Fit and Comfort

Seen above is the HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La placed on a mannequin head to help show how these headphones would look on the human head. Note that the head is slightly under average sized, so account for the discrepancies accordingly. As with all headphones, getting a good fit and seal is crucial, so make sure to properly use the pivot points and height adjustability of the headband and ear cups. In this case, the horizontal swivel—limited as it may be—is quite handy for orientating the contoured ear pads around the ears without a gap above or the sides. The relatively weaker clamp force may make you feel it's not fully sealed at the bottom though, and it's compounded further by the headband which seems designed with larger/taller heads in mind. I was on the bottom-most sizing option here, and kept feeling I had to hold the headphones in to maintain a constant seal even though it was completely fine. It's not like you need to do it thus, but it will influence the bass performance as we will soon see. There is some potential to increase the clamping force if you bend the steel band inward further. But I will say HIFIMAN has nailed the overall comfort, with the Mini Shangri-La weighing ~320 g and feeling far lighter owing to this mass being distributed over a larger contact surface than usual. E-stats tend to be on the lighter side as it is, owing to the absence of magnets here, and it's also very open to further prevent any pressure build-up in the ears. I had no problems with long listening sessions thus, although I made sure to test these only at home in a quiet environment since they do leak sound more than many other open-back headphones.

Audio Performance

Audio Hardware

Please refer to the equivalent section on this page for a primer on how electrostatic headphones work. The Mini Shangri-La adopts a conventional push-pull design with an ultrathin diaphragm positioned between stators, which here is a plate as opposed to the metal mesh used in the other two Shangri-La headphones. The diaphragm is HIFIMAN's nanometer thickness material we've seen used in the higher end planar magnetic headphones too, albeit the actual thickness is variable and not in the single nanometers as some may think. A uniform nanoparticle coating—we do not know what the material composition is—helps with an even conductivity layer and also minimizes uneven transducer motion and distortion. There's a nanometer thickness-grade dust cover, adding protection to the fragile diaphragm, which is "near-transparent to sound waves" as per HIFIMAN. The drivers here are rated for an operating bias voltage range of 550-650 VDC, with the standard STAX Pro bias set to 580 V. There's some leeway here for HIFIMAN to play around with the distance between the plate and the diaphragm, with more room allowing for better bass extension.

Frequency Response Measurement and Listening

I will mention that I have a general preference for a warm-neutral signature emphasizing a slightly elevated bass and smooth treble range with detailed mids and good tonal separation. I also generally prefer instrumental music over vocals, with favored genres including jazz and classical music.


Our current headphones test setup uses a set of two custom in-ear microphones for the two channels. These microphones closely adhere to the IEC711 class, but have been tweaked to be more reliable in the >10 kHz frequency range, the precise issue with my previous setup, that is otherwise still very good and will continue to be used for IEMs and earphones. Two soft silicone pinnae are installed on the sides, separated by a distance matching my head, and multiple "height" adapters have been 3D-printed for further customization based on fit, head size and shape. Each set of microphones has an XLR output I separately adapted to 3.5 mm. To ensure no bottleneck in the chain, I used the Gustard A26 DAC using the balanced outputs into the Headamp BHSE and the Mini Shangri-La amplifier, with the former used for measurements. This artificial head simulator feeds the microphone lines into a reference USB sound card, which in turn goes to a laptop that has ARTA and REW running. I begin with an impulse measurement to test for signal fidelity, calibrate the sound card and channel output, account for floor noise, and finally test the frequency response of each channel separately. Octave smoothing is at the 1/12th setting, netting a good balance of detail and signal-to-noise ratio. The default tuning was used for testing, and no app or program-based EQ settings were chosen, unless specifically mentioned. Each sample of interest is measured at least thrice with separate mounts to account for any fit issues, and an average is taken of the individual measurements for statistical accuracy.


As per usual, you can find my headphone frequency response measurements on VSG.squig.link, along with all the earphone measurements. Scroll to the bottom and choose different targets there, including some from Harman Kardon developed after years of R&D. The Harman 2018 over-ear target in particular, is a reference curve many headphone makers aim for now, but I find it too bass-boosted—especially for open-back sets. As such, I am opting for the Harman 2018 curve with the bass target from the Harman 2013 curve, which is what is referred to as the "Harman Combined" target. Before we get talking about the sound signature of the HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La, I want to briefly talk about the measurements themselves and the channel balance achieved here. I think a single look at the measurements above can confirm the excellent driver matching on my set, and this is all the more impressive when you realize this is a randomly chosen retail unit. HIFIMAN doesn't always get associated with good quality control and build quality, but it does deserve props for this. Having tried out multiple Mini Shangri-La units at different shows since, I can't say I've heard any channel imbalance in those units either.

