Sendy Audio Egret

Powerful, Polished, Distinctive

The Sendy Audio Egret is the latest open-back planar magnetic headphone from Sendy Audio, the premium flagship brand that sits alongside Sivga within the same product group. If you have read my reviews of the Sivga Luan, the Sivga Robin, or the Sivga Peng, you will be familiar with the shared DNA: the distinctive aesthetic built around natural materials, a strong emphasis on build quality and accessories, and a tuning philosophy that values character and individuality over chasing a single dominant target. The Egret brings all of those qualities to the open-back planar format with an upgraded driver, a new level of tonal refinement, and a price that positions it clearly at the top of what either brand has offered to date.

My first encounter with the Egret was at CanJam London, and even in the notoriously difficult conditions of a busy show floor—a hundred pairs of headphones playing at once, crowds moving through the room—it stood out immediately. The sound was composed and tonally coherent in a way that cut through that environment, and I left genuinely impatient to spend proper time with one.

A month of serious listening later, I can confirm that the CanJam impression was not the show floor playing tricks. This is by far the most neutral and tonally resolved headphone I have heard from either Sendy Audio or Sivga, and it has been a genuine pleasure to live with. I value the diversity of tuning signatures across the two catalogues—it is part of what makes this hobby interesting—but on pure tonality, the Egret is the best I have heard from either brand, and one of the most enjoyable headphones I have spent time with this year.

Unboxing and Packaging

Sendy Audio has long understood that the unboxing experience is part of the product, and the Egret arrives with that philosophy fully intact. The outer packaging is clean and confident, giving little away before you open it.

Inside you are greeted by the carry case—a distinctive curved form with a silhouette that is immediately recognisable to anyone familiar with the Sendy and Sivga ecosystem. The characteristic shape may raise a smile of recognition if you have unboxed one of their headphones before, but it is the details here that genuinely impress. The exterior carries a subtle engraved “Egret” name that reads as quiet confidence rather than branding for branding’s sake, and it is the kind of small touch that signals care at every level of the product.

The interior cradles the headphone securely, and the first view of those North American black walnut earcups set against the case lining is genuinely striking. Accessories arrive in a small cloth bag: inside you will find the triple composite cable and its adapters, a thoughtful touch that keeps everything organised and protected rather than loose in the box. In total, the package includes the Egret headphone, the carry case, the triple composite 4.4 mm balanced cable, and the cloth accessory bag with adapters.

Everything about the packaging communicates that Sendy Audio treats $850 as a number that demands respect. It is a complete, thoughtfully assembled package that compares favourably with anything in the open-back planar market at this price.

Build Quality and Materials

Picking up the Egret for the first time, the material quality is immediately apparent. The earcups are crafted from high-density North American black walnut wood—a choice that is as practical as it is beautiful. Black walnut is prized for its hardness, density, and distinctive grain, and it means no two pairs look exactly alike. Combined with the metal yoke and adjustment mechanism, the overall construction feels substantial and cohesive, with a mixture of wood and metal that sits comfortably at the premium end of what the headphone market offers.

The open-back grill pattern on the rear of each earcup is one of those design decisions that will divide opinion. I happen to like it—the geometric design has a craft aesthetic that suits the walnut finish well—but I can see how someone expecting a more conservative look might find it assertive. In the hand and on the ear it reads as intentional design rather than decoration for its own sake, and it reinforces the sense that the Egret has a distinct visual personality within a market that can feel samey at a glance.

The cable deserves specific mention. Constructed with 30 strands of 0.05 mm Furukawa OFC combined with 10 strands each of silver-plated copper and enamelled gold-plated copper, this is a genuine triple composite hybrid rather than the simple OFC cable that often ships with headphones at this price. It terminates in a 4.4 mm balanced jack as standard—a sensible choice given how common balanced sources have become—and connects to the headphone via dual 3.5 mm sockets. The cable has a premium hand in use and handles well without excessive memory or microphonics.

