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HIFIMAN Shangri-La: The New Electrostatic Headphones From HIFIMAN
Feb 10, 2017 at 6:10 PM Post #574 of 1,057
Listened to both the Edition 6's and Shangri-La's on two consecutive days at CES last month. On the second day, I went early and got a good 30 minutes of uninterrupted time at Hifiman's booth before it got too loud.
 
I can see why someone would prefer the Ed6's over the SL's and vice versa. IMO, the Ed6's are a fun headphone and the true successor to the HE-6's. 
 
My immediate reaction to hearing the Ed6's were that they sounded like a pair of unmodded HE-6's but with a noticeably larger soundstage. The energetic tone, transparency, and hard hitting bass was all present. I didn't hear much of the silky, seductive mids of the HE-6's though. Besides the larger soundstage, I found the ED6's just sightly more refined than the HE-6's across the board. However, it still had the same fatiguing and aggressively bright (amp dependent) treble that the HE6's had before I modded mine. The ED6s was amped by a EF-6 with a Hifiman DAP as the source. I can imagine the Ed6's scaling well with better amping but I'm not sure about modding a $6k pair of headphones.
 
I would rank the SGL up there with the BHSE>Stax 007 (most musical) and BHSE>Milo DIY Orpheus (most transparent) as one of the best systems I've heard to date. This was nice surprise as I found the SGL "disappointing" when I first heard it at the last Southern CA can jam.
 
The SGL system sounded "grand" and real-to-life.  A unique aspect of SGL was its ability to drive the sound with authority. Hard to describe, but the SGL sounded like a high-end speaker system in a well-pressurized listening room in which the air molecules were at the full mercy of of the speakers. The Focal Utopia is the closest headphone I've tried that exhibit this quality, but the SGL takes it to another level.
 
I could not find any flaws in the SGL tone in which the bass, mids and highs seemed well-proportioned. Also, the SGL had the best imaging I've heard on any headphone system. The sound stage was large and placement of sounds was stable and easy to discern within in a 3-dimensional space (without even having to try). I felt transported to the actual venue of the recording. For example, in a few large ensemble tracks, I could tell which performers were in front and back of each other, and the size of each sound object seemed proportional to the real size of instrument or voice. This is in contrast to the over-blown sound images (e.g., 10 feet tall voice, violin, etc...) from my previously owned magnepan system.
 
Lastly, when I closed my eyes and really focused on the sound, it felt like the headphones disappeared and there were no boundaries to the soundstage as if I was listening to speaker system in a very good acoustically treated room. The closest I've heard this effect was with my Stax 009's on a KGSSHV Carbon.
 
FYI, I got to listen to the Sennheiser HE-1's right after the SGL's, and I liked the SGL's better. I only listened to one track (Hotel California) on the HE-1's. I could find no fault of the tonality of the HE-1s (very transparent, detailed, instruments sounded real, zero fatigue/harshness) but sound stage was a bit narrow and I did not get the feeling of headphones simulating speakers (i.e., out of the head) like the SGL's. The HE-1 sounded like a typical headphone system of sounds playing inside my head. Also, I found the cups of the HE-1s a little warm and heavy, which didn't seem conducive for comfortable listening.
 
Please note these are meet impressions and so aren't too reliable. Case in point, I was disappointed by the SGL first time around but blown away at CES. Conversely, I wasn't too impressed by the Sennheiser HE-1's at CES but wouldn't be surprised if I am blown away if I have the honor of hearing it again.
 
Feb 11, 2017 at 12:46 AM Post #577 of 1,057
boynamedsue said:
  Listened to both the Edition 6's and Shangri-La's on two consecutive days at CES last month. On the second day, I went early and got a good 30 minutes of uninterrupted time at Hifiman's booth before it got too loud.
 
I can see why someone would prefer the Ed6's over the SL's and vice versa. IMO, the Ed6's are a fun headphone and the true successor to the HE-6's. 
 
My immediate reaction to hearing the Ed6's were that they sounded like a pair of unmodded HE-6's but with a noticeably larger soundstage. The energetic tone, transparency, and hard hitting bass was all present. I didn't hear much of the silky, seductive mids of the HE-6's though. Besides the larger soundstage, I found the ED6's just sightly more refined than the HE-6's across the board. However, it still had the same fatiguing and aggressively bright (amp dependent) treble that the HE6's had before I modded mine. The ED6s was amped by a EF-6 with a Hifiman DAP as the source. I can imagine the Ed6's scaling well with better amping but I'm not sure about modding a $6k pair of headphones.
 
