Sendy Audio Apollo Pro review: class, comfort and smooth tones

Review Overview

£449 / $449 / €499, sendyaudio.com

The Sendy Audio name seems to be popping up more and more recently. The Chinese brand is busy building a reputation for producing comfortable and head-turning planar magnetic headphones, having really gained traction on forums and YouTube channels in 2025 with its V2 Peacock model. Since then, Steven Slate Audio has selected a modified version of the brand’s AIVA 2 headphones for use in its VSX Immersion One virtual monitoring system, and we also covered the £799 Egret model in a recent review.

Sendy’s latest release—the Apollo Pro—offers a combination of precise planar magnetic technology, style, and all-day comfort at a sub-£500 asking price, and I’m surprised at how much I’ve warmed to these beautiful headphones during my multiple weeks of testing. Their light weight and soft voicing make them highly suited to all-day use, but there is a slight catch.

Sendy Apollo Pro: What’s in the box, and are they comfortable?

The Apollo Pros are every bit as stylish as the more expensive Sendy models, featuring striking zebrawood ear cups and an attractive, swirly metal outer mesh. I actually prefer the look of these to the more understated Egret. Placed on the head, the Apollo Pro’s soft, velvety ear pads and lambs leather headband ensure an extremely comfortable fit, and I find the clamping force extremely light in comparison to the HifiMan Sundara. And putting on my glasses to avoid squinting at the computer monitor does nothing to diminish the supreme level of comfort – unlike my HifiMans. The Apollo Pros don’t feel heavy either, so I’m happy so far.

A high-quality braided, balanced cable is included in the box. It’s composed of a mixture of silver- and gold-plated copper strands and is a definite bonus considering the price. The cable connects to both ear cups, and on the other end is a 4.4 mm balanced jack for plugging into headphone amps, but there are also adapters to get you to 3.5mm and 6.35mm. You also get a leather-effect, zipped carry case too, along with a separate hemp pouch for the cable – both great for protecting your investment when you’re on the go.

Sendy Apollo Pro: How’s the sound?

I pair the Sendys with a Topping DX1 ii for listening, to enjoy extra headroom and level over my MacBook’s onboard headphone amp. The sound opens up nicely, appearing a touch more refined in transient detail than on the Mac. I also lap up the extra volume level that comes from using a balanced cable – particularly useful when you have an EQ profile running, and you’ve lost level after having to attenuate the EQ’s preamp gain to compensate.

When I first strap the Apollo Pro to my head, I’m really surprised by the treble presentation as it’s relatively muted to my ears compared to the HifiMan Sundara planars I’m used to. Flicking through reference tracks, I gradually become more accustomed to the sound, but there’s still something a little lacking at the very top. For example, on Louis Tomlinson’s Imposter, hi-hats lack bite and vocals almost sound like they’ve been de-essed too far. But when I relent and decide to switch back to the Sundaras, the HifiMan treble sounds too glassy and forced to be truly comfortable – although the Apollo Pro’s treble is slightly muted to my ears, I’d definitely need to take more regular rest breaks with the voicing of the Sundaras.

In comparison to the highs, the Apollo Pro’s mid-range seems ultra bold. An advocate of a Harman listening curve—where bass and treble boosts leave the mid-range recessed—I find this bearable in commercial reference tracks, but too brutally honest in my own mixes, which have loads of acoustic instruments sitting in this range. Just as some monitor speakers allow you to focus more heavily on the mid-range to stop tracks masking each other and to tackle annoying resonances, then so too do the Apollo Pros, but it isn’t always pretty.

Bass is tight and punchy, with no whiff of distortion. Ultimately though, I find myself wanting more in the sub-bass region compared to a Harman-tuned response. To edge nearer to my tonal preferences, I quickly dial up a loudness curve—low and high shelf boosts of 2.5 dB—which provides the highs and sub-bass the extra excitement I’m craving, and makes the mids more subdued in comparison. It’s a stark change for the better on evergreen reference Sharpness (Jamie Woon), bringing out vocal air at the top rather than it fighting for space at the top of a congested mid-range, yet highs still manage to retain their smooth quality. Bass lines are also reassuringly full after the tweak, and I now have pretty much everything I demand from a pair of headphones for audio work – technical performance, comfort and sound.

Stereo presentation also benefits from the mids being recessed slightly, becoming extra compelling when listening to filmic reference tracks with lush, stereo-captured strings and the like. I’m totally immersed in the doomed nautical world of Sigur Rós’ Sæglópur, where stereo piano combines with contrasting mono delay taps and glockenspiel, while the hard-panned distorted percussive sounds alternating between ears seem to stretch outside the realm of the headphones.

Should I buy the Sendy Apollo Pro?

The Apollo Pro is a solid buy if you’re in search of a reasonably priced pair of planar magnetics and you enjoy a smoother high-frequency response. Competing planar headphones in a similar price range have the tendency to be voiced with plenty of treble sparkle, and this can become harsh and fatiguing if listening for any extended length of time. There’s none of this here, but the muted highs do take some getting used to, or more ideally, need to be given a leg-up with a touch of EQ. As ever, this is a personal perspective – it’s not unusual to have to EQ headphones to taste, and this pair handles it effortlessly.

Like many planar headphones, the Apollo Pros perform and sound better with a dedicated headphone amp, but this needn’t necessarily be expensive; for example, my affordable Topping DX1 ii offers extremely high-quality conversion with low distortion, a 4.4mm balanced output and onboard EQ.

Post EQ adjustment, I’d have no hesitation in using these as a daily driver for producing, mixing and mastering. And toggling the EQ off reveals a bold mid-range to help focus on anything going wrong in that frequency range.

I find them one of the most enjoyable sets of headphones to wear, at any price. Abundantly comfortable, and cool in both wearing and stylish terms, the Sendy Apollo Pro is a seriously impressive newcomer in the sub-£500 market.

Key features

• Open-back planar magnetic headphones
• 78mm drivers
• 27 Ohms impedance
• 93 dB (+/- 3 dB) sensitivity
• Frequency range: 20 Hz – 40 kHz
• Zebrawood cups with metal mesh outer
• Aluminium frame
• Breathable velvet ear pads; lamb leather headband
• Braided balanced cable with 4.4mm plug (and 3.5mm/6.35mm adapters)
• Weight: 354 g
• Leather-effect carry case; hemp cable bag

Barry has been teaching and writing about music technology for over 25 years. With particular interests in immersive audio, recording with natural reverb, speaker and headphone developments and teaching mixing workflows, the pinnacle of his experience was working as an Audio Associate at the Banff Centre in Canada. When not working on recording and writing projects, he can be found knocking out banging folk tunes on accordion and bouzouki.