Shanling M3X Portable Lossless Digital Audio Player & USB DAC

Product Information

At the end of the day, it is an all-rounder, so if you need a high-quality DAP that can sound really amazing on Balanced, have tons of power, also on balanced, and which has a warm, beautiful display, and a refined, musical sound, Shanling M3X would be more than happy to oblige and make you happy for years to come. The Cayin N3Pro is a hybrid DAP implementing dual AKM4493 chips & a JAN6418 vacuum tube. Like the Shanling M3X, the N3Pro offers users the ability to switch between tonalities. The differences in the N3Pro ‘switches’ are more evident, however, with its solid-state and tube modalities. In all modalities, the N3Pro offers a warmer sound compared to the M3X.

With Dual DAC on, you get better detail retrieval, better separation, more resolution, crispier notes. The tonality is good, it is not overly warm or analytical. It does not sound digital or artificial. With most of the pairings, it sounds clean and linear with good dynamics. Instrument separation is satisfactory and I will talk about the soundstage in the next chapter as there are some things you have to know about that. Balanced vs. Unbalanced

Android OS/Performance​

In this section, I will pair the M3X with a couple of IEMs and the Sennheiser 58X, which is relatively easy to drive. I will talk about the pairings in the upcoming sections so that you will have a better understanding of how the M3X sounds. Sound Signature The ES-3 is a warmer earphone that offers great PRaT for the price. Combining it with the M3X results in a great pairing. The presentation is warm, energetic, and exciting. The sub-bass goes deep and the bass is impactful and textured. The midrange is clear with plenty of details. The upper midrange is slightly recessed but shows good resolution and definition. The treble extension is brilliant, clean, and precise. The soundstage has moderate width with good depth. The instrument separation is excellent, as well as the layering. The general presentation is quite airy and spacious with the M3X. Overall, they offer a great synergy together. Pairing: Sennheiser HD58X 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

I've had my shanling M3X for about a week now and have been having pretty constant trouble with third party music apps that I cannot seem to find the solution to. 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. M3X is a fairly balanced sounding dap, with a very good amount of body and three-dimensionality. The Saber DAC, gives a little more texture to the mid and mid-high range, without ever becoming excessive or invasive. The speed of execution and the recovery of details are also good, which at times leaves favorably Android ที่เล็กที่สุด แบบพกพาอย่างแท้จริง ขนาดพอดีมือกับกระเป๋าของคุณ ควบคุมใช้งานได้อย่างง่ายดายด้วยมือเดียว มาพร้อมขนาดความละเอียดจอ 768*1280, Ppi 356However, the new ESS ES9219C DAC/amp chips are extremely efficient enabling superior battery life. In addition, the chips have no additional circuitry since they include a dedicated headphone amplifier circuit and a final output stage. As a result, the ESS Sabre chips function with both DAC & amp capabilities and operate in dual-mono configuration. Accessories and unboxing​Inside the box we get the player, a charging/data cable, two extra screen protectors and the user guide/warranty card. I’m honestly ok with the included accessories as most people don’t need more than the basics for a DAP.

SPECIFICATIONS: To handle the Android properly the M3X carries over the Snapdragon SD430 soc (octacore) from M6 but now has only 2GB of ram with 32GB of onboard storeage. Out of the 32 GB only 24.2GB are available for storage. Ram management too is very good, most of the time it has more than 1GB of RAM is available. If you want to run games on the HD display let me tell you the SD430 can run subway surfer and other low on graphics games without much trouble but don’t expect it to run PUBG or COD. 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. Bluetooth connectivity is also satisfactory, as long as you don’t move or turn around fast the signal remains stable. The device supports receiving and broadcasting a Bluetooth signal, supporting LDAC, SBC codecs as a receiver, and can emit LDAC, SBC, LHDC, aptX HD, and aptX as a transmitter. 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. High gain seems to give the M3X Limited a slight V-shaped tonality. Bass becomes punchier and more dominant. Upper midrange are slightly pushed forward, and mids/lower mids are slight recessed. I find high gain mode to sound more dynamic and tighter overall, but soundstage seems to be tighter and smaller.The M3X is Shanling’s latest mid-level DAP entry with a brand new DAC implementation, 16x MQA unfold capability, doubling from the flagship M8. This latest X version of the M3 is the successor to the M3s or M3, which debuted a few years ago, now comes with enhanced battery life, a new-gen processor, and a switch between single or dual DAC mode. Android แบบเปิด เพื่อการใช้งานที่รวดเร็ว ราบลื่นไม่ติดขัด รองรับเทคโนโลยี AGLO ในตัว (Android Global Lossless Output) ทุกแอพเล่นเพลงที่คุณชื่นชอบทั้งหมดไม่ว่าจะเป็น Tidal, Qobuz, UAPP, หรือแอพอื่นๆที่รองรับ Hi-Res จะได้รับการประมวลผลอย่างถูกต้องและมีคุณภาพสูงสุด โดยไม่มีการลดทอนคุณภาพเสียงที่เกิดจากการแปลงค่า Sample Rate ของ Android In terms of upper midrange, I find the upper midrange here to be pretty tamed and smooth with zero sibilance or edginess. No typical "upper mids glare" that I find present on most of Shanling's products. 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. For its smooth performance, an octa-core Snapdragon 430 processor is running under the hood of the M3X with 2 GB of RAM & 32 GB of ROM in its arsenal. As for its wireless capabilities, the Shanling M3X supports two-way Bluetooth connection with supports for AptxHD and LDAC. The Battery