Fit and Comfort

The earpads are one of the more interesting design decisions on the Egret, and they reward a moment of explanation. The sculpted, angled pad design is shared with the Sivga Peng closed-back, but it behaves very differently on an open-back platform. On a closed-back like the Peng, the angled shape can work against the seal and, on my head at least, that contributed to a sub-bass roll-off. On the open-back Egret, the slight gap that the sculpted profile creates at the back of the cup is not fighting against a sealed enclosure—it works with the open acoustic design and on my head yields a pleasant, natural-sounding bass that complements the driver’s own linear character. This is one of those happy cases where a design element that might be contentious on paper works beautifully in practice.

The pad material is leather on the outer surface with a softer cloth interior where your ear makes contact—a sensible combination for long-session comfort that manages warmth better than full leather earpads. The earcup depth is generous, which helps with ear clearance for listeners with larger ears.

The headband is generously padded and distributes weight across the top of the head with confidence. The adjustment mechanism provides a good range of extension and clicks through its positions firmly.

At 443 grams the Egret is not a featherweight, but it sits well within the normal range for open-back planars of this driver size. Extended listening sessions of two to three hours have been comfortable on my head without the fatigue that the heaviest planars can accumulate over time.

Sound Impressions

Testing was conducted primarily from a desktop balanced source, supplemented by sessions from a portable balanced DAP. The Egret’s 24 Ω impedance and 95 dB sensitivity make it an easy load—it drives acceptably from a capable portable, though it responds clearly to quality amplification. All critical listening was conducted balanced via the included 4.4 mm cable.

Bass

The Egret’s bass is the definition of planar control. Extension reaches cleanly into the sub-bass without any roll-off, but it makes no attempt to flatter the listener with added warmth or bloom. What you hear is a rigorously linear low end: tight, articulate, and texturally detailed, with each note starting and stopping on the driver’s schedule rather than drifting into mid-bass bloom. Kick drums have genuine weight and precise leading edges; bass guitar lines reveal their string texture and harmonic character rather than blurring into a generalised low-frequency warmth.

This is not the tuning for bass-heads. If you reach for the Harman target or prefer your music with a sub-bass shelf, you will want to add three or four dB below 80 Hz—and given the Egret’s minimal distortion (more on which in the measurements section), that EQ is applied with impunity. For listeners who prefer a neutral low end, however, the bass is exactly what a reference planar should sound like. Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly is a useful reference here: the album’s famously precise low end is rendered with taut extension and textural clarity that reveals whether a headphone is editorialising or simply reporting what is on the recording.

Midrange

The midrange is where the Egret distinguishes itself most clearly. There is a slight, natural forwardness in the presence region that gives voices and acoustic instruments a sense of immediacy without tipping into hardness or upper-midrange glare. It reminded me immediately of the Verum 2—another planar with a midrange character that prioritises tonal density and harmonic richness over sheer resolution. Instruments occupy genuine space and carry genuine body; vocals sit at a comfortable, believable distance rather than being pushed to the front of the stage or buried behind it. Note weight is convincing, and the sense of instrumental separation on busy recordings is excellent.

The slight relaxation in the 1–2 kHz region visible on the frequency response contributes to the Egret’s spacious, open-sounding character without hollowing out the midrange. It is a deliberate tuning choice that creates the impression of a larger presentation while preserving tonal density. Dire Straits’ “Brothers in Arms” is a natural test track here: Knopfler’s guitar and voice sit in exactly the right relationship to one another, and the harmonic decay of the instrument resonates with a richness that is hard to find in this price class.

Treble

The treble is, in my view, the Egret’s crowning achievement and the aspect of its tuning that required the most skill to execute. It is extended, refined, and remarkably free of peaks. Cymbal decay trails naturally; transient leading edges have speed without sharpness; and there is a genuine sense of air and shimmer above 10 kHz that opens up recorded acoustic environments without recourse to artificial brightness or upper-harmonic etch. Of all the headphones I have listened to this year, this is the best-controlled treble I have encountered.

I will say plainly that some reviewers will call this treble boring, and they are not entirely wrong about what they are describing. The Egret does not reach for excitement, hyper-detail, or the forward presence that makes some planars sound immediately impressive on a short demo. It prioritises accuracy over entertainment. Listeners conditioned to the brighter tunings common in the planar market—or to a typical Hifiman presentation—may find it sounds measured by comparison, and on a quick listen that impression is understandable. But the extension is there, the resolution is there. What is absent is the coloration. For a more considered listen, queue up Nils Lofgren’s “Keith Don’t Go” and focus on the high-harmonic guitar shimmer and the air around the acoustic body. On the Egret those textures arrive resolved and fully present, completely free of the glassiness or sibilance that lesser drivers introduce at the top of their range.

