Thank you for this review. The Shanling M6 Pro flagship DAP improves on the original M6 release with a new dual AK4497EQ DAC and a more powerful 600mW amplifier. As usual, Shanling totally nailed it in term of build quality and design. You can see the glass sheets that are identical on the front and back but that doesn’t mean the display is having the exact same size. The more I listen, the more I am realizing those dynamic drivers of Momentum2 and 99 Classics really like to have a stronger grip and a higher damping factor of a powerful amplifier. I am very familiar with AK4490, 4493, 4497 and 4499 designs which I tested multiple times in portable and desktop forms, but AK4495 is a first for me so I am quite excited. It was a clever design decision to make it look bezel-less. If with the entry level Q1 I was experiencing a vivid and colorful sound reproduction that chooses to be smooth and relaxed sounding almost all the time. Cool curved glass, smooth rounded edges, and the roller wheel that doubles as the on/off button can be found as usual. Amplifier – 2x OPA1662 + 2x ADA4610 + 4x BUF634 The Shanling M6 Pro look is identical to its predecessor with a massive glass front panel, rounded edges, aluminum frame, and balanced/unbalanced port lined up at the bottom of the player. M11 PRO on the other hand offered the last bit in terms of details, and I could easier sport the tiny movement in the room, some errors during recording or mastering. M6 is great by my standards and I have close to zero complaints with it. Any chance you could compare M6 Pro with Dethonray DTR1 and QLS QA361 in terms of sound? M6 did not completely transform those two headphones, but made them much more enjoyable in the long run, music is not half limp anymore and that’s probably the biggest improvement. There is an LED indicator above the volume wheel that shows the BT connection status. Shanling is known to be making portable digital audio players for quite some time now. It can be switched between single and dual DAC mode instantly and achieves 123dB S/N ratio for excellent background noise control, a few dBs over the original M6. Both can play from sub-bass to higher octaves without a problem. 4+ watchers. Only when I’m switching to some reference music (mostly from Reference Recordings, Chesky, StockFisch Records, & others) I’m hearing the stage just a tad deeper on the M6 by Shanling which will present the music slightly deeper and airy. Required fields are marked *. To už chce lepší zesilovač. M6 is using Android version 7.1 and once you connect it to Wi-Fi via APKPure which is already preinstalled, you can download the Google Play Store and all its apps. M6 is not changing at all the overall tonality of LCD-1 and is letting it shine as much as it can. Shanling M6 ($499) VS FiiO M11 PRO ($649). This particular chip, together with slightly lower quality AK4493 are part of a newer generation of converters that succeeded the oldie but goodie AK4490 chip - that was being used for the past years in a lot of good stuff. We thank the team at Shanling for giving us this opportunity. The Fiio M11 Pro is excellent pairing as it ticks all of these boxes. It takes roughly 20-23 seconds to reach the unlock screen and the system is ready to play music right away with no extra caching lag. The design is light at just 244g, similar to the M11 Pro and lighter than the Hiby R6 Pro. The M6 Pro is smoothest, less analytical than the other two and if you prefer more rounded vocal/ better UI the M6Pro will be preferred. Despite the fact that there isn’t much advantage or reasoning to put a Bluetooth receiver with higher-end DAPs for IEMs, it is always a fun functionality to hook it up to speakers or other systems and free the wired connection. It is also faster now than the original M6 DAP. Cayin N8. M6 deserves to have a flagship status and it could easily be compared to pricier units any time of the day. Only when I moved to Hifiman Arya and Audeze LCD-4, it was clear that even the balanced outputs couldn’t tame these beasts. M6 is adding a much-needed kick and impact and is improving the driver control. DTR1 feels even more powerful in the kicks, tons of power/ air in the treble and great dynamics. I love to have solid bass, smooth treble, nice vocal and above average soundstage. The M6 Pro comes in an impressive artistic retail box with a reflective sleeve embossed with a Shanling logo. Shanling has included a screen protector installation kit for the job. It is like the empty space between each note is increasing in size. Only