Gramophone Dreams

I judge each DAC on its own sonic merits, independent of its technology. However, I'm sympathetic to the chipless concept—a chip DAC sounds like the chips used in it, while an FPGA DAC has more potential for voicing and, later, for modification of that voicing via in-the-field firmware upgrades.

I compared the PS Audio's FPGA PerfectWave DirectStream to a DAC that uses a sigma-delta chip and sells for almost the same price: Mytek's Manhattan II ($5995), which uses the Sabre ES9038Pro chip. The two DACs differed greatly in their portrayals of space, texture, and musical momentum.

The Manhattan II's sound had a solid, masculine authority. It did forward momentum with the best. Spatially, it was nuanced, with good focus at the rear of the soundstage, but slightly dark. In comparison, the DirectStream seemed less muscular, more feminine, more painterly. It sound was brighter in terms of soundstage lighting, more sprightly in terms of rhythm and melody, but with noticeably reduced levels of focus and image contrast.

The chief virtues of PS Audio's PerfectWave DirectStream are the un-mechanical ease and the elegant charm of its presentation. This DAC also distinguishes itself by offering audiophiles a constantly evolving, continuously upgradable alliance with PS Audio's aggressively musical house sound. I respect that Paul McGowan clearly has a viewpoint about what digital should sound like. The lively sound of PS Audio's Digital Link of 1989 suggests that he's now spent decades refining that viewpoint. At $5999, the PerfectWave DirectStream isn't cheap, but what I've heard suggests that it can compete, on its own sonic terms, with any converter at any price.

Digital (r)evolution
How much has digital sound evolved? Not as much as I had imagined. Thirty-six years after the introduction of the Compact Disc, today's best digital sounds more relaxed, more refined of tone and less opaque, and it images more precisely than did 1980s digital. But it still tastes to me more like powdered milk than what comes out of a cow, and it still feels more like an inkjet-print than like real musicians standing in front of microphones.

Digital has indeed advanced. But if making recordings sound like real people singing and playing instruments is still the prime goal of audio engineering, I think LP playback has progressed more and achieved more successes in those same 36 years. I believe digital engineers can't and won't create realistic reproduction of sound until they understand what makes real sounds sound real to the human ear/brain system.

Digital has been designated the Third Industrial Revolution. I'm beginning to believe that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will be post-digital, neo-analog.

HiFiMan Shangri-La Jr electrostatic headphones and amplifier
A bunch of my friends are lifelong devotees of Quad's original ESL electrostatic loudspeaker. They feel strongly that the Quad "57"'s coherence, timbral accuracy, and crystalline midrange presents recorded music better than any other speaker. I understand, but over the years I've bought four pairs of Quad ESLs and have ended up selling them all. I got annoyed with their tiny, beamy sweet spot and compressed dynamics.

My search for electrostatic sound that didn't beam or compress led me to covet fine electrostatic headphones. So far, the finest ones I've been able to afford have been Koss's ESP-950 headphones ($999.99, including Koss's E-90 Electrostatic Energizer, which amplifies the signal and energizes the diaphragms). Of all the expensive planar-magnetic and dynamic headphones in my collection, none but JPS Labs' Abyss AB-1266 Phis and HiFiMan's Susvaras can claim a more satisfying, tonally correct midrange. Only the Susvaras and Abysses sound more spacious or out-of-my-head, imaging-wise. The Kosses' only negatives are a slightly rolled-off bass and treble and a touch of electrostatic texture that clings to the sound. But heck, that also describes most highly rated electrostatic 'phones and most contemporary electrostatic loudspeakers. I've always wondered if it was possible to eliminate this ever-so-slight, tinnitus-like coloration. I have now learned that it is.

The first time I heard an electrostatic transducer that lacked that coloration was at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, when Dr. Fang Bian, HiFiMan's CEO and superbrain, introduced his flagship electrostatic headphone model, the Shangri-La ($50,000), which came with an exquisite-looking, output-transformerless (OTL) 300B tube amplifier/energizer (footnote 2). What separates HiFiMan's electrostatics from their competition is how Fang, who has a PhD in nanotechnology, employs a nanoparticle-thick magnetic layer deposited on the very thin diaphragms of the Shangri Las' drive-units, which makes those drivers superlight while preventing irregularities in motive force across the diaphragms' surfaces. When Bian asked if I wanted to review the Shangri-Las, I laughed. "No, thank you—but call me when you make a cheaper, trickled-down stat."

Two years later, he called. Which is how I ended up with the Shangri-La Jr Electrostatic Headphone System, comprising the Shangri-La Jr headphones ($4000) and Shangri-La Jr hybrid amplifier/energizer ($5000). They can be bought together for $8000, a saving of $1000.

