Sivga Robin SV021 Review: A $149 Closed-Back, Messy Mids

Pick #2 of 4 in our Best Budget Headphones guide.

This can't compete in the objective sound quality aspects compared to other options on the market. But things it is good at, and our subjective preferences, can easily outweigh the measurement downsides. Meet the Sivga Robin SV021 - a $150 dynamic driver, closed-back, over-ear headphone.

Is It Comfortable? Wood Cups, Feather Clamp

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It's built like a masterpiece for this price point. There are 2 color variants available - black and brown. I picked the light brown one, as it looks more natural and fun. Both versions feature real wood earcups, that are polished for an extra shiny look. There's a Sivga logo engraved in them, but it's not super catchy - they rather went for a stealth type of branding, which is great.

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The yokes are made out of metal, feel sturdy, and offer size adjustment that feels also very high quality. In addition to that, there's cup tilt, but no swivel. I can confidently say that it's not going to be an issue, as the ear pads make up for it perfectly. They're extremely soft and adapt to any ear shape perfectly. They're medium-small sized, which means that your ear is probably going to touch them in one place or another, but that's not an issue at all.

The synthetic leather is also superb in terms of comfort. It can get a little warm inside on a hot day when you spend multiple hours with these, nothing crazy though. The headband is also covered in the same leather material, with some foam on the bottom side that touches your head. This makes the profile lower, and still provides sufficient padding, as the headphone itself is super lightweight, coming at 275 grams. Moreover, the clamping force is very light - it doesn't add any unnecessary pressure.

Then we have the connectors. They're dual 2.5mm, which allows for a balanced connection with an aftermarket cable but is not as common or durable as 3.5mm. I didn't find that to be a problem, and they probably couldn't fit 3.5mm jacks in there, so we're left with something more compact. It's likely not going to be an issue for you as well, as they're including a matching cable.

Summing up this part, it's built in a way that provides very good comfort, looks, and material choices. Nothing rattles here, nothing feels like it's about to break down.

Accessories: A Stock Cable Worth Keeping

I usually don't dedicate an entire part to talk about the extras we're getting in a box, but I'll make an exception this time, as they're really up there.

First of all, we're getting a super nice linen pouch that can fit the headphone, a cable, and some DAC/amp dongle with no issues. I used it extensively during my vacation trip, and it stood the test perfectly. Then we're getting a 3.5mm to 1/4-inch jack adapter that can fit the included cable.

The cable we're getting in the box is fantastic. That's why I previously mentioned that it probably will be enough for you, with no need to further upgrade - unless you want a balanced connection, or for some reason something even more fancy. It comes color-matched to your headphones, with a high-quality material braiding over it. It's single-ended terminated with 3.5mm on the amplifier end, and dual 2.5mm on the headphone end.

The connectors used here are amazing - fully metal, with a nice texture that helps greatly with the grip, and spring-style strain relief. The plugs fit extremely tightly and snugly. You might initially think that something is wrong, but they simply require more force to push in than you're expecting, which decreases the contact resistance and makes sure that they stay in place. The entire cable is pretty much non-microphonic, which is another reason not to replace it.

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Technologies: Sivga's In-House 50mm Driver

It uses a 50mm dynamic driver, developed in-house by Sivga, for smooth sound and enduring listening. The diaphragm is ultra-thin and flexible, made of polycarbonate and fiber. This material combination is supposed to result in a lush and natural sound when the music is playing. The magnet used for driving it is 3 millimeters thick, to provide strong power to the driver. They even disclose the coil material - it's made of special copper-clad aluminum wire, for high sensitivity and softness in the sound.

