[pichu]

I sold my Aivas this past week. Why?

I want to start off by saying the build quality is superb and I love the way the headphones feel and how they fit on my head. The pads especially are a unique creation and I fell in love with them from first touch.

When it comes to the sound quality, simply put, the highs are nice, the bass is okay as a planar, and the mids are ruined. The mids are so bad on these headphones to me that it becomes impossible to comfortably listen to them, especially with my ELEX, Auteur and 800S sitting 3 feet away from me. I listen to a lot of vocal focused music and aocustics. Eric Claptons 1992 Unplugged Album sounds so artificial with a distinct muffled sound throughout the midrange.

For the asking price of $599 USD, I would 10/10 times pay $100 more for the Focal Elex. Also not a BIG deal, but the lack of 1/4 adapter can be annoying. I feel they should know that a large chunk of their target audience will be listening on 1/4 jacks. Id probably still take my 6XX for $200 over these as timbre and the midrange are of upmost importance when i sit down to listen to music.

* I did NOT EQ these, so Im not sure how responsive they are to EQ. Possibly they could be fixed up with some proper implementation? Anyone have any luck with this?

 

[Feilong4]

I sold my Aivas this past week. Why?

I want to start off by saying the build quality is superb and I love the way the headphones feel and how they fit on my head. The pads especially are a unique creation and I fell in love with them from first touch.

When it comes to the sound quality, simply put, the highs are nice, the bass is okay as a planar, and the mids are ruined. The mids are so bad on these headphones to me that it becomes impossible to comfortably listen to them, especially with my ELEX, Auteur and 800S sitting 3 feet away from me. I listen to a lot of vocal focused music and aocustics. Eric Claptons 1992 Unplugged Album sounds so artificial with a distinct muffled sound throughout the midrange.

For the asking price of $599 USD, I would 10/10 times pay $100 more for the Focal Elex. Also not a BIG deal, but the lack of 1/4 adapter can be annoying. I feel they should know that a large chunk of their target audience will be listening on 1/4 jacks. Id probably still take my 6XX for $200 over these as timbre and the midrange are of upmost importance when i sit down to listen to music.

* I did NOT EQ these, so Im not sure how responsive they are to EQ. Possibly they could be fixed up with some proper implementation? Anyone have any luck with this?

That's pretty much what I thought of the Aiva when I had them for demo. It might've been unfair since I have an HE-6 on hand.

I felt it controversial to say but I did think that I would prefer the HD650, HD600, etc over the Aiva in overall performance just maybe besides bass and treble extension.

I did try a few EQ's and did not come up with something with the midrange/upper midrange that I found to be good. It still has that sense of "compression" to it. I did have a listen before measuring, and I initially did not like them because of the upper midrange recession. Female vocals sounded lifeless and since that comprises of like 90% of my playlist, these didn't fare well with me.

Edit: Well, I guess I should add that if anyone enjoys the Aiva, then that is perfectly ok.

 

[Bonddam]

Have Elex hd650 Aeolus HEkv2 lcd2c and Aiva. I wouldn’t sell the Aiva like some do.

 

[DrummerLeo]

That's pretty much what I thought of the Aiva when I had them for demo. It might've been unfair since I have an HE-6 on hand.

I felt it controversial to say but I did think that I would prefer the HD650, HD600, etc over the Aiva in overall performance just maybe besides bass and treble extension.

I did try a few EQ's and did not come up with something with the midrange/upper midrange that I found to be good. It still has that sense of "compression" to it. I did have a listen before measuring, and I initially did not like them because of the upper midrange recession. Female vocals sounded lifeless and since that comprises of like 90% of my playlist, these didn't fare well with me.

Edit: Well, I guess I should add that if anyone enjoys the Aiva, then that is perfectly ok.

So are you saying hd650 and hd600 has similar or even better resolution and details than Aiva?
I tried hd660s on portable setup side by side vs Aiva, because both of them come with 4.4mm cable.
I immediately noticed that aiva has much better resolution and tons more details than hd660s. And in terms of sound density these 2 are not even in the same league, even on portable setup. That’s why I withdrew hd660s from my comparison list.
There must be some problems with my ear, or something wrong with sennheiser that keep releasing newer products way worse than old headphones. ( I do admit I prefer vintage hd600 over current hd600 and any hd6xx series there after.)

 

[DrummerLeo]

Have Elex hd650 Aeolus HEkv2 lcd2c and Aiva. I wouldn’t sell the Aiva like some do.

