[jhm731]

http://headphone.guru/headphone-gurus-2017-products-of-the-year-and-writers-choice-awards/

[FullRangeMan]

HifiMan Shangri-La for 50K dollars

[dB Cooper]

Their attempt at a product as ostentatious and all-around ridiculous as the Sennheiser Orpheus. Orpheus still takes the cake with the motorized retracting tubes and controls though.

[JohnR]

It does seem nuts. Whatever school of marketing that says that a brand needs to establish a consistent value in the eyes of its customers, Hifiman didn't attend. Prices just going up and down, pricing in the "stick a crazy price on it and see if anyone buys it" realm. I dunno. I have two Hifiman sets (well, waiting for the second to arrive, HE4xx, which feels like an example of the other side of the same coin "stick whatever price on it that helps to move them").

[FullRangeMan]

Nice, look forward to your impressions on the HE4xx.

[hibuckhobby]

I would be surprised if either Sennheiser or HiFiMan are hoping for high volumn sales of their top of the line products.
They IMHO are created to show what can be done if price is no object.  There are people who are willing and able to
spend $50k on headphones...I'm not one of them, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate their efforts.  Not
everyone can buy a Bugatti Veyron...that doesn't mean they shouldn't build it.

Having been into audio for nearly 50 years, I've seen prices on turntables go up as high as $50k+, but at the same
time have been able to enjoy some of the trickle down technology that becomes available on tables that are not priced in
the stratosphere. When an audio mag/blog picks some really expensive item as product of the year, I have no problem
with that...they are reporting it as the best they have heard.  Would I like to see a few more best for the dollar or bang
for the buck awards?  Sure.

YMMV,
Hibuck...

[dB Cooper]

HE4** series seems to get good reviews all around but there are persistent accounts of inconsistent QC with their products, another reason I'd look elsewhere if I was looking at a price point above, say, the 560.

[FullRangeMan]

What is shameful and reprehensible is that the Shangri-la price is the same as Orpheus, or $ 5 less-$50 x $55, clearly an artificial price.

[zoom25]

Nobody in their right mind would pick the Shangri-La over the Orpheus at around the same price.

I have no idea what happened to the company after sensibly priced gems like HE-500.

[FullRangeMan]

I have no idea what happened to the company after sensibly priced gems like HE-500.

What happened is that they become famous, get global share market with all that price escalation we already tired see in Sennheiser since the 1990s after the HD600 release.

Hifiman retail price ladder is a ungradual step-up which in some cases reaches the logarithmic scale of +8 x more expensive than the lower model:
Edition S       $249
HE350             ?
HE400S        $299
HE400i         $449
HE560          $899
Edition X       $1,299
HE1000        $2,999
SUSVARA      $6,000
SHANGRI-LA $50,000

EDITED

[FullRangeMan]

It would be interesting to read a strong statement from the manufacturer that's convincingly assuring about the safety of that investment.

Edition X and HE1000 were obsoleted in six months by a new V2 version.

[dB Cooper]

You can't blame them for going after the 'rich-idiot' market with the 'Shangri-La' (I'm sure the margin is yuuuge), although I would like to see them prove they can deliver consistent high performance and reliability at the price range of, say, the 560, in a product that doesn't need to be 'updated' every few months. I don't expect them to match the longevity of the Senn 580/600/650/660 or AKG K240, but, as Dale points out, the rapid obsolescence cycle of their products does raise legitimate questions IMHO. Will those products be supported with parts and service longterm when they were only produced for six months? Sennheiser just (in the last year or two) discontinued the drivers for the HD414, a headphone they introduced in the mid-to-late 1960's. Now THAT'S support.

[FullRangeMan]

I had an HD414 local clone, it was most confortable and awful SQ.

[dB Cooper]

Like Dale, I had an original 414 (2K ohm impedance- the elements were actually microphone elements) and the reissue 50 ohm version, which as Dale notes sounded a lot better.

Wish I had kept the latter. Still possibly the most comfortable headphone of all time. A little thin in the deep bass but that worked well for taming overly bass-heavy movie audio.

Never heard of 'Headphone Guru' before but whoever it is got a real 'woodie' over the Shangri-La.

[JLM]

I would be surprised if either Sennheiser or HiFiMan are hoping for high volumn sales of their top of the line products.
They IMHO are created to show what can be done if price is no object.  There are people who are willing and able to
spend $50k on headphones...I'm not one of them, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate their efforts.  Not
everyone can buy a Bugatti Veyron...that doesn't mean they shouldn't build it.

Having been into audio for nearly 50 years, I've seen prices on turntables go up as high as $50k+, but at the same
time have been able to enjoy some of the trickle down technology that becomes available on tables that are not priced in
the stratosphere. When an audio mag/blog picks some really expensive item as product of the year, I have no problem
with that...they are reporting it as the best they have heard.  Would I like to see a few more best for the dollar or bang
for the buck awards?  Sure.

YMMV,
Hibuck...

+1

Another near 50 year audio veteran, but you need to get out more.  At the 2015 Axpona show I saw a $400k turntable.   

What bugs me is the marketing efforts to constantly repackage the same technology (or go back to older technology) and and charging more for it. 

[OzarkTom]

 

6moons preview!

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/hifiman4/1.html

[Russell Dawkins]

Never heard of 'Headphone Guru' before but whoever it is got a real 'woodie' over the Shangri-La.

I hadn't, either, but am not reassured by a two paragraph summation having grammatical errors ("your" for "you're") and vague hype and hyperbole when the subject is a $50,000 headphone system.

[FullRangeMan]

The already expensive $6K Susvara is much more value than the S-La, if I had $50K I could built a whole dedicated music room.