Sendy Audio Apollo Headphones Review
Open back headphones are the harder sell these days, thanks to ever improving external noise isolation that encompasses broader soundscapes from newer headphones' releases. But are they still a necessary design for an even higher level of immersion into your music library when you have the time to sit in silence and absorb yourself in your sounds. We've had the $499/£429 Sendy Apollo headphones here at the studio for well over month to decipher just that.
Design
In all honesty, the lure of these headphones as something for us to review wasn’t drawn from the spec sheet, but instead it was all visual. The rustic allure of the rosewood earcups gravitated our interest. Whilst we are fonder of a satin wood finish, the lacquered finish is still eye-catching and offers strong protection as they have yet to change in appearance. We cannot quibble about the build here, the components are strong and the build is robust after considerable usage.
Sendy have designed an almost undetectable headband; it’s barely noticeable on the head and doesn’t irritate from hours of listening. A similar story can be had from the detachable foam ear cups, which are somewhat uniquely squared off rather than being rounded. This creates a defining seal and once again offers prolonged comfort. As well as a hard hemp carry case being included in the box, so is a braided 3.5mm cable and 4.4mm adapter - these would suit a fabric coating.
Audio performance
To begin with it seemed difficult to evaluate the Sendy headphones due to them having an exceptionally unusual sound posture. They’re absolutely neither bass heavy or remarkably sparky in the high ranges. This leaves a mid-range which on first impression is a bit off-putting because it’s intentionally overindulged in and makes familiar pieces of music sound quite different. But, as you listen, you begin to feel the audio and understand the approach here, it’s all about being delicate and not at all brash. They are definitely a pair of headphones that look away from a mass audience and are carefully playing to a specific kind of ear that prefers nonchalance.
The Sendy Apollo headphones offer an intimate listen and get a thumbs up for being an excellent podcast consumption companion. The spoken word is a real strength of the headphones' driver arrangement; they have an airy presence, which is, of course, somewhat literal in terms of them being open backed. A professionally recorded and produced podcast exhibits a particularly live quality due to this, and the detailed warmth emitted from the Apollo headphones make them a genuine goto to be picked up for this purpose. The stereo effect made itself noticeable when listening to podcasts, but it’s music where this is often tremendous. The layering of instruments, vocals and other audio artefacts leads to a clearness, without the thumping beat of a bass drum (even if this is the way the creator intended it to be). Of course, at times this plays against them and songs, particularly 90’s to early 2000’s Britpop, can have a flatness in some of the more hyper arrangements when listened to through these Sendy headphones. Even when you have part of a song that pours everything into the mid-range, you end up with a musical traffic jam that simply sounds flat. We did experiment with EQ settings to put more weight across the frequencies and it made them convincingly less shy, but distortion could roll in as a by-product.
A digital to analogue converter (DAC) is required to squeeze the best out of them and also a source that can play Hi-Res lossless audio such as Apple Music. With or without a DAC, in our testing, when it comes to general listening the Sendy Apollo headphones are not disciplined and this is understandable due to the way they have been tuned. Yet they do make up for this in having a tonal enjoyment, with a mixture of warmth and depth that will impress even the most critical of ears. ‘I’m Fine’ by Daisy the Great reveals this in the first few seconds, with light vocals springing around drums, an electric organ and guitars. Acoustic numbers are a genre where the warmth plays into the strength of these headphones and the Jack Johnson catalogue becomes an even more relaxing listen.
Verdict
A reclined airy listening experience and lounged comfort leave a distinct impression from the novel wood-clad Sendy Apollo headphones. They aren’t drenched in bass or tuned to soar into the higher ranges and that signature wide open mid-range sound-style is not going to appeal to the masses, but will specifically suit a certain kind of ear. Podcast listening is really enjoyable, with that ‘live’ in the studio quality. Music listening provokes a mixture of curiosity in the way these headphones display songs you are familiar with, as well as appreciation for the nuanced detail in playback. They can be used with any device, but to gain ultimate quality a digital to analogue converter is necessary.