Summary: Continuing the "big incense" sound style? HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La I see it
I should be all the people who got this epoch-making HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La Mini Shangri-La electrostatic headphones, relatively late to share the media, here is really sorry readers, I must explain the reason for the incident, on the one hand, it is my first official eight scenes to play with electrostatic headphones, to say a word from the heart, electrostatic headphones in my shallow fever experience, there is a very "tortuous" story, even now, this is the most "tangled" HiFi system that makes me the most, Therefore, in the selection of the front-end collocation of the system, we have been constantly carrying out collocation tests; On the other hand, coincidentally, just when tossing the front-end system matching, Roon suddenly had an access problem, this time so serious that it interfered with normal use, and after asking around, it was found that it could not solve the problem in the short term.
Previously, I shared in the article "1 table and 12 devices form 3 systems, weaving my HiFi "listening view"" that the "core" or "heart" of these three systems on the table is local music managed by Roon plus streaming media such as Tidal, which directly leads to the whole system being in a "crippled" state.
Of course, life has to go on, and music can't stop.
I didn't believe in the saying that "God closes a door for you and opens a door for you" before, until two recent events completely changed my perception of this sentence.
- The discovery of a sound source system that goes beyond the Roon experience is not only software, but also a perfect combination of hardware and software. Of course, the most important thing is that you don't have to worry about the network anymore.
- When tossing the sound source of HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La (hereinafter referred to as Mini Fragrance), this audio source plus and decoding system that surpasses the Roon experience is perfectly matched with Mini Fragrance and works seamlessly. It made me rediscover the charm of "electrostatic headphones" and decided to make a major adjustment to my system.
Of course, before talking about mini incense, it is necessary to talk to you about the front-end, and the reason is simple
- With a good match, mini incense is the "absolute king" at this price
I remember the first time I listened to electrostatic headphones in the headphone store, I listened to a well-known Japanese electrostatic flagship, and the sound source with the headphones was expensive, but when I wore and played the tracks I was familiar with, I found that in some tracks known for low frequency, it was like knocking on the iron sheet, lacking a sense of volume and elasticity, and the three-frequency band was very weak and lacked a sense of heaviness, which left me with a stereotype of "dry, cold, hard, secondary, thin" who only cared about the sense of low frequency volume, and I had some preconceptions about electrostatic headphones. It wasn't until later that I had the opportunity to listen to the HIFIMAN Shangri-La (hereinafter referred to as Daxiang), which cost as much as 300,000 yuan, that it changed, and this electrostatic headphone system with the appearance of a warship became the object of HiFi enthusiasts as soon as it was released, and it also became a lot of oil-burning "dream love machines", but the price is like Bugatti's tourbillon, although there is no qualification to buy, but the price is an important level that blocks the public players.
Two years after the release of Daxiang, in 2018, HIFIMAN took advantage of the situation to launch SHANGRI-LA jr (commonly known as "Xiaoxiang"), although the price is still "close to the people" than the price of Daxiang, which is still strong, but the combination price of up to 50,000 yuan is still a bit "pavilion" meaning, obviously only a few people can "get the moon first".
The turning point is 2024, and today, six years later, as an important part of HIFIMAN's self-developed electrostatic headphone matrix, Mini Shangri-La is here as scheduled.
