In this edition of Golden Ears, we’re looking at one of the highest-tier, most expensive audio products in our site’s history: the HIFIMAN Svanar. This pair of IEMs retails for $1,999 and are the company’s flagship pair of in-ear monitors. Over the month or so we’ve had them in-hand for testing, we’ve put them through their paces to see exactly what you get for such an expensive pair of IEMs and whether they live up to the price. The audio hobby extends ever upward, so join us as we take a look and see exactly what HIFIMAN’s flagship IEMs have to offer.
Specifications
- Current Price: $1,999 (Audio46)
- Frequency response: 5Hz-35kHz
- Impedance: 60Ω
- Sensitivity: 100dB
- Weight: 13g (excluding cable)
- Physical Attribute: Topology Diaphragm 9.2mm Dynamic Driver
A Quick Introduction to Golden Ears…
Welcome back to Golden Ears! This is our semi-regular column dedicated to the world of high-end audio. In this series, we look at premium audio products that all promise a next-level listening experience. But what exactly do you get when you spend a little, or sometimes a lot, more? That’s what we aim to discover, helping you to find out just what’s worth investing in to upgrade your listening experience for music and gaming alike.
For this article in particular, we’re looking at the HIFIMAN Svanar, a product that currently retails for $1,999. At this price, it exists in the flagship, halo audio market. As such, discussions of value are more subjective than ever. For many listeners, that pricing is simply out of reach, and no matter how good they are, they will seem like a terrible value. For others, passionate audiophiles with plentiful expendable income who consider audio their primary hobby, may have a different opinion.For products like this, ideas of value are very subjective; one person’s steal might be another’s exorbitance, so we’ll largely be leaving that to the side today.
On the topic of scoring, it’s important to note a couple of things. First, while we wish we didn’t have to do it, it’s a reality in today’s search-driven publication space. Second, when dealing with “golden ears” caliber products that often cost great deals of money, we expect these products to be at least Good (7) but hopefully Great (8), Amazing (9), or even Masterpiece (10) level. Though there are certainly products tha aren’t very good at every price range, a quick review of web publications shows that the score range is usually a bit tighter with these next-level listening products. Fittingly so — they should sound great!
Given that expectedly tighter score range, it’s more important than ever to explore the nuances of what sets these products apart. What is their goal? Who are they for? How are they built? What are the intricacies of their listening experience? All of these things matter more and the number matters less. We are always going to be honest and forthright in all of our content, but take the time to hear the story each product is trying to tell, and you’ll understand it that much better.
Thanks for joining us again, and enjoy the article!
HIFIMAN Svanar - What a First Impression…
Over the last ten years I’ve written for MMORPG and other tech publications, I’ve been lucky enough to try a lot of gear (I’m nearing 800 tech reviews just at MMO these days), and the HIFIMAN Svanar is easily one of the fanciest, best presented products I’ve ever touched. What first appears to be a normal, if a bit heavy, slip-cover box soon reveals itself to be a leather-bound wood, emblazoned with metal plaque on the top. It absolutely looks the part of a $2,000 pair of earbuds with this kind of packaging.
Inside, you’re greeted with the earbuds and accessories, well laid out in pre-cut foam inserts. The buds are protected inside the case in their own foam layer, so there’s no risk of movement as they travel. To the right is a box with five pairs of silicone ear tips. To the left is the cable, as well as a pair of optional ear hooks and extenders for the 2-pin connection if you need a little more length to use them comfortably.
Beneath all of this is the owners manual and warranty card. HIFIMAN ships its pricier products with these glossy manuals that can double as small coffee table books. It’s the kind of thing I would expect to find included with a luxury car and, again, is fitting for the price tier the Svanar is placed at. Let’s take a closer look at everything you’re getting.
The case is made of metal and has a soft foam layer on the bottom to keep things from getting scratched. It’s the same style of case Mangird and other brands have been using for some time and is decent enough, though not quite as nice as the zippered cases we’ve seen from Yanyin and others. The earbuds ship with the above foam insert included in the case, but they need to be removed if you want room for the cable too.
The tips are well presented but too sparse. HIFIMAN has leaned into two and three-flange design here with only a single pair of standard silicone ear tips. Those have a wider bore, which cuts down on bass, and are only in one size. I’ll talk about this more in the fit section, but I think the company took a leap here not including any standard tips. Perhaps the designers assumed anyone purchasing IEMs at this price would have their own? They would likely be right. But still, I would have liked to have seen quite a few more tip options, even if these do accomplish the goal of being comfortable and very well isolating.