uncertainty for wireless connection is synclink but i guess Shanling will quickly make it stable, Your email address will not be published. I listen to a variety of music – classical, Chinese Pop music, Jazz and even some EDM. Gaming results in quite severe frame drops and not too playable with most DAPs. With M6 in my pocket and EH3NC on my head, I didn’t lose the signal in one hour walk outside, so no complaints here too. Shanling M6 Pro HiFi MP3 Audio Player Android OS Loseless Hi-Res Music. Synclink and fixing several bugs, (editorial note this review was completed before the new firmware update). This is the successor to the M6 and has some improvements to the internal hardware as a response to ever-increasing competition. Hello, is the M6 and M6 pro same with regards to shape and size? Shanling is proficient at offering a great experience with little glitches and bugs and the user experience with M6 Pro is very friendly. M6 on the other hand is vastly different, it choses a linear frequency response that is extended even past 16 kHz, I don’t hear a roll-off and everything is perfectly balanced across the board. Once you start listening to your music, there is an overwhelming feeling of cleanness, of an extended frequency response that carries a reference tuning. Scrolling is responsive on its oleophobic coated screen with enough RAM to make all music application runs smooth. It’s an IPS panel that was provided by Sharp. Shanling M6 Pro Specification. I also like that it has only 3 buttons and a volume wheel, it’s so easy remembering where is where and what it’s doing. I like than those 3 buttons are flushed and aren’t sticking out that much. Most of AKM designs will be all about smoothness, relaxation and roll-off in the treble. The M11 Pro uses Android Nougat 7.0 as its primary OS and the UI feels very fluid and responsive overall. I find Shanling to have a generally more chilled/warmish sound signature so the M6 might not be the best pairing. On a closed-in sounding source, this record would be unbearable. There are a lot of settings in this app, I like that it can play DSD files natively, not just via PCM, it has a proper EQ that starts from the 31 Hz and ends at 16 kHz and you can adjust it from -12 dB up to +12 dB. Since my speakers are located in the middle of the apartment, the Bluetooth connection remained stable in any room I’d go and LS50W sounded exactly as they do via their internal DAC and streamer. I was also surprised by the soundstaging capabilities of M6, it is sounding outside my head all the time even with tiny IEMs inserted deep into my ear canals. In this regard, M6 sounds so very close to that neutrality of FiiO M11 PRO and this comes as a praise for M6, since it is by $150 cheaper and yet as extended and as clean sounding. I’m glad that famous planar slam remained the same, LCD-1 sounded fast and engaging but also smooth and relaxing depending on the music I would listen to. I will skip all the specs, features and so on and will focus mostly on sound quality and features. M11 is considerably smoother, but it hurts the transient response quite a lot. There isn’t a veil across any track, unless you listen to really bad mastered music. Point is Amazons Flac is full sample rate on a wider variety of devices, all my devices but Tidal full MQA isn't on any that I own. Free shipping. Dimensions are roughly the same – 71 x 17.5 x 133.5 mm – but the player put on some weight – 244g … QA361 is the cleanest (thinnest) amongst the three. I really glad manufacturers are keep going back to AD8397 thanks to its clean output and detailed presentation. Sort: Clear All. To je jen u hodně citlivých in-earů. Your email address will not be published. Shanling moved all its inputs and outputs on the bottom for that clean minimalist look. Both sounded great and exactly as I remember them on bigger desktop equipment with just a minor hit in the bass slam and transient response. . Stepping up from M6’s Dual AK4495EQ DAC chips the M6 Pro packs in AKM AK44997EQ DAC chipsets which supports DSD256 decoding. Both have slightly different skill sets but when I’m relaxed and I am not focusing on anything particular, they start sounding very alike. I find it handsome looking, that has its own design language. Consumer Electronics; Portable Audio & Headphones. FIIO M15 REVIEW. The M6 Pro runs on an open Android system and supports google play store after firmware updates. It hangs out up-there with the big boys, but it is still not on the same level with the best. Great review! Shanling M6 is much