Same thing here, look at my signature, that’s how much I love aiva.

 

[kumar402]

Going by the impressions it seems it is another controversial HP in making like Z1R. Some will love them and others will hate them.

 

[Feilong4]

So are you saying hd650 and hd600 has similar or even better resolution and details than Aiva?
I tried hd660s on portable setup side by side vs Aiva, because both of them come with 4.4mm cable.
I immediately noticed that aiva has much better resolution and tons more details than hd660s. And in terms of sound density these 2 are not even in the same league, even on portable setup. That’s why I withdrew hd660s from my comparison list.
There must be some problems with my ear, or something wrong with sennheiser that keep releasing newer products way worse than old headphones. ( I do admit I prefer vintage hd600 over current hd600 and any hd6xx series there after.)

In the midrange and upper midrange, yes I do think that the HD600 and HD650 has better resolution in said areas, from memory. This area in particular sounds more compressed than the HD600 and HD650. I have not heard the HD660S. I think this is due to higher THD in this area. This is not just me seeing the graphs and then suddenly "hearing it". I did not post THD graphs initially because my MiniDSP EARS has been acting up in terms of the distortion graphs so it's not entirely consistent with my older THD measurements. I will explain a little bit below after the two plots:

Edit: To read these THD measurements, it's generally good until it reaches the "1" value on the vertical axis or "1%". Distortion rising up near 0.5% can be problematic and noticeable. Distortion below ~100 Hz can disregarded because humming from the room and other background noise can contribute to the higher levels in that region. Since I don't have an acoustic chamber, that part isn't all too accurate.


Measured in percentage. Distortion below ~100 Hz can be disregarded because I don't have an acoustic chamber so my little "closet chamber thing" isn't sealing any hums or background noise in that region. I have made sure to eliminate any sorts of variables and kept it as consistent as possible.

To explain my MiniDSP EARS acting up, I mean it's been consistently measuring a higher distortion bump from about 1.5 kHz to about 3 kHz one day and just a tad higher (~0.1% higher) from everything down for every headphone as of late. I'm not sure why and I have yet to contact MiniDSP 'cause I'm lazy.

Because of that, here's a distortion plot of my HE-6 for comparison (don't have any Sennheisers on hand):


To repeat: Measured in percentage. Distortion below ~100 Hz can be disregarded because I don't have an acoustic chamber so my little "closet chamber thing" isn't sealing any hums or background noise in that region. I have made sure to eliminate any sorts of variables and kept it as consistent as possible.

I guess it doesn't look like much of a difference here, but in consideration that the HE-6 does have very low distortion all across on others' THD measurements, one can translate how the Aiva compares from there. In this case, the Aiva has a fair bit of distortion in this region. That's just one explanation I can offer for the "compression" I am hearing with the Aiva in the midrange/upper midrange area.

To emphasize, this is not absolute and/or gospel, but rather just what I think.

 

[DrummerLeo]

Going by the impressions it seems it is another controversial HP in making like Z1R. Some will love them and others will hate them.

I feel the same way man, and I was a hater of Z1R. I actually bought and sold Z1R 3 times. Every time I changed amp/dac I will buy back the headphones I used to own until I pretty much understand why people love them and the headphones’ tuning ideas. Another headphones I had the similar experience is th900, after buy/sold 5 th900s I end up keeping one for myself.

 

[mixman]

That's pretty much what I thought of the Aiva when I had them for demo. It might've been unfair since I have an HE-6 on hand.

I felt it controversial to say but I did think that I would prefer the HD650, HD600, etc over the Aiva in overall performance just maybe besides bass and treble extension.

I did try a few EQ's and did not come up with something with the midrange/upper midrange that I found to be good. It still has that sense of "compression" to it. I did have a listen before measuring, and I initially did not like them because of the upper midrange recession. Female vocals sounded lifeless and since that comprises of like 90% of my playlist, these didn't fare well with me.

Edit: Well, I guess I should add that if anyone enjoys the Aiva, then that is perfectly ok.

Yep kinda felt about the same about the Aiya. Honestly, I think the people that are hyping these too much are actually doing these HP's a disservice. I would just say they are decent to good $600 HP's and leave it like that. Some will feel they are much better and some will say they are worse, but when you start comparing them to HP's that are much more expensive they will start to get a lot more scrutiny. They better measure up and live up to that scrutiny or they may end of as an over hyped fad.

Oh and by the way, I wish these came close to the HEK V2's, I would have and could have saved a lot of money buying these instead!

