These ultra-affordable IEMs have a heart of glass

If you've ever gone shopping for wired headphones you'll know that there are a lot of brands without the profile of a Sennheiser or a Sony, but with very happy customers. Sivga is one of them.

That's thanks to its affordable in-ear monitors (and other form factor headphones), which often attract rave reviews from customers and audio blogs alike. Now its new Que UTG IEMs look set to attract some more praise, thanks to unusual looks and even more unusual construction.

The outside of each of the Sivga Que UTG in-ears is striking with its wooden insert, but it's what's inside that's really interesting. These IEMs have a heart, or rather a diaphragm, of glass.

Sivga Que UTG: why glass could be class

The dynamic driver has a 10mm flat glass diaphragm, which Sivga says balances light weight and ultra-high rigidity to deliver uniform force, plus "exceptional" responsiveness and accuracy.

The higher rigidity of glass means the 0.4mm thick diaphragm, made by Japanese firm NEG, delivers reduced vibration and distortion while enhancing transient speed and dynamics.

The glass sits in a PU enclosure to dampen the hardness of the material. The housing is made from zinc, while the faceplates are carved from natural green sandalwood that's been left to oxidise for three months before being polished by hand. That makes each pair unique.

The cable is a high-purity silver OFC with a seven core, seven-strand design and silver-plated OFC conductors. The swappable connectors are 3.5mm and 4.4mm balanced. Frequency response is 20-20kHz and impedance is 32 ohms.

Early reviews we've seen so far are very positive, and I love the description on head-fi.org comparing these IEMs to the previous Sivga Que: "The Que can be imagined as a man who smokes a cigar in front of a fireplace, whereas the UTG version is more like a downhill biker," it reads.

The Sivga Que UTG IEMs are available now for £89 / $89 / €109 (about AU$134).