closer to faster sounding FiiO M11 PRO and M15 in this regard. The improved high output amplifier circuit packs in 2x OPA1662 opamps, 2x ADA4610-2 JFET opamps, and 4x BUF634. Wifi is excellent on this machine and streaming works fine like other androids with playstore! I prefer slightly warmer tunings so I am not having much ear time with this one. The M6 Pro is certified for Hi-Res wireless standard. The M6 Pro offers a higher degree of detail retrieval power, better tonal balance, and dynamics along with a lot more power in its output. Connecting to TWS or Bluetooth headphones is smooth and the M6 Pro can work two-way as a remitter or receiver for LDAC and SBC codecs when you select “Bluetooth Amp mode” in the Bluetooth settings. They were always very affordable; at their core they were consumer oriented but with audiophile technology inside. Related: fiio m9 fiio m15 fiio m6 astell kern hiby r6 pro fiio m11 pro case ibasso dx220 fiio btr5 fiio m7 shanling m6 pro ibasso fiio m11 case. Note, this review follows our new scoring guidelines for 2020 which you can read up on here. FiiO M11: FiiO’s best-seller, the M11 is an Android DAP equipped with a dual AK4493EQ DAC compatible with PCM files up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD 256 files. Underneath it there are two smaller back boxes where you can find a high-quality USB Type-C cable wrapped in a textile jacket, two screen protectors that you can apply on the displays and on its back, a Quick Start Guide and a warranty card. Shanling didn’t state exactly which Bluetooth chip is being used in here, but since it can decode anything you’d want like SBC, AptX, AptX-HD, LDAC and HWA and can already tell that it must be some nicer chipset from Qualcomm. I am picking sound quality over convenience any time of the day. All in all, M6 sounded open and wide with every recording I would listen to and generally speaking all dual-AKM designs are sounding this way. Next year they launched a smaller M2 DAP that had big advancements in terms of user interface, then they launched their flagship M5 and since then, they never really stopped tinkering with small and portable music players. Shanling put inside the biggest RAM capacity of any DAP, at 4Gb you can be sure that M6 is a multitasking champ even while streaming some Hi-Res content via Wi-Fi and then sending all that to a wireless headphone via LDAC. The M6 Pro supports USB-DAC and OTG functionality after an earlier firmware upgrade. could it be at a much more attractive price point to have the Shanling M6 Pro I am trying to decide whether M6Pro and Cayni A01/EO2. M6 has a good detail retrieval and a really good frequency extension. I will first mention that I just updated to V 2.8 which for me added some important quality of life changes like making the standard Google navigation bar visible. Moving to EH3NC Wireless headphones by FiiO, the sound was even better since both are capable of LDAC codec – supposedly the best BT codec of the moment. Contact Us. Full Android experience is amazing and I could install any app I wanted that its direct competition is not offering as of right now. Sales & Expert advice 800.606.6969 or 212.444.6615. The M6 Pro and M6 are built alike but putting them together you will notice some differences that make the M6 Pro more premium looking. Running AnTuTu’s latest version we ended up with a very fast score of 70755. You will need to apply the screen protectors yourself which is quite a fun challenge. Buy It Now. Do note that a higher resolution screen or a bigger screen size will seriously decrease the battery life of M6 and this is the last thing you’d want in an advanced Hi-Res music player. Unfortunately, there isn’t any protective case (TPU, faux or real leather) in the box. $860.84. Connection to the Bluetooth dongles is instant. You might not be familiar with Shanling, but they are now known as one of the leading high-resolution audio player, DAC, and Amp manufacturers in the audiophile community. The screen protector is quite thick and seems to offer good protection, however, if there are small bubbles after you apply the screen protector you may wait for it to cure itself. M6 uses four bigger Elna Silmic II Japanese capacitors which are currently among the best audio capacitors money can buy. M6 is not smooth and relaxed but mostly dynamically engaging, pushing big amounts of air in an instant. The biggest eye openers were the FH7 in balanced connection and Erzetich Phobos which both sounded exceptionally open, layered and airy. I fell layers