Tonally, the Mini Shangri-La leans mid-forward and relaxed—a welcome change from the more esoteric e-stat tunings typically seen. I was immediately surprised by the lack of sub-bass though, with an appreciable dip from 100 Hz unlike pretty much any other HIFIMAN set with the oval ear cups. These tend to be quite good against seal breaks or leakage, and generally the resonant frequency is low enough to where you wouldn't notice this much. I pressed the ear cups further inward and now I got more sub-bass, albeit the traditional HIFIMAN 1-2 kHz dip was also present—this is teaching me a few things about how HIFIMAN tunes its open-back headphones! There might also be some potential leak internally, but the bigger contributor seems to be the relatively weaker clamp force from this headband. I suspect the Sundara or Arya headband will fare better in this regard, and will be more likely to give you a HIFIMAN-esque sound signature. This could be a case of HIFIMAN not wanting to cannibalize sales of the Shangri-La Jr. either, but either way we've landed on something that sounds like a more refined Sennheiser HD 600/650 with a wider soundstage and more open presentation, let alone also the ability to handle layering and imaging more precisely. Not a bad thing, as long as you know what to expect.

Bass is on the weaker side overall, be it purely in quantity or more subjective metrics such as dynamic range. Snares and percussion hits feel light, so fans even of metal and rock music might not find the Mini Shangri-La impactful. The mid-range is easily the star here though, with most instruments sounding unperturbed and the headphones being able to out-resolve a lot of similarly tuned products. Male vocals are also quite well represented here, and the precise imaging as well as a generally wide soundstage and non-fatiguing tuning makes for an actually viable product for PC use too, be it for gaming or media consumption. Some female singers may feel too forward and potentially shouty in your ears, however. Going for a fairly relaxed treble thereafter emphasizes this, and yet I wouldn't call this set dark sounding given you still have that e-stat ethereal presentation, with air in the upper frequencies. I would personally up the mid-treble slightly to get a grander sound for strings and pianos, although your mileage may vary here. Avoiding the usual e-stat tuning and timbre hurdles already makes the Mini Shangri-La more interesting than a lot of other releases in my books, so perhaps there is something to gain despite the weaker clamping force.


Having brought up the Sennheiser HD 650 before, I had to talk more here and show you what I meant. The HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La really measures very similarly to the HD 650, represented here by the Drop x Sennheiser HD 6XX. If anything, the Mini Shangri-La does feel slightly tilted towards the upper mids but otherwise expect a similar balance of bass, mids, and treble here—just a lot more resolving and in a wider stage. The HD 6XX is renowned for its mids accuracy and you get that here too, although I'd say it probably handles vocals more naturally than the Mini Shangri-La does. There's also an upper treble peak ~12-13 kHz in my ears that makes cymbal strikes more prominent, and this can be slightly unpleasant if you are sensitive to this region. Otherwise, I personally would take the Mini Shangri-La any day of the weak for a more resolving, more comfortable, and grander presentation—especially for acoustic jazz and orchestral tracks. The issue of course is the HD 6XX costs significantly less, and you have far more affordable amplifier options too. This makes the Mini Shangri-La more like a possible upgrade path, albeit one you place yourself in a corner with going the energizer amplifier route.

There are very few e-stat headphones released each year, at least compared to dynamic and planar magnetic driver headphones. Recent releases have typically gone the flagship route, with the Audeze CRBN and newer CRBN 2, the STAX SR-X9000, and the DCA CORINA being prime examples. I wish I had the HIFIMAN Jade II on hand here for a more direct comparison, but in its absence I will pull up the more affordable Nectar HiveX and the more premium HIFIMAN Shangri-La Jr. instead. Both of these offer better bass extension, with the Nectar HiveX following the more traditional HIFIMAN-esque tuning, down to the brighter lower/mid-treble. It handles bass dynamics impressively well for an e-stat though, and costs a decent chunk less than the Mini Shangri-La. Yet I find the HIFIMAN option overall more pleasant and more universally amenable, it's certainly more comfortable even if it's not as well-built—which is saying something since the HiveX is made by a single person at home. The Mini Shangri-La is far easier to purchase globally though, especially if you live outside the USA, so perhaps the HiveX is less of a contender than I thought. The Shangri-La Jr. is an exceptionally well tuned set of headphones no matter the driver technology used. It's also quite possibly the HIFIMAN set with the best build quality too, with all metal ear cups and frame, as well as the best headband the company has to offer. It's tuned near-neutral with excellent bass extension too, although I don't get the bass impact here again. Likewise, I also don't get the ethereal presentation and wide soundstage that a lot of e-stats are popular for. It feels like a safe e-stat, and I am not sure people who want to go this route are looking for something safe necessarily. If you want your all-rounder set of headphones to be an e-stat then the Shangri-La Jr. is probably the only set ever made for you. Just be aware it costs significantly more than the Mini Shangri-La and benefits heavily from a warmer chain to add some emotion to some fairly sterile mids.