This has been quite a big year for HiFiMAN. It was only recently they launched the Susvara Unveiled, their new flagship headphone that represents the pinnacle of HiFiMAN’s design. They used to also have another ultra high-end option that was an electrostatic headphone called the Shangri-La. HiFiMAN has now revised the Shangri-La, making it much more affordable, but still a premium audiophile option. They’ve also made a new electrostatic headphone amplifier specifically made for the Mini Shangri-La headphones, so it will also be considered in this review.
What You Get
- Shangri-La Electrostatic headphones
- Electrostatic Headphone Amplifier
- Power Cable
Look & Feel
When you look at the Shangri-La headphones, you can immediately tell that this is a HiFiMAN design. I’m surprised they decided to go with the padded headband design of the Edition XS, and not the suspension headband of the Arya and Susvara. No matter which build type you prefer, the Mini Shangri-La are some of the lightest headphones I’ve used. Electrostatic headphones are usually fairly light, but the Mini Shangri-La is one of the lightest I’ve used. It doesn’t feel like anything is on your head most of the time, and they’re easy to forget about while being immersed in your music. The Mini Shangri-La might not be built with the best materials, but it’s not a distraction when worn.
Design
The Mini Shangri-La is an electrostatic headphone, with a diaphragm that uses a nano-particle coating. This design aims to ensure accurate conductivity and stability in varying temperatures. A nano-meter protection layer is also implemented for humidity, dust, and other pollutants.
Shangri-La Micro Electrostatic Amplifier
With the Mini Shangri-La, it’s not just another set of headphones. Ideally, it’s meant to be a whole system, complete with its intended amplifier. Most of my listening was done with the Micro, with a few different devices connected to it. I used an Astell & Kern Kann Ultra while connected to the Micro for most of my listening time, and also switched to an iFi ZEN DAC out of curiosity.
The amp itself is a quite large and heavy piece of gear, especially one that carries a Micro name. However, considering its length and height make it a good fit on most desktops. It’s a solid-state amp that uses its transistors to relegate its voltage and signal path without clutter. In practice, this makes the output exceptionally clean. The difference it made in the soundstage was most apparent. With the Micro, everything has more breath, especially in highlighting black spaces in between instruments.
Soundstage
Electrostatic headphones like the Mini Shangri-La are on a completely different level compared to the rest of the high-end market. This is made apparent in its soundstage, where the Mini Shangri-La is effortlessly spacious and accurate. At some point while listening to the Mini Shangri-La I forgot I was even listening to headphones. The headspace it presents feels like a natural part of the open air that you can’t imagine a headphone driver emitting the acoustic waves hitting your ears.
It’s more akin to listening to a great pair of loudspeakers with the way it highlights directionality. You are so easily enwrapped in not just the positioning of instruments, but the angles as well. Distance and separation between instruments is how the Mini Shangri-La showcases its depth, calling attention to the blank spaces between performances with exceptional grace. Your head is in the middle of everything being performed around you like a real live environment. Sound elements stack over, and behind one another at full scale, presenting the spatial imaging with instantly direct movement and strict positioning. There are sounds that glide over you and show incredible height, like harps that are panned from one channel to the other. The level of immersion here is simply unbelievable, and it competes with any soundstage on some of my favorite headphones.
Low End
The bass operates with a level of smoothness and depth that you can only hear with some of the best headphones out there. Bass isn’t always a highlight of electrostatic headphones, but the Mini Shangri-La gives you some of the most dynamic and full sound profiles out there. While they don’t always arrive at you with the most ferocious impact, the bass frequencies have a ton of vigor.
They bloom throughout the mix with a gratifying level of detail that feels finely tuned. It can replicate a scale that is both elevated and believable. There’s a consistent swell to the bass that feels like it’s in the right spot, hitting your throat and climbing its way up subtly. You get a tight rumble in the sub-bass and articulate mid-bass grooves that feel equally transparent. Overall, the Mini Shangri-La gives you a bass that keeps on rewarding you the more you listen to it.
Mids
Electrostatic headphones are bound to give you completely transparent, detailed midrange frequencies. That is exactly what the Mini Shangri-La gives you, as the resolution of every instrument is made to feel like they are being performed directly to you. There’s a tactile nature to how the mids propagate in the mix like there are no layers left to unfold. The low mids have a slightly warm timbre that feels carefully tuned, while the rest of the response is treated with refined articulation and transparency. They feel roomy, leaving space for expressive artifacts to share the space with. Everything feels complete, and vocals cut above the mix with life-like richness.
Highs
While the highs are just as intricately detailed as the bass and mids, but the tone isn’t as overtly transparent. The high frequencies come through with tons of clarity and evenness, but it doesn’t have a significant glisten to it. This was a bit surprising to me, but the way the highs show a natural tail is still impressive. There’s no spectacle to the highs, but it’s wildly enjoyable for its effortless height and realism. The most colorful the highs get is with its consistent ring that dissipates naturally throughout the response.
Summary
Electrostatic headphones usually know how to tick all the boxes for me, and the Mini Shangri-La is the best I’ve heard in quite some time. It was a fantastic idea for HiFiMAN to come up with a more reasonable electrostatic option, and to have it come bundled with a new amp that can be considered an endgame option for $2,300. There are some planar open-back headphones that don’t come with an amplifier that costs thousands more, so there’s a ton of value with the Mini Shangri La.
The HiFiMAN Mini Shangri-La Electrostatic System is available at Audio46.
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