Sivga M260

A Metal Flat-Head Earbud with a 14.2mm Bio-Cellulose Driver and a USB-C DAC Cable

The M260 is a high-quality flat-head earbud, the kind that sits in the outer ear. Sivga pairs that format with metal shells and a detachable MMCX cable. The 3.5mm version sells for $39.99; the $45 version reviewed here adds a USB-C DAC cable and inline microphone.

What made me curious was whether Sivga’s build quality and choice of materials could elevate this format beyond a nostalgia piece. Mostly I have been very impressed, though I do have a few niggles to point out in the review.

I have had the M260 in rotation for about four weeks, mixed in with some other Sivga and Sendy Audio gear I have also been living with, including the Sivga Lyrebird and the Sendy Audio Egret. The standout for me has been the midrange and the soundstage — I enjoy the open presentation of this little earbud. But first, let’s take a look at what’s in the box.

Unboxing and Build Quality

The M260 arrives in a compact black box with the specifications printed on the rear panel:

Lifting the lid reveals the Oxford fabric carrying case sitting inside, with the earbuds and cable resting in the open case alongside the manual:

In the box you get the M260 earbuds, the USB-C cable with its inline remote and mic, a bag of spare foam covers, the carrying case, and the manual:

The shells themselves are metal, with a knurled barrel section and a driver grille beneath the removable foam covers:

A machined metal shell with a knurled barrel is not what a sub-$50 flat-head usually gets — the ones I have handled before were moulded plastic — and the difference is obvious the moment you pick it up:

Behind that grille is a 14.2mm dynamic driver, built around a composite bio-cellulose diaphragm with copper-ring reinforcement, a CCAW (copper-clad aluminium wire) voice coil, and N50 neodymium magnets — a genuinely well-specified driver stack for a sub-$50 earbud. The shell itself is semi-open, with vent holes behind the driver that are part of how a flat-head achieves its characteristically open sound.

With the foam covers fitted, here is the pair as you would actually wear them:

Cable and Connectivity

The M260 uses a detachable MMCX connector at the earbud end, so the cable can be swapped for aftermarket options if you want to experiment:

The USB-C plug on the version reviewed here houses its own DAC, so it drives straight from a phone, tablet, or laptop without needing a separate dongle:

An inline remote sits on the cable with a microphone and three buttons for volume up, volume down, and play/pause, with a double-tap for track skip — enough to handle calls and podcasts without reaching for your phone:

Two styles of foam cover are included, a full-coverage type and a donut type with an open centre, and the braided cable itself feels appropriately light for an earbud you’re going to drape over your ear rather than seal into it:

Swapping between the two foam styles is the closest thing the M260 has to on-ear tuning: the full-coverage foams calm things down slightly, while the donut foams let a touch more air and energy through up top.

I have not had connector problems with this sample. That is a short-term observation rather than a durability test; when changing cables, grip the connector housings rather than pulling the wires.

Fit and Comfort

Because the M260 is a flat-head design, it sits in the bowl of the outer ear rather than inserting into the canal, so there’s none of the pressure build-up or fatigue that can come with a deeply-inserted IEM. The metal shells are light enough that I could forget I was wearing them over a long session, and worn over-the-ear with the cable looped around, they stayed put without needing readjustment.

The trade-off is the one you’d expect from any open earbud: isolation is essentially nonexistent, so this is a design for a quiet room or a desk rather than a commute, and fit is more binary than with an IEM — there’s no tip-swapping to fine-tune the seal, so how well it sits comes down to your own ear shape. My wife, who generally prefers on-ear and earbud designs over in-ear monitors — she reaches for her FiiO EH11 over any IEM I’ve handed her — found the M260 a little large for her smaller ears, which lines up with how much ear shape and size drives the fit story with this format.

Sound Impressions

I split my listening between the 3.5mm and USB-C cables, mostly through the USB-C connection for convenience. As with any flat-head earbud, there’s no true seal, so treat the tonal character here as the M260’s own signature rather than a direct stand-in for how an IEM would present the same music, and how it sits in your ear will shift things somewhat. Overall, though, this reads as a lean, neutral-leaning tuning rather than a warm or bassy one — closer to the sound of a modestly-EQ’d reference headphone than to a typical fun-tuned IEM.

Bass

The M260 doesn’t try to fake sub-bass weight it structurally can’t have — there’s a clean roll-off below the mid-bass, and no artificial hump added to compensate for it. What’s there is fast, controlled, and stays out of the way rather than reaching for impact. On “Angel” by Massive Attack, the sub-bass pulse loses most of its physical pressure, but the track doesn’t turn thin because of it — the low end simply recedes and lets the rest of the mix lead. Bass-focused listeners should look elsewhere; this isn’t trying to be that kind of earbud.