 

[DrummerLeo]

In the midrange and upper midrange, yes I do think that the HD600 and HD650 has better resolution in said areas, from memory. This area in particular sounds more compressed than the HD600 and HD650. I have not heard the HD660S. I think this is due to higher THD in this area. This is not just me seeing the graphs and then suddenly "hearing it". I did not post THD graphs initially because my MiniDSP EARS has been acting up in terms of the distortion graphs so it's not entirely consistent with my older THD measurements. I will explain a little bit below after the two plots:

Edit: To read these THD measurements, it's generally good until it reaches the "1" value on the vertical axis or "1%". Distortion rising up near 0.5% can be problematic and noticeable. Distortion below ~100 Hz can disregarded because humming from the room and other background noise can contribute to the higher levels in that region. Since I don't have an acoustic chamber, that part isn't all too accurate.


Measured in percentage. Distortion below ~100 Hz can be disregarded because I don't have an acoustic chamber so my little "closet chamber thing" isn't sealing any hums or background noise in that region. I have made sure to eliminate any sorts of variables and kept it as consistent as possible.

To explain my MiniDSP EARS acting up, I mean it's been consistently measuring a higher distortion bump from about 1.5 kHz to about 3 kHz one day and just a tad higher (~0.1% higher) from everything down for every headphone as of late. I'm not sure why and I have yet to contact MiniDSP 'cause I'm lazy.

Because of that, here's a distortion plot of my HE-6 for comparison (don't have any Sennheisers on hand):


To repeat: Measured in percentage. Distortion below ~100 Hz can be disregarded because I don't have an acoustic chamber so my little "closet chamber thing" isn't sealing any hums or background noise in that region. I have made sure to eliminate any sorts of variables and kept it as consistent as possible.

I guess it doesn't look like much of a difference here, but in consideration that the HE-6 does have very low distortion all across on others' THD measurements, one can translate how the Aiva compares from there. In this case, the Aiva has a fair bit of distortion in this region. That's just one explanation I can offer for the "compression" I am hearing with the Aiva in the midrange/upper midrange area.

To emphasize, this is not absolute and/or gospel, but rather just what I think.

Thanks for the information bro. Here is my attitude towards distortion. If we listen to live concerts there are basically two parts of distortion, source distortion and ear distortion, one from instruments, one from human ears. In terms of listening to produced records through headphones and speakers, there are some many more things, source distortion, recording distortion, reproduce distortion( related to streamer, dac, amp), acoustic distortion(distortion correction, related to headphones design), then ear distortion(vary from person to person, machine to machine, application to application), and that's one reason why music records are usually produced by a group of people instead of one instead of one individual until the programming days come.
Those graphs definitely helps to reveal the nature of that headphones, but it can not replace the actual impressions. There are so many different factors in between that are not measurable, or different from one setup to another. There was an discussion between Jude and Innerfidelity on Z1R, both of them had completely different FR and distortion graphs on the same model headphones.I have to say, both of them are different from what I actually heard Z1R. Also, my experience with 3 different pairs of Z1R were completely different when using different sources.
Another fact is that flatter distortion curve does not represent higher quality. If I didn't remember wrong, hd600 and hd650 have flatter distortion curve than hd800 and T1, but the resolutions and listening impressions are nowhere close.
One thing I do think that Aiva could do better is that it should be more friendly to different sources and amps. These headphones have undeniably better performance on my B2+HA300 system than entry level dynamics. On the lower-end setup, in my case Topping D30+ Atom, Aiva is still better than hd600 and hd660, the relaxing yet fun tonality is still more appealing than classic flat, slightly warm Sennheiser's tuning to me, but the differences are not that significant, and here is where the preference play a larger role, and that might be why our opinions are so different.
But at $599 price range, I doubt the majority buyers would love to to spend $7000+ for dac and amp, and this fact puts Aiva in an embarrassing situation.