The cable is good, but I could see enthusiasts wanting to upgrade this for something a bit fancier looking. HIFIMAN says they use only the “finest silver-coated crystalline copper wire” but hides that behind a standard black rubberized sleeve. It sounds great, for as much as a cable can impact sound quality, and is both soft and completely non-microphonic. Functionally, it’s very good.
HIFIMAN didn’t completely ignore aesthetics either. The Y-split and chin cinch are both mirrored metal, and the former is etched with the brand name. The 3.5mm termination is also quite heavy-duty with a chonky L-shaped adapter. There’s no modularity or balanced alternate, though, which is surprising as these earphones definitely scale with more power, ala a balanced amplifier.
Here’s a look at everything together. The ear hooks work well, I might add, though I didn’t really find them necessary. The earpieces are well designed and balanced to fit securely, and I could never see myself doing a workout with a $2,000 pair of earbuds in, getting covered in sweat. Nice addition if you have fit issues, though!
Moving onto the earpieces themselves, HIFIMAN took inspiration from the contours of a swan (which is actually what Svanar means in Swedish). It’s an elegant connection to make, though I wouldn’t have made it myself. The contouring isn’t that far off from other earphones that use a Universal IEM (UIEM) design, which is contoured based on collected data on the shape of the human ear. The application here is very comfortable, though, so the changes to the design they went with are very welcome. It is genuinely one of the most comfortable IEMs I’ve worn, which is especially noteworthy given their relatively heavy 13-gram weight.
The earpieces are broken into two halves on the exterior. The outer portion is milled aluminum with a matte finish to avoid fingerprints. The inner half is a copper-zinc alloy coated in 24-carat gold. It’s a duality of minimalism and luxuriousness. They’re low key (and low profile) enough that if you do choose to wear them out of the house, they won’t attract attention, with an inner half that feels almost like the Svanar’s little secret.
The mix of materials and intricately designed contouring applies to the internal design of the Svanar too. The rear cavity uses an aluminum alloy while the opposite side (the interior of the copper/zinc alloy) uses brass. Mixed metals have a direct impact on sound resonance in acoustic engineering and HIFIMAN leverages that here to tune the sound of these earphones into one that’s balanced and resolving, yet smooth.
In its marketing materials, the company also states that it took inspiration from the arrangement of the Moscow State Theater with is recessed orchestra pit and diffusion ceiling. This, the company states, results in an extended soundstage. Its marketing goes on to describe how they translated this into the Svanar: “optimized by a new algorithm, a phase-conducting structural design, and an earpiece that is supported by custom-developed materials,” its internal chamber aims to bring the same listening experience into your home.
And while, no, no in-ear monitor is going to sound like a world-class orchestra theater, it does deliver a great soundstage and imaging that’s genuinely impressive for an IEM. More on that in the listening section.
As you might have gathered from the image above, the Svanar uses a single dynamic driver. That flies in the face of the trend of other top-tier IEMs that seem set on packing as many drivers as possible into their shells. But, while it’s possible for multi-driver IEMs to sound exquisite, it’s not about the number or type of drivers, it’s about what the acoustic engineers do with them. Using only a single dynamic driver also means these IEMs can be smaller with an easier fit, something that’s not always the case with hybrid or tribrid IEMs.
The earphones use HIFIMAN’s proprietary topology driver technology to tune the sound. You can read the company’s breakdown in the image above, but the short version is that each driver has been coated in nanoparticles with a specific pattern. The utility of driver coatings has long been established as a way to add rigidity and speed to dynamic drivers, but HIFIMAN takes it to another level, positing that different materials in different patterns has a unique effect. What those are for this particular model isn’t disclosed, likely a trade secret, but every time I’ve heard a HIFIMAN topology driver, I’ve found something to realy enjoy about it.
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at fit and get into how they sound.
HIFIMAN Svanar - Fit and Comfort
Comfort was at the forefront in the design of these IEMs, and their swan-inspired shape is indeed very comfortable. Over the month or so I’ve had them in for testing, I’ve spent many hours with them in my ears and they have never left me sore or fatigued. The contouring is quite well done and prevents hot-spots. HIFIMAN also did a very good job of balancing their weight and leveraging the outer ear for support. The nozzle fits comfortable and doesn’t press unduly on the ear canal, making these a very pleasant wear.
As always, be sure to take the time to find the proper ear tips, and that may not be possible with the included silicones. At this price, I think a much wider assortment of tips was called for, including foams, as the flanged tips that make up the bulk of what’s included aren’t comfortable for everyone. That said, I almost always have issues with this kind of tip and actively avoid them. The smallest double flange worked perfectly and didn’t both me at all, so it’s worth giving them a try because they might just surprise you.
