Sendy Audio Apollo Headphones – Godlike Delight

Sendy Audio Apollo Headphones – Godlike Delight

Sendy Audio Apollo is a 500 USD headphone based on the QUAD-Former technology, basically a Planar magnetic driver with double magnets + double sided coils and double sides of coils. This means that it gets to be compared with Adam Audio Studio PRO SP-5 Headphones (550 USD), iBasso SR-2 Open Back Headphones (500 USD), Sennheiser HD660S (500 USD), Dan Clark Aeon Flow RT (500 USD) and Avantone Pro Planar Headphones (450 USD)

 

Introduction

Sendy Audio is a company that’s the high-end sister of Sivga, and the company keeps most of their entry-level headphones under the Sivga name, while most of their better, high-end offers are branded under the Sendy Audio moniker. The company makes excellent work with headphones, and they generally offer high price / performance ratio, and they offer a good warranty for their products. I am yet to hear about anyone who had any problem with a Sendy Audio or Sivga product, so their record is squeaky clean. 

It should be noted that I have absolutely no affiliation with Sendy Audio, I am not receiving any incentive for this review or to sweeten things out. I’d like to thank Sendy Audio for providing the sample for this review. Every opinion expressed is mine and I stand by it. The purpose of this review is to help those interested in Sendy Audio Apollo find their next music companion. 

 

Product Link

You can grab one from www.amazon.com here: https://amzn.to/3oYi1Bb

If you’re in the UK, you can grab one from www.amazon.co.uk here: https://amzn.to/3rYiXrc

And if you’re from Europe, you can grab one from www.amazon.de here: https://amzn.to/3LMg3xC

 

Packaging

First things first, let’s get the packaging out of the way:

The package of the Sendy Audio Apollo is similar to that of the Sendy Audio Peacock, the Apollo also coming in a cardboard package, and with a really nice leather carrying case. The headphones come with a  high-end balanced cable that’s ended in a 4.4mm connector, and also come with a 4.4mm to 3.5mm adapter. I am happy to report that the package is awesome for their 500 USD price point. There’s a hemp carrying bag inside the package, to hold the cable and its adapter. 

 

Build Quality/Aesthetics/Fit/Comfort

The technology inside of Sendy Audio Apollo is interesting, as they come with a huge planar magnetic driver, 68mm in side. It also has that QUAD-Former technology that has double everything, double magnets, double sides of coils on the diaphragm, and double coils on each side of the diaphragm. We will find out in the sonic impressions if this means double the quality compared to competition, and what it sounds like. 

The company spent 3 years experimenting with the technology and perfecting it until they constructed Apollo to finally launch. The design is named Apollo as the outer cups are made of a sunlight pattern and mesh, and have glossy rosewood wood in the construction as well. The design is not random, and the headphones have the whole design arranged around sounding as good as possible. 

We have a goatskin leather headband that is extremely soft, and in fact Apollo is slightly more comfortable than even Peacock, and much more comfortable than Sennheiser HD660S. The earpads are extremely thick and extremely large, making Apollo the most comfortable headphone you can grab in the sub 1000 USD price range. The earpads have a really unique design, where they look like a bowl, basically creating a very targeted acoustic chamber for your ears, and they have L and R markings on the headphones, and the cups. Earpads are replaceable, and the whole headphone is serviceable, in case you break something. 

The earcups swivel in every direction, having the same adjusting mechanism as Sivga Peacock, and being able to adjust to any head size and shape. It is good to see that the company learned, and after SV021, which some found not to adjust enough, the Apollo will easily fit any head size and shape. What’s even better, the earpads are so thick and soft that there’s no one who won’t have an excellent comfort with them. The headphones are light, at 395 grams, and given the headband design and the earpads design, both being smooth, thick and soft, you will not feel Apollo on your head, regardless of what you’re doing. The clamping force is medium too, so they do not have any hotspots or wear discomfort regardless of how long you’re wearing them for. 

The balanced cable included in the package is a 6N OCC cable, and it tends to transmit minor amounts of noise if you’re walking with the headphones on your head, but you won’t hear it if you’re sitting at your desk. With a 95dB of Sensitivity, and a 16 OHM impedance, Apollo is fairly hard to drive and you’re likely to be sitting at your desk while using them, unless you’ll be using a high-end DAP like iBasso DX220, iBasso DX240, Astell & Kern SP2000T, and Lotoo PAW6000. For a comfortable listening level I hover around 100 / 150 on high gain with Astell & Kern SE180. 