In fact, at the exhibition at the end of May, I had already heard about the mini incense in advance, and it was described like this:
"The front end of the audition is connected to a set of commercial and some years old CD player,From the information I know,The overall style of this CD player is full of flavor,So when paired with HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La,I personally think the taste is much more "rich" than the first to hear 009,I rarely use this more vulgar word in the text,But whenever you want to use this time,It means that the taste has the upper hand。
Judging from the first hearing in a short time, HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La is an electrostatic headphone system that can highlight the taste of the front-end sound source, and tried popular and classical on the spot, this system can adapt to different genres, and can have a commendable performance, but my personal preference for live pop is more than instrumental symphony, not that classical is weaker than popular, on the contrary, the high range of dynamic changes required in classical repertoire, high transient response and high-frequency medium and micro dynamic changes can be more aggressively expressed, In addition, the extremely delicate and moist sound style from Shangri-La is "decentralized", so that HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La not only has the style of "soft on the outside and rigid on the inside", but also can be tender like water in terms of sound rhyme. In terms of overall quality, the low frequency is rich and abundant, with excellent micro-dynamic performance and diffusion feeling, and there is no dull and wooden texture of other electrostatic headphones; The mid-frequency is the standard HIFIMAN taste, round and sweet; The instrumental knot image is solid and clear, with a certain sense of energy, but the limited CD player has an extension, but it lacks the sense of activity brought by a certain overtone. In terms of sound field, I personally feel that it is closer to SUSVARA, wide and wide, but it is not easy to have such a sound field performance, so it is recommended to use ESS decoding to match. ”
Due to the limitations of collocation and track at the time,I can only share the preliminary sense of hearing,In fact, I left a tail at the end of the article,It is recommended that players who are ready to toss,Be sure to match ESS decoding,So I said that it is no coincidence,The aforementioned sound source can surpass the sound source of Roon plus and decode,It is the X-SABRE 3 launched by Moment Sound,The official definition is a streaming audio decoder,Here is another pass,After that, I will share the detailed use of this streaming media decoding, I'll talk to you about why it's a substitute for Roon.
In addition to the aforementioned Matrix Sound streaming media decoding using the ESS9038 Pro decoding chip,There is also a key hard-core indicator,That is, the line balance output reaches 4.8VRMS,This can provide abundant output voltage,I looked at the previous decoder at hand,Moment X-SABRE 3 can provide such an output voltage,And all this is to be able to "drive" this electrostatic suit,Here's a little more to say,Although the mini incense is sold according to the release of the set,But you can buy it separately, The headset is bought separately for 7500; The headphone amp is 10500, it is recommended to match it together, so that it can be more discounted.
If you take out the headphones and headphone amp separately, in my opinion, they are more "affordable" than HIFIMAN's tablet and dynamic headphones, from the perspective of the headphone amp, the power supply part is a discrete design, and the preamplifier is also a discrete fully balanced design, and then the balanced high-voltage MOSFET is straight out, without step-up treatment, the architecture is a transistor, and friends who have played with transistor headphone amplifiers know that this kind of field-effect architecture can provide abundant high-voltage output, in order to fully drive the electrostatic headphone part, and improve the low-frequency "disability" of the electrostatic headset The problem, of course, is slightly weaker in terms of charm, and can only be improved by the style of the headphones, and I think the most interesting thing about the mini incense earphones is that it blends technology and sound art to strike a balance at this price point.
First of all, when unpacking, if you don't shake it carefully, I thought that an empty box was mailed, because it was too light, and it could be so light, on the one hand, it was an improved head design, to simplify the complex, and a new telescopic structure was adopted, of course, without sacrificing wearing comfort, in addition, it was not only comfortable but also not pressed on the ears, which was very suitable for long-term wear.
Of course, the mini incense earphone body also adopts a variety of technologies that continue from HIFIMAN Shangri-La, such as the thickness of the diaphragm part has reached nanometers, less than 0.001 mm, and the nanoparticle coating of HIFIMAN Shangri-La is also continued to achieve high transient purposes.
Of course, whether it is a small fragrance or a mini fragrance, it uses a push-pull electrostatic transducer, as we all know, the core component of the electrostatic headset is a very thin diaphragm sandwiched in the middle by the electrode plate, this diaphragm is usually made of plastic film, and coated with a conductive substance, when the audio signal is converted into a high-voltage electrostatic field and acts on the diaphragm, the diaphragm will vibrate quickly and accurately under the action of the electric field, thereby pushing the air to form sound waves, In addition, with the help of the coating coating, the vibration can be carried out very evenly, and there is no distortion of the moving coil due to the split vibration, and the distortion in this process is extremely low, and the sound can be restored more purely and delicately.
Does it also continue the "big fragrance" style in terms of sound performance?
After tossing back and forth between different front-end decoding, and eliminating all non-uncertainties, I can accurately conclude that:
- Continuing the same sound of HIFIMAN Shangri-La, but with a difference!
