD-800 on hand, but the Audivina didn't feel in the same league.


Summary: the HIFIMAN Audivina is a comfortable, technically capable full-sized headphone. It doesn't have the noise isolation that I want from a closed-back headphone, but the lighter clamping force makes it comfortable for long listens. Without EQ, the 200Hz dip makes vocals and brass instruments hollow and lacking authority, and a spike around 5KHz is too spicy for my tastes. But if you're comfortable using an EQ to iron out the wonky frequency response, an excellent all-round headphone can be found.

 

[robthemac]

Also, has anyone put the Audivina on a measuring rig? I'd be keen to see if the lower-mid dip is as massive as my ears perceived it to be.

EDIT: whoops, didn't see the above post from @Jaytiss . Yeah, that tracks with what I heard.

 

[godmax]

Sadly, my time with the Audivina is over now and on the way to the next reviewer!

Thank you for the opportunity being part of the loaner tour!

 

[Slim1970]

Sadly, my time with the Audivina is over now and on the way to the next reviewer!



Thank you for the opportunity being part of the loaner tour!

My time with them has ended as well. I'm currently putting the finishing touches on my review

 

[UntilThen]

My time is about to begin and I will plug it in these.

 

[Slim1970]

My review of the Audivina's is up. You can read it here

 

[UntilThen]

My review of the Audivina's is up. You can read it here

Thanks Slim but I won't read it yet until I get to hear it for 2 weeks and write my own review.

 

[Slim1970]

Thanks Slim but I won't read it yet until I get to hear it for 2 weeks and write my own review.

I won’t spoil your fun then

 

[Giangi]

They just arrived. I'll post my impressions as soon as possible, but first, I can say that I have never heard closed headphone with such a stage and with such musicality. With R&B they are great and don't seem to need EQing. I'll just try boosting the subbass region a bit, just out of curiosity, but as a first contact they sound great. Thanks to Team Hifiman for giving me this opportunity.