Shanling - M1 Plus

My first DAP after almost two decades (had a Creative Zen in the 00’s). Join me in welcoming the Shanling M1 Plus!

Arrived today after Blue Dart courier goofed up and made me wait two more days than expected. But was the wait worth it? Oh yeah!

Got it up and running with a Sandisk 512 GB card in mo time. Been running over a couple of hours now and is opening up. Tried with the IEMs at hand - the workhorse Final E3000 and the puritanical Etymotic ER4SR. And also with the party-guy Grado SR60x.

First impressions?

- Small, really small but feels solid in hand. Looks like a small boss, all black, including the leatherette cover (like a leather jacket for the little Don 😁). No over the top design or logos like the leading brand, it quietly makes a statement.

- UI is well laid out, mostly intuitive and responsive. No Android bloat, just you, the music player and the settings. Minimalists would love it.

- All that’s fine, but how’s the performance, you ask? Well, if I have to use a few descriptors,
‘Powerful’, ‘Clear’ and ‘Musical’. And that’s not an exaggeration. For this price it’s difficult to find a better combination of power and sound quality.

I expected it to drive the IEMs easily, and it did. While it drives them on low gain as well, I prefer to use this mini dynamo on high gain. I had to keep the volume around 35 for the Finals and 45 for the Etys to sing to its tunes. (The max you can go is 100). But the surprise was with the Grados, they needed a mere 25. Of course, at 38 ohms these are one of the easiest of headphones to drive. I couldn’t even raise the volume beyond 35 for them. I have a strong feeling the M1 Plus would be able to drive headphones even upto 200-250 ohms. I expect the amp and analog circuitry to open up fully in a week or so.

Coming to the sound, the clarity amazes. Of course Shanling is known for segment-topping clarity in all segments they operate in. No distortion whatsoever, and you can listen without fatigue. No need to raise volume to listen to details.

As for the bass, it punches deep. With the Grados that made for fun listening to tracks with bass. It has eight filters, you can select what suits you, but there’s not a whole lot of difference to sound. I tried all and kept it on Linear phase, fast roll out I am not an EQ person so didn’t try EQing. But it’s known that Shanling DAPs don’t lose sound output when EQed.

The mids are sweet, just on the warmer side of neutral. But not warm enough to colour sound signature of the IEMs. I’d say pairing would work with any IEM. I liked them with the Grado, Final and Etys in decreasing order.

My hearing is capped at 16Khz so can’t authoritatively comment on the highs. But I didn’t feel anything lacking and the treble is brilliant without being harsh.

Don’t expect a large sound stage. This can be a limitation for some, but I value sound quality over technicals. The imaging is fine though and you can place each instrument clearly.

But all this is dissection. Overall is the Shanling M1 Plus engaging? Oh yes! It’s lovely to look at as well as listen to and I can see long hours of listening on it. It put a smile on my face when I opened the box and turned it on. And another smile when I hooked it up with IEM and heard the opening lines of the first song.

At its price, the M1 Plus is a strong contender for your choice if you want truly distraction-free music listening to your own tracks. I don’t intend using the Tidal app in it as I am on my way to get away from the streaming habit and enjoying the music collection I own. There’s always the phone and laptop when I feel like exploring new.

What it can do beyond playing hi-res music through IEMs:

1. Act as an external DAC to make your phone/laptop sound better.

2. Play music through a BT headphone.

3. Line out to desktop amp or active speakers. Or coaxial out to connect to a DAC of our choice.

4. Balanced output upto 660 mW to drive full sized headphones (except the most demanding ones)

5. DLNA and AirPlay support to play music from your PC/music server.

What ‘NOT’ to expect from the M1 Plus

1. First and foremost, streaming. There’s a Tidal app on board, but that’s all. There are other non-Android DAPs eg HiBy R1 or R3 that support most streaming platforms

2. App Store or side loading of apps. There are Android based DAPs for that. The M1 Plus focuses only on one thing - playing music at best quality sound for the money you paid.

3. Crisp, high resolution screen. As this has to display only album art, it’s fine.

Mind-blowing product, with very beautiful design and sleek DAP, with sound quality extremely excellent.

