Shanling M3X Portable Lossless Digital Audio Player & USB DAC

Product Information

Shanling have borrowed design elements from their very own flagship M8 DAP to create a scaled down player. The overriding rounded aesthetics coupled with the indented grooves aid ergonomics really pay homage to the Shanling house look. This time, however, the DAP is more wieldy to single-hand use compared with its elder brother. Further similar traits include the right-sided positioning of the scroll volume wheel and rear glass panel with the Shanling logo and Hi-Res certifications.

Introducing Shanling M3X​M3X is our newest Android Hi-Res portable player, built on the same platform as our previous three Android models. But this time we are aiming at the more affordable part of the market, with a little bit less focus on the most demanding DAC chipsets and the most powerful amplifiers. Dragging down the top menu you will see several areas being customized and you can access a pure music mode that forces close other apps, tweak filter settings, and switch between single/dual DACs. In the Shanling Music app, you could access your NAS’s music files with DLNA, use Airplay, Synclink also transferring songs over 5GHz wifi. Android Global Lossless Output (AGLO) Technology M3 Ultra overall sounds a bit warmer and more relaxed than the original M3X, while managing to improve on the technical aspects of the sound.In terms of imaging, it is also clean and precise with great image separation. Thanks to the well rounded and wide soundstage presentation, pinpointing where instruments are coming from is, imo, almost effortless. Pair this with the M3X Limited's ability to resolve details and you are in for a treat.

At the bottom of the DAP, the M3X hosts a USB/DAC port as well as a single micro SD card slot (supporting up to 2TB of storage). Listen before echoing comments, listen with an open mind with no bias towards hype, name, or price.

With Hifiman and Final Audio’s TWS earphones tested on the M3X for a few train rides, I am not experiencing any issues. MQA Audio-wise, Shanling used the ESS’s ES9219C DACs in dual mode, which can offer high efficiency and x16 MQA support. Shanling also used large-capacity AVX tantalum capacitors to further enhance the low-frequency performance of the M3X. Additionally, they integrated two Japanese KDS crystal-oscillators and combined them with their custom FPGA algorithm to improve the performance and decoding capabilities of the M3X.

Shanling Quotes an output impedance of less than 10 OHMs, so I was concerned it may have some hissing with sensitive IEMs, but actually it is in the same ballpark as Lotoo Paw 6000and FiiO M11 PRO, so IEMs that are really sensitive may present some hiss, but most IEMs won’t have any trouble. INSIDE: System: Open Android 7.1.1, with AGLO, very fluid, smooth. Excellent brightness and visibility even in sunlight. CPU: 8-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430M3X is our newest Android Hi-Res portable player, built on the same platform as our previous three Android models. But this time we are aiming at the more affordable part of the market, with a little bit less focus on the most demanding DAC chipsets and the most powerful amplifiers. The timbre on the single DAC mode is slightly different with more coloring in the mids and a smoothened, fatter body. In contrast, the Dual DAC mode will always sound more resolving, with some frequencies in the upper treble sounding more defined and with better control and layering in the lows.

Even with the ESS DAC implementation, Shanling have avoided a ‘digital’ sound with glare and treble sheen. However, this is not the rich analog sound you will find in the flagship Shanling M8. Instead, the M3X presentation conveys a largely balanced sound which is linear throughout with some retention of musicality. Laptop headphone rig: foobar 2000, usb to mini-usb, Headroom Total Bithead, Ety 4P w/4S cable (currently shelved in favor of above and a lighter bag) The treble has some extra pep and sparkle around 9 kHz -10 kHz, after which it rools off gently. Having a slightly more enhanced treble doesn’t mean that it is bad for treble sensitive people, as it has a slightly softer character to that treble, rather than having a metallic and strong-edged one. It tends to uplift most IEMs without making them annoying or too sparkly, so IEMs that tend to be a bit dark will gain body and sound more open in the treble. Already thin IEMS may not work as well given the softer bass impact. Having that softer bass helps a lot with music that’s fatiguing an the treble being a bit smoother works too, so you could say that M3X is a forgiving DAP. On the top of the device, users have a choice between single-ended 3.5 mm connection or the balanced 4.4 mm out. This lies in stark contrast with the minimalist single port on the original Shanling M8 which can be niftily switched between 2.5 mm, 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm topologies with the dial tool. Hi guys, complete newbie here. I've just ripped my cds to flac and the only decent headphones I have are an old pair of Philips Fidelio L1, but looking to upgrade in the future if I need to.

Sound(overall)​ These final impressions were done only off the M3X. I choose not to output to external amps but it can be done via the line out option in the settings. This will be what the M3X sounded like with all the headphones I used. Things like headphone pairings will produce different results and impressions vs what my ears hear on my specific gear. Being said the mastering on MQA files is nice from my experience, no matter at what level of unfolding it sounds smooth and decently textured. To me it is still the tuning and power on the DAP that matters, and MQA unfold power is a bonus to play with. I am using wired headphones. The static moves from ear to ear, and seems like perhaps its unprocessed audio? I've no idea really... just sad that the M3X is still not working. Headphones: Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 | Meze 99 Classics, 109 Pro | Sennheiser HD 660S | Koss KPH30i | Grado SR80X | Phillips SHP9600 On daily use, the Shanling M3X is overally zippy and smooth in its performance with no jitter experienced with scrolling or app loading. Since it is an Android-based DAP, it may not have the fastest load times as Lotoo’s PAW 6000 but is still decent nevertheless. The Internals