Soundstage and Imaging

The Egret casts a convincingly wide and three-dimensional soundstage. Width is impressive—comparable in scale to the better Hifiman open-backs, if perhaps not quite matching the absolute extremes of a Hifiman Arya or Edition XS at their widest. Where the Egret earns its standing is in imaging precision. Channel matching on my unit is excellent—as clearly visible in the measurement graphs—and the subtle directional cues that place instruments in three-dimensional space, the micro-detail that tells you a shaker is slightly left of centre and slightly behind the vocalist, are rendered with remarkable fidelity. There is a depth to the presentation that is easy to underestimate until you sit with a complex orchestral or live recording.

Supertramp’s “Crime of the Century” is a useful test: the reverb tails, the wide-panned keyboards, and the orchestral layers at the close of the track map clearly across the Egret’s stage with precise channel placement and convincing front-to-back depth. The imaging is confident and communicates the spatial intention of the recording rather than imposing its own sense of where things should be.

Specifications and Measurements

The 98 × 84 mm planar magnetic driver is large by the standards of the category and features what Sendy Audio describes as an innovative sandwich structure with EB evaporation deposition technology. The claimed benefits—fast transient response, excellent resolution, well-defined layering, and stable frequency response across the diaphragm surface—are supported by what the distortion measurements show. This is a mechanically capable transducer.

Frequency Response

The annotated frequency response tells the tuning story with admirable clarity. Annotation 1 marks the linear bass region: no shelf boost, no roll-off, a ruler-flat extension that sets the honest, neutral character of the low end. Annotation 2 highlights the deliberate relaxation in the 1–2 kHz region—the tuning choice responsible for the Egret’s sense of openness and soundstage width. Annotation 3 marks the compensating presence lift that accompanies that relaxation, the careful counterbalance that prevents the midrange from sounding hollow or distant while preserving the spacious character. Annotation 4 marks the controlled treble tuning that I have praised at length in the sound impressions section.

Against a neutral reference target the alignment is excellent. Channel matching is also visible in these overlays and is among the best I have seen at any price—the two channels track one another with a precision that translates directly into the confident, precise imaging described in the listening impressions. This degree of unit consistency matters for soundstage coherence and should not be taken for granted.

Plotted against the Diffuse Field target the picture is equally clear. Annotation 1 marks the bass region: the Egret tracks the DF target’s linear bass rather than providing the elevated sub-bass shelf that Harman-tuned headphones deliver. This will read as neutral to neutral-preference listeners and as lean to bass-first listeners—both interpretations are correct, and knowing which camp you occupy will tell you a great deal about whether this headphone is for you. Annotation 2 marks the relaxed treble region—the same controlled extension described in the listening impressions reads here as a modest reduction relative to the DF target above 6 kHz, and it is precisely this choice that eliminates sibilance and listening fatigue across long sessions.

Comparisons

Against the Hifiman Ananda Nano, the Egret presents a notably warmer, more midrange-forward character. The Ananda Nano has the sharper treble energy and slightly leaner midrange that is typical of Hifiman’s house sound, and the two headphones represent genuinely different listening philosophies. Listeners who find the Hifiman presentation natural and engaging will likely find the Egret calmer than they are used to; listeners who find Hifiman brightness fatiguing over long sessions will find the Egret a considerable relief.

Against the HEDD Audio HEDDphone D1, the Egret’s planar driver competes admirably. The HEDD’s air motion transformer tweeter delivers treble transients with an ultra-fine leading edge character that is distinctive, and the two headphones reward direct comparison of their differing approaches to the top octaves. Below that, the Egret’s midrange tonal density is competitive and its bass control is excellent. The HEDD is notably lighter at 345 grams, which matters if you are sensitive to long-session weight.

Against the Verum Audio Verum 2, the midrange character is the most immediate similarity—both headphones share that slight forward presence and tonal density that makes voices and acoustic instruments feel present and real. The Verum 2 is considerably less expensive, and for budget-conscious listeners it remains remarkable value. The Egret’s advantages are in construction quality, treble refinement, overall coherence, and the complete ownership package.

