Shanling M2S Compact Pocket Power

Shanling’s M2S entry level player is small and compact and is anything but small in its capabilities.

“Shanling’s M2s is in monoblock format of aircraft grade aluminium, the front and rear panel covers 2.5D glass, the front panel adorned Retina 3 inch screen. To adjust the volume using the potentiometers legendary Japanese production of ALPS. For ease of use on the left side are three physical buttons are located. Navigation is traditionally carried multifunction wheel.

Shanling M2s autonomy of 9 hours of continuous operation, the standby time of about 300 hours. The player is equipped with a Type-C interface, the presence of stated Bluetooth 4.0 with support Apt-X, is also implemented option works as an external DAC. As used AK4490 DAC converter DSD256 with hardware support, op amp MUSE8920, with improved amplifier circuit that provides low distortion and high efficiency.”

Features：

Dimension: 53mm×14.5mm×85.6mm

Net weight: about 100g

Screen: 3 inches Retina screen

DSD playback:DSD256DAC: supported up to 192kHz–32bit

Bluetooth: 4.0 with APT-X

D/A converter: AK4490EQ

Amplifier: TPA6120

Gain: high gain/low gain

Supporting format: APE, FLAC, ALAC, WMA, AAC, OGG, MP3, WAV, AIFF, DSF, DIFF

Sampling rate: 44.1kHz–192kHz

Output: headphone output(3.5mm)

Output power: 130mW@32ohm

Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz（-0.2dB）

THD+N: 0.003%（A-weighting，outputting 500mV）

SNR: ＞108dB（A-weighting）

Dynamic range: ＞108dB

Output impedance: 4.8Ω

Channel separation: ＞75dB（32Ω，1kHz）

External memory: supported up to 256G TF card

Capacity: 1800mAH lithium battery

Playing hours: about 9–10 hours (3–4 hours charging time)

Build Quality/Accessories:

The Shanlings m2s comes in very well-presented black box with a silver outline of the player on the top cover, this looks elegant and well presented. Upon opening the player is neatly placed in a cushioned foam for protection. If you lift out the foam layer underneath there is a simple box with a USB type c cable for charging purposes.

On the reverse of the box is a few key points on the spec and abilities of the M2s.

The build quality of the Shanling I feel is good to excellent at its price point with a nicely curved chassis and very good screen, in fact the only problem with build for me was the rotary dial seemed to be a lttile loose??  This may have just have been the unit I have.

 Graphical User Interface/Usability/SD Slots/Ports/input/outputs/Software/Cable Options

The OS on the M2s is quick, stable and packed with an ever-increasing feature set that makes it one of the best systems outside of a full Android or iOS setup.

The ease of use with the os and rotary wheel is a pleasure to use knowing you are only three return buttons away from the main menu.

The two-way Bluetooth works well and I had no issues playing from my Android phone to the m2s and then onto my headphones the signal was rock solid and detailed.

The M2s comes with Hiby link,  but what is Hiby link

Pretty much every HiBy Music OS platform is making a big noise about the Bi-directional capability of their BT functionality and the M2s is no different. You can make use of the BT functionality in 2 ways.

1. Use it to connect to a smartphone or any other BT devices with audio services to allow you to access tracks from another source for playback on the M2s.
2. Use HiBY Link to connect to any audio capable source and use that source to access and playback tracks from the M2s

You can elect to turn on or off the full apt-X capability but be warned that you will have to restart the device if you turn it on.

The M2s offers one micro SD card slot however does allow for OTG USB C thumb drives to be used for bigger music library’s, this works exceptionally well and merges with your music on the micro sd card for seamless interaction.

Due to the audio players compact size it is an ideal choice for a low profile transport for DACs and worked perfectly with Chord Electronics Hugo 2 Dac.

The M2s offers a 3,5mm headphone socket output which is excellent as is the build quality of this port this also can be used as a line output should the need arise.

 Battery life and Driving Power

The m2s has a claimed 9-hour lifespan I found this to be fairly accurate and its has an excellent standby battery life so if you don’t use the m2s for a while it should still have lots of power left when you next turn it on.

Onto driving power with both low and high gain I found there to be more than enough volume to drive every single one of my iems well.

Headphones wise again there is ample driving power for less power-hungry headphones but for the money and size of this player the driving output was excellent.