In this article, I review the SIVGA SV021 Pro V2. These headphones feature natural zebrawood earcups and a 50 mm five-layer composite diaphragm aluminium driver. At the time of writing, the SV021 Pro V2 is priced at $197 USD.
Disclaimer: This sample was provided by SIVGA for an honest review. All observations and opinions here are my own, based on my experience with the product.
SIVGA SV021 Pro V2
Check out the SIVGA SV021 Pro V2, pretty stunning as SIVGA products always are. They are very well known for using these wooden ear cups. This is, of course, a closed-back headphone and they’re coming in at a price of just under $200—so $197 is what I’m seeing currently on their website. I do believe you might be able to get them lower, maybe on places like AliExpress, definitely during the sales.
Now, the driver inside of here is a 50 mm dynamic driver. So although the ear cups aren’t all that large, it’s a pretty big driver. Let’s have a look at the build. It is one of their more simplistic designs, which makes sense as it’s one of their cheaper earphones. I know $200 bucks for some might not sound cheap at all, but yeah, you can see they’ve cut some corners on the build quality just to keep that price down, probably most notably in the cable. It’s one of those generic fabric-sheathed cables that does have a little bit of microphonics, but it handles quite well.
I don’t have any real complaints, but yeah, I’m never really a fan of these types of sheaths or coatings, especially when they are slightly on the stiffer side like these ones, because they are the ones that tend to be more microphonic. Sitting at my desktop I never really notice it; it’s only when the music’s off and I’m fiddling with it I can hear a little bit of audio transmitting through that cable. I’ll tell you one thing though, it does feel very robust and I’m sure it would take a beating and still come out smiling on the other side.
Anyway, let me come back to the headphones. The ear cups do not rotate; they do pivot a little bit, but they don’t swivel. We’ve got these nice hybrid ear pads. I like this kind of ear pad—they’re closed on the outside, protein leather (faux leather) of course, and on the front we’ve got this smooth velvety fabric. That just keeps your ears a bit cooler, makes them very comfortable, and the faux leather doesn’t stick to your face. There is some nice generous padding on the underside, nice and smooth again, similar material to what’s on the ear pads.
As far as the yokes go, just pretty standard like that. There is a decent range of movement adjustment, so even if you’ve got a really large melon you should be fine with these, and the clamping force is pretty light so they’re very comfortable. At no time did they feel insecure on my head, like they never felt as though they were going to fall off. There is plenty of room inside the ear cups, even for my large ears, and you can see the protein leather on the inside of the ear cups is actually perforated to keep your ears cool, so that’s a nice touch. Overall, super lightweight, super comfortable, and just a pretty simplistic design.
On the underside, we’ve got our standard connectors which are just standard 2.5 mm, so it is easy to swap out that cable if you wish. Also, the termination on the cable is just a 3.5 mm. It’s a little bit unusual nowadays not to get a balanced option, but these are so efficient you don’t really need a balanced cable or termination. Having said that, if you really want one, it’s easy enough to swap this out for another one.
Sound
Right, let’s get down to the good stuff, which is how these sound. If you have heard SIVGA headphones in the past, you probably won’t be particularly surprised by how these sound in terms of sound signature, and that is a good thing, but at the same time it’s kind of a bad thing.
Well, let me explain the sound signature of the SIVGA SV021 Pro V2 first. It is kind of mids-forward, but at the same time fairly balanced. You do have a reasonable amount of bass—it’s not a bass-light headphone, but it’s certainly not a really super bold or punchy or upfront bass either. The same thing goes for the treble as well; it’s just a very safe treble tuning. It’s not too forward, it doesn’t sound bright or anything, and of course, the focus as always with SIVGA products is on the mid-range.
That’s great—a lot of people love their mid-forward sound signatures. I just wish though that occasionally SIVGA would be a little more adventurous in terms of the bass and/or the treble. They’re always just playing it so safe with this mid-centric tuning and a lot of their headphones sound pretty much the same, just with slightly different levels of resolution and detail. I would personally like to occasionally see a more V-shaped sound signature, or something with a bit more bass, or something with a bit more elevated treble.