Hello Fellow Audiophiles,
I was eagerly waiting for this Little Musical Toy 😁 almost for a month. Thanks to HPZ Team 🫷🏻Actually I was eyeing for Shanling M1 Ultra but after #tonedeafmonk M1 Plus review I decided to buy it's miniature and ordered it as soon as it went on HPZ site for sale. I am very much happy with my choice.
Pros: 1). Compact Size (3.2inch Screen, 116 grams)
2). Brand new DAC chip from ESS (ES9069Q)
3). Improved in house FPGA Architecture
4). 195mw and 661mw@32ohms output on 3.5mm and 4.4mm
5). Good battery life ( 7hrs on 4.4mm end with WiFi off)
6). Aesthetic Design (looks great in silver colour)
7). PCM 32 bit / 768 kHz & DSD512
8). DAP at a Dongle Price
Cons:1). Sandisk Cards (normal) Only
2). No inbuilt memory
3). Tidal online only(can’t download music on to device)
4). In house Ingenic X2000 processor

After 14hrs of Burning in 2 charges I started hearing to it.
Tested gear: 1). Thieaudio Monarch Mark 3
2). Sennheiser ie 900
3). Dunu Davinci
4). Juzear 61T
5). HPZ X Orivetti OD 200
6). HifiMan Arya Stealth edition
Thieaudio Monarch mark 3 sounded exceptionally well as if they are made for each other.(analytical, authoritative bass,micro,macro details) 🥰
Dunu Davinci was at its best. Punchy bass, neutral, musical 😘
Ie900 too sounds very well over all.
HPZ X Orivetti OD200 sounds more analytical and bassy especially in lower mids, mids and upper mids👌
Shanling M1 plus is a bliss for audiophiles at an affordable price. It got highest power output in its category. It can play whatever you throws at it. It can play up to 24bit 192khz files max at 3.5mm end and can play 32bit 768khz pcm and DSD 512 at 4.4mm end. It’s Japanese KDS active crystal oscillators that enhance signal transmission up to 90.3168 MHz/98.304 MHz for and Japanese ELNA silmic II capacitors enhances sound output.

It’s 2100mah battery gives decent amount of playtime more than 10hrs on single ended output and almost 7hrs on balanced output. After 3 full charges and 3 full discharges i am witnessing even more playtime on my third full charge. I am on the latest firmware version 1.7.
Comparison: I do own Hiby R4 which is direct competitor to shanling m1 plus. In one word m1 plus music sounds better than Hiby R4 but R4 is full android 12 based player and can install all playstore music apps. M1 plus can only play pre installed Tidal streaming app on WiFi with no offline option (you can’t download music even on to microsd card). M1 plus and R4 can play DSD512 files. I do have a Tidal account and m1 plus can play music up to 24bit 192khz files on this streaming app. M1 plus is on Linux based M touch OS like i bigger brother M1 ultra, which is okay (lot to be improved). It can’t read Sandisk extream pro cards, it can only read 24bit 48khz songs on Samsung evo plus cards, it can read and play all files including DSD files on Sandisk ultra cards. Hiby R4 can read and play all of them. As on date M1 plus can connect to 2.4ghz WiFi band, i am not able to connect it on 5ghz WiFi but on head-fi.org forums shanling mentioned that they are aware of this problem and working on it to resolve.

Conclusion: Whoever wants to have an DAP at affordable price without compromising sound quality with its Compact size M1 pus would be the best choice. It can drive any iem quite easily.

While I have zero complaints about the sound quality & how this compact device can drive almost any of the headphones that I own, I have faced some issues on the software side.
1. The date & time even if u set it manually tend to be inaccurate a few hours after setting it
2. If you use touch to activate the screen the device is very easily unlocked but it also leads to a lot of misclicks
3. I Was currently searching the internet for a cover for this device & could not find any reliable source in India.
If the headphone zone team could get some stock back that would be great.

"It's a good MUSIC player"
Pros:
1.best music and good output.
2. Powerful
3.compact
4. Best usb dac mode.

Cons:
1. Sharp edges
2. U f up the screen protector "U can't get another"
3.if u use synclink it hangs like a 1990 computer playing cyberpunk. JUST FREEZES.
U need to restart it.
4. If u are like me with 200+ folders of music. Scrolling is a pain in the arse.
5. Not really a con but. Mann I wish I can get lot of accesories like transparent case or colourful.

Overall