Does It Need an Amp? Impossible to Underpower

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The frequency response is specified to range from 20Hz to 20kHz, which covers the entire human hearing range. Its sensitivity is very, very high at 105dB. The impedance is rather low for a dynamic driver, coming at 32 ohms - the impedance is surprisingly flat. This combination makes driving it not a problem, no matter what gear you'd like to use. I tried it with high-power desktop amplifiers, low-power dongles, delta-sigma and R2R DACs, and even my MacBook. What I found is that it sounds good with pretty much everything - it's virtually impossible to underpower it. However, I prefer it with a bit of bright-leaning sources to bring up the top end just a bit and get a better balance.

How Does It Sound? Fun, Uneven, Bass-Heavy

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Initially, its tonality may come off as very uneven, and to some extent it is. There's a big boost in the mid-bass region that doesn't extend to the sub-bass. Then we have a large dip in the midrange at 500Hz, and a slight boost in the treble. This makes for a very exciting and fun presentation at first, but has some downsides as well.

In budget headphones, especially closed-back ones, the bass is done in one of two ways. It can be either very light and not impactful, or bloated. Here it leans definitely on the more bloated end, which means that there's a lot of it. This headphone's bass isn't full, but it's full of bass. It's also not incredibly resolving in terms of the finest detail - it's not pushing them forcefully at you, and in terms of source gear, it's not going to reveal lots of issues with your chain.

All that contributes to the vocal performance. They often sound generally empty and hollow, probably due to the dip in the lower midrange. It also tends to make them a bit echoey, making their presentation quite unique. At higher volumes, you can expect some shoutiness, which can be distracting - but since it's a closed-back with decent sound isolation, there are very few situations where you have to turn up the volume a lot.

The vocal performance can be described as very intimate. They play inside your head, in the very center. The soundstage isn't particularly wide. I found that it likes to put things behind my ears. That's especially noticeable when the sound source is panned hard left or right. On the other hand, the instruments sound much wider than the vocals. Not wide in general, but wider. It's a pleasant effect, often desirable with headphones, as it is literally a combination of being intimate and wider at the same time, and for the right sounds.

The instrumental performance is good. Their timbre isn't bad, despite the crazy uneven measured frequency response. I'm not sure how they achieved that, but I'm suspecting that it comes from their treble response. String instruments and drums tend to pop more from the mix for some reason, just as if they were being played louder than the rest.

For the technical performance, it's generally not impressive and doesn't stand out much from the crowd, but I liked one thing in particular about it - the decay. It's very long and satisfying, making percussion, violins, cellos, and large-scale music oddly satisfying.

Comparisons: Robin vs. HE-R9 and HE400se

Let's take its 2 closest competitors in this price range.

The first one is the closed-back HE-R9 from HIFIMAN. Compared to the Sivga Robin, it's slightly less sensitive, but still very easy to drive. When I was going back and forth, I just had to bring up the volume slightly on the HE-R9. Then, its sound isolation is not nearly as good as the Sivga. On the other hand, its midrange was much fuller, less empty, and echoey. There was not nearly as much mid-bass, but a bit better low-end extension. The soundstage is definitely more intimate on the Sivga, which can be nice for a super close, in-your-face vocal performance. The HE-R9's top-end extension is not as good though - it lacks some energy there, which makes it come off as a bit dull at times.

Now, a bit of a different competitor - HIFIMAN's HE400se is a cheaper headphone, but it's an open-back planar. It requires much, much more amplification. Without it, you're even likely not to get it loud enough. The quality of the power also needs to be good - otherwise you'll be left with mediocre bass, a claustrophobic soundstage, and poor imaging. But once you get it, you can live with an open back, meaning you're fine with using your headphones mostly inside, you can expect some interesting sound characteristics. For example, its tonality is significantly more balanced from the bass to the treble. It offers a not-as-claustrophobic soundstage, but still small, yet even better vocals and some layering. On the other hand, it's pretty bass-light.

So, as you can see, you have lots of different options for headphones at this price point. We're barely scratching the surface. The Sivga Robin provides a unique presentation, and if it's not your only headphone, you might have lots of fun with it - in part because of its unbalanced frequency response.