[eskamobob1]

This project is still progressing slowly...There have been 2 rounds of auditions in China, and 9 revisions of driver have been made until May this year. The latest upgrade is the use of stax x9k headband (yep, the supplier of the Edifier headband is in China) and whole new handmade earpads just for more comfortable wearing、more gentle highs and more punchy bass. In contrast, another round driver I tuned it to a headphone that is closer to stax style，but sounds “big” just like shang-sr... During this period of time, I also remade the disassembled shang-jr that I posted on the headcase before, with new diaphragm, new mesh stator，more reliable assembly structure, and add pluggable cables, of course, I tuned this new shangr-jr to a bass heavy eatats similar to 007mk2. . .

Well this is cool as hell. If you end up doing a tour (even if you dint feel like selling) I'm sure there would be a ton of interest from parties in this thread

 

[msq123]

 

[mangus]

Wow! Amazing work and I bet they really sing. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a Sennheiser Orpheus OG (HE90) with Aristaeus amp (thank you David!). I had planned to enjoy it for a year or two and then pass it on, but that was maybe six years ago. That was really a white lie i told myself (and my wife) to justify the expense, but it has become a permanent fixture. I haven’t really done a side by side when the SR009/BHSE, but I enjoy it so much it doesn’t really matter. Bummed I can’t make CanJam SoCal this weekend as I’m traveling, but can’t wait to hear about it.

 

[draytonklammer]

Wow! Amazing work and I bet they really sing. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a Sennheiser Orpheus OG (HE90) with Aristaeus amp (thank you David!). I had planned to enjoy it for a year or two and then pass it on, but that was maybe six years ago. That was really a white lie i told myself (and my wife) to justify the expense, but it has become a permanent fixture. I haven’t really done a side by side when the SR009/BHSE, but I enjoy it so much it doesn’t really matter. Bummed I can’t make CanJam SoCal this weekend as I’m traveling, but can’t wait to hear about it.

Oh, how I hope to hear the HE90, SR-Omega, and Shang Sr. someday...
So curious to know how they all compare.

 

[draytonklammer]

Is the physical size of the Shang Sr. larger or the same as an HE-1000?

 

[smk5r]

About the same size.

 

[MAISONOBE AALAIN]

Exactly the same size: the pads in both cases are 13 cm in length.

Note that the shangri cables cannot be removed...

 

[draytonklammer]

I'll be joining your ranks sometime in the near future.
Sure hoping it'll replace a few of my headphones, including X9000...

 

[number1sixerfan]

I'll be joining your ranks sometime in the near future.
Sure hoping it'll replace a few of my headphones, including X9000...

Welcome to the club. As I said before, I did my best to not sway you in any way--you are my witness I was very objective (if that's even a thing) lol.

But to follow up on the last few topics and questions.. as I feel it could be very beneficial to many, and I'm listening to the SGL Sr. right now, have been for the past few hours..

First and foremost, there are three major things that standout with the SGL Sr. over all other headphones I've heard.

1. Realism: instruments just sound more realistic than ever before. The texture, the accuracy captured with the stroke of a piano key, pluck of a guitar string.. vocals as well. All much better than anything else.
2. Soundstage: most perfect and comprehensive soundstage. Insane depth, unrivaled. TOTL width, I think the Sr1a bests it, the TC and a few others equal. But the naturalness of it is what stands out.
3. Resolution/Imaging: the imaging within the amazing soundstage mentioned above is incredible. Together, the holographic nature is unmatched. Resolution wise, they're the best available that I've heard among anything

Some caveats and things to consider whether they're for you or not..

1. Bass is around what to expect for a stat. With fresh new pads, it's on par with the x9000, with better texture and detail. Both are just slightly ahead of say the 009 however, and not major improvements in that regard. When the pads wear down a bit, performance does decrease noticeably imo. Either way, for me, if bass heavy genres were my main thing, I would want a complement
2. For a stat, they are average neutral from a tonality perspective, but if you're significantly sensitive to brightness, you should at least try to hear them first. For reference, the 009 (as much as I love it) is bright to my ears but doable for an hour or two. The SGL Sr. is definitely much less offensive than that, but does have amazing sparkly highs, which some may not like

I have yet to hear a pair of headphones that can rival them at all. But I'm always happy to share perspective honestly, especially on if they may or may not work for anyone individually.. they are expensive lol, definitely do your due diligence. But I've yet to run into anyone that's purchased them that hasn't echoed my same post purchase satisfaction sentiments. Happy listening.

 

[number1sixerfan]

The one question I continue to get, which is just tough to answer (I'll get into why here in a second) is... is the SGL Sr. an all rounder?

Let's unpack this. When people ask that question, they're generally looking for this... "is there a perfect headphone I can finally retire with?". The answer is generally no. Unless, you have a very specific set of genres and preferences--in that case it's actually quite easy to do so. But most people, much like me, love music that spans genres and genres.. and in that case, there simply is not and never will be a perfect all rounder.

For me, as I've said time and time again, I mainly listen to acoustic, classical, vocal, and other genres that benefit heavily from extreme headphone resolution. For more bass heavy genres, heavy rock, rap, and also taking on to some new metal here and there (still not my thing lol).. speakers are it for me, for that. But the point here is that there aren't really that many all rounders out there for most people, across the board. You're better off finding 1-3 of them that check off all boxes for you and riding into the sunset imo.

 

[Exekuhtor]

idontneedit idontneedit idontneedit idontneedit...

It's so crazy to realize that there is so much more to this hobby in the upper spheres, i also strongly agree that it's way better to focus on a few headphones that you really enjoy and try to optimize the chain. Originally i wanted a Charybdis and / or Tungsten, maybe dabble into Estats with the Audeze Crbn. I did the opposite and sold more, including my Utopia. Now i got very nice tubes that make the 1266 TC just wonderful sweet sounding in the midrange (something that i thought wasn't possible).

metal here and there (still not my thing lol)

Try symphonic metal

 

[draytonklammer]

The one question I continue to get, which is just tough to answer (I'll get into why here in a second) is... is the SGL Sr. an all rounder?

Let's unpack this. When people ask that question, they're generally looking for this... "is there a perfect headphone I can finally retire with?". The answer is generally no. Unless, you have a very specific set of genres and preferences--in that case it's actually quite easy to do so. But most people, much like me, love music that spans genres and genres.. and in that case, there simply is not and never will be a perfect all rounder.

For me, as I've said time and time again, I mainly listen to acoustic, classical, vocal, and other genres that benefit heavily from extreme headphone resolution. For more bass heavy genres, heavy rock, rap, and also taking on to some new metal here and there (still not my thing lol).. speakers are it for me, for that. But the point here is that there aren't really that many all rounders out there for most people, across the board. You're better off finding 1-3 of them that check off all boxes for you and riding into the sunset imo.

Thank you again for all of your thoughts throughout this thread.

Really hoping to have the same epiphany a lot of the other folks here had!

 

[draytonklammer]

Does anyone know if the Shang Sr. has a larger driver than HE-1?
Very hard to tell from pictures and the specs of each don't seem to be published.

 

[HA-1]

Shangri-La Sr. is US-$ 18,000 - HiFiMan.com .

Edit: as confirmed by a HiFiMan distributor, this price is only for the headphone itself. It's possible to use the Shangri-La Sr. headphone with a STAX compatible energizer.

 

[BTD1]

Shangri-La Sr. is now just US-$ 18,000 - Hifiman.com .

Astonishing price! However, they are just magnificent for classical. I just wish the average build quality was as good as the sound. Spend some time with them if you can find them at a show. They are impressive.