HIFIMAN is one of the kings of the planar magnetic headphone market, but most of its headphones use open-backs to deliver a spacious listening experience. The Audivina is out to change that, bringing gorgeous, yet massive, closed-back wooden earcups designed to provide a wide, detailed soundstage. HIFIMAN has positioned these as studio headphones, so accuracy and balance are also the name of the game.
At $1,999, it’s safe to say that these are designed for professionals and dedicated audiophiles. They deliver on their promises, offering an excellent, but not perfect, listening experience. And at this price, they’re certainly the purview of our Golden Ears review column, so join us as well look at exactly what you get for such a big investment.
Specifications
- Current Price: $1,999 (Apos Audio)
- Key Features
- Multi-stage attenuating acoustical chamber
- HIFIMAN Stealth magnets
- NEO Supernano diaphragm
- Hand-polished headband
- Synthetic ear pads
- Impedance: 20 ohms
- Sensitivity: 97dB
- Weight: 470 Grams (16.57 ounces)
- Frequency Response: 5Hz-55Hz
HIFIMAN Audivina - First Impressions and Key Features
If nothing else, the HIFIMAN Audivina looks the part of a two-thousand dollar pair of headphones. It has a unique look, a blend between the company’s $5,500 R10P (another closed-back planar) and its line of egg-shaped headphones, including the Arya, Ananda, and Edition XS. Its hardback earcups, brown cushions, and silver hardware exude class. While the packaging is simple, eco-friendly cardboard, it only takes a moment to see that they’re not your average pair of headphones.
Their design is refined, but their appeal isn’t rooted in what’s happening on the outside. While most of HIFIMAN’s line-up is open-back (the back of the earcups is open to let sound pass through) to elicit a more spacious listening experience, the Audivina is closed off, instead embracing isolation. In fact, the company has pitched these headphones as being great for studio use because of that isolation, a balanced tuning fit for mastering, and a resonance-chamber earcup design that still creates a spacious listening experience.
Often, with products of this caliber, there’s a story behind their design, an end-goal they’re trying to emulate. In the case of the Audivina, its designers took inspiration from the Bayreuth Festival Theater in Germany. The earcups, large and contoured with a peak in the upper third, are designed to circulate sound and circuit it back to your ear, enhancing the soundstage. It works, too, though not without some interesting reverberation in some lower frequencies.
Inside the cups is the same nanometer diaphragm planar magnetic driver and stealth magnet technology we’ve seen on other HIFIMAN headphones we’ve enjoyed. It’s a proven design: an ultrathin diaphragm traced with electrical filaments, flanked by meticulously arranged and shaped magnets. When current is applied, that diaphragm buzzes with incredible speed, sending sound waves through the magnet gate, guided to avoid turbulence and phase errors. These combine to create a driver that is fast, dynamic, and detailed. It’s a culmination of technologies that began in the upper echelons of HIFIMAN’s product stack and has trickled down to lend its headphones a competitive edge and a better listening experience.
The Audivina is perhaps the best-built HIFIMAN headphone I’ve used to date and easily one of the most comfortable. The headband and yokes are metal, the former being hand-polished for a bit of extra shine. It’s springy and resilient but not overly grippy when worn. The adjustable head strap appears to be made of stamped leather, stitched at the edges, though may be leatherette. It distributes the weight of the headphones perfectly well, allowing me to wear them for hours at a stretch without any soreness or discomfort after the fact — and these aren’t light headphones at 470 grams.
The ear cushions are made of plush leatherette. HIFIMAN claims they’re made from high-tech, eco-friendly fabrics chosen with sound quality and comfort foremost in mind. And there’s clear care evident in their design. Rather than use a single material or even two, as is increasingly common, the pads actually use a trio of materials for their surfaces. The outer rings and solid leatherette. The inner face, where it meets your skin, is soft, breathable fabric embroidered with a diamond pattern. The inner ring returns to leatherette but is perforated with tiny holes. Ear cushions have been tested extensively and each of these materials plays a role in breathability and the amount of bass and treble you’re able to perceive. Sadly, HIFIMAN doesn’t include any alternate pads in the box for A/B testing, but they adhere with simple velcro strips, so changing them should be easy once aftermarket pads become available.
