The Sivga SV021 Pro is a Hi-Fi headphone throwback in all the right ways

Listening to your tunes through headphones is already deliciously old-school, so why not go the whole hog with a pair that fully embrace the retro vibe? Sivga’s new SV021 Pro look like they’ve stepped straight out of the seventies, with ear cups swaddled in real wood. The price is a pleasant throwback too.

At $179/£179/€199, the SV021 Pro majorly undercuts closed-back competition like the Sennheiser HD 620S, without having to skimp on stying. The mix of natural Beechwood or Zebrawood, lightweight aluminium yokes and fine stitching across the velour headband help these cans stand out against their more modern-looking rivals.

They’re thoroughly up to date on the inside, with a newly developed 50mm dynamic driver that builds on the one found in the original SV021. It uses a five-layer composite diaphragm and a copper aluminium alloy voice coil, for a better balance of rigidity and frequency damping. Sivga is promising even more detail and dynamism, while preserving the predecessor’s balanced, not-quite-neutral sound that played well across almost every musical genre.

You get a 1.6m-long braided cable in the box, which should be more than long enough to stretch to your hi-res music player of choice (or cassette player, if you’re really chasing nostalgia). It’s detachable, which bodes well for repairability, and comes bundled with a 6.3mm adapter. There’s no balanced cable option, though. The fabric carry bag that keeps the cans safe when not on your bonce is hardly luxurious – but what did you expect for the money?

I’ve been listening to a pair for the past few days, and can vouch for their comfort. There’s a decent amount of padding in the headband, a good range of height adjustment on the yokes, and a level of clamping force that’s relaxed – but not so much they were constantly moving around on my head. The 289g weight is evenly distributed too.

There’s no swivel adjustment – only tilt – but the ear pads are wide and deep enough that it didn’t matter. They’ve got loads of cushioning, are stuffed with plenty of memory foam, and fully enclosed my ears. The velour and fabric are breathable enough that my ears weren’t cooking after an hour or two of listening. I wasn’t entirely cocooned from the outside world, so noise-cancelling headphones are still your best bet when heading outdoors. On the other hand, sound leakage from the dynamic drivers was on the low side, so you wouldn’t disturb others very much if you did use them on the move.

With an impedance of 45 ohms, these headphones aren’t especially hard to drive. I listened to them through a MacBook Air, a Rotel S14 media streamer, and a FiiO QX13 portable DAC/headphone amp. Across a mix of sources and streaming services, the SV201 Pro delivered a laid back listen and maintained composure at higher volumes.

These are well-balanced headphones that don’t major on sub-bass squelch, but preserve enough low end that booming rock and electronica have weight. Health and Ada Rook’s MURDER DEATH KILL still thumps. I didn’t think the soundstage was especially wide, even for a closed-back pair, but the sense of space hasn’t evaporated altogether.

Vocals sit quite forward in the mix, boosted by a top-end that has plenty of bite but avoids losing control or taking things to extremes. This gave the contrasting vocals on Kid Bookie’s Rose McGowan plenty of weight.

Tuning in general matches the SV021 Pro’s looks: an old-school approach that strives for balance, rather than a modern V-shape meant to please the masses – but not so neutral as to only please hardcore audiophiles. If that’s what you’re chasing, the Sivga could be a good entry point to the head-fi hobby.

The Sivga SV021 Pro are on sale right now for $179/£179/€199.

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