The FiiO FT7 represents a contrast from a different tuning school—the FiiO house sound leans brighter and more energetic, and at 448 grams it is almost identical in weight to the Egret. Listeners who enjoy the FT7’s forward treble will find the Egret more subdued; listeners who want the FT7’s detail retrieval without its bite will find the Egret’s top end considerably more liveable for extended sessions.

The Aune SR7000—a closed-back, for reference—shares the Egret’s commitment to tonal neutrality but presents a more intimate soundstage, as you would expect from a sealed design. The Egret wins clearly on spaciousness and open-back air, and the two sit in distinct use-case categories despite their tonal similarities.

The Fosi Audio i5, the heaviest headphone in this comparison at 532 grams, occupies a different price point. The Egret’s advantages in treble refinement and midrange density are audible and meaningful at the price delta.

Consistency and Seal

The raw multi-measurement overlay demonstrates good driver consistency across repositions. The effect of glasses breaking the seal is visible as expected in the sub-bass region, but it is modest rather than dramatic. The Egret’s large earcup opening means glasses wearers should experience minimal issues in practice compared with tighter-fitting designs.

Weight in Context

The weight comparison table contextualises the Egret’s 443 grams within the competitive landscape. The HEDD Audio D1 at 345 grams and Hifiman HE600 at 400 grams are meaningfully lighter; the FiiO FT7 at 448 grams and Hifiman Edition XV at 461 grams sit just above the Egret; and the Fosi Audio i5 at 532 grams is substantially heavier. The Egret’s weight is well managed by its padding and headband design, and sits comfortably within the normal range for a driver of its size.

Distortion

The distortion measurements confirm what the driver technology implies: this is a high-quality planar that measures cleanly at listening levels. Harmonic distortion remains minimal across the frequency range, including in the bass region where the linear tuning places the driver under no particular mechanical stress. For listeners who wish to add three or four dB of sub-bass via EQ, the low distortion floor offers confidence that the boost will be applied cleanly and without artefact. The Egret has ample headroom to accept a modest bass shelf.

Rating Explanation

The Egret earns a five-star Pragmatic rating because it delivers on every dimension that a flagship open-back planar should address. The driver is capable and carefully implemented; the tuning is honest and considered; the construction is premium in both materials and execution; and the accessory package—engraved carry case, triple composite cable, cloth bag—reflects a genuine understanding of what buyers at this price expect to unwrap. In a market where several competing planars ask similar money for a headphone in a cardboard box with a generic cable, the Egret’s attention to the full ownership experience is meaningful and deliberate.

The four-star price rating reflects the reality that $850 is a significant sum, and real competition exists at that price point. The Verum 2 offers a compelling midrange at a fraction of the price; established Hifiman planars are available at similar levels and deliver a different but equally valid listening experience. What the Egret offers that those alternatives cannot match is the specific combination of neutral tuning, exceptional treble control, build quality that genuinely matches the asking price, and that complete premium package experience.

The four-star measurement rating reflects excellent results with one honest caveat: the bass sits below the Harman and Diffuse Field shelf, which is a deliberate tuning choice rather than a limitation, but it will register as a preference mismatch for listeners calibrated to more bass-forward targets.

The Egret is for the listener who has explored the V-shaped tuning landscape and found it wearing over time; who wants a planar that sounds like the recording engineer intended rather than like a manufacturer’s idea of exciting; and who is willing to pay for construction that matches the acoustic ambition of the product.

Conclusion

My first encounter with the Egret on that CanJam London show floor was not the show playing tricks. A month of serious listening has confirmed that what I heard through the noise was the sound of Sendy Audio arriving at a genuinely mature tuning—the most neutral, the most resolved, and the most tonally coherent headphone the brand has produced.

The Egret will not suit everyone, and it does not try to. It makes no effort to excite listeners who want elevated bass or energetic treble, and a certain school of reviewer will find it insufficiently stimulating on a short audition. But for the listener who wants a large, comfortable, beautifully made open-back planar that sits down and honestly reports what is on the recording—bass extension without bass boost, treble air without treble glare—the Egret is one of the finest headphones I have spent time with this year, and a genuine statement of intent from a brand that has found its voice.