Hifiman Shangri-La Private Event at AV One

Introduction

You got to give it to Hifiman. It takes guts to launch a headphone system with a USD 50,000 price tag.

Clearly aimed into Sennheiser Orpheus II territory, the Shangri-La headphone system consists of a fully balanced drive tube amplifier / energizer and a Electrostatic headphone.

AV One, the local dealer for Hifiman arranged a private event to showcase the Shangri-La. Dr. Fang Bian, CEO and founder of Hifiman graced the event and answered any questions posed by the audience.

Description

The Shangri-La headphone amplifier is very large, with four 6SN7 tubes in the input stage, and four 300B tubes in the output stage. The amplifier is designed to offer balanced drive, and the microprocessor controlled volume knob activates a series of relay controlled resistors to set the volume level.

Dr. Fang mentioned that they enjoy a very special relationship with TJ Fullmusic, the tube manufacturer, which is located just a short distance away from them in the Chinese city of Tianjin. A vigorous selection process is employed - only a handful are selected from each batch sent (consisting of a few hundred tubes).

According to Dr. Fang, tube amplifiers are a perfect design for electrostatic headphones due to their high voltage design. Unlike speaker loads, an electrostatic headphone load requires very little current, and an output transformer is not required. 

The driver membrane of the headphones are treated with a nano coating that ensures that performance is not adversely affected by humidity levels (a bane in Singapore with it's tropical humidity). He acknowledged that nano coating is not new, but he felt that the coating employed in the Shangri-La had no adverse effect on the sound, unlike those used by competitors.

I asked Dr. Fang about the cost of the amplifier and headphone. Dr. Fang said that the amplifier cost more to build from a materials point of view. However for Hifiman, the amplifier was relatively easier to design compared to the headphones which required a lot more effort in research and development.

Sound Quality

I spent about 15 minutes alone with the Shangri-La listening to a variety of music that was installed on the supplied notebook computer that was in turned hooked up to a Chord Dave DAC.

The Shangri-La has quite a unique sound signature. It has an immediately recognisable warm and liquid signature. However, it also has a high detailed presentation and very extended top-end. It also has an effortless feel to it, with an easy going sound signature that should make long listening sessions comfortable. Think lightning fast transients with a natural leading edge and decay and that's the Shangri-La for you.

Tonally, it sits somewhere in between the Sennheiser HD600 and 800. Dynamics wise, it is not the most impactful headphone I've heard, but I would say that details wise, it is up there with the best. 

If we disregard the price tag, these are very nice sounding headphones - I could easily live with these. But the price tag on these make these unobtainable for all but a select few. Statement-fi products like the Shangri-La do not follow the usual rules on performance vs cost. They exist simply because they can - there will always be the customer that demands the very best, at any cost.

I asked Dr. Fang whether we could expect any trickle-down products at something mere mortals like myself could afford. He said that something is being planned, and left it at that. Don't keep us waiting too long !

Conclusion

Listening to the Shangri-La was an experience. Let's hope we get a more affordable Shangri-La lite model soon.

Thank you to AV One for inviting me for this exclusive event, and also a big thanks to Dr. Fang of Hifiman for patiently answering my questions.

AV One 
http://av1group.com.sg

Hifiman
http://www.hifiman.com

Holo Spring Level 3 DAC - A mini review

Introduction

I recently spent a few quality days with the Holo Spring Level 3 DAC, courtesy of Sound Affairs, Singapore distributor for Holo. There is plenty of chatter in various audio forums on the Holo Spring DAC, especially on the high level of performance it delivers for it's price.

Description

The Holo Spring is a really nice looking DAC (I adore those copper side panels), and is solidly built. It probably has the largest display I've ever seen, and the dot matrix panel is fully legible even from my listening position. 

The Spring DAC is a R2R DAC design. What differentiates the Spring from the rest of it's competition is that fact that DSD is decoded using a R2R circuit too. This is achieved by having two separate R2R circuits - one for PCM and the other for DSD.

