Hey Folks, had my time with the Orpheus II on Friday, was dope. Best headphone system I've heard. Borrowing from NAS, if I ruled the world, this is the system I'd put on everyone's desk.
From a pure listening perspective, the orpheus takes it by 3%-5% (might have been more, might have been less, see caveat section below re DACs).
From an aesthetics/package/presentation perspective the Orpheus wins handily, 30%-40% easily. That said, this is not terribly fair because the Shengri La is a prototype and the Orpheus II, while also labeled "prototype", has obviously spent a few years in the Axel Grell design polish machine.
I have no idea what price Fang has in-mind for the Shangri La. The Orpheus at $55k isn't a real product to be considered and bought by the Audiophile community. It's a cool statement product that will sit on the desks of the wealthiest among us. My response to this, and all the people saying "$55k!?!?! THAT'S INSANE!!" is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Yea, it is an insane price point, you're right, but if you're debating the difference between a $500 product and a $700 product, or even a $1000 product and a $5000 product, this isn't meant for you to own.
It's not meant for me, it's not meant for 99.9% of the people reading this post, but if you're part of the top .01%, and you're at a loss trying to decide your next "$55k bauble" purchase, this is probably better than an extra picasso sketch.
Now for the caveats:
I listened to the same files on ("Hotel California" and "Reelin' in the Years") but both systems use a different DAC. When I think about electrostatic headphone systems, especially these two (Orpheus II and Shangri La), I think of the Headphone + Amp as a single unit in the signal path. The Orpheus has it's own DAC, and the HifiMan system was using a HM-901 as the DAC.
Both rooms were quiet/empty during my demo's but the wonderful CES organizers put Senn's pavilion right next to a subwoofer manufacturer. The subwoofer people started demoing their wares halfway through my second pass on Hotel California so I ended my listening early, still heard it once through.
Props to Tom from Sennhieser sales for presenting the Orpheus and giving me extra time as the show closed.