in the bass, I’ve heard that guttural voice of Leonard Cohen with an incredible low-end, treble goes high in the sky and everything is presented in a transparent and clean manner. Everything is at play here: dual mono AKM configuration, good crystal clocks, great FPGA coding, clean power filtering and obviously a meticulous selection of op-amps. As with IEMs, portable over-ears or on-ear don’t need that much power to be driven. M6 feels like a sport car by comparison, speed improved tremendously, slam is hitting me relentlessly especially on both balanced outputs. M6 impressed only long-term with its honest approach that doesn’t want to put an emphasis on anything. Sennheiser Momentum2 and Meze 99 Classics have a warm tonality and a slower and a mellower approach to music reproduction. The M6 Pro should potentially be more resolving than the original M6 on paper. While listening to the newest record of Ozzy Osbourne – Ordinary Man (Ordinary Man, 2020), while the music is mastered decently, this record has limited dynamics in the bass and upper treble, still I was able so hear his voice outlined and separated from the rest of the performance. A low noise linear power supply system is integrated to supply clean power to the audio circuitry. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Read on! If you are already an M6 user you could check Shanling’s latest firmware updates that brush up some app performance i.e. The design is light at just 244g, similar to the M11 Pro and lighter than the Hiby R6 Pro. However, I found that it got slightly more insensitive after applying the supplied screen protector. On the bottom of the housing the USB-C port, 2.5/ 3.5 and 4.4 balanced outputs spread out horizontally. I know both chips very well and I have fond memories of those super-transparent sounding portable headphone amps from Headamp Electronics that are powered by the same AD8397 so I already started imagining myself how M6 should perform. The M6 Pro is surprisingly fast and strong with a WiFi connection. If the M6 sounds slightly better in my opinion, it lacks the dual-slot found in the FiiO player, but that’s a personal choice. All in all, M6 didn’t embarrass itself at all and I was quite surprised by how important is the part selection and software coding that differentiates a good product from a great product. In order to store these heavy files, it integrates two micro SD cards, bringing the available internal memory to 4TB, which is twice as much as the Shanling M6. M6 is already showing a great potential and I can’t wait listening to it using my whole headphone collection from In-ears, portables and heavy-duty desktop headphones, it will not be spared. Sadly, the soundstage size of LCD-1 remained the same, it the fault of the headphone and not of the M6. Quiet impressed with the initial reviews of pro version,I guess more time needs to be given to few more reviewers for clear and immersive impressions to decide if upgrade is needed. M6 is impressive in terms of depth and can capture the room acoustics pretty easily. M6 is sitting surrounded by lots of foam with a velvety finish. As for the headphone amplification duties, Shanling went with a reference tuning in a detriment of a safer or warmer tuning. Quite sure the upgrade will be proved worthy, there is good effort upgrading from M6 and the tuning is more mature, system is stable too! My experience with most apps is similar to other higher-tier DAPs and again there is no accelerometer for doodle jump or racing games. Dethonray Prelude DTR1 ($599) The Prelude is a stripped-down version of a DAP without the modern features of streaming or an Android interface. M6 is using a small-ish 4.7” multi-touch display with a decent 720P resolution. It looks sturdy and well put together. Let’s do this! Obviously, the DAC chip tells me only a very small part of a much bigger story as everything else is as important in the analog or digital domain, so let’s see what other surprises Shanling prepared for us. On the left, besides the Play/Pause, Next and Previous buttons you can spot a single microSD card tray covered by a plastic door - that is the only piece of plastic I can spot. M11pro_comparisons,FiiO--Born for Music. Shanling didn’t make this one for heavy duty planar-magnetic headphones, but what the hell, why not? The DAP that I will be testing today is their flagship device (that is until M30 hits the market) called M6, that has one unique feature others still do not have, some very cool specs and of course that famous Shanling engineering