Packaging and Accessories

This review sample of the Svanar shipped directly from HIFIMAN who also operates a web shop based out of its Chinese HQ. As such, I wanted to show how your own product would arrive if you end up purchasing directly. As with anything else I've received from HIFIMAN, the shipping box is made of the usual thick cardboard and has plenty of HIFIMAN branding on it, including a sticker that confirms what is inside for any prying eyes. I keep telling them to reconsider this just to be on the safe side since this info is only relevant to retailers. At least we know that the packaging itself is functional given the outer box is well-sized relative to the product box itself, which in turn comes inside a bubble wrap for added protection.


I wasn't sure if HIFIMAN's recent trend of going with a plain cardboard product box was going to cross over to the IEMs too and so far it seems to have been spared. In fact, this is one of the more luxurious unboxing experiences I've had to where you can immediately tell the Svanar is a flagship product. There's an outer sleeve in black which has the company logo and slogan, the product name, a reference to the driver technology inside, and a photograph of the IEMs themselves on the front. Salient product specifications are listed on the back—please correct the units for sensitivity, HIFIMAN—along with contact information for HIFIMAN depending on where you are located. This sleeve may seem a bit tight on the side, you will know why when you carefully remove it from over the inner box as well as the extending latch on it. The actual product box is quite similar to what the RE2000 Pro Gold came in before, it is a hard case with a faux leather exterior, and has a gold-plated metal badge on the top with further branding on it. The box is designed similar to a jewelery box with metal hinges on the back and the locking latch we saw before.


Opening the box reveals a fairly substantial hinge mechanism that others could take notes from as well as a layered unboxing with the top layer using a thick foam sheet and machined cutouts to snugly fit and protect three separate contains. The right-most cardboard accessory box comes clearly marked for ear tips and opens up to reveal five sets of silicone ear tips neatly packed again. One of these comes pre-installed on the IEMs so I took those out for a family photo here wherein we see single, double, and triple flange ear tips with the goal being to allow the best possible deep fit with these IEMs. Interestingly there are no foam tips provided here so you may want to try the stock tips first and then decide if you wish to partake in tip-rolling. The other accessory box contains the cable itself as well as a plastic zip-lock bag which has replacement connectors and housings for 2-pin connectors if the stock ones don't work out or have issues. Using these is not child's play and I feel these will be pretty much unused by everyone who has the Svanar anyway.


Now we get to the carry/storage case in the middle which is a fairly generic puck-style case I've seen used by many IEM manufacturers before. It has the HIFIMAN logo on top and a rubber seal in the middle that you need to break by prying off the lid to access the contents inside. The inner lining is soft and there is a foam insert which protects the IEMs thsemselves. In use you would remove this insert to make enough room to store the IEMs with the cable and ear tips of your choice—there isn't much room to store anything else here, perhaps a cleaning brush at most.


The bottom layer contains paperwork including a nice color-printed booklet going over the Svanar's story and design (online copy here). I also verified with HIFIMAN that this manual has an error in that it mentions foam tips are provided with the Svanar, which isn't the case as seen above. There's also a QC/warranty card with the serial number for the product on it and we also get a set of two silicone ear hooks, which are handy if you want more comfort or a pre-molded ear hook for these IEMs. A slit has been cut down the middle across the entire length of these—simply push the cable in.