Instead of the original Shangri-La's four 300B tubes and four 6SN7 driver tubes, the Jr sports just four 6SN7s. Like the original's, the Jrs' amplifier is distinctively shaped, with a tempered-glass top panel; it has a relay-based, 24-step attenuator, and two output ports for shared or comparative listening.

I have only vague memories of the sound of the $50,000 Shangri-Las at CES three years ago, but in my bunker-studio, the far less expensive Shangri-La Jr headphones reproduced the sublime Evensong for Ascensiontide, with the Choir of St. John's College Cambridge directed by George Guest (LP, Argo ZRG 5511), in an almost visionary fashion. The HiFiMans' ease and naturalness framed the reverend's sermon in a way that kept my eyes closed and my attention riveted on every exhortation, confession, and absolution. The intimate tones and textures of the speaking voice were fully presented. Ambience was delivered in microdetail. Through very good but lesser headphones such as Sony's Z1Rs or Audeze's LCD-Xes, I'd assumed that the low-level hissing sounds I heard were LP surface noise. Through the Shangri-La Jr 'phones, it was obvious that I was hearing the church's shuddering room tone. I heard the full Doppler effect of cars shifting gears as they passed the building. I could tell which pew each cougher sat in. The choir was clear, present, and engaging.

And I heard no static-tinnitus. To me, this level of vibrant resolution makes the Shangri-La Jrs' $8000 price seem reasonable.

HiFiMan Jade II electrostatic headphones
No matter how reasonable the price, the Shangri-La Jr is out of my class—but at $1399, HiFiMan's new Jade II electrostatic headphones are not. The Jade II replaces Fang Bian's first electrostatic model, the Jade, launched in 2008. My memories of the Jade have faded, but the Jade IIs look to be the next step up from my beloved Koss ESP-950s. The Jade IIs can be purchased alone for $1399, or with their matching solid-state amplifier/energizer for $2499. (Purchased separately, the amp/energizer costs $1599.) Bian sent me both. The handsome, comfortable aluminum headset weighs a touch less than the Shangri-La Jrs: 12.9oz (365gm).

I connected the Jade IIs' amp to the line-out of my Mytek Brooklyn+ DAC and listened. My first impressions were of a cool, open, articulate dryness that reminded me of Focal's Utopia headphones, but without the Utopias' profound bass slam and brilliant transparency. The Jade IIs' sound was cool, clean, and well sorted.

When I replaced the Brooklyn+ with Mytek's premium DAC, the Manhattan II, the soundstage expanded farther outside my head. Doc Watson's Southbound (16/44.1 FLAC, Vanguard/Tidal) got bigger and more solid, Watson's voice more liquid. But they still sounded gray and cool.

This made me wonder if some of the brisk dryness I was hearing was caused by the Jade IIs' solid-state amplifier. As an experiment, I connected the Jade II headset to the Shangri-La Jr 6SN7-tube amplifier. Voilà! Dryness gone. Chill gone. Wetness back. Ambience and reverb in just the right amounts. Doc Watson singing "Tennessee Stud" was tonally correct, and so perfectly tuneful that I began wondering how, using the same amplifier, the Jade IIs' $1399 headset might compare with the Shangri-La Jrs' $4000 headset.

I put the Shangri-La headset back on the Shangri-La amplifier and listened to "Help, I'm a Rock," from the Mothers of Invention's iconic 1966 masterpiece, Freak Out! (16/44.1 FLAC, Rykodisc/Tidal). This era-shaping Frank Zappa recording inspired me to leave my parents' home in Chicago and journey, in a turquoise 1949 Mercury, to California in the summer of 1967. Now, through the Jrs' sleek headset, Freak Out! and Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and The Velvet Underground's eponymous debut album sounded fresh as new, and beautifully recorded.

I plugged the Jade II headset back into the Shangri-La Jr amplifier and played all that Summer of Love music again. The sound was way less clear. Bass was less deep. The midrange had a touch of grain.

The differences in clarity and descriptiveness between the Jade II and Shangri-La Jr headsets were not subtle. That extra $2600 for the Jr headset buys a unique, grainless, see-into-the-music transparency matched by only the finest electrostatic, dynamic, or planar-magnetic headphones.

Both HiFiMan electrostatic systems exist in lofty, highly competitive price realms in which non-stat headphones by Audeze, Focal, JPS Labs, Mr. Speaker, Sony, and HiFiMan themselves offer serious competition. But if you enjoy electrostatic sound as much as I do, Fang Bian's super-stats might be your ticket to stat satori.

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Footnote 2: HiFiMan, 2602 Beltagh Avenue, Bellmore, NY 11710. Tel: (201) 443-4626. Web: www.hifiman.com