Verdict
The Sendy Peacock are a wondrously specified pair of high-end headphones, with gorgeously finished wooden ear cups and a musicality which borders on operatic. Tether them to a high-end two channel system and savour…
Pros
- Expansive audio performance
- Superb build quality
- Genre neutral
Cons
- Can weigh heavy after time
- Bass could be more pronounced
- Not enormously dynamic
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Planar Magnetic driversThese high-end drivers offer a precise, almost clinical, audio presentation -
Zebrawood earcupsLuxurious wooden earcups look great and are sturdy too -
Wired designNot designed to commute. Instead partner them with Hi-Fi amplification and listen at home
Introduction
China-based Sendy Audio, which is a sister brand to Sivga, has made a name for itself with headphones hewn from real wood. Beautiful to look at, and equipped with planar magnetic drivers, its offerings are not for the mainstream.
The Peacock, reviewed here, are a wired pair of open-back stereo designed purely to the pleasure of long form listening. They’re the type of headphones you don, when you want to listen to an album from start to finish, preferably with an extremely expensive dram to hand.
But they’re not without their foibles..
Design
- Exotic wood earcups
- Soft, leather earpads
- 2 metre 4.4mm balanced cable
As the Peacock are Sendy’s flagship hi-fi headphones, so the design is uncompromising.
Notably, they utilise Zebrawood for the headphone chamber shell. This exotic wood, native to Cameroon and Gabon, is distinguished by stripes of dark coloured grain in the sapwood.
Durable, it lends itself well to furniture, ornaments and, it seems, head fi. The housing itself is crafted from CNC milled aluminium. All of this does contribute to their weight, which at 578g is not inconsequential. The good news is they’re comfy too.
The padded headband and earpads are swathed in soft leather, while memory foam forms a comfortable seal.
The Peacock ship with a braided 2 metre 4.4mm balanced cable, comprising 8 strands, each apparently composed of thirty 0.08mm cores of 250D break-proof wire. All of which inspires confidence, as you jack it into an amplifier or DAP.
Included in the package is a 4.4mm balanced to 6.35mm single-ended adaptor, and a 4.4mm balanced to 4-Pin XLR adaptor.
The headphones and accessories ship in a substantial leather carry case, and offers business class protection.
Features
- 88mm planar magnetic drivers
- Wide frequency range
As these are wired Hi-Fi headphones, there’s no Bluetooth, noise cancelling or battery life details to concern ourselves with. Instead we can focus on the 8mm Planar Magnetic drivers themselves, which have been designed in-house by the Sendy Audio team, using Quad-Former technology.
This involves placing dual magnets alongside dual-coils, placed either side of a central diaphragm. The approach is said to minimise distortion.
The open-back design also allows for a certain amount of leakage. Frequency response covers 20Hz – 40kHz, with a sensitivity of 103dB.
Sound Quality
- Superb mid-range clarity
- Wide, spatial presentation
- Light bass
The key musical takeaway when listening to the Sendy Audio Peacock is an appreciation for their wide, spacious soundstage. Dim the lights, select your chosen album, and the physical confines imposed by those wooden earcups just fades away.
Art Blakey Moanin’ (Remastered 2013) is ideal territory for these cans. All the Jazz Messengers are given their own space; the languid backbeat is separated from the serenading sax, revealing the piano skiving in the background. You can almost smell the fug of the recording studio.
This ability to precisely stereo image is further evidenced by the psychedelic cash till opening of Pink Floyd’s Money (2011 Remastered Version), ping ponging left and right.
Tonally, they’re warm and naturalistic. There’s plenty of air at the top end, while the accommodating midrange is particularly kind to vocal performances, which are clinically defined. These headphones politely ask that you pay attention, then reward with stunning detail.
Anya Taylor-Joy’s a-capella version of Downtown (Last Night in Soho), is sublime. The Peacocks not only articulate this track beautifully, the subtle reverb in the recording is distinct enough to sound slightly ominous. The big band Uptempo version which follows on, swings with abandon.
Bass is always tight and controlled, but there’s no boom, which may disappoint some. Bryson Tiller’s Calypso doesn’t drop quite as low as I was expecting, its bass beats are dry rather than juicy, but then there’s no lethargic sag either.
Just to reassure myself that these Sendy’s can indeed pound down. I queued up Electric Callboy’s Tekkno Train and this multi-genre disc metal mash-up confirmed the Peacock’s will get dirty when pushed, seemingly at home with both synth dance bass and Euro-shredding.
I found the considered middle ground that the Peacock favours makes them genre neutral.
Yes, these serious over-ears will dance brightly with the pure pop of Superman (Taylor’s Version), but they’ll also furrow their brow intently with Dvorak’s Symphony No9 in E Minor From the New World. As performed by the New York Philharmonic, the presentation is dramatic, with every instrument clearly defined. I felt I could manoeuvre around them, like a fly in the hall.
They also like to be driven hard. Hocus Pocus 2020, the beefier version of the Focus prog yodelling classic, provides the planar magnetic drivers with a gloriously energetic workout, thanks to heavy riffs, electronic twiddles, and frenetic drum work. By contrast, the acoustic riffing and flute of House of the King, is breathy and three dimensional, placing the clappy chorus somewhere behind me, strumming guitar front left and windy lead dead centre.
I tried to catch these headphones out, but failed at every attempt. They sounded darn good with everything I played.
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Should you buy it?
They sound great
Try to outfox the Peacock with a range of music and they end up winning most of the time.
They’re expensive
£1300 for a wired headphone is a lot, and for that price I’d like a little more aggression and dynamism to compete with other rivals
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for distinctive Hi-Fi headphones of audiophile calibre, then the Sendy Audio Peacock is a bird well worth courting. Build quality and componentry reflect the admittedly toppy price tag, and their performance is elegant and refined. Vocal articulation impressed, and they’re spacious to a fault.
If there is a caveat it’s that the headphones are perhaps a little too polite for their own good, and lack dynamic bite. I’d have liked a little more aggression in their presentation, but that said their overall balance is peerless. They come highly recommended.
How we test
We test every pair of headphones we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Tested across several months
Tested with real world use
FAQs
The Sendy Peacock can cover a claimed 20Hz to 40kHz frequency range.
