In the expo HE-1 had its own listening booth. Shangri La was kept like a normal headphone among Susvara, He1000se, Sundara etc. If I hadn't known of the model before, I would have thought of it as a normal hifi pair.

So presentation might have played its part. Also the expo is noisy, and its hard to compare properly there for open backs. You crank the volume and stress your ears. I didn't have a fair base to compare them both to be honest. Its a wonderful headphone but I found Susvara equally wonderful.