HIFIMAN Svanar - Listening Impressions
Graph Courtesy of Elise Audio via Squig.Link
First things first, you should know that you’ll need a bit of power to drive these earphones to their fullest. Nothing crazy, but with 60 ohms of impedance and 100dB of sensitivity, they’re less sensitive than many competing IEMs on the market. For my testing, I used a mix of the Questyle M15 and the Fiio K9 Pro ESS.
Starting with a look at the graph (courtesy of Elise Audio), we can see a U-shaped tuning with good sub-bass extension and a bit of mid-bass emphasis before bottoming out at about 700Hz. The frequencies then rise in the upper-mids and have some peaks above 8K (which is where couplers become less reliable). This tuning points toward big-bodied low end but with a good amount of treble air, which could translate to perceived detail.
I listened to these earphones for weeks ahead of looking at a graph and can say that this is very close to what I have been hearing. The bass reaches low and is capable of good rumble and impact. The driver is speedy, so there’s plenty of texture to bass notes, which gives music a good sense of tactility. The low synths in Chillstep (like Inner Fire by BlauDisS) have a sub-woofer-like quality to them, but it’s not overpowering. The driver is fast enough to handle the machine-gun double kicks of Bleeding Mascara by Atreyu. Though the production on that song is terrible, so the mid-bass sounds woofy — not the fault of the Svarar, however, as My Curse by Killswitch Engage sounds clean with all the pound and impact you could ask for.
The mids are very nice, though I think this is a set that really leans into instruments above all. Male vocals in particular take a slight step back behind guitars, strings, and drums. Female vocals, like Adele on Set Fire to the Rain, are more forward and sound particularly nice alongside instruments. Someone Like You is another particularly beautiful listen with its blend of vocals and piano. It’s not a vocals-first set, but this balance in the mids makes them sound particularly smooth without the sense that you’re losing detail in the process.
The treble is particularly well done, balancing detail, air, and sizzle with a roundness that keeps sibilance at bay. I didn’t find these fatiguing in the slightest, but HIFIMAN has tuned them to draw out cymbals even whe they’re in the background. Set Fire to the Rain is a great example of this, as the background splashes are drawn out and seem to slide in underneath the rest of the mix. The treble goes a long way to making these earphones sound as balanced as they do… they’re slightly warm, but also very clear and enjoyable.
The use of a single dynamic driver also makes listening sound particularly cohesive. It’s the kind of thing you’re only likely to notice if you’ve listened to a lot of different earphones that mix driver types. While I love hybrid and tribrid driver IEMs, the Svanar is a great example of why a single dynamic driver can be uniquely enjoyable. Even though multi-driver IEMs blend the frequencies together almost imperceptibly, the final result has a different timbre, a crispness or etchedness that comes from using balanced armatures and electrostats alongside a dynamic driver. They can all be good, but it’s a different flavor, and the Svanar presents its listening experiences with a unity that’s very nice.
But how about soundstage, after all that talk about being inspired by the Moscow State Theater? Whatever designs HIFIMAN has implemented here work very well. The soundstage is exceptionally spacious for an IEM. It’s always wide, but every now and again it surprised me with sounds that genuinely sounded outside of my listening spaces. Usually, instruments or audio cues in games that began suddenly or during particularly quiet moments. Even with these eye-openers excluded, the soundstage is wide but also tall. There’s a great sense of space with these.
That sense of space also applies to layering. Every layer has room to breathe, you can hear exactly how your songs and games come together and pick out all of macro and micro details. Details retrieval then, is quite good. I found these earphones to be quite resolving, but being detail-hounds isn’t what these earphones are all about (as we can tell from the warmer tuning). They’re not as detail-centric as the Thieaudio Monarch Mk II or Prestige in A/B listening sessions, but they are more full-bodied and smooth without the sense that you’re really missing out. Different flavors for different listeners.
And because we have to, how are they for gaming? Now, you’d never buy these just for gaming, but if you’re spending this much, I think it’s perfectly reasonable that you might want to use them for gaming too. On that front, I think they’re fantastic. Their spaciousness is perfect for both single-player games where immersion rules. For multiplayer, their imaging and excellent layering (clarity) are very good. The slightly recessed mids may dial back footsteps slightly but I still had no trouble hearing them.
Overall Impressions and Final Thoughts
The HIFIMAN Svanar are exceptionally expensive but also exceptionally good. From their presentation and design to comfort and acoustics, I thoroughly enjoyed these earphones. HIFIMAN could stand to throw in a few more extras, but they manage to impress pretty much across the board. Their aim, a balanced sound that’s full-bodied but detail rich, is easy to listen to and enjoy across multiple genres and styles. Svanar was never for everybody, but if you can afford it, or even try them out at your local audio store, there’s a lot to love here and my appreciation only seems to grow over time.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.
