Hifiman Shangri-La (Jade 2, or HSL)

5 figures for cans alone ?

 

http://stereoexchange.com/latest-news/hifimans-new-shangri-la/

10k.

We 5 figures now boys!

 

Still ridiculous with a capital F.

The high end headphone market is rapidly starting to resemble the high end audio cable market.

 

Jesus guys, don't talk about it and give vendors any ideas. But yeah, things are getting out of hand. Time to get into DIY speakers.

 

I'll hopefully pick up a pair of these at RadioShack next week.

 

The designer of HFM is making a ApogeeCaliper-like speaker (ortho speaker), if these speakers release, I guess they will be 50000.

 

I have no problem with anyone charging any price for any luxury goods if they think that will be most profitable.

However, they really need to nail the build quality if they are asking $10k or more for a pair of headphones. Based on these pictures, I don't think they've managed that.

I love my HE-560, but the build quality on them is worse than Sennheiser 558 which I can buy for under $100 on Amazon and far shy of the $400 Oppo PM-3. The headband adjuster too easily moves - the detents are not firm enough. The overall finish is very rough, eg exposed top metal band, non-smooth earcup rotatation.

I know the Shangri-La will use different materials than HE-560, but from the pics, it shares many design elements which are not befitting of something so expensive. I tolerate them in my $700 headphones because, to me, they sound like more-than-$700 headphones. To tolerate them in $10k+ headphones, they better sound like more-than-$10k+ headphones. And what do those sound like?

 

Since when does price directly correlate to build quality in this hobby?

 

Wow, those were some ugly Maggy clones.

 

If it looks like a Maggy, sounds like a Maggy, but isn't priced like a Maggy, get a Magnepan.

 

All designs by Sanford and Son

 

Nah forget it...too cheap.

 

That last dollar makes a huge difference.

 

I heard the Shangri-La with "speshal" tube amp at Stereo Exchange last night. I only had a brief listen and while Bian did have a source with a bunch of albums on it, it was on the floor and I didn't want to go monkeying around with it so most of my listening was to Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road which was already queued up and with which I am very familiar. And then later I listened to some jazz tracks that had been cued up. But none of these were my test tracks. My final qualification is that this setup did not sound bad.

So, with those significant qualifications, I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed. It is a little unfair to say, as I did above, that it didn't sound bad. In fact, it sounded perfectly fine with nothing out of balance. But overall I found the sound signature pretty unengaging and in no way competitive with the Stax 009 setup with Woo's electrostat amp that was also running in the room. There was clarity and they seemed fairly quick, yet overall lacked the stat magic that I have come to expect from Stax. I am not a Stax owner but am a bit of a fanboy from my numerous listening experiences at shows, dealers and meets. Personally, I would have taken the HE-1000 over the Shangrilas based on what I heard without taking price into consideration.

Based on my conversation with Bian, I think the amp still has a ways to go and it could have been the limiting factor notwithstanding those huge tubes. It just didn't seem to drive the Shangrilas with any authority; everything seemed laid back and light-weight, even by stat standards.

There was also a very slight acrid smell (burning-like odor) coming from either the cans or the amp. Given, the nature of these cans, frankly I didn't want to have them on my head too long with any burning smells whatsoever in the air. So, again, my time was quite limited even though they were freely available to listen to for an extended period.

I like Bian and HiFiman and wish them the best, but certainly at the prices I am reading about in this thread, this setup makes no sense at all based on what I heard. I hope to hear this again when it is closer to final production versions of the can and amp. Also, hopefully they will upgrade the build quality. Whatever one thinks of this particular build for the HE-1K at $3,000, at the purported price of $9,999 this build is unacceptable IMHO (which is not to say they are uncomfortable; just flimsy and delicate)

 

they sound cheap (10k) next to senn new flagship (-:

 

Lastest news: Fang said that hfm speakers are coming out in 2 yrs. Prototype completed. (LoL, must be scary price...Maggie is a much better choice.)