HIFIMAN has also listened to the community when it comes to the quality of its cables. We first observed this improvement with the Arya Organic and Ananda Nano, but the Audivina easily offers the best assortment and highest quality cables I’ve seen from a HIFIMAN headphone so far. Included in the box is a five-foot 3.5mm cable, a nine-foot 6.35mm cable, and a nine-foot balanced XLR cable. Each is soft and flexible, thick enough to feel substantial without becoming hard to manage and microphonic.
For studio use, the longer cables are welcome, allowing you to move around easily without needing to take your headphones off. I do wish there was a shorter 4.4mm balanced cable included, however. There’s enough here to connect to most sources, but Audivina needs a good amount of power to drive and push to its potential. It has an impedance of 20 ohms and a sensitivity of 97dB. You don’t need a balanced amp to drive them, but for portable use, being able to plug into a balanced amp with a more standard 4.4mm connection would open up more possibilities for the audiophile audience.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find a nice hardback carrying case included in the box. It’s very similar to the case included with the Ananda Nano and makes even more sense here if you’re carrying them to and from a studio. Even if you’re not, the case is much smaller than the older, larger display boxes HIFIMAN used to use. A case can be made for such a display case making the headphones seem even more premium, but I’ll take the practicality of the new storage case any day of the week.
HIFIMAN Audivina - Fit and Comfort
As I mentioned previously, I found the Audivina to be very comfortable to wear even over extended listening sessions. HIFIMAN’s suspension strap design is well-honed to balance out its heavier weight, and that’s more important here than perhaps any headphone the company has released before. If it’s targeted working professionals as well as audiophiles, they need to be able to wear these cans through a whole workday. Weight simply shouldn’t be a problem with these headphones.
There’s no mistaking just how large these headphones are and that has a direct impact on their fit. The headphones encompass the ears and only offer a light to medium amount of grip. Properly adjusted down, I was able to bend over without their falling off my head but they would shift a small amount. Even with that in mind, the overwhelming impression is that HIFIMAN has done a very good job of balancing security with comfort. Even on an smaller person like myself, I was able to make those movements without their coming completely out of place (which wasn’t true on the Arya or Ananda Stealth for me [though was rectified with the Organic and Nano models respectively]), and their light wear virtually ensures that they won’t get uncomfortable over time.
They’re also one of the few pairs of HIFIMAN headphones that allow the cups to pivot and rest around your neck. When you need to take a break, you can move the headphones out of the way without completely taking them off. It’s a feature I love in headphones and makes the Audivina even better for its stated purpose.
HIFIMAN Audivina - Listening Impressions
As a pair of headphones targeted at recording engineers and audiophiles, neutrality and balance are paramount. You can’t master a track with headphones that lean too far into the bass or treble — and in fact, you would usually use professional caliber studio monitors. The Audivina does a good job of maintaining its balance, but there’s also some tweaking to ensure you’re hearing a full-bodied sound that draws out the details in what you’re listening to. It’s not completely flat, but does feel tuned to be quite revealing. That’s where those wide cups and enhanced soundstage come in.
These headphones are well-balanced overall but are not completely flat. The low-end has been tuned to reach deep and provide thick body to the listening experience. There’s more of a sub-bass focus than mid-bass. That means things like kick drums and deep synths have impact and power. I was surprised to find Josiah and the Bonneville’s rendition of Heat Waves literally made the headphones rumble. Bass guitars, however, will oscillate between sounding balanced and a touch too light depending on the song.
The quality and speed of the bass is very, very good. There’s excellent detail and texture in the lower register, which makes that widened body tangible and tactile. The dynamic range of the headphones is excellent, so even very tiny gradations in sub-bass come through perfectly.