 

[Feilong4]

Thanks for the information bro. Here is my attitude towards distortion. If we listen to live concerts there are basically two parts of distortion, source distortion and ear distortion, one from instruments, one from human ears. In terms of listening to produced records through headphones and speakers, there are some many more things, source distortion, recording distortion, reproduce distortion( related to streamer, dac, amp), acoustic distortion(distortion correction, related to headphones design), then ear distortion(vary from person to person, machine to machine, application to application), and that's one reason why music records are usually produced by a group of people instead of one instead of one individual until the programming days come.
Those graphs definitely helps to reveal the nature of that headphones, but it can not replace the actual impressions. There are so many different factors in between that are not measurable, or different from one setup to another. There was an discussion between Jude and Innerfidelity on Z1R, both of them had completely different FR and distortion graphs on the same model headphones.I have to say, both of them are different from what I actually heard Z1R. Also, my experience with 3 different pairs of Z1R were completely different when using different sources.
Another fact is that flatter distortion curve does not represent higher quality. If I didn't remember wrong, hd600 and hd650 have flatter distortion curve than hd800 and T1, but the resolutions and listening impressions are nowhere close.
One thing I do think that Aiva could do better is that it should be more friendly to different sources and amps. These headphones have undeniably better performance on my B2+HA300 system than entry level dynamics. On the lower-end setup, in my case Topping D30+ Atom, Aiva is still better than hd600 and hd660, the relaxing yet fun tonality is still more appealing than classic flat, slightly warm Sennheiser's tuning to me, but the differences are not that significant, and here is where the preference play a larger role, and that might be why our opinions are so different.
But at $599 price range, I doubt the majority buyers would love to to spend $7000+ for dac and amp, and this fact puts Aiva in an embarrassing situation.

Yes, and in my previous posts, I was strictly only concerned with the performance of the headphones. Even if the Aiva did not have a somewhat high THD in the upper midrange, I would still subjectively not like them very much due to its tuning.

Of course there are other factors to consider other than just FR and THD, but the two do play a part in helping us judge a headphone's objective performance. I think that this in particular is important because this hobby comes with a lot of subjectivity and people's experiences and tastes vary. Hell, Tyll liked the Sonoma system even though the THD on those things are very high - that doesn't ultimately mean that they're "bad" per se. However without some sort of objective data, we'd be relying on others' past experiences, preferences, and/or even just how they were feeling that day when they wrote a particular post.

Although I did not have the Aiva and many other headphones to compare at the same time, I think some other offerings are better such as the HD600, HD650, etc in terms of performance/sound quality. However if I so happen to come across both at the same time and decide otherwise, then I will have to eat my words. ..Having said that though, I really did not like the midrange/upper midrange of the Aiva.. Doesn't mean that someone else won't.

 

[stimuz]

I dunno, I'm not about to cancel my order. My taste in headphones differs a lot from most reviewers. I've only got hd 650, m1060c and he560 currently but I'm thinking of ditching my 650 too since it serves no purpose to me and the music I listen to and I have a preference of the m1060c over the he560 for everything but wanting spatial awareness and a very comfy headphone on my head. I'm 100% onboard the planar train though, so always searching for new ones.

 

[Bonddam]

I find them extremely good for electronic music. They don’t have the bass my Aeolus have but it’s good enough. I do have bass eq on my amp which helps. Eventually I’ll try different genre of music and maybe I won’t like it.

 

[gken92]

After owning Aiva for almost a week, I can safely say that they are one of my fav cans under usd1k. The detail retrieval, transparency and resolution are the biggest selling points for Aiva. Loaned the unit to my friend who owns Stax L300LE + SRM 353x combo and he was equally as impressed.

However, I must advice future potential buyers that you should not buy Aiva if you are planning to use Aiva as your only pair of headphones. They are not what I would consider to be jack of all trades. If you are looking for a pair of romantic sounding headphones which you can use while slouching in your red leather sofa while sipping a glass of red wine with your pinky raised, listening to poorly recorded vinyl albums, these are not it. They are quite aggressive in shoving the details onto your ears.

The cons: not so much subbass (in comparison to other planars), mids a bit uneven (not as bad as what the frequency graphs are portraying, imo), soundstage not much larger than say..HD660S. You can still 'fix' the wonky mids to a certain degree though through EQ without too much resolution loss.

If you have a 'warm' sounding pair of headphones like the Audeze LCD2C or the ZMF Aeolus, Aiva will be a great compliment.

Aiva performs great with instrumental songs, classical songs, movie soundtracks. Can handle modern songs quite good too.

 

[Bern2]

After owning Aiva for almost a week, I can safely say that they are one of my fav cans under usd1k.


The cons: not so much subbass (in comparison to other planars), mids a bit uneven (not as bad as what the frequency graphs are portraying, imo), soundstage not much larger than say..HD660S. You can still 'fix' the wonky mids to a certain degree though through EQ without too much resolution loss.

If you have a 'warm' sounding pair of headphones like the Audeze LCD2C or the ZMF Aeolus, Aiva will be a great compliment.

.

Can these handle a decent amount of EQ in the sub bass region?
Bern