behind it. Click on Page 2 below for sound impressions and comparisons, Please do a review on the latest highly anticipated Shanling M8 dap soon! Two KDS low-noise and low-phase noise crystal clocks are being used here plus some mumbo jumbo with lots of zeroes and ones that make a nice FPGA do its job. + This suggests the player can be paired with Bluetooth dongles/ receivers for higher resolution files replay. M6 impresses with its technical aspect a lot more than with its musical presentation. Include description. As for internal memory, M6 is having 32 Gb of music storage and if you would like to expand it, just use a microSD card up to 2 Tb in size. I mean, the music itself is an amalgam of notes and sounds, listening to 4-person band you want all of them to shine, not just a single person, M6 is exactly like that. Headfonics Review ( M11 VS X5III, VS M9, VS M6) There are better dynamics on the M11 and you will hear more treble detail. “. However, the outline of the framework is more masculine and firmer than the M6. M11 PRO uses slightly better DAC chips (AK4497 VS AK4495), Shanling on the other hand are using better audio capacitors and more of them for an instant power delivery and a custom FPGA code. Knowing that M6 is just by $50 more expensive than FiiO M11, I really don’t see a reason of going for a cheaper M11 at this point. Shanling developed their own music playback software called simply Shanling Music that has all the important stuff a music player should have, you can browse by anything you would want, including by folder as I am doing, you can transfer your music wirelessly and even connect to a UPnP (NAS) server. I’ve felt the same with FiiO’s M15 and to a much lesser degree with lower tiered devices like FiiO M11, M11 Pro and with Shanling’s M6. My Sony ZX507 also is not as great a pairing as the Fiio.. An 8-core Qualcomm CPU (430) is also installed with 4GB ram, promising smooth UI experience on its open android UI. 4.3 out of 5 stars 194. For $50 more you are getting a better sound and a full Android experience. With dual DAC mode on and the 3.5mm connected it lasts for up to 9hrs and on a balanced connection will get you around 8hrs of battery life. M6 just might be the fasted DAP that I have tested but I can’t back-up my claims since AnTuTu Benchmark is stopping for no reason at Terracotta test and is not passing that one. Shanling went deeper and added even some fancier Panasonic Tantalum-Polymer capacitors that are adding a lot to the cots but are well worth when it comes to sonics, they will smooth out the sonics and add an additional layer of refinement. Print Email. If you are connecting to external DAC remember to turn the volume low to avoid damaging earphones by high output. Introducing Shanling M6 Pro. Connected to portable over-ear and on-ear headphones. While I perform run-in with the M6 Pro I tried the different combinations and can confirm the battery life is over 10 hours on single-end mode. Thanks James for your comments. yes, nearly identical but the M6’s upper right hand corner has rounded edge! For aptX HD and HWA, it can transmit the signal outwards only. Frequency range (single):20 Hz – 20 kHz (±0.24 dB), 10 Hz – 70 kHz (±1.95 dB) All in all, to me a full Android experience is more important and am giving more points to the M6. However, there is about 1.2 cm of space on top and bellow the display assembly and once you power it on, everything becomes clear. Free shipping. In terms of sound performance, they both are more alike than different. In terms of medium and high frequency resolution, the M2X is better than the Fiio M6, that is, the Fiio M6 mentioned above is a softer style. Customer Service 800.221.5743 or 212.239.7765. Do you think I should get fiio M11 or Hiby r6 pro regarding sound quality? I am trying to decide whether M6Pro and Cayni A01/EO2. To read more about Shanling products we have reviewed on Headfonics click here. Those capacitors from Elna and Panasonic were put there to store electricity and push it when a track would need an instant increase of dynamics and slam. Two days later, M6 improved quite a lot and with the right tracks it is capable of pushing big amounts of air in an instant. LCD-1 started throwing fast dynamics, they sounded jumpy with some of my faster material. This is an important feature customizing the Android system down to the root level to ensure there is no unnecessary conversion that hinders the sound performance. Two days later I took a listen, the song that was playing when I picked it up was Nirvana - Oh Me (Unplugged in New York, 1993) so I sat and took a longer listen. S D A Y p o n K H s D 8 o W 3 R r e d. SHANLING M6 Pro AK4497EQ DSD256 32Bit/768kHz Bluetooth Portable Music Player. Its switchable 2.4G/5G module connection is smoother than the latest-gen iPad and my phones. If you are having the International Version, then your unit will be using a fully unlocked Android system with just few tricks made by the Shanling team. od blackwhit 27. From left to right there is your USB type-C for charging, for data transfer or for using it as a desktop or portable DAC, there is your normal 3.5mm jack, followed by two balanced outputs coming in 2.5mm and 4.4mm flavors. 