Sendy Peacock Review (Fahri’s Take)

Peacock is the current flagship of Sendy Audio which is a sub brand of Sivga that specializes in high-end luxury planar-magnetic headphones. The MSRP for them is 1499 US. They have several dealers around the world and also sites like Thomann, Musictek etc. are selling them.

Pros

• Very Well Built with Highest Quality Materials
• Comes with a 6N OCC Cable 4.4 mm Balanced Cable with XLR and 6.35 mm Adapters
• Lush and Romantic Sound
• Great Accessories
• Very Good Soundstage and Imaging

Cons

Disclaimers

Without boring you too much, I don’t necessarily have a sound preference. I tend to enjoy different sound profiles as long as they do well at what they intend to do. I try to be critic in my reviews but I might be somewhat biased one way or another (Recency bias, buyer’s bias etc.). Please keep these in mind. Also, I bought Sendy Peacocks as well as other headphones mentioned here with my own money. If a unit I reviewed is given or loaned to me in the future, I will say so here.

Build, Comfort and Trivia

Trivia

After reviewing so many Sivgas, (check out Phoenix, 021 Robin and Oriole reviews from the links) I thought it would make sense that I review Sendy Peacocks that I own for a year now. I was bored of always reviewing budget stuff anyway.

Sendy, like I said at the beginning, a sub brand of Sivga that focuses on luxury. They no longer pretend to be cost efficient. Their first headphone Aiva was well received by many, criticized by others. However, after came some other headphones that used the same driver but were much cheaper, namely; Blon B20, Takstar HF580, Monoprice M570 and Sivga’s own P-II. This alone should show that Sendy is not our usual Chinese cheap headphone manufacturer.

Sendy released Peacocks in 2021 and has been flagship of Sendy Audio ever since. There has been slight adjustments which I will mention later but there haven’t been any major changes as far as I know. Last year they introduced a black version which changes the inner ring in the wooden cups with a black one instead of gold. By the way, every gold coloring on the headphones is actually real gold plating. Or I remember them being real gold plated but couldn’t confirm while writing this review unfortunately.

Build and Comfort

Like other Sivga and Sendy headphones, Peacocks are made out wood, leather and metal of highest quality. Build is exceptional but fit and comfort has its quirks. First of all, pads have a unique shape that gets thicker below. This probably was made to follow general face/head contours but in practice sometimes they leave airgaps. Also, they don’t quite seal properly when I first put them on. But after pads are warmed up a little, they loosen up and seal better, which is weird because pads are not made of slow rebound memory foam.  My guess is the leather used on the pads is a little too thick. This is not a big problem as it takes only a few seconds but I’m sure it made them difficult to measure for the folk. Also if you have issues with the fit, you can bend the spring steel at somewhere close to the cups.

Last thing I want to mention about the build is, wooden cups tend to crack around the hinges. One of the cups on my pair was cracked while sitting on my desk. After sending a mail to Colin from Sivga, they sent a pair of replacement cups and I had a professional install them. I saw this happened to one other person who also had their cups replaced through the retailer he bought from. New cups are thicker around the hinges which probably makes them more durable but I just want to mention my experience about the build quality and aftersale services.

Sound

Sendy Peacocks have mostly lush, romantic, slightly warm and relaxed sound with a few exceptions and these exceptions are making it harder to wrap my head around it. Without further ado, let’s get to it.

Bass

Bass on Sendy Peacocks, although rolls off below 50-60 Hz, have good impact and texture. They are not light on their foot like other planars like Hifimans or as impactful as Audezes. They follow a balance between these two approaches and I believe most Peacock owners like this aspect of their headphones. I wonder if the seal problem I mentioned weren’t an issue, would they extend better but as they are, roll off is easily noticeable.

Mids

Peacocks have mostly very loveable mids with a few caveats. Their warm and lush tonality makes them have a nice romantic presentation. However, they also have a nasally tint which also hampers the timbre a little. Around 1k region there is a resonance which may be the cause of some wonkiness and therefore slight unnatural sound. When I put my hands behind the cups I noticed this character increases so maybe the grill in the back not as acoustically transparent as it should be. I would love to see people modding their Peacocks but as expensive as they are, it is very unlikely.

There is also a dip around 2k which is quite common among planars. Some people quite like it as it makes soundstage perceived bigger than other headphones but EQ’ing that region up a little also cleared up tonality for me a bit.

Vocals and fundemantal tones of instruments are very romantic so I don’t feel very comfortable with EQ’ing Peacocks fearing they would lose their magic.

Treble

Peacocks are by no means are bright headphones. They are mostly relaxed until upper treble. Upper treble is lifted which makes them airy and wide. However, there are a few peaks around 6k and 8k which makes them sibilant with both male and female vocals. I find it pretty annoying and if I had the chance to change one thing in these headphones, it would be reducing those peaks. On the other hand, it makes them declare their presence or make them not too relaxed and lush.

I also briefly used Peacocks on my hybrid tube amp Xduoo TA-10R. Tubes highlighted good qualities of the mids but didn’t help with the peakiness of the highs.

Technical Performance

Sendy Peacocks carry most of the characteristics of a planar magnetic pair of headphones, but they are also more than that. They are fairly resolving and detailed, not class leading but definitely not crappy. Soundstage has nice width and depth. They also image very well thanks to their superior soundstaging. Attack is as fast as any planar but decay is not hurried which prevents them being overly dry.

Comparisons

Sendy Peacock vs. Audeze LCD-2

Among all the headphones I have, this comparison made the most sense for me. I have an old pair of LCD-2s which I like quite a lot with revised headband, drivers and pads so basically they are a new version.

This might be only me but I find LCD-2s more comfortable on my head although they are similarly heavy, probably because they clamp a little more.

Peacocks are a tad bit brighter. Vocals are more emphasized on Sendy Peacock. In LCD-2 Vocals take a step back.

LCD-2s are more prominent and more impactful in the bass but they are very close. They both roll off in the subbass similarly. But LCD-2 feels a tad bit fuller.

LCD-2s are clearer and sounds like more detailed but Sendy Peacocks are somewhat airier. They just don’t spoon-feed you with details but they are there.

Vocals are more engaging with Sendy Peacocks, compared to that LCD-2s sound somewhat dull.

I don’t want to throw the word natural because they both sound colored but Peacocks sound more lifelike. Compared to them, LCD-2s sound flat and dry. Acoustic Music is much more enjoyable on Sendy Peacocks.

Decay is faster on LCD-2s. Notes linger more like a dynamic driver. Although this adds to the atmosphere and make Peacocks sound more musical, technicalities suffer a little.

Perceived soundstage is wider and deeper on Sendy Peacocks. They both image very good but separation of instruments is better on Sendy Peacocks due to the superiority of their staging capability.

Sendy Peacock vs Focal Clear MGs

I didn’t extensively AB’d them but wanted to throw a quick comparison here. Clear MGs are warmer. Bass is more impactful also rumbles more in the subbass region. Mids are more even and more forward on Clear MGs. Treble is darker and less peaky. Peacocks have larger perceived soundstage. Clears are clearer.

Conclusion

From the value standpoint, Sendy Peacocks don’t really deliver. However they don’t try to in the first place. These headphones are Sendy’s flagship and they designed and made them this way and sale them for this price to make a statement. They come with a great cable and nice accessories. The cable by itself is sold for around 200 USD and hirose connectors although not cheap, are better than mini xlrs in my opinion. It should be one of the cheaper options as cables with hirose connectors go.