This time, I deliberately adjusted the whole desktop system for Mini Incense, and then I will interpret the adjusted desktop system in detail, which directly talks about one of the "branches"; Use Moment X-SABRE 3 as the sound source, and then connect the electrostatic headphone amp through the XLR balance cable, Moment X-SABRE 3 uses Cadass gems, and the headphone amp is connected to the Twinlink Crown No. 2, under this set of audio source decoding collocation,
HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La Mini Shangri-La has the most outstanding looseness and delicacy of headphones (systems) at this price, which is better than the Sennheiser HD800 I have on hand in terms of instrumental performance, because I usually listen to HD800 more, so let's make a simple comparison first: HD800 I have and only experienced the sound in the exhibition, the background is extremely clean, and the image is very solid, and the sound image is not far away, the level is excellent and the sense of air is very "strong" ,I don't know if it's a matching problem,It's not good in terms of smoothness,Of course, you can launch such a sound,It's a great test of power supply and sound source matching, as well as wire selection, etc.,And mini incense not only has HD800All the quality of the performance,Note that I'm talking about sound quality rather than style,It's much stronger than HD800 in terms of smoothness,This is a simple comparison of the sound in my impression。
Of course, there is still a big difference in style, if HD800 is to play the exam repertoire in such a serious and solemn environment as a classroom exam, you need to listen to all the details and see the skillful technique such a one-glance style, the mini fragrance is like a Vienna New Year's concert with Christmas decoration, inviting Vienna children's voices to play and sing the 2012 version of "Chatting Polka", the mini incense has done a certain amount of dyeing on the high frequency, and there are some shadows of its own flagship SUSVARA UNVEILEDIt should be noted that no matter how you match it, the mini incense will not have the quality of SUSVARA, which is more powerful than static electricity in terms of control and line sense.
Mini incense in the micro-dynamic details of instrumental high-frequency, mini incense is much stronger than the same price tablet, such as the triangle iron in the background sound of the track, if you use tablet headphones to listen to it will be too abrupt, and mini incense and the mid-frequency vocal processing complement each other, neither let the triangle sound overshadow the vocals, nor like some dynamic headphones drowned in the vocals, but have a very good sense of instrumental layering, coupled with appropriate reverberation, through the electrostatic electrode delicate timbre can interpret this part smartly and actively, Friends who are familiar with this piece know that the sound of the triangle at the beginning is continuous, and the mini incense responds quickly and emphasizes the transient high frequency to be able to interpret such a rapid and powerful instrument vividly, and at the end of the voice, the violin's "slow" timbre is extremely powerful and filled with a very considerable thickness, so that this part of the sound is thick and textured, of course, in the end it is still immediately closed, this kind of clean and neat transient change I have experienced for the first time in the electrostatic headphones, hearty and enjoyable.
The performance of the mid-frequency vocal part is different from the heavy style of the tablet, taking the HE1000 V2 in my hand as an example, this HIFIMAN tablet is specially used to listen to vocals, players who are familiar with the HIFIMAN high-end tablet should know that the more high-end the tablet actually has less coloring in the mid-frequency performance, and will pay more attention to the style of the singer itself, although the vocals of HE1000 V2 are still HIFIMAN's warm style, but the overall is not a thick route, which is still the same as the early Edition X style is very different,Mini incense vocals in my opinion can clearly feel the "pine sweet" taste,At the same time, it strengthens the sense of vocal line,Avoid static electricity in the middle frequency performance of the "scattered" problem,Like in the performance of female singers like Enya,Delicate and melodious,But you can still feel the change in speed,It is more important than the flagship tablet to pay more attention to the vocal frame rather than the strength,The rest is that the static itself is smooth and has the advantage of a certain sense of air,The blessing of these two,Let the mid-frequency vocals have a good sense of charm, But it won't be as much as your own tablet, of course, if you like mellow vocals, you can take a look at the first listening experience with CD before.
