Chinese company Shanling recently launched the Shanling M1 DAP, one of the smallest hi-res-capable devices with a display I’ve seen to date. The diminutive player is 60 x 50 x 12.8 mm and weighs 60 g, yet it is able to play 192kHz/32bit audio and is compatible with DSD files. Too good to be true? Not really.
What the Shanling M1 seem to offer is extreme portability without giving up on quality and functionality. It is equipped with a 2.35-inches display (360 x 400 resolution), multiple physical buttons (including a volume wheel), a microSD slot capable of reading cards sized up to 200GB, bi-directional Bluetooth 4.0 with Apt-X (so you can both use it as a receiver or as a transmitter), one USB Type-C port with OTG functionality so the user can connect it to a PC and use it as a DAC and a 950 mAh battery which can power the device for up to 9-10 hours.
The integrated DAC is the AK4452, while the amp is a MAX97220. It supports APE, FLAC, ALAC, WMA, AAC, OGG, WAV, AIFF, DSF and DFF file formats. Output impedance is 0.1Ω, output power is 35mW @ 32 Ω, jitter is 30ps, distortion is 0.006% (balanced, 500mV output) and channel separation is > 70 dB (1kHz).
Shanling M1 is already available on the market; price in Italy is 199€, but it seems like users in the US and the UK get lower prices (155$ and 140£ respectively).
Note: I received a press release by Shanling’s Italian distributor, Audioclub. While the M1 was introduced back in August, it has started being available in Italy only recently. Since it appears to be an interesting device, I decided to cover it anyway.
