Sendy Audio Egret Headphones Review

Build

Sound

Style

Value

Summary: Sendy's high-end planars soar above the competition with exceptional sound, build quality. and style.

4.5

Beauty and Clarity

Sendy Audio’s first foray into the high-end planar headphone market is an impressive one.

The Chinese company’s new luxury open-back magnetic planar cans are competitively priced (compared to other high-spec headphones) at a cool £799 / €879 / $799 (about AU$1,610).

Even at first glance, they scream luxury. Each pair is a beautiful symphony of metal, wood, and leather, with the bulk of the headphone cup constructed from black walnut, featuring a wood grain pattern that’s unique to each pair.

The side of each headphone also features a beautiful ukiyo-e–style patterned metal mesh, which Sendy says is “inspired by an egret in flight.”

They’re also fairly light and really comfortable considering their construction, weighing around 420g, while the cushioned cups are made of soft leather. I’ve been happily wearing them for several hours with no complaints.

I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about the beautiful hand-stitched, padded leather case they call home. The damn thing looks like it has a butt (and a nice one at that). (Assuming “but” was a typo for “butt” — if you meant something else, let me know.)

The Egrets are powered by what Sendy claims are its most advanced planar magnetic drivers yet. Measuring 98 x 83mm and featuring an ultra-thin diaphragm that’s less than 800 nanometres thick, made using an electron beam evaporation deposition process that helps deliver more accurate audio, with some pretty impressive tech specs that include an impedance of 38 ohms, a frequency range of 8 Hz to 40 kHz, and a sensitivity rating of 103 dB.

Meanwhile, the included graphene-coated cable comprises a blend of 30 strands of oxygen-free copper, 10 strands of silver-plated copper, and 10 strands of gold-plated copper, as well as plugs for 3.5mm and 4.55mm setups.

The result is crystal-clear, well-defined audio, which I swear to God has turned me into an audiophile.

As soon as I put the Egrets on, I instantly noticed a whole new, richer layer of sound with every device I tried them with.

I heard instruments I didn’t know were there in some of my favourite songs. Discordant notes, subtle melodies, and instruments often lost in the minutiae with my regular headphones; backing vocals brought to the fore and crystal clear, each performance defined, lyrics once misheard now clear as day. I get it now — decent sound makes a huge difference.

I even decided to try them out with my Switch 2. It gave me proper spatial awareness playing Prime 4; I could hear the buzzing of those pesky alien bugs that scuttle out from the walls behind me and stopped myself from getting ambushed. Then I decided to give Animal Crossing: New Horizons a try, and I ended up spending the best part of half an hour fishing while listening to the waves crash against the shore in a way I never really could before, resulting in possibly one of the most relaxing experiences I’ve ever had in a video game.

Final Thoughts

As someone who never used to bother with headphones most of the time, the Egrets have won me over and then some. I have been using them consistently since they arrived at my door in an inconspicuous cardboard carton, and they have significantly improved my listening experience in pretty much everything I’ve thrown at them. I reach for them when I’m gaming, and I plug them into my laptop while I’m working.

The Egrets are the kind of high-end headphones aimed exclusively at enthusiasts who are more than happy to spend hundreds of dollars/pounds on a single pair.

The kind of big comfy cans you plug into a lovely high-end sound system, queue up your favourite record, and lie back in a big comfy chair and appreciate every single note.

If that is you, I can’t recommend these beautiful cans enough. If you’re more like me — the kind of lunatic that would plug high-end headphones into anything they can find with a 3.5–4.5mm jack to see what they do to the quality of the sound, and are surprised to discover it makes it a hell of a lot better — well then, your mileage will vary depending on how much you fall in love with the results.

About the Author

Gareth Newnham

Sendy Audio Egret Headphones Review