Shanling M8 Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Shanling M8 Review
by Whitigir


Disclaimer:
This player wasn’t sent to me free of charge by Shanling. It was purchased due to my curiosity.


PROS 👍
Warmth
Great bass
Analog like
Liquid
Tube like


CONS 👎
Also gets warm
Some bugs in firmware
Removable socket could be good or bad






Introductions:
With a name as “Shanling”, a China originated company, which may be or not familiar to the consumers. What triggered my interests in their current flagship M8 is due to the reason that they are using the latest AKM desktop IC chips, the AK4499EQ. The last player that I encountered using the same chips were A&K SP2000. Needless to say that I wasn’t too crazy over it. However, I still crave for some AKM goodness.

The first intriguing curiosity is that Shanling has a new Chassis design that allow the DAC chips to seat directly on the Chassis metal, the CPU chips also seat on it. This is the middle Metal layer within the Chassis that shield and isolate the incoming Interferences including the touch screen.

The second curiosity is that for a few years back, I tried the smaller Shanling player which I couldn’t remember the name as I didn’t look into Shanling for a while and they seem heavily investing into portable audio market now. I remembered their special bass lines, and so I straight shot into the M8, which makes the most senses to me

The last time something triggered me to started moving my toes, feeling like dancing to the music. Especially the classical genres and older recordings. It only happened with LP, Reels, and my old Aiwa deck. Then on top of that, the DMP Z1. For the rest of equipments I have been through, mostly they are about details, separations, and soundstage. Yet the M8 has the ability to express the instruments, the timbres similar to the other analog devices that I have been through and still have. It is warm in both physically and sound signatures performances, but it has an exquisite blend of timbres density, intensity, details, fluidity and warmth. The only thing I would complain about is the width of stage. The soundstage in X&Y axis is more of an oval scape than a spherical once. The Depth in Z axis is excellent. Imagines is excellent with the focused density intensity in a unique way, again, very analog like. How so ? Well, usually in analog systems, each instruments imagines has a very focused energy, density and you can observe the rhythms and it intensity. Then the coherence of it flows. I guess in digital player, people like to address it in a way as fluidity. Yet, not all fluidity is the same. Reel 2 Reel, then LP, then Cassette, rarely anything in digital devices to have it....except DAT tapes. Once I lower my expectations then sure, I could understand the other reviewers to mention about fluidity. Most of the time, however, they are in pretty short segments, like Low spectrum or mid spectrum or high only. From here on, people preferences will dictate which one is a better choice. The M8 has this kind of uniqueness Fluidity, and the only Cons that it has in the timbres balances is the warmth and the emphasized Bass. It is very well controlled and isn’t anything bloated or bleeding, but it is just plenty. If you like to give the M8 a spin, I rather recommend pairing it first with brighter gears, neutral, references gears, and take it on from there. IME, the M8 is beautiful and exquisite with HD800S, EX1000, but is a little too warmth and bassy with IER-Z1R. It also depends on the genres as well. I feel the M8 to be an excellent piece of machine for classical and organic collections where as my Max is better in Electrical and modern Pop. It is not to say that M8 is picky on synergies and matching, but it just depends on your own tastes.

Now this focused and expressive signature can be observed in a way that would allow me to rediscover my favorite albums like never before. Despite a long trip into this digital world and even wondering around Into LP, DAT as other mediums. I have yet been satisfied by these wonderful and focused energy and timbres. Yet, both LP and DAT would do, but from all other DAPs and DAC that I have been through, regardless of how much modifications, improvements by cables, PC built....etc...I have yet to observed it this way, at least not this much obvious and enjoyable.

The energies are so vivid, it provides goose bumps all over me, and that I would be so lost in this immersive vividness of the musical experiences that are provided. That all of these recordings are like “Live”, like “new” experiences.

So, I have a friend who asked me that do I see my desires to improve the signature any further ? Well...May be more width of stages, better sparkling and brightness up into high spectrums ? But for now, it is wonderful with my classical collections and is too lovely to touch.

Yet, despite the innovative removable sockets. I am fully adopted into 4.4mm Pentaconn world. Therefore that will be my first modifications.

Sound signatures:
It has Bass!! Yes!! The quality kind of bass! Slamming, speedy, powerful with textures, then ripple and bloom away with delicacy!! Thick and meaty body!! Sparkling highs with great extensions. It sits right at the tip of the comfortable level, where you will not be carried into teeth grinding sibilants, but you are never felt it being short either. It is warm and tube like thoroughly.

Recommended synergies:
Anything with “high accuracy and precision” can be enjoyable regardless of it overall signatures. With IER-Z1R, a warmer and also bass focused buds, the combination do it wonderfully for people who love brain rattling bass but still crave for extra details, sparkles here and there. With the more References and Neutral buds such as EX1000 and HD800S, the combinations become vividly detailed with plenty of slams, details, trebles sparkles, details and extensions. However, if you are into neutral and references preferences, make sure you start out your first audition with neutral/references gears.

