Hifiman Svanar Wireless TWS

Up the Hymalaya R2R mountain!

PROS: hi-res tuning with a natural detailed tonality, deep sub-bass rumble, wide expanded soundstage, comfortable fit, built-in R2R DAC chip, deep ANC and other modes, LDAC support, proximity sensor, wired/wireless charging of the case.

CONS: sound is very eartips-dependent, bulky charging case, no app support.

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion.

Manufacturer website: Hifiman. Available for sale directly or various authorized retailers, including Bloom Audio.

Intro.

With the rising popularity of tws, many audiophile earphone companies jumped on the bandwagon to join the party. But not everybody followed the same path. Some thought it will be enough to just take a generic OEM design and refresh it with better drivers. Others decided to make it look fancier, focusing more on aesthetics while refreshing OEM design. And there were those in between, trying to come up with something more original. Feels like now we are going through the new wave of next gen tws releases, with a lot more attention being paid to the tuning.

I wasn’t too familiar with Hifiman’s early TWS600 release but remember reading a lot of comments about its futuristic shell design. TWS800 was my first taste of Hifiman true wireless earphones which I enjoyed, both the tuning and the traditional shell design. Those true wireless earphones used similar drivers as in their RE800 iems, thus a x800 model reference. In the latest Svanar TWS release, Hifiman took their time with a complete overhaul while keeping the signature dynamic driver design with a topology diaphragm found in the original Svanar iems.

Because of this connection between wired and wireless releases, when I was approached by Hifiman asking me if I’m interested to test Svanar tws, I decided to borrow their original wired iems as well. At first, I received a preproduction tws unit, though the tuning and shells were already finalized. I did spend a month with it and couldn’t wait to get my hands on the production unit which added ANC to this everything-but-the-kitchen-sink release. Now, I’m ready to share what found after spending more time with this latest Hifiman Svanar TWS release.

Unboxing and Accessories.

Svanar TWS arrived in a compact carboard packaging with all the key features, specs, and links printed on the box. With the cover off, you will find the charging case and a pair of tws earpieces in a secure cutouts of a top layer “sponge” insert. Underneath, the bottom layer had cutouts for usb-c charging cable and 7 pairs of eartips (+1 pair already on Svanar TWS). Those included 2 double-flange eartips, one “morphed” double-flange pair, 2 pairs of foam eartips, and 3 pairs of a more traditional silicone eartips.

That’s about it, just typical essentials you will find with many other TWS earphones.

Design and Functionality.

As the name suggests, this should be a true wireless version of Hifiman Svanar IEMs. But I don’t want to assume they used the same exact driver since that info wasn’t disclosed in the spec.

Starting with a charging case, it has a unique geometric multi-facet shape. I had to pause for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to open it while following the outline of a silver edge going across the middle. One of the surface facets has usb-c charging port and its flat surface used for Qi wireless charging. You will also find a hard button (for reset) with Hifiman logo that lit up when you open the case. It’s a cool looking charging case with a futuristic design, but it is bulky and a bit heavy at 84g by itself and 100g with earpieces inside. It would make a great conversion piece on top of your desk, but at the same time, not exactly pocket friendly. One important thing about this charging case, it was designed to accommodate full size eartips and still being able to close the lid while letting earpieces maintain a charging contact.

TWS earpieces are quite unique looking as well. Interesting how Hifiman went from more futuristic TWS600 to more traditional TWS800, and now back to “futuristic” looks with more traditional fit of Svanar TWS. The inner side of the shell uses a carbon fiber material with universal-custom shape, like wired Svanar (except those use brass material), fitting the concha area of your ear like a glove. On the outside, it has a plastic silver shell which extends down. The exterior diamond shape touch area of the shell is easy to locate with a finger and has a precise touch sensitivity. The shells are very lightweight, 8g each, and with regular size eartips have a secure and comfortable fit. They look like wired Svanar with an addon of external touch area and the elongated extension with mics. Also, they have IPX5 rating.

Under the hood, Svanar TWS is filled with a ton of goodies. First, you start with Bluetooth 5.2 module which supports LDAC hi-res protocol. Then, there is Hifiman Hymalaya R2R custom ladder DAC and headphone amplifier module, tuned specifically for their topology diaphragm dynamic drivers. For those not familiar, Topology Diaphragm has a nano particle coating to control the tuning of the driver. Also, implemented was an ear-detection sensor, a proximity sensor to detect when earpiece is out to stop the playback. I didn’t see this feature being mentioned anywhere, discovered it by accident when removed earpieces during the playback.

And if you want more, you also got dual mode deep noise canceling with ANC (active noise canceling based on a principal of adding a second sound specifically designed to cancel the first one) and ENC (noise-cancellation that uses microphones to detect external sounds and create an opposite sound wave to cancel them out). In addition to Noise Canceling, you have a choice of Transparency and High-Fidelity modes which I will cover in more details in Sound Analysis section. Just keep in mind, different modes will affect the battery life. In Transparency mode you get up to 7hrs of playback, switching to ANC will bring it down to 6hrs, and if you want the ultimate HiFi mode, the battery will go down to 4hrs of playback time. The battery in charging case gives you 3 additional recharges.

Now, as far as touch panel functionality goes, it covers all the controls, except for volume:

Double-click (left/right) to skip back
Triple-click (left/right) to skip next
Touch (left/right) for play/pause
Press’n’hold left earpiece for 3sec to switch between Noise Cancellation, Transparency, and High-Fidelity modes
Press’n’hold right earpiece for voice assistance
Double-click during the call to answer/end the call
Press’n’hold for 2sec to reject the incoming call

All is great, except there is no app support. Is it important? Not necessary, except for EQ which is often implemented in the app. I’m personally not a big fan of EQing IEMs because when you go from one source to another, or using local playback vs streaming, you can’t apply the same identical setting. But with TWS, in-app EQ stays with earphones no matter what source you paired up with. Of course, you can still use EQ on your smartphone or a DAP but having app with EQ that stays with earpieces makes it consistent no matter what source you are using.

The fit.