The bass doesn’t punch too deep so you will probably have your focus on the mid frequencies when you listen to it. Being not as resolving as its bigger brothers Shanling has instead tuned the M3X to sound balanced and forgiving in the mid-bass. This is an all-rounder that performs pretty well with different IEMs and without heavy coloration. The ESS Sabre decoder decodes up to 32/384kHz and supports DSD256 native decoding. You can switch instantly on the drag-down menu between a single DAC mode to save power or the dual DAC mode that gives you the full performance, this will also affect the output in some ways. The M3X sounds smooth and balanced across the spectrum. The midrange has a slight hint of warmth in it and the general presentation is fairly smooth with plenty of details. It feels like a complete all-rounder and provides a good listening experience, regardless of the IEM choice. It has a solid PRaT foundation for a mid-range DAP, especially when using it in balanced mode. Transients are fast and snappy. However, there is a big performance difference between the modes and I will talk about that soon. On the inside, that’s where all the important things changed. Android platform was upgraded to the octa-core Snapdragon 665 and Android 10, refreshing M3 for swift system response and app compatibility going forward. Of course, still combined with our Android Global Lossless Output (AGLO) system for an ideal Android sound performance. We even adjusted Bluetooth, switching to a newer 5.0 version. This can typically be seen in the midrange and bass frequencies where some even harmonic tones add to a rounded and smooth signature. There is some treble lift which is especially evident in the ‘Dual DAC’ mode which add some transparency and greater level of resolve in the overall sonic soundscape.

Accessories and unboxing​

Display: Front side of the M3X is dominated by a 4.2 inch capacitive display with HD resolution. Touch response of the display is very good, as good as mobile displays. It has acceptable sunlight legibility and I had no problem seeing the display in direct sunlight. There is a small led just below the wheel. It turns red when charging and turns blue when fully charged. Tantalum capacitors are used in the circuitry to enhance dynamics and Shanling also puts in custom coded FPGA chipsets, KDS Femto grade oscillators to lower jitter. The DethonRay Prelude DTR1 is a ‘no-thrills’ DAP which implements a sound-first approach with a focus on its clean power circuitry. Compared to the Shanling M3X, the DTR1 boasts better micro- and macro-dynamic slam. It is a highly dynamic DAP and certainly takes no prisoners here compared with the M3X. However, a downside to the DTR1 is its relatively narrow soundstage which is bested by the M3X. The DTR1, owing to its audio circuitry, is able to drive more power-hungry headphones and hence scales better in this regard compared to the M3X. User interface wise, the M3X is the obvious choice here with touchscreen capabilities and its Android OS. Conclusion In some ways, Shanling became a much better company after splitting from Hiby, but not because Hiby wasn’t great, but because Hiby offers a more limited support to their partners, compared to the support they can offer for their own DAPs. The display is a vibrant, slightly warm colored, 4.2″ IPS display, and it is about the smallest size I can say I am comfortable typing on. It still edges on being a bit small for me, but for a DAP, it is perfect, especially if you price portability. While on Lotoo Paw 6000 I didn’t insist much on the display size, it matters more on M3X because now we have access to apps, google and such, which will require typing.