Shanling M0 Portable High-Resolution Audio Player Review

Most of us are content material utilizing a smartphone to hearken to music, and certainly for the typical listener, a telephone will get the job executed completely properly. However, audiophiles and superior customers won’t be glad with this selection, particularly contemplating that an increasing number of smartphones right now are omitting the three.5mm socket. Most individuals will agree that high-resolution audio is finest loved on a pair of wired earphones or headphones.

That’s precisely what high-resolution audio gamers such because the Shanling M0 are for. This palm-sized moveable music participant provides wi-fi and wired connectivity, so you need to use it together with your finest headphones or earphones. What’s extra, this ‘Chi-Fi’ product is priced at simply Rs. 8,999 — the best entry worth vary for anybody seeking to give the audiophile life a attempt. We evaluation the Shanling M0 to search out out if it is adequate to be your first high-resolution audio participant.

Shanling M0 design and specs

The most placing facet of the Shanling M0’s design is its dimension — this audio participant is sufficiently small to slot in the palm of your hand. Its dimension and form, in addition to the rotating dial on the aspect, make the M0 resemble a smartwatch, albeit one with out straps. The system is not very slim although, and is a good bit thicker than the typical smartphone. However, it is nonetheless extraordinarily pocketable and moveable, and you will not have any bother discovering someplace to place it whether or not you are utilizing it or not.

The Shanling M0 has a steel unibody with a 1.54-inch touchscreen on the entrance. The solely bodily management on this audio participant is the facility button on the appropriate, which doubles up as a rotating dial to regulate the quantity. The backside of the audio participant has the three.5mm socket and a USB Type-C port (for charging and transferring recordsdata), whereas the left has a slot for a microSD card. The slot is protected by an enormous flap that we discovered fairly laborious to open.

 

The Shanling M0 has no inner storage, so you will have a microSD card to make use of it. Up to 512GB playing cards are supported, and the gross sales package deal doesn’t have one included. You do get a USB Type-C cable for charging, although. The system helps varied file sorts together with compressed codecs akin to MP3 and WMA, in addition to high-resolution codecs akin to FLAC, WAV, DSD, and M4A, at as much as 32-bit/ 384kHz decision.

There are 3 ways to make use of the Shanling M0 — with wired headphones, with wi-fi headphones, or as a USB digital-to-analogue converter (DAC). The system has a 32-bit ESS Sabre ES9218P quad DAC to be used with wired headphones, whereas wi-fi ones can profit from Bluetooth 4.1 and assist for the LDAC and Qualcomm aptX codecs. The Shanling M0 has a 630mAh battery, which ran for round 11 hours utilizing a mix of wired and wi-fi connectivity in our expertise.

The Shanling M0 runs on MTouch OS, a customized consumer interface optimised for the small 1.54-inch display screen. Navigating via the UI depends on gestures — swipes and faucets are sufficient to get round. While it was initially complicated to…