sachinchavan 15865
Well-Known Member
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 music.
This turned up longer than I imagined. Thanks for reading till the end.