Bass performances:
I said most of it in the sound signature above. That is how wonderful it is. Most importantly is that all smaller segment of the bass are well balanced. Then what is the warmth signature I mentioned ? “The Pitch”!! Deep bass is very unique, it bloom and ripple with accuracy, especially when paired with high quality Silver Litz cables.

Mid performances:
Both end of lower and upper mid spectrums are slightly elevated, with the Middle to be a little recessed. This can be observed when the player is brand new and is out of the box. It would take at least 400 hours to become enjoyable. The slightly elevated lower mid and upper mid result in a very full mid spectrum signatures. It helps the flow, the coherence, the liquidity and together with it warmth and smooth tuning , the M8 is toes tapping fun and enjoyable.

The thick and energetic tonal body with vivid inner resolutions come together as Dynamic intensity. This is something that I enjoyed a while ago from many systems by tapes, LP, Even CD. However, I didn’t quiet feel it with the recent and modern devices. The intensity that varies and portrait the “Pace” of forces being applied on the instruments. Honest to say that most of the modern devices sound very “general”, like all guitars are almost the same. I would need to focus and pay attentions to tell them being 2 separate guitars. The M8 with it exquisite tuning, I do not have to sweat myself in order to tell 2 of them apart. This specialty makes the M8 a wonderful devices for Classic and organic genres, or anything that has organic instruments, even Swift would be so good. For all EDM genres, it may sound a little boring in comparison which may be caused by the warmth ?

Trebles performances:
Vivid with great resolutions , thick density is carried through up all this way. Even though there is a hint of warmth signature, it isn’t lack of details and sparkles, especially metallic sparkles. The intensity dense and unique timbres of each instruments can also be observed by different set of horns, cymbals...etc.

Soundstage performances:
This is where it gets interesting. The M8 has great Depth in all instances, but the width would varies depends on gains. For low gain, the XYZ are all equal and spherical, where as in High gain the width is reduced a little and Turbo is where the whole sphere would become rather an Oval presentations.

Operation System:
It comes with Open Android, but does not have Google play store or service installed. I would need a patch that is available in the short impression video. After that you can install anything you want from play store. Tidal MQA is not working at the moment but offline files would be 8X unfolded by using Shanling App. Shanling has confirmed to continue to improve Tidal and other apps compatibility in future Firmwares

Wireless operations:
I am not too big in streaming or using wireless connections, but briefly testing it out, the signals are very strong. Even hardware wise, the player has 2 wireless antenna within. One in the front and one in the back. It gets warmer, even hot if playing high resolutions files with screen on and wireless on together.

Heat dissipation:
The player gets warm, and that depends on the files being played, the gains. I don’t recommend the player being inside the pocket, unless you have to. The reason is that the M8 has the chassis as the main Heatsink for 3 main chips: AK4499EQ 2X and CPU. The more it haul away, the warmer it gets. You may even think that it is so much warmer than other players. But it is actually is a good thing. Because the chips are dissipating the heat as it should. I have yet to see any other Portable Players to have a direct heatsink design like the M8 until present.

Line out performances:
This features can be accessed easily by drop down scroll. The player has plug detections and you will have a pop up to advise you to unplug before enabling the feature. So it protect your ears and gears from accidentally switches. It is still exquisite as much as the player itself. There is no significant differences between line out and phones out. There is still bugs to squash as sometimes the switches between sockets and PO/LO could be very low in volumes until reboot, unplug/plug.

Battery performances:
I have no problem running it all day on red book 8 hours and still having 15% left or so. I tried turning off many androids background apps as possible, including Wifi. Especially for Tidal used, I would assume that you would like to take advantage of the offline features together with Shanling app MQA at the moment

Background blackness:
The player has a very Dark back ground. It is a given since all DAC and CPU chips are shielded by the chassis middle frame, the Low Pass Filter board is shielded by stainless steel metal plate, the line amp and the output buffers are independently shielded by it own steel plate. The Wireless module and it processors are on the opposite side of digital processing board and is also shielded independently. Then finally, even the battery is shielded by it own steel plate . Yes, it has a more silent background than the Max.

Drivability:
I have no problem driving my HD800S with it, even though Ny Modified Max can drive it better but the M8 is no slouch. Surprisingly for a small player (smaller than Max). I have not observed any noticeable hisses from my limited buds and headphones

Conclusion:
Is it worth it ? Yes, definitely worth it to give a try, remember to start out with neutral gears for your first sessions. It fully deserve flagship status, and with the speed of Shanling development as of late, I gotta say that I am crunching my teeth’s but at the same time excited for whatever shanling may come out next!