The front panel has four buttons. The first button puts the DAC in standby mode, while the rest of the buttons control the display intensity, oversampling mode and source. There are four oversampling modes, NOS (no over-sampling), OS (both PCM and DSD are oversampled in their native format), OS PCM (oversampled PCM - DSD is converted to PCM), and OS DSD (oversampled DSD - PCM is converted to DSD).

The rear panel has both single-ended and balanced analog outputs, while a total of 6 digital inputs are offered - USB (galvanically isolated), coaxial, BNC, AES, Toslink and I2S via HDMI (PS Audio standard). The Level 3 unit utilises a silver wire power transformer and Jensen capacitors.

In use, the Spring DAC runs quite warm. It was left powered on for the few days I had it in my system. 

Dimensions wise, the Spring DAC measures 430 mm x 300 mm x 55 mm, and weighs 8.5 kg. 

Sound Quality

I was not able to do detailed comparisons of the Spring DAC using various digital inputs or its oversampling modes due to the short evaluation period I had. However, I did find that NOS mode sounded the most pleasing to my ears. While the tone of the unit was similar via SPDIF and I2S, I had a slight preference for I2S (fed via a Singxer SU-1 USB / SPDIF bridge) and stuck to that.

The Spring DAC struck me with it's highly detailed presentation, with excellent retrieval of details. At the same time, the detail is presented in a very light-footed, delicate and silky manner. There is a noticeably warm glow and sweetness to the sound. If you find digital sources harsh and cold, you will love the Spring DAC. 

From a soundstaging perspective, there is a subtle emphasis to the midrange which is projected slight forward from the rest of the instruments. Otherwise, there is a good sense of width and depth.

Dynamically, the Spring DAC is slightly lacking in impact and speed. I also felt that strings and cymbals lacked the bite and shimmer of the best units out there. You could say that there was a certain amount of restraint and lack of rawness and energy to the Spring DAC - definitely not the first choice for Rock, Metal or EDM.  

Conclusion

The Spring DAC is a very nice performer for the price. It's tonal balance tends to favour certain genres and it appeals more to the listener that prefers a sweeter and more easy-going sound. Thankfully it does not trade resolution to achieve this, and you get a highly detailed yet easy-on-the-ear tone.

A big thanks goes to Sound Affairs Pte Ltd (local agent for Holo) for arranging for the review unit.

Holo Spring Level 3 DAC
Price : S$ 3,500

Sound Affairs Pte Ltd
100 Beach Road, Shaw Tower #02-34/35 Singapore 189702 Tel: +65 9694 9704http://www.mysoundaffairs.com

X Audio - Entreq event on 14 January 2017

Frankie Pang, representative of Entreq Asia was in town recently to meet up with Entreq users. Frankie spent an afternoon at X-Audio, the Singapore dealer for Entreq, mingling with both Entreq customers and prospective ones.

I have been using Entreq products for a while now, having owned and used the Minimus and Tellus grounding box (together with Eartha Silver grounding cables) for a few years now. I did a review on the Olympus Ground Box, Tellus and Eartha Silver grounding cables (click here for the Olympus Review, and here for the Tellus / Eartha review).

Frankie shared with me information on some new products, in particular the K2, Everest and Tellus 2.

The K2 and Everest are upgrades available to any Entreq grounding box user - you simply need to replace one or more of the binding posts with either the K2 or Everest. Frankie was confident that the use of either could significantly improve the performance of the ground box in question. He suggested that using one or two pieces should give the most significant gains.

Frankie explained that the K2 uses a basic alloy of metals, while the Everest utilises a more complex composition. According to Entreq, the addition of a K2 or Everest to the Minimus ground box (which has a single binding post), would allow it to outperform a Silver Minimum. 

Moving on to the Tellus II, this is a significant redesign of the original Tellus grounding box, and is in fact three grounding boxes in a single case - a Silver Minimus for the right and left binding posts, and a Silver Minimus and Atlantis Minimum for the centre binding post. Unlike the original Tellus, all three binding posts for the Tellus II are electrically isolated from one another.

I left the event with a K2 and Everest for experimentation. Stay tuned for the results !