2020 18:07. With the smaller Shanling Q1 - FH7 are dead silent, it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear the M6 performing the same isn’t it? It is smooth playing with the system and there is quite a lot of customization on sound-related features such as different filter modes, equalizing options, and the official music app. The dual DAC switchable mode is a very useful feature that can nearly double the battery life with a backup 3.5mm IEM. Both of those again sounded very reminiscent as if connected to the mighty Big Rig™. Preliminary Preparations & Impressions. You can also use an OTG card reader/ thumb drive to quickly transfer songs to the M6 Pro’s SD card or internal memory and it also supports playing files on the OTG storage device. On the back the Shanling, Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless logos are underneath the glass that are adding a touch of proudness. M6 is a faster sounding DAP, for example Q1 is much slower in this regard to the point of being smooth sounding all the time. LS50W connected via AptX since this is the best BT codec supported by them, a bit of frequency extension was lost together with a bit of resolution but anything else remained unchanged. FiiO M11 Pro（アルミモデル）とShanling M6、店頭でじっくり試聴してきました これまでちょこっとずつ使い勝手を確認したりはしてたんですが、まともに動作を確認してなかったFiiO M11 ProとShanling M6について店頭で動作確認してきました。その所感です。 Dont have a balanced stock cable with the purchase, soundstage shall open up more if using 4.4mm connection or 8-braid cables! The Digital Audio Player market is developing at a quick rate. It moves decently fast and multitasking worked great with it. Full MQA unfolding is very hard to come by even the Fiio M11 pro cant do it but they say they will add it in the future. Earphones with wide staging and a flatter tuning will be nicely colored on the M6 Pro which makes pops and folks more enjoyable. Having a custom Android interface, you will be using a lot of swipes, swiping down for example will show your brightness levels, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connections, the audio gain, audio settings, headphone out functions, you can take a screenshot from there, enable or disable the AirPlay. The most sensitive IEMs that I use and that can be susceptible to noise, are the FiiO FH7. Shanling went with an excellent op-amp combination and the last output stage is based on clean and detailed sounding op-amps so in reality M6 is not that far behind at all. M6 rocks the famous Snapdragon 430, which might sound like a midrange SoC for your smartphone, but for a DAP it is among the fastest and most reliable ones. I am updating from my AK 70 Mark II. With 3.5mm single-ended outputs connected and single DAC mode Shanling states that it can run for up to 13hrs. I will just add that M6 is just by a hair shy of sounding as transparent and as detailed as a reference desktop DAC or as a reference DAP. There is also some explanation on their site on the LPF (Low pass filter) that claims to achieve constant phase in all frequencies. $20.00 to $24.00. 9. If you access the lightbulb app (idea app) you can update it over the air (OTA), check its user manual or FAQ. M6 sounds life-like without an obvious coloration. Add at least two items to compare. FH7, FH1S, EN700 PRO and Starfield all sounded as punchy, ass kicking and alive, exactly as they sounded on the desktop Big Rig™. Depth was great and that 3D pin-point imaging remained intact. なるべく同価格帯の比較と言うことでFiiO M11 PRO SSとCayin N6Ⅱ/A01を比べてみました。参考になればと思います。ブログも合わせてご覧ください。 Shanling M6 Pro Vs Fiio M11 Pro: The Mid-Level DAP Battle!! Buy It Now. I volume matched both of them using white noise and the MiniDSP EARS system, otherwise the one that is playing louder will impress the listener a lot more. However, it is more than sufficient to provide a smooth UI experience and faster than some competing DAPs such as the R6 Pro and DX220.