Midrange

This is the M260’s strongest region, and it sits forward in the mix without ever turning shouty. Vocals come through clear and natural, with good separation from everything around them. On “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman, her voice has real clarity and is easy to follow against the instrumental backing, with none of the thinness that can creep into cheaper open designs.

Treble

Treble is smooth and well-extended rather than aggressive — detailed enough to avoid sounding closed-in, but tuned for a relaxed, non-fatiguing listen rather than an exciting or “fun” one. On “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson, the hi-hats and vocal sibilants come through cleanly without ever tipping into harshness, which keeps the overall balance closer to neutral than to anything V-shaped or aggressively tuned.

Soundstage and Imaging

The M260 sounds wider and more open to me than many IEMs I have tried at this price. On “Private Investigations” by Dire Straits, instruments seem to spread beyond my ears rather than staying centred inside my head. That is a subjective strength of this particular fit and tuning, not an ability that sealed IEMs inherently lack.

Comparisons

The obvious in-house comparison is the Sivga Lyrebird, which sits in the same range but takes the opposite approach — a sealed in-ear with wood faceplates against the M260’s open flat-head format:

The family resemblance is in the metalwork — both use metal shells, with knurled cable hardware on the M260 — but they are answering different questions. The Lyrebird seals and isolates; the M260 sits against the ear and does neither. If you want something for a commute or a flight, the flat-head format is the wrong tool regardless of how it is tuned. If you want to stay aware of the room, or you simply find in-ears uncomfortable for long stretches, that same openness is the entire point.

Specifications and Measurements

The impedance and sensitivity figures above are taken from the product packaging. The DAC sits inside the USB-C connector, and its figures are Sivga’s stated specification rather than anything I have verified; Sivga’s product page does not publish the full numerical specification.

I have now measured the M260 myself, seated on my KB501X Soft Ear/Pinna with a 711 clone coupler:

The channels match closely through most of the midrange, but separate visibly in the low bass. The graph also differs from my listening: there is more upper-bass and lower-midrange energy relative to the Harman-adjusted target than the lean character I heard. The upper midrange and much of the lower treble sit below that target:

I also measured the M260 against two other earbuds I’ve reviewed previously, for context on where it sits relative to other earbuds in this format: the FiiO FF1, a similarly-priced flat-head earbud, and the Moondrop U-2, a $34.99 earbud I described at the time as a lesson in how little earbud measurements predict real-world sound. Both measured here with foam:

The M260 has more energy through much of the lower midrange than these FF1 and U-2 measurements, but it is not consistently the bassiest below 100Hz. Earbud placement and leakage strongly affect the result. A repeatable position on the rig can be more tightly coupled than a comfortable position in my ear, which is a plausible reason I hear less bass. The aim is a representative fit, not the tightest possible seal; these single placements cannot show the full range of responses different ears will produce.

At the level shown, the visible harmonic traces stay low through most of the band. Fit is the larger uncertainty when predicting the tonal balance:

Rating Explanation

The Pragmatic Rating of 4 reflects an earbud that does the flat-head format properly rather than treating it as a novelty. The Features Rating of 5 is a genuine strength here — the machined metal shell and knurled barrel are unusual at this money, the detachable MMCX cable is rare at this price, and having a USB-C cable with its own DAC and inline mic alongside the plain 3.5mm option is a lot of flexibility for a sub-$50 earbud. The Price Rating of 5 reflects that this is a cheap earbud at $39.99–$45 that doesn’t feel like it — the machined shell and detachable MMCX cable are not things you normally get at this money.

The Measurements Rating of 3 is the one score that comes with a real caveat: this format makes measurements hard to read as a prediction of how it’ll sound to you specifically — fit and ear shape and size move the result enough that a graph here tells you less about your own listening experience than it would for an IEM or a full-size headphone, so I’m rating this more conservatively than the sound quality alone would suggest.

The main caveats otherwise are the ones inherent to the category: isolation is minimal, and there’s no sub-bass to speak of if you want real low-end weight. The lack of any PEQ support on the USB-C cable is also a missed opportunity. None of that is a surprise for a sub-$50 earbud, but it’s worth setting expectations.

This is an easy recommendation for anyone curious about the flat-head format who wants a clean, neutral-leaning tuning rather than a bass-heavy or aggressively “fun” one, or who wants an earbud for podcasts, vocal-led music, or desk listening where isolation isn’t a priority — at $45 for the USB-C version, it’s a well-built way to try the format without spending much to find out if it suits you.

Conclusion

The Sivga M260 made a better case for flat-head earbuds than I expected going in. It won’t isolate you from the world and it won’t give you sub-bass slam, but the metal build, the detachable cable, and a clean, natural, neutral-leaning tuning make it an enjoyable listen, especially for vocal-centric music and podcasts.

At $39.99 for the 3.5mm version or $45 for the USB-C version with mic, buy it if you want an open, vocal-led listen for a desk or a quiet room and can live without isolation or sub-bass. Buy something sealed if you cannot.