Anyway, let’s come back to this model and back to the bass in particular. It’s nice and clean, it does have some pretty good mid-bass punch, and the sub-bass is also reasonable as well. Again, it’s just very balanced in relation to the mid-range and the treble, so there’s not a lot to say about the bass except that it’s not bloated and doesn’t get smeary or blurry. It’s a well-controlled bass, but not the most exciting; it’s not the most textured, yet at the same time it’s not woolly and blunted either. So that pretty much covers the bass.
In the mids where these focus on, you get what you expect from a SIVGA headphone: very silky smooth mid-range, good clarity, and a reasonable amount of body. They don’t sound anemic in any way, and at the same time, they don’t sound overly thick. So it’s a reasonably neutral mid-range tuning. Male and female vocals sound both articulate and silky at the same time. One thing that I will say about this SIVGA SV021 Pro V2 is that, unlike some of the headphones from this brand, the upper mid-range is actually quite tame. It is not elevated as much as this brand tends to do, which is something that I like because it means that the upper mid-range doesn’t get shouty even when you’re listening to belting female vocals; it stays relatively smooth. When it comes to the timbre of vocals and instruments in the mid-range, things sound nice, natural, and lifelike, so there are no issues there, no weird compression going on.
As far as the treble goes, as I mentioned earlier, very safe treble tuning. It kind of takes somewhat of a backseat to the mids because the whole object of these headphones is to let the mid-range shine, so it’s not a particularly forward or energetic treble. That is both good and bad. On the good side, it’s non-fatiguing, so you can listen to these all day long pretty much and you won’t get treble fatigue. The downside, however, is the detail retrieval is pretty average; these don’t pick up micro-details all that well. In addition to that, while the soundstage does have nicely rounded proportions, it’s not particularly large—which is typical of a closed-back headphone, but secondly, that’s what you expect when you have a laid-back treble like these do.
I did say at the beginning of the video that I would discuss how these compare to the V1, but I don’t think that’s really necessary because they pulled the V1 off the shelves as soon as they started getting feedback that people said the upper mids were a bit too shouty, so I’m just going to leave it at that.
Instead, I’m going to compare these with the FiiO FT1 (not the FT1 Pro, just the FT1), which is FiiO’s closed-back headphones coming in a little bit cheaper than these. The main difference with the FT1 is it is a lot more sculpted in terms of sound signature, especially in the bass.
It has a really forward, funky, and bold bass which has a lot of power, a lot of authority, and some amazing sub-bass rumble. It’s really fun to listen to, which of course means the mid-range on the FT1 isn’t as forward as it is on the SIVGA.
The mid-range on the FT1 is slightly more recessed, meaning it is slightly more V-shaped in tuning, and trust me that is not a bad thing at all because it lets that bass come forward and be nice and powerful without having to compete as much with the mids, and you don’t risk getting those bloated or blurred-out mids as well. It also allows the treble to come forward, so you get a bit more energy up top. I kind of prefer the FT1, especially for certain music genres and for gaming, but for acoustic music or vocal-centric music, these are probably better. They do sound more balanced and a bit more mature in their tuning, but they’re just not as fun. That’s the thing I have with so many SIVGA headphones—they’re just not fun enough; they always play it too safe with that mid-range focus. I’m not trying to sound negative, I’m just putting it all out there.
Verdict
Anyway, let me summarize. For the price of $197, the SIVGA SV021 Pro V2 do have a lot of really great competition, like the FiiO FT1, the FiiO FT1 Pro (which is a planar magnetic open-back headphone), the Beyerdynamic DT series, and it’s also edging up towards Sennheiser HD series prices too. But one thing that I can say with absolute certainty is these headphones are beautiful, super comfortable, and if you’re into acoustic and vocal-forward music, these are going to be a great match for you. I don’t have any major complaints with them, and I think I could easily say I give them my recommendation.