Shanling ME100
Disclaimer
I would like to thank Shanling for providing me with the ME100 in exchange for my honest opinion. No incentive was given for a favourable review.
ME100
Links:
https://www.shanling.com
https://www.facebook.com/Shanling-Audio-603230783166845/
Preamble
Although it might not always be obvious to those of us in the head-fi community who focus more on portable gear, Shanling is actually a Chinese Hi-Fi company with a long history. Established in 1988, Shanling finds its roots in stereo amplifiers and has since then gradually built up a portfolio with a wide range of products. The move into the portable gear market came in 2014 when Shanling released their first portable DAP, the M3, followed a year later by their entry-level M2 and in 2016 by both their flagship M5 and the highly popular miniature-sized M1. The M1 was recently succeeded by the even smaller sized M0, which I have been using as my training DAP and packs an awful lot of performance in a diminutive sized player. With their various DAPs, Shanling established itself as one of the most popular companies for affordable, yet high-quality players on the global market, breaking the stereotype that is sometimes still attached to Chinese products.
Most recently Shanling added a completely new product line to their portfolio by moving into IEMs. Shanling entered this market with the entry level, single dynamic driver ME100, which will be followed by the slightly higher-level hybrid ME500. At around US$120, the ME100 sit in a highly competitive market that seems to be flooded by IEMs of widely varying quality. There is a large selection of what a friend of mine recently called "generic meh" and maybe one or two really stand out as quality offerings. It is very rewarding if you can find those one or two, but I have tried to get a feel for the various IEMs and it feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack. So generally I don't get around to many offerings within this price range. The Final E4000 and E5000 were the exception up to now and I was really impressed by them. I still am actually, as the E4000 are these days paired with the M0 for a really great, small form factor training setup. So when I got in touch with Shanling about the ME100 I was a little sceptical at first, but soon found that Shanling had been putting a lot of thought into their first IEMs and I felt they sounded really promising. More than enough reason for me to have a closer look.
Unboxing
When the ME100 arrived I was quite surprised by what I received. Removing the white cardboard sleeve and opening the black box revealed a very nice presentation of the selection of included tips with above it a leather case in which the ME100 monitors were neatly presented together with the mmcx cable. Included also were a booklet and cleaning tool. I felt the presentation made the unboxing feel quite like you would expect with a premium product. Moreover, the selection of included accessories is really well thought through. The leather case is genuinely useful and the foam holding the ME100 monitors can be removed to create the perfect amount of space to place the ME100 connected to the M0, making for an ideal travel setup. The foam on which the tips are presented has an indication of what their effect on the sound is. Out of the box medium sized 'balanced' tips were fitted on the ME100, but also included are 'vocal' tips and 'bass' tips, all in small, medium and large sizes, as well as one set of medium foam tips.
Build quality and fit
Of course a nice presentation does very little if the product itself does not have the quality to live up to the expectation that is built up by it. Happily Shanling's attention to detail extends to the ME100 themselves.
The shells are made out of two pieces of CNC machined aluminium with a decorative piece of black tempered glass on it. From the website I gather that this design was inspired by the shape and smoothness of a water droplet. It is a nice design, but importantly, is also very solid and the shells feel like they will hold up to intensive use well. As the ME100 have a 10mm dynamic driver, the shells are vented and Shanling went for two vents, one on the back of the shell and one on the inside. It is smoothly done and indeed the whole shell is as smooth as a drop of water, giving great comfort. I have worn them for long listening sessions and found the shape to be very ergonomic, the weight to be nice and light, and the stems to have a good size (not too thick or too long). Overall comfort was among the best I have had from all the IEMs I have used.
The ME100 use MMCX connectors, which I personally think are a sensible choice. I know that not everyone is equally happy with those connectors, but my Shure SE215 have never given me any issues in all the years that I have abused them. Only my E4000 have given me some rare cut outs after I went running with those in the pouring rain and the hard wind blew the rain straight onto the IEMs for more than a hour. I expect that if you keep them dry and clean, they should work well long-term.
The included cable is another example of Shanling's attention to detail. It is an 8-wire, pure copper cable that uses quite a thin gauge. The braiding itself is quite tight, but the thinness of the individual wires means the cable maintains a nice suppleness and is not thick or bulky at all. The termination is made with a nice aluminium plug that is smooth, but has edges to provide grip, which is mirrored in the design of the aluminium y-split. The MMCX connectors have an aluminium base with a plastic cover that has ridges to provide good grip when plugging or unplugging the connectors. The ear guides are made of a pre-bent PVC tube, which is certainly more comfortable than the cables that also have a memory wire in them, but I am personally not a big fan of this either. When I wear the IEMs for long periods of time I do start to experience some skin irritation from the PVC rubbing against my ears.