The Sendy Audio Apollo has low leakage levels, but they do leak, being fully open back. You can listen at quiet and medium levels without bothering anyone, but high listening levels will be audible to those around you. Passive noise isolation is low, but at medium listening levels, the music drowns out the sound of my keyboard and computer fans. 

 

Sound Quality

The sound of Apollo is super relaxed, soft, generally linear natural, slightly thick, warm and musical, with excellent staging and dynamics, and a really natural tonality in the midrange. I have been using mostly Astell & Kern SE180 and Cyrus One Cast for driving Apollo, and it has been providing a really clean, and engaging sound. Apollo sounds excellent at all listening volumes; they are more natural and balanced at quieter volumes, and become more mid centric and forward, also more punchy and impactful at higher listening volumes. 

Starting with the bass of Apollo, it is pretty warm, and has a natural towards slightly slow note decay that will help a lot with the bass sounding natural. Apollo is clean and fatigue-free, having a smooth texture for the bass, mids and treble, and they have a really good bass extension, as low as 20 Hz. The impact of their bass is soft, and rather than a strong hit like Sendy Audio Peacock provides, Apollo is soft, relaxing and nuanced, but won’t vibrate on your head, rather leaving the bass to be nuanced. You could call it a very linear bass, like what Etymotic tends to provide with their IEMs, and it would work great for mixing and mastering, but it won’t be ideal for EDM, and Electronic music, rather working best with Rock, Metal, Emo, Post Hardcore, Classical, Jazz, and Easy Listening music. The bass is slightly recessed behind the midrange, which is the central element of Apollo’s sound. 

Now that we reached the midrange, I am coming to the conclusion that Sendy Audio follows a house sound where they bring the midrange as the central element of their sound. The mids of Apollo are higher in amount than their bass and treble, but Apollo has the most beautified, musical smooth and enjoyable midrange I found in the ~500 USD price range. Both male and female voices are extremely smooth, slightly thick, and buttery in texture. This also applies to guitars, and it feels like when Sendy Audio designed Apollo had a Rosson RAD-0 on their table, and tried to take all of the positive elements on RAD-0‘s sound and apply those to a midrange centric headphone. The soundstage of Apollo is wide and holographic, but has a natural depth. Even screamo music, and harsh music sounds like pure heaven on Apollo, and it is the kind of headphone I would recommend for anyone who finds everything fatiguing, or for someone who really wants to hear what ultimate musicality sounds like. Piano notes are etched and have no harshness, nor sibilance or strong edges, Apollo being great and smoothing out harsh edges in music. 

The treble of Apollo follows the same principle and they have one of the cleanest, smoothest and most fluid trebles I have heard in a headphone ever. At first, I thought they had a roll-off, but the treble extends naturally up to the highest octaves, just being extremely smooth and clean, and helping give Apollo excitement, despite their linear and smooth sound. The sound is perfect to relax to, and rock, metal, pop, jazz music never sounded smoother, more enjoyable and more musical. Voices are always soft and enjoyable, while the treble has an open tuning despite the smooth nature. You can call the sound of Apollo transparent, because it creates the sensation you’re in an open field listening to music sung to you.

Apollo is absolutely perfect for all music styles, as long as you don’t need a high amount of bass. I can totally live with and enjoy their treble, which has good energy and extension, but is smooth and playful, but the lower bass amounts tilt Apollo for being better at playing rock, metal, pop, jazz, downtempo, rather than electronic and EDM or Rap and Dubstep. Bands like Bring Me The Horizon are musical and enjoyable, something which happens rarely, and Katy Perry sounds smooth and has a really pleasing and smooth tonality in her voice, plus Atilla and Chugaboom both sound really enjoyable and fun, with no harshness or listening fatigue even at extreme volumes. Apollo hides mastering errors well, and turns everything to be pleasing regardless of how botched the job was in the original master. The sound generally has excellent details, and clarity for the presentation, but you rarely stop and think about the technical aspect, when you hear sounds so beautiful and music played so well. 

