Shanling M6 Portable Music Player

Discussion in 'IEMs and Portable Gear' started by purr1n, Dec 24, 2020.

  1. Bina

    Bina MOT - Shanling

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    Few seconds waiting for ads on every single Chinese app is the thing I dislike the most about China :D
     
  2. limesoft

    limesoft Friend

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    This is interesting - very similar to how i find the Fiio M11 Pro to sound - I think they use the same DACs AK4497eq. All is technically impressive with fast sound, nothing offensive but i wish it was a bit more chilled in the upper registers (around 8khz + i think would be nice if there is a gentle roll off)..

    As the Shanling is Android player, I highly recommend for you to try different app players - Universal Audio Player, and Neutron (touch more analogue/soft flavor - it uses dithering).. if prefer UAPP nowadays as i find the Neutron pushes the mids bit too much which don't sit nice with JVC FDX1
     
  3. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    I have had a balanced cable for a week or so and I can't say I hear a significant difference (I have the M6 Pro remember) between the bal. & SE output with the Focal Stellia (which at 32 ohms and 106db sensitivity is an "easy" drive relatively), at least not anything beyond placebo confidence for me. With the M6 Pro you can still listen to SE with dual dac mode enabled, so this difference may account for the SE on the Pro being less of a factor.
     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2021
  4. Bina

    Bina MOT - Shanling

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    Need to share with you one sad update.

    Following the fire at AKM factory, it's no longer possible to make M6 with AKM DAC and we were forced to switch to ESS Sabre DACs and adjusted amplifier circuit.

    So if you want the original M6 that was discussed here, you would need to scoop one from the leftover stock. Because they will never be made again.

    Our full announcement: https://en.shanling.com/article-m621Intro.html
     
  5. Rockwell

    Rockwell Friend

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    Oh snap...I had heard speculation this might happen following the fire. Do you know if this will also be the case for the M8?
     
  6. Baten

    Baten Friend

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    Thanks for the info. How about M6 vs M6 Pro?
     
  7. Bina

    Bina MOT - Shanling

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    It's likely that we will be forced to switch on other players too in near future.
     
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Noooooo!

    Anyway, the parts you picked are the good ESS parts and knowing your history, I'm sure you'll be able to tame the ESS.
     
  9. Rockwell

    Rockwell Friend

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    Yeah I've been thinking of picking up a M6 for purely portable use and would be interested to hear comparisons between the AK and Sabre versions of the player..
     
  10. M3NTAL

    M3NTAL Friend

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    I don't see the M5S talked about here - I'd prefer that over the M6 as a pure music file player. But I understand peoples need to wifi stream or offline streaming.
     
  11. Bina

    Bina MOT - Shanling

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    If we take AKM version as a darker/warmer one, Sabre is much more "neutral", yet keeping away from harshness or brightness. Some people think it makes it much easier to pair with wider range of earphones, but it lost a little bit of the special sound that OG M6 had.

    And one note for users of Campfire Andromeda or any other impedance sensitive IEMS: While original M6 had output impedance at 1 ohm for SE and 2 ohm for balanced, new M6 (21) is lower, at 0.3 ohm at SE and 0.6 ohm at balanced.
     
  12. Rockwell

    Rockwell Friend

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    I can't seem to "like" posts anymore...weird. Anyway I really enjoyed the Sabre board in m Cayin n6ii when I had it-- it was a slightly cleaner and punchier sound overall, with just a touch of glare...I'm really excited to see what Shanling will do with one of these chips in the M6.
     
  13. Soups

    Soups Sadomasochistic cat

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    Heads up for all M6 international version owners - the new firmware (3.5) is out, at least over OTA.

    I've only owned the M6 for a few weeks, but this update corrects one of my biggest UI gripes by adding "Virtual Buttons" to the navigation options. Also seems to have improved my battery life.
     
  14. Noodlz

    Noodlz Almost "Made"

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    Finally got one of these babies~ Not sure if this has been mentioned / discussed, but what filters settings are you guys liking? Right now with the Massdrop Plus IEMs connected by a balanced 2.5mm, Just got the unit so still gotta play with it but I’m liking the settings on low gain & sharp roll-off filter.

    one thing though off the bat is that the sound is a taaad aggressive, which wasn’t what i expected. I assume after hours of playback it should be more open and relaxed sounding.

    letting it just play out for a bit to see how it all works out

    **additional note: these actually sound pretty decent even out of the 3.5 single ended to the kissmodded 6xx. let’s see if the sound gets better once burned in + when i get a 4.4 cable for the sennheisers

    Edit #2 (didn’t want to clog up the thread) - not sure if this is the right place too, but does anyone know if/how i can have gapless play on here? Was listening to Billie Eilish’s when we fall asleep album, and between the tracks the pause gets super irritating lol. Can’t seem to find a place that i can change this in the UI?

    Edit #3 - gapless solution figured out by just buying USB Audio Player Pro. Actually the UI here is much better across the board. Basically solves my UI woes. Smooth and snappy, gapless solution, plays bitperfect. (Had to do some settings to get it right but after that so far so good. Shanling’s app sounds and looks great but sometimes a bit sluggish, plus not being able to do gapless playback forced me to find another solution~). Lastly having it go through one whole battery set the sound has relaxed and opened up quite a bit. This a VERY good sounding unit =)
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2021
  15. Bina

    Bina MOT - Shanling

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    Yeah, missing gapless in our app. It's stupid and something you wouldn't expect from modern music app. Software team still didn't implement fix for this...

    For filters, I personally also stick to Sharp filter, but to go more alongside the house sound you would go with the Short delay, Slow roll off.
     
  16. Noodlz

    Noodlz Almost "Made"

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    @Bina Thanks for the tip! quick question, do you happen to know the best way to get bit perfect playback with Roon on the M6? i realized that with roon its doing some funky converting (See attached)

    I know theres some existing funkiness with Roon Endpoints on android based players. Wondering if theres a workaround for this on the M6. Otherwise i'll probably just have to use the USB Audio Player Pro app / Qobuz app for the time being

    [​IMG]

    P.s. i keep finding myself having to edit, one of those scatter brained days i guess. hope this isn't bad practice or anything lol. but I just wanted to reaffirm the sound of the M6. its been about 48 hrs since i got this and im getting glued to it more and more. the Sound is delightful~ its opened up quite a bit and not aggressive anymore. just clear crisp yet very organically textured. the Timbre is awesome. Playing off of roon its ok but a bit flat/weird compared to the UAPP, but when playing bitperfect, wow just wow. Very very very happy with this =)
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2021
  17. Bina

    Bina MOT - Shanling

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    This is due to the Roon app setup, instead of sending original sampling rate, it's kind of "guessing" what the Android device can play and is forcing resample to it. So far we are not aware of any fix for this.
     
  18. xenomorph

    xenomorph New

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    @Bina Have you got the Output for SE and Balanced output power at 16 ohms on the M6 21?
     
  19. Bina

    Bina MOT - Shanling

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    Don't have this exact spec right now.
     
  20. xenomorph

    xenomorph New

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    Ok if you can find out for me please? This is what I need to know before I purchase this.
     

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