In fact, for mid-frequency vocals and instrumental high-frequency, the mini fragrance style has enough "standardized" performance, and it can find some similar styles in HIFIMAN headphones, flagship headphones, and super flagship headphones, but when it comes to low-frequency performance, it is "groundbreaking" for HIFIMAN, and it has made a great breakthrough for itself.
Compared with the overtones, extension, and diving, the low-frequency volume of mini incense is relatively more, but it is different from the excessive amount of its own tablet or even the "overflow" situation if it is not well matched, whether it is a more neutral decoding like I use a moment sound or the relatively thick and charming decoding of HIFIMAN SERENADE Jr Red Serenade that will be briefly talked about later, there is no viscous hypertrophic low-frequency listening sense, all under the appropriate sense of volume, try to maintain a relatively excellent sense of surrounding atmosphere, and in terms of rebound speed and cohesion, You can hear it in one ear is "pure electrostatic" style,Transient response is fast and does not drag,Tight and powerful,If you want to pursue the impact of dynamic fist to the flesh,It is recommended to change the dynamic headset to play,Of course, for heavy users like me who pursue low-frequency strength,Personally, I feel that there is a lack of some "momentum",But for the public HiFi players,In fact, the sense of volume is enough to worry about low frequency。 The sound field is actually the biggest difference between the mini incense and the big brother HIFIMAN Shangri-La, whether it is horizontal or vertical, can be described as "magnanimous", there is almost no sense of marginality in the horizontal, the sense of depth is extremely strong, and it belongs to the monster-like sense of existence, while the mini incense is "convergent" a lot in the horizontal, and you can feel the obvious sense of "marginal", and at the same time there is no marginal feathering, and there is a lack of some transitions at the edges, especially in listening to classical repertoire, I want to hear the instrumental knot too clearly, and slightly sacrifice some three-dimensionality, but in terms of longitudinal performance, it is better than the horizontal, the vertical sense of hierarchy is very good, the instrumental knot image near is solid, and the instrumental music that is slightly farther away strengthens the entire longitudinal sense of air under a certain reverberation, making the whole sound field more three-dimensional, very suitable for listening to some small orchestration chamber music, if you pursue the ultimate classical symphonic repertoire, or leave it to the big fragrance, it will be more brilliant, note that I use "brilliant" here, because to better show the symphonic momentum, In fact, I have to change to ESS9039 Pro.
Of course, for friends who pursue the ultimate mid-frequency vocals, in fact, you can try to match HIFIMAN SERENADE Jr Red Serenade, because of the space, I will only briefly talk about it here, after matching the red serenade, first of all, the low-frequency atmosphere will be further improved, and the density of the entire lower disk will be considerably strengthened, which will make the whole system more biased towards the middle and lower disks, followed by the thickness of the mid-frequency vocals will be strengthened, but the line skeleton will be sacrificed slightly, it is okay to listen to the female voice, and the male voice will be too smooth and lack of physical feeling, Flat, the overall quality of high frequency has not changed, but it will be darker, reduce brightness, that's all, to put it simply, if you like the taste of static electricity and want to enhance the atmosphere of the next plate, you can try R-2R decoding, using its own Himalayan R-2R chip EF series and SERENADE series will have a good sense of hearing, I also suggest that some pure Himalayan R-2R decoding can be produced in the future to match the mini fragrance as an official suit.
In fact, when I started writing the article, I was very hesitant to use "the first electrostatic headset for young people" as the title, which can indeed attract the attention of more young users, but from the perspective of HIFIMAN's positioning of mini incense, its audience is obviously wider, whether it is a young enthusiast who is ready to contact electrostatic headphones for the first time, or wants to find the old burn that has listened to electrostatic but has been rejected because of the price, it can be matched well and affordable.
With the help of modern technology and supply chain advantages, more enthusiasts can feel the once "unattainable" equipment and become "within reach", I think this is the driving force for HIFIMAN to continue to innovate.
Finally, I would like to share with you a poem I read before, which can very well summarize my "state of mind" after hearing this electrostatic system:
Where should we go
Where must we go
Or is it looking for a better version of yourself in this wasteland?
We who wander this Wasteland in search of our better selves？