Siena Rondo - vibrator by Mantric - review by softcoeur

I love this toy! The Mantric Siena Rondo is a high-quality, well-designed vibrator that has moved to top spot in my toy box. Rather than being just a clitoral stimulator that happens also to be insertable, it’s the first insertable vibrator whose vibrations are strong enough to do something for me internally. With other vibrators, I found the vibrations a bit pointless once inserted. This is definitely not the case with the Siena Rondo. The vibrations are rumbly when low and intense when high. The variety in the vibration sequences are exquisite.

The shape is wonderfully stimulating for either gentle thrusting or clenching around it. I found it a bit too rigid and girthy for vigorous thrusting but was impressed at how great the Rondo felt even when I didn't use it for thrusting at all. The vibrations on the highest setting are powerful enough to be felt throughout my pelvis and through to my clit from inside. The girth of the Rondo is nicely filling.

On unwrapping the Siena Rondo, the first thing I noticed was the feel of the material. It is a soft, squishy high-quality silicone with a matte finish, like an eraser. I kept getting urges to try erasing pencil marks on paper with it! The black parts of the toy where the controls are, and the domed battery cover are also matte finish, but not soft like the insertable part of the shaft.

The surface has a nice tantalizing drag against skin, but slides smoothly with lube. The matte finish does not attract lint and dust as badly as shiny silicone does. As for odor, when I held the Rondo right up against my nose and sniffed, there was a very faint rubber odor, but it was normally not noticeable at all.

The Rondo definitely feels like a high-quality product. It's well-made, and has a nice weight to it. The light lavender color is tasteful. There’s an “M” for the brand molded near the base. The seam running vertically down the length of the vibrator on 2 sides is visible, but probably not something you can feel during use.

The Rondo has gentle undulations along its length, a slight bump for the g-spot, and 3 waves along the underside. Starting with a gently pointed head, the girth increases to the biggest part of the "head", decreases slightly, then, following the 3 waves, gradually increases again to the biggest circumference, near the control buttons.

The controls are 2 soft buttons near base of the shaft. The domed base, which is the screw-on battery cap, has some elongated indentations to help with grip. While the Rondo is unmistakably a vibrator, it's not realistic and is fairly discreet, and tasteful in its pale colors.

The Rondo has a listed diameter of 1-3/4" that I find very satisfying, but it is quite big around and unless I'm warmed up, it can be slightly uncomfortable to thrust. However, unlike in other vibrators I've tried, the Rondo is powerful enough, and has enough interesting patterns, that it can feel wonderful just to clench around the Rondo and feel the vibrations rumble through you. For those who like deep, rumbly vibrations rather than the high buzzy kind, you'll like the Rondo.

The Rondo takes 4 AAA batteries, stacked 2 on 2. One pair goes positive end down, the other pair goes negative end down. For whatever reason, the diagram on the inside of the battery compartment on my Rondo was reversed, so initially I thought it wasn’t working, but by trial and error I realized I just had to do the opposite of what the diagram indicated. So if you get a Rondo and think it’s not working, try the reverse of what your battery diagram indicates. Also, the lowest most rumbly vibrations on some of the variable modes are really quite low, so it might take a couple of seconds before you can be sure it's on.

The Rondo has 2 unmarked buttons on the black part near its base. You press either one to turn it on: the upper one to start with the variable modes; the lower one to start with the steady vibrations. After that, press either one to move in one or the other direction along the series of modes. Hold either button down for a couple of seconds to turn off – you don’t have to cycle back through all the modes.

There are three steady vibration modes, and seven variable ones. The variation and sequence of rhythms within each variable mode are longer and more interesting than any other vibrator I’ve tried. Just as an example, there’s a mode that starts with steady vibration gradually increasing in power, followed by a couple of short full-power bursts, steady vibration again increasing to full power, followed again by the couple of short full-power bursts, then repeating.

The Rondo is incredibly quiet, just like it promises. It pretty much just vibrates, without buzzing. Even on the highest settings, it is very very quiet.

The Rondo is made of silicone, so only use water-based, not silicone, lube with it. For cleaning, because of the electric bits, you can’t boil it, or wash it in a dishwasher. But it’s waterproof, so you can do as thorough a job as you want with soap and water or even a 10% bleach solution.

The bumps and ridges are smooth undulations, so those are also easy to clean. The only area you might have to pay more attention to is the "M" logo low down on the shaft. The circle around the M and the M itself are raised.

The Rondo comes in a discrete-looking box with a white lid over a nicely contrasting dark red bottom. It almost looks like a box of chocolates! There's an outline drawing of the toy on the top of the lid, but just the brand and item name and on the long sides, in small type, “10 mode waterproof intimate massager” in 4 languages and graphical representations of the 10 vibration modes. No crude “Dildo” in huge letters or pictures of naked people. The underneath of the outer box has a summary of the features in 4 languages, including the statements “Designed with love and finished by hand,” and “Designed in London with love, made for fun all over the world.” Although designed in the UK, the product is made in China.

When you lift up the top lid, you find the Rondo sitting snugly in a shaped depression in the flocked container inside the bottom box. It’s easy to lift out using the thumb holes on either side of the vibrator.

Now, the thing that I really appreciated about the Mantric packaging is that the vibrator itself, inside all this packaging, is shrink-wrapped! I always wash my toys before first use anyway, but sometimes when you receive a toy in packaging that isn’t securely sealed you just wonder if someone else has handled it before. The shrink-wrap on this toy just gave me another level of “nice” feeling that started with the tasteful packaging.

Inside the box is a slim booklet for the Mantric Siena series containing a warm thank you message, and detailed battery insertion, care and cleaning instructions in English, German, French, and Spanish. Note that the mode pattern diagrams aren't repeated in the booklet – they’re listed only the outside of the top box.