Mini Shangri-La Amplifier

Say what you will about HIFIMAN, but I don't know any other audio brand that designs transducers and sources together. The Susvara came alongside the EF1000 amplifier, the Shangri-La Sr. with the Shangri-La Sr. amp, the Shangri-La Jr. with the Shangri-La Jr. amp, the Jade II with the Jade II amp, and so on. You will notice most of these are e-stat headphone pairings, which makes more sense when you realize e-stats, unlike most other headphones, actually change their sound signature appreciably with sources, owing to them being a capacitive load, meaning the impedance is ridiculously high (think millions of ohms) at low frequencies and tapers down to "only" a few kilo ohms at higher frequencies. E-stat amplifiers thus need to provide a high voltage bias at the minimum, and often use highly intricate designs. This also makes them more expensive than regular headphone amplifiers, even before volumes sales and amortization comes in the picture where the more niche e-stat market doesn't help.


The HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La amplifier slots between the Jade II amplifier and the Shangri-La Jr. amplifier, which lines up with the costs of the respective headphones too. The higher end HIFIMAN offerings go the tube route, with the Mini Shangri-La amplifier using transistors. You will notice a lot of design similarities to the HIFIMAN EF400 DAC/amplifier, which is not a bad thing because I quite like how this looks, although this amplifier alone is larger at 255 x 251 x 93 mm and weighs a considerable amount more (5.82 kg). Some of this has to do with the use of thick aluminium for the front fascia, which is given a brushed silver finish. It's adorned with the HIFIMAN logo and has a black section in the middle for contrast. Two wheels are placed symmetrically on either end, making for a functional and appealing look. The left one is actually just a switch with limited movement, allowing you to choose between single-ended RCA and balanced XLR inputs on the back. There are markings and indicator lights for each position, which have a hard stop too. Then we see two electrostatic headphone outputs, allowing you and a friend to listen to two headphones at the same time. Note that both will be playing simultaneously, and the amplifier does not account for sensitivity differences between the headphones. So one set of headphones could be louder than the other, unless you get two of the same ones! The right wheel provides volume control with 21 steps (and off) of discrete volume control, with clicky feedback.


The metal chassis gets a black anodized matte finish, and we don't see any vents on the sides or top. The end result is an amplifier that runs warm, but thankfully not hot enough to be worrying or uncomfortable. The boxy shape continues on the back, where we do see vents for some passive cooling. This is also where we find out the amplifier is rated to consume up to 80 W max, and there is a fuse + dedicated on/off switch next to the AC power input. Given this is an analog amplifier only, you will need to provide your own DAC or other analog source via RCA or XLR inputs, which goes with the selector wheel on the front. There is no loop-out function here, although that's usually a more premium e-stat amplifier feature. I do appreciate the operating voltage selector switch though, allowing you to use this amplifier anywhere in the world without needing more modification inside. The underside has some vents too, with the entire body lifted off the resting surface by four large feet on the corners which come with circular padding. The amplifier is designed to fit in an A/V rack easily thus, and does not require aftermarket isolation feet.


I took the cover off, after all testing was finished, to get a better look inside the Mini Shangri-La amplifier. I do not encourage opening the amplifier for safety reasons, and you may well void warranty too. We see a fairly clean assembly inside, with most of the 5.82 kg mass attributed to that large linear transformer used. The amplifier architecture is fully balanced, dual mono, with an operational amplifier and a hybrid discrete component design. This includes a discrete component power supply and pre-amp stage, with the amplifier using two Cascode MOSFET transistors in a four-channel symmetrical differential implementation. HIFIMAN also says the PCB layout has been optimized to reduce interference hum, allowing for a more transparent sound.


There is very little to show the amplifier in action, with the unit simply having an LED indicator on the front. Turn it on with the inputs connected, and all you have to do is ensure the correct input is selected using the left wheel on the front. Then connect the headphones, turn up the volume to your desired listening levels, and you are good to go. The amplifier is more than powerful for the Mini Shangri-La to where I never felt I had to go beyond the 1 o'clock position even for highly dynamic soundtracks. This means the volume stepping is well integrated for this combo, and I did not perceive channel imbalance at the lower volume settings either. More importantly, I didn't notice any ideal background sound from the amplifier either, as this being a transformer-based design will no doubt get people worried about this. I don't have a lot of e-stat amplifiers at home admittedly, with the transformer-based TOPPING EHA5 and then the higher end HIFIMAN Shangri-La Jr. amp on either side of this. Then there's the Headamp BHSE—my personal unit—that costs more than the entire Shangri-La Jr. System, let alone the Mini Shangri-La system. The BHSE was easily the best amplifier of the lot, even with the Mini Shangri-La that's paired with its own amp, allowing for excellent bass extension and dynamics and a slightly warm tone to the mids adding heft to vocals and strings alike. By comparison, the Mini Shangri-La amplifier felt less dynamic, and looser in the mid-bass. I also noticed more of a sub-bass dip here, but we'll get to that on the next page talking more about the headphones. The Mini Shangri-La amplifier feels priced about right for what it offers though, which is a transparent sound with plenty of juice and a highly functional volume attenuator. I don't have enough experience with other e-stat amps in this price range to say this is necessarily good value or not though.