HIFIMAN E-Stats (Shangri-La / Jr. / Jade II)

I'm not the hugest fan of Hifiman's latest "design language" either - though for different reason: the new headband with silver accent just looks overly plasticky and cheap. It stands out (in a bad way) even more with the Jade's color. But at least I'm happy they are bringing the Jade back. Before I only have the 007 as a potential Stat choice (can't stand the 009 sound, weight, and price tag).

 

Eh, Jade II has the new non-swiveling (front to back) headband that's all kinds of awful. Hard pass.

 

From what I've read, the Jade 2 is more of a Shangrila-Jr..Jr, than a second updated original Jade. Granted I haven't heard either, so I could be talking out my ass. Just going off of what I have read. The Shangri-La JR (headphone only, not the amp package) is actually $2000 less than the Susvara. I'd love to hear a pair.

 

I haven't heard the Orpheus.

Shangri la jr is prohably my favourite estat I've heard. The tone is a lot more even and natural than the big one and the stax stuff.
Still not really my taste. With the limpness and softness I just get with most estats. While the high end stax outresolve this, the tone and weight of this is just a lot better. Sounding less ethereal than the etax stuff.

 

Out of curiosity, which diy speakers are you referring to?

 

Was I the only one hoping that Muppetface would have made the joke instead?

 

I listened to a Shangri-La system at K55‘s BigEar event in Zurich, Switzerland, back in November (11/10/18). Assessing its sonic qualities was impossible due to problems with hum and internal miswiring. The channels were out of phase. The K55 guys switched DACs, sources, and cables - to no avail. Try to imagine the (also present) HE 1 having one of these problems. Unthinkable.

 

It's hard to resist saying that HFM's legendary quality control strikes again.

 

If anyone is interested, teardown of the Jade II amp and headphones on Head-Case. I have a pair of Stax SR-5 headphones which I bought used in the early 1980s, that are better built than the Jade II headphones, and cost $85 for the phones alone in 1975, which works out to about $400 in today's dollars. They still work. Any bets as to whether the Jade II will be working 35+ years from now? I have to admit to a morbid curiosity about how long Fang's insistence on disposable Kleenex build quality will continue to be successful, but his "there's a sucker born every second" philosophy seems to be working for him so far.

 

The Shangri-la Jr is a resoundingly bad design at $8,000, small soundstage, lacking in dynamics, too warm and soft. I did an A/B with the Shangri-la Jr and the Stax 009 / Mjoliner Audio KGHSSV Carbon and the latter is a much better system on nearly all fronts. I would not pay $3,500 for the system.

The Shangri-la is an impressive piece of engineering and manages to pull out some of the most impressive bass I have seen in a pair of electrostatics. That said, for a cool $50k you can build a truly world-class system around just about any pair of headphones, with essentially zero compromise on the DAC, amp, power conditioning, and all of the other bits and pieces. In that context the price is kind of absurd. The street price of $20k for a demo unit in China is a bit more reasonable and I can see why someone would choose the Shangri-la at that price point.

The Jade 1 was pretty good for the price, my big gripe was with the plasticky build quality. Hopefully Hifiman has stepped up their game in the re-release.

 

I would disagree that the Shangri-La is an impressive piece of engineering. Engineering is about choices. Consider the output stage, which uses 300B output tubes. Now, an electrostatic headphone needs a lot of voltage, but not a lot of current. The usual choice for the SOTA amps has been a triode-strapped EL34, which is specified at 600-800 volts plate voltage and runs pretty linear at 15-20 mA. The 300B is specified at 450 volts plate voltage and likes to run at 40-60 mA. So, less voltage than the EL34 but more current than needed. Oh, you want to run a DHT? How about the EML 20B which has comparable voltage and current ratings to the EL34 and is a true triode. Or the 211/845 which has even higher voltage ratings, but again more current than you need.

Now, coming back the the Jade II teardown, evidently it uses capacitor coupled outputs, which Stax used in the 1970s, and resistor output loads, which Stax used in the 1980s. In other words, its design is antediluvian

Couple that with a cable design that could be duplicated by any Afghan villager who could make you a genuine Bowie knife for two bucks out of steel from a butter knife (and would cut just as well), and I can see why the price of a demo Shangri-La is a mere 40% of its retail price. I assume the demo price reflects the likelihood that 60% of its estimated life-span has been burned up during its demo phase.

 

So the amp is a cheap & badly built knockoff of the Stax SRA-12S, which seem to sell for $400 on the second hand market.
Even on his monster Carbon CC & Denafrips Terminator rig, the headphones still sounded thin, anemic & lifeless.

I'm actually glad I held off on purchasing this.

 

You've gotta take Head-Case with a pinch of salt. I honestly wasn't going to go read about the Jade 2 because I figured "Either KG or Birgir, likely Birgir, will just shit all over it, find faults (some which don't matter) and just generally come across as an asshole with a god complex."

Turns out, I was right.

Some of their complaints are legitimate, but jesus christ, if its not designed by KG and built by Birgir or some other DIY'er its complete and utter shit not worthy of anyones time. It gets old, real f'ing fast. When I was starting out with headphones and didn't know what I was talking about, I found Head-Case and thought "wow these guys really know what they are talking about!" Turns out they just use big words and technical terms to bamboozle people into thinking that they know everything.

Hard pass. I'd still like to hear the Jade 2.

 

Not everything is black or white, while I do agree on some points about HC, I think this post is very a interesting read, it definitely adds perspective IMO.
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/cavalli-concerns.343/page-3#post-7959