There’s an interesting effect I perceive in the bass where it can sometimes sound unnaturally wide. This is audible on GOOSEBUMPS by Jonny Craig, Shaker, and KEEPMYSECRETS, where the bass almost seems to have a tiny bit of reverb. A colleague and I have discussed a possible relationship to the resonance-chamber design. While I can’t say if that’s indeed the cause, as it’s also very inconsistent, is a potential side effect of that closed-back design.
Generally, though, I think this is a good example of what planar magnetic headphones do well with bass. It’s punchy, dynamic, and detailed, yet also well-balanced with the rest of the range.
The middle frequencies come forward in the mix. Vocals stand out quite a bit, but it’s also very evident with clean guitars. Zach Bryan’s Spotless really spotlights vocals coming right to the forefront. If you’re mixing or listening to vocal-driven music, the Audivina is really a treat.
The mids are absolutely not about vocalists alone. Blood Moon by Josiah and the Bonnevilles and Daylight by Watchhouse highlight where instruments come in, supporting the vocals with outstanding clarity and wide presentation. The technical prowess of the headphones is on full display in this range. Its layering and wide soundstage, and tuning for instrumental detail, allow instruments like violins and acoustic guitars to sparkle and ring out, enlivening the music, and bringing it much closer to a real-life performance on the above two tracks (and others that are acoustic and not highly produced after the fact).
The highs are well extended and have been tuned to make upper harmonics resolve cleanly. This is one of the reasons why the instruments in the mids sound so good: their higher frequency resonance is clear and articulate, allowing them to sound with excellent realism and clarity. The highs could potentially be fatiguing for the treble-sensitive, but to my ear, it’s the nano diaphragm doing its job of resonating fast, clean, and true to create a revealing, engaging, sparkling listening experience.
The technical performance of the headphones is as excellent as you would expect it to be as this price and professional aiming. The detail retrieval is fantastic. Little is hidden with these headphones, including fine details like the sound of a guitar pick attacking strings or the nuanced way in which the drummer hits the hi-hat. Layers are wide and clearly separated, so picking these details out is as natural as could be.
The presentation of the soundstage is absolutely core to Audivina’s appeal and a big part of the marketing with the resonance-chamber closed-back design. I’m pleased to say that it hits the mark with one of the most spacious closed-back listening experiences I’ve heard. While it’s not as wide as some open-back headphones like the Arya Organic, there is true depth to the listening experience. Instruments, singers, and audio cues have lots of space between them, giving a realistic presentation akin to what you might hear at a small live venue that’s been acoustically engineered. The imaging within this space is fantastic.
For this review, I compared it side by side with the Audeze MM-500 headphones, which are also planar magnetic and targeted at mixing engineers, but use open-back ear cups. To my surprise, the Audivina sounds much deeper and more spacious. The MM-500 has a flatter tuning with less sub-bass, but the Audivina’s enhanced depth culminates in more overall clarity since you can hear more and hear it more realistically. I’m no audio engineer, but these qualities really make it hard to choose between the two. Do you want a more realistic presentation and clarity or a flatter frequency response? I know what I would choose as an audiophile (the Audivina) but as a professional, it’s a catch-22 juggling between these headphones.
Gaming, well, sure. They work well. The bass tuning plays perfectly with action games and the imaging and depth are excellent. I wouldn’t recommend them purely based on that, of course, but you could certainly plug these in and have a great time. Baldur’s Gate 3 has never sounded so good — which is exactly what you would expect from a pair of headphones that probably cost more than the PC you’re playing on.
Overall Impressions and Final Thoughts
All of this adds up to a set of cans that really outperforms what you might expect for a closed-back planar. While it’s pretty common for closed planars to sound a bit muddy and over-warm, the Audivina side steps that with its resonance chambers. There’s nothing at all muddy about these. Instead, I find them to be exceptionally clear and deep for their design. The sub-bass bump is something you’ll love or hate depending on which camp you fall into, but for my part, I very much enjoyed these. If you crave the bass and isolation of a closed back but don’t want to sacrifice on depth in your soundstage, and also fall into the camp of high-tier listeners that see their headphones as an investment (professionally or in their personal enjoyment) these are a great choice.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.