I would rank the SGL up there with the BHSE>Stax 007 (most musical) and BHSE>Milo DIY Orpheus (most transparent) as one of the best systems I've heard to date. This was nice surprise as I found the SGL "disappointing" when I first heard it at the last Southern CA can jam.
 
The SGL system sounded "grand" and real-to-life.  A unique aspect of SGL was its ability to drive the sound with authority. Hard to describe, but the SGL sounded like a high-end speaker system in a well-pressurized listening room in which the air molecules were at the full mercy of of the speakers. The Focal Utopia is the closest headphone I've tried that exhibit this quality, but the SGL takes it to another level.
 
I could not find any flaws in the SGL tone in which the bass, mids and highs seemed well-proportioned. Also, the SGL had the best imaging I've heard on any headphone system. The sound stage was large and placement of sounds was stable and easy to discern within in a 3-dimensional space (without even having to try). I felt transported to the actual venue of the recording. For example, in a few large ensemble tracks, I could tell which performers were in front and back of each other, and the size of each sound object seemed proportional to the real size of instrument or voice. This is in contrast to the over-blown sound images (e.g., 10 feet tall voice, violin, etc...) from my previously owned magnepan system.
 
Lastly, when I closed my eyes and really focused on the sound, it felt like the headphones disappeared and there were no boundaries to the soundstage as if I was listening to speaker system in a very good acoustically treated room. The closest I've heard this effect was with my Stax 009's on a KGSSHV Carbon.
 
FYI, I got to listen to the Sennheiser HE-1's right after the SGL's, and I liked the SGL's better. I only listened to one track (Hotel California) on the HE-1's. I could find no fault of the tonality of the HE-1s (very transparent, detailed, instruments sounded real, zero fatigue/harshness) but sound stage was a bit narrow and I did not get the feeling of headphones simulating speakers (i.e., out of the head) like the SGL's. The HE-1 sounded like a typical headphone system of sounds playing inside my head. Also, I found the cups of the HE-1s a little warm and heavy, which didn't seem conducive for comfortable listening.
 
Please note these are meet impressions and so aren't too reliable. Case in point, I was disappointed by the SGL first time around but blown away at CES. Conversely, I wasn't too impressed by the Sennheiser HE-1's at CES but wouldn't be surprised if I am blown away if I have the honor of hearing it again.
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So what you are saying is, the ED6 sounds like a $6,000 HE-6, but is in not at the level of the Stax SR-007 or SR-009.
 
Feb 11, 2017 at 2:51 AM Post #579 of 1,057
Well, keep in mind that's one person's comments from a show-condition brief audition without having all the gear side by side.  There is every possibility that he could hear this stuff again and change his mind like he did from the last time he heard the SL to now.
 
I would keep everyone's comments in mind but not necessarily come to a solid conclusion that SGL = Stax 007/ BHSE or Milo/BHSE.  Which is not really what I got out of what was said anyway - you have to draw comparisons to what you have experience with and what else is available on the market for a review to be helpful to others.  Just because those products were mentioned in the same paragraph doesn't mean that they are equal in every way.
 
My 2c
 
Feb 11, 2017 at 5:33 AM Post #580 of 1,057
Mm...very clear to me:

"I would rank the SGL up there with the BHSE>Stax 007 (most musical) and BHSE>Milo DIY Orpheus (most transparent) as one of the best systems I've heard to date."

He did not say that the SGL exceeded or eclipsed those aforementioned Stax systems. Nor did he say that the SGL underperformed.

That is his impression and I can respect that.
 
Feb 11, 2017 at 2:23 PM Post #581 of 1,057
Sorry for any confusion. My ranking was based on a list of my personal, most memorable listening experiences. Within this context, I would rank the Earmax Pro-->HD650 up there even though most would agree that this system doesn't match up technically with the best, but it was early in my headphone journey and was my very first experience with such a musically sounding pairing. At this point in my headphone journey, I've been pretty jaded after hearing a good number of summit-fi headphone systems, but both SGL and the Milos' DIY Orpheus both wowed me and have raised the bar for what headphones are capable of, very much like Quentin Tarantino's interpretation of "Like a Virgin" in Reservoir Dogs :).
 
Feb 12, 2017 at 12:41 AM Post #582 of 1,057
Impressions from NYC Canjam seem to be that SGL is technically inferior to the HE-1, though its tonal balance may be slightly better.
 
Feb 12, 2017 at 12:52 AM Post #583 of 1,057
pekingduck said:
 
 
Perhaps @jude can chime in and tell us more about the sound
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Those are yuuuge. Like, clownishly huge.
 
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