Post by whitigir on Aug 12, 2021 15:48:02 GMT
I have had the M30 for a while now. So in a short review
Bypass is the cleanest with sub bass and bass being the most articulated and less emphasis in all modes, trebles are more airy with greatest extensions, also the ambient reverberations are the most vivid with the largest soundstage. Yet, it still remains full and musical with full of details, sharp textures, vivid imagings.
Transistors, the signature is warmer than bypass with sub bass a little more pronounced and mid bass a little thicker, textures is smoother and a touch sweeter, trebles is a little less airy and roll off faster than Bypass. Soundstage is more width than depth by a slight bit. Still enveloping and immersive. IMHO, this mode already sound tubes like and analog like for any solid state to sound this way, it is an excellent mode
Tube modes, it is the warmest with a lot of tube transients, slower and meatier bass especially lower mid bass and sub bass, which is more sticky together and is the least articulated in all mode, but the fidelity and definitive timbres are very accurate and spot on. The liquid mod carries on all the way up to lower treble which is fluid, sweet, detailed, yet not crisps nor lacking any details but with the fastest roll off in all mode. The tubes mode would be best used as PreAmp out toward a stereos stack or external amplifier rather than the M30 straight out IMO, it seems a little overdone in tubes timbres and warmth, but it can still be enjoyable from time to time especially when you just crave for that all out analog and tubes signatures to get away from that digital fatigues
Out of all modes, Bypass is my most favorite and used, then transistors mode with Tubes being used the most when connecting toward my large stereos
The SRC can live sampling anything upto 384Khz and or DSD256. I love the 384Khz upsampling because it has even larger soundstage and liveliness where the DSD256 is the most vivid but with a more compressed soundstage in comparisons. Still, both are excellent and neither is bad. I still opt to have it stay off
Sound signature: it is the M8 on steroid, yet it is AK4497EQ and not AK4499EQ as the M8. That means if the next module has the flagship DAC, then it would be something to look forward to. So what exactly is Shanling signature ? Imagine Cayin and Sony Walkman having children! Yeah!! And if you don’t know those two then I recommend you to go out and listen to them all just for giggling
The M30 is running on 18650 cells X5, which is easily swappable. You can just keep some spare and charged, then swap it out if you preferred. However, you will need to carry some tools to do so. I prefer to have the 12V charger and hook it off the wall. Then enable the option to monitor charging that only triggers when batteries fall below %70 (best at this mark IMO). On the full balanced, turbo mode and pure battery, the M30 last 12-14 hours depends on your battery cells. Battery are non protected kind as the M30 module has the BMS that monitor and charge the battery already, flat head or button too won’t matter.
The Amp modules is with Super capacitors and so is the processor unit with dual supercapacitor and as it is the newest generation, some people call it UltraCapacitors.
Amplifier is using 8X BUF634 with each IC dedicated to a single signal lines for a true dedicated to Balanced architecture then finally is using dual channel ADA46120-2X for amplifications
The motherboard is the main chassis that consists of what I would assume the PreAmp out that has MUSES8920 and the Analog volume attenuations with digital encoding volume knobs from Burrbrown PGA2320. Please mind you that the analog volume is only in Tubes or transistors mode and also using OPA2211 as active Low pass filters. In Bypass, volume is digitally controlled by AK4498EQ directly with active LPF bypassed but using the Passive LPF with the rest of the amplifications and supportive components. Bypass is simply the most purest and direct signals integrity from AK4497EQ and Shanling implementations.
Amp board seems to run on +/-15V rails as I can’t verify it but it only makes senses since it outperform the Cayin C9 with my limited diagnosis ability on the board and the category that Shanling clarify the M30 to be desktop systems.
Now, the Amp board has plenty of room to spare, but Shanling is using it to the best of what they can, which IMO seeing a lot of possible modifications.
Bypass is the cleanest with sub bass and bass being the most articulated and less emphasis in all modes, trebles are more airy with greatest extensions, also the ambient reverberations are the most vivid with the largest soundstage. Yet, it still remains full and musical with full of details, sharp textures, vivid imagings.
Transistors, the signature is warmer than bypass with sub bass a little more pronounced and mid bass a little thicker, textures is smoother and a touch sweeter, trebles is a little less airy and roll off faster than Bypass. Soundstage is more width than depth by a slight bit. Still enveloping and immersive. IMHO, this mode already sound tubes like and analog like for any solid state to sound this way, it is an excellent mode
Tube modes, it is the warmest with a lot of tube transients, slower and meatier bass especially lower mid bass and sub bass, which is more sticky together and is the least articulated in all mode, but the fidelity and definitive timbres are very accurate and spot on. The liquid mod carries on all the way up to lower treble which is fluid, sweet, detailed, yet not crisps nor lacking any details but with the fastest roll off in all mode. The tubes mode would be best used as PreAmp out toward a stereos stack or external amplifier rather than the M30 straight out IMO, it seems a little overdone in tubes timbres and warmth, but it can still be enjoyable from time to time especially when you just crave for that all out analog and tubes signatures to get away from that digital fatigues
Out of all modes, Bypass is my most favorite and used, then transistors mode with Tubes being used the most when connecting toward my large stereos
The SRC can live sampling anything upto 384Khz and or DSD256. I love the 384Khz upsampling because it has even larger soundstage and liveliness where the DSD256 is the most vivid but with a more compressed soundstage in comparisons. Still, both are excellent and neither is bad. I still opt to have it stay off
Sound signature: it is the M8 on steroid, yet it is AK4497EQ and not AK4499EQ as the M8. That means if the next module has the flagship DAC, then it would be something to look forward to. So what exactly is Shanling signature ? Imagine Cayin and Sony Walkman having children! Yeah!! And if you don’t know those two then I recommend you to go out and listen to them all just for giggling
The M30 is running on 18650 cells X5, which is easily swappable. You can just keep some spare and charged, then swap it out if you preferred. However, you will need to carry some tools to do so. I prefer to have the 12V charger and hook it off the wall. Then enable the option to monitor charging that only triggers when batteries fall below %70 (best at this mark IMO). On the full balanced, turbo mode and pure battery, the M30 last 12-14 hours depends on your battery cells. Battery are non protected kind as the M30 module has the BMS that monitor and charge the battery already, flat head or button too won’t matter.
The Amp modules is with Super capacitors and so is the processor unit with dual supercapacitor and as it is the newest generation, some people call it UltraCapacitors.
Amplifier is using 8X BUF634 with each IC dedicated to a single signal lines for a true dedicated to Balanced architecture then finally is using dual channel ADA46120-2X for amplifications
The motherboard is the main chassis that consists of what I would assume the PreAmp out that has MUSES8920 and the Analog volume attenuations with digital encoding volume knobs from Burrbrown PGA2320. Please mind you that the analog volume is only in Tubes or transistors mode and also using OPA2211 as active Low pass filters. In Bypass, volume is digitally controlled by AK4498EQ directly with active LPF bypassed but using the Passive LPF with the rest of the amplifications and supportive components. Bypass is simply the most purest and direct signals integrity from AK4497EQ and Shanling implementations.
Amp board seems to run on +/-15V rails as I can’t verify it but it only makes senses since it outperform the Cayin C9 with my limited diagnosis ability on the board and the category that Shanling clarify the M30 to be desktop systems.
Now, the Amp board has plenty of room to spare, but Shanling is using it to the best of what they can, which IMO seeing a lot of possible modifications.