 

Comparisons 

Sendy Audio Apollo vs Dan Clark Aeon Flow (500 USD vs 500 USD) – Those two headphones are quite different, despite both having planar magnetic drivers, Aeon Flow being a closed back headphone, and Apollo being open back. The cable quality is slightly better on Apollo, and they come with a balanced cable and adapter. The comfort is better on Apollo, which has thicker, softer, deeper earpads, and a softer headband, with less clamping force. Both headphones are similarly hard to drive, and are total opposites in terms of signature, Aeon Flor RT having a recessed midrange, and a strong sub-bass, and treble, especially upper treble, with a sharp and technical sound, tons of details and less focus on the midrange. Apollo is exactly the other way around, having most of the focus on the midrange, a smooth, relaxed and musical sound with less focus on technicalities and a softer presentation. 

Sendy Audio Apollo vs iBasso SR-2 (500 USD vs 500 USD) – We have two very similar headphones here, with both SR-2 and Apollo following similar levels of comfort, similar sonic signatures, similar price points, and similar construction quality as well. The biggest differences are in the ear pad depth, where SR-2 has more shallow earpads, and harder earpads, and Apollo has softer, and deeper earpads. The overall sound is really similar, both being relaxed, natural, transparent and smooth. Both have similar levels of details, and both are mid-centric, with iBasso being slightly colder in tonality, and Apollo slightly warmer, and SR-2 having slightly more bass, and Apollo having a more smooth texture in the midrange. 

Sendy Audio Apollo vs Sennheiser HD660S (500 USD vs 500 USD) – The construction quality and comfort of Apollo is on another level, or rather another planet, compared to HD660S, which is a fairly uncomfortable headphone with a ton of camping force and hard headband, hard earpads. The sound is far more natural on Apollo, and they are easier to drive properly. HD660S sounds more detailed and more technical, has more overall forwardness and impact, Apollo being much smoother, more relaxed, softer, more musical and easier to enjoy with a wider selection of music. HD660S has similar amounts of bass compared to Apollo, but Apollo generally sounds more transparent and has a slower note decay that makes them less harsh and less sharp than HD660S. 

Sendy Audio Apollo vs Avantone Pro Planar (500 USD vs 450 USD) – The comfort is actually comparable here, but the shape and aesthetics of Pro Planar are quite industrial and insider-like, where APollo looks great for anyone, regardless of their attire and costume plan. Pro Planar has more bass, more thickness, and more depth to their sound, whereas Apollo is wider, has a more natural midrange, a more open treble, with more transparency. Apollo is more relaxed, lighter and softer. The dynamics are similar between them, but Apollo is harder to drive properly and scales more with the source. 

Sendy Audio Apollo vs Adam Audio Studio Pro SP-5 (500 USD vs 550 USD) – The comfort and build quality is much better on Sendy Audio Apollo, and they have thicker, softer and larger earpads, larger cups, and a more comfortable headband, with a more even and lighter clamping force. The sound of Apollo is much softer, less bright, less harsh than SP-5. SP-5 sounds much more detailed, but also more harsh and bright, more digital and they reveal both more detail but also more ugly in music, with a wider soundstage, where Apollo is more mid-centric, smoother, more musical, and more relaxed. SP-5 needs a thick, warm and preferably rolled-off source to sound good, while Apollo will pair well with any source. 

 

Value and Conclusion

At the end of today’s review, the value of Apollo is excellent, and at 500 USD, they have excellent build quality, excellent comfort, an excellent cable, and an excellent sonic performance for their price. 

The comfort of Apollo alone places it in Audiophile-Heaven’s Hall Of Fame, and if you’re looking for their natural, open and soft sound, with an extremely smooth and clean presentation, you’re in luck, because they’re the best you can get before you reach 1000 USD as a price point. In fact, Apollo replaces Sivga Audio P-2 in the hall of fame, having a similar sound, but much better comfort, better overall construction quality, and a softer, smoother, more musical sound. 

At the end of today’s written review, Sendy Audio Apollo is an excellent purchase, for both those who love to relax, and those who want to hear beautiful music, it has extremely good performance for the price, and a fully recommended purchase for those who enjoy a mid centric sound with a smooth and relaxed nature. 

 

Product Link

You can grab one from www.amazon.com here: https://amzn.to/3oYi1Bb

If you’re in the UK, you can grab one from www.amazon.co.uk here: https://amzn.to/3rYiXrc

And if you’re from Europe, you can grab one from www.amazon.de here: https://amzn.to/3LMg3xC

 

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Full Playlist used for this review

We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature.  I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5

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