I own the Shangri-La Senior system (including HiFiMan’s own charger) and just want to encourage you to have a proper listen when you get the chance. This is one of those setups where what you get out of it will be directly proportional to what you put into it. This system is so ruthlessly resolving that it reminds me of all the trials and tribulations that Jay (from the Jay’s Audio Lab YouTube channel) went through during his time with the Magico M6.
Three separate things really have to be on point: (1) You need to be listening to a good recording. (2) Every component in the system needs to have been a quality choice, from the networking gear, to the power base, to the source, to the DAC, and all of the signal and power cables. And (3) You must have repeated the vacuum tube biasing procedure recently, preferably again just before listening. This third step - the manual tube biasing - is not mentioned nearly as much as it really should be, because it makes such a key difference in the sound. I find this step analogous to Jay’s extra work in setting up his speakers in his listening room for the Magico M6. It is a somewhat painstaking procedure, requiring your manual dexterity, as you hold both leads from the multimeter in place with your non-dominant hand, keeping an eye on the voltage, while you painstakingly adjust each of the four pots with a tiny-headed screwdriver in your dominant hand. It requires extremely fine movements of your wrist to adjust the voltage, sometimes seeming that if you even think about turning your wrist, then you will have already gone too far. (Why HiFiMan decided to leave the biasing up to the end user to be done manually - rather than using auto-biasing the way so many other vacuum tube amplifiers do - boggles the mind and beggars disbelief.)
I can assure you that if ANY of these three things are not on point, you will hear that fact, with ruthless fidelity.
BUT if you actually take the time and money to do all of these steps, you will be rewarded; there actually are dynamics, bass extension, and decent bass slam if you take all these steps, again, paying attention to the biasing. Classical music on this system (when properly set up) simply has no equal; frankly, I never used to listen much to classical music much - until I heard it on this system. Now of course, no electrostat can ever give you the dynamics and slam of a planar magnetic, but these are much more satisfying than you might be led to believe, when learning the impressions of other folks who listen to it in a crowded show environment, with a poor choice of recording, without proper gear feeding it, and doubtlessly without having had the biasing done anytime recently. Simply stated, they have not heard it properly at all, and have no idea what it’s capable of.
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