Overall I think the ME100 offer an excellent build quality for this price range (and above), a well thought out design, good selection of parts and great comfort. So it is high time to have a look, or more accurately "a hear", to see if the sound too can live up to all the anticipation that is being built up.
Source
All listening was done with my AK70 from the SE out and some with the Shanling M0 and Cowon Plenue 2.
Presentation
As indicated in the unboxing, the ME100 come with three sets of silicone tips that have been selected for slight changes in sound to benefit 'vocals', the 'bass', or offer a 'balanced' sound. My sound impressions here were all with the 'balanced' tips, but I did briefly try out the others as well. To my ears the 'vocal' tips do indeed seem to add a hint of mid-range clarity, while the 'bass' tips add a bit more warmth, but the differences are very subtle. Still, it can certainly be an interesting way to fine-tune the sound a little based on the music you are listening to, or simply the comfort of the tips themselves.
Overall the ME100 are very clear and airy IEMs, and when I first started listening I was quite surprised by how airy the sound was, expecting the music to be more confined within my head. The ME100 have an uncoloured type of sound that is complimented by a well-controlled 'dynamic driver' bass. Emphasis though seems to be more towards the upper mids and lower treble, giving them a brightness that might not suit everyone. It creates a brighter and more articulate sound that can for some people, such as yours truly, get too close to their treble sensitivity. I did not have too many issues with it, but did notice that after a few hours of listening it became a little fatiguing. The advantage of it is that the ME100 are very detailed and offer a balanced sound for those who prefer their music to come through clear and detailed.
Bass
One of the things I thought was very interesting about the ME100 was that their sound seemed to be aimed at achieving a clear and uncoloured sound while using a dynamic driver. Dynamic drivers are usually more associated with a warm and bass-heavy sound because of their natural strengths. As a result, upon hearing the ME100, I found that the bass was much more controlled than I had expected and did not give off a lot of warmth to the mids and treble. However, it did give the extra texture that dynamic drivers do so well. Control over the bass is really quite good and the bass is not too noticeable unless it is actually called for. At that time it can offer a nice bit of rumble, although it does not extend very far into the sub-bass region. Playing Astronaut Ape's track Awaredance shows the ME100 are capable of some decent bass impact while keeping everything tight and avoiding the darkening of the signature. This is also very noticeable with Massive Attack's Angel, which I normally love for how dark it can get with the kind of warm and bass-heavy IEMs I love when I am not listening to classical music. With the ME100 there is none of that darkness and the track stays really clean and clear.
The bass still feels somewhat lifted when I listen to classical music, with the bass section having a relatively prominent presence when I listen to Beethoven's 5th. This actually works rather well when I listen to the Rolling Stones, where drums have a nice impact and that helps to avoid the ME100 sounding too clinical or boring. The same goes for more heavy music such as metal by Disturbed, which has a nice energy to it, although again it is not as dark as I personally would like it to be. Clean and clear is where it is at with the ME100.
Mids
In the mids there is a focus towards the upper mids. This is most clearly noticeable with vocals, where the ME100 favour female vocals over male. Male vocals lack the lower chest and throatiness that come from the upper bass and lower mids. I felt this was especially noticeable with live albums of Sting and Eric Clapton, where I found the music lacked the intimate feeling and vocals sounded a little sterile and without much density. Despite favouring female vocals, I did not think the ME100 did great with those either. Especially with higher pitched vocals such as Norwegian singer Aurora Aksnes (Aurora) it can just sound a bit too bright for my liking. Yet I have to hand it to the ME100, when I put them to the ultimate test with Soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, I did find that they maintained an even tone that did not go into sibilance. It is bright, but balanced.
Interestingly I found that mid-range instruments in classical music had a pretty good tonality considering the overall brighter tone of the ME100. With classical music, instruments such as the clarinet and even the flute have a good tonality and can stand up well against the emphasis on strings and brass instruments. That same emphasis also comes back in electric and acoustic guitars, which sound pretty good and you can really hear the plucking of the strings.
Treble
The ME100 have to my ears a clear lower-treble lift, which is where a lot of the overall clarity comes from, but also where I personally find them a little too bright. To my ears it makes the treble very articulate and a little 'tinny' sounding. Especially in classical music, violin strings and brass instruments are a little too sharp for my liking and there is not enough warmth coming from the bass to counter that. It does bring cymbals and such instruments more forward in music such as rock and blues to add excitement, but here I feel the treble extension is lacking for it to sound natural.
Now I am far from a treble head and have often confessed to some degree of "treblephobia" and so it is really important to see my comments here in this context. I don't hear any sibilance and the overall tone is even. It is still quite bright and dances a little too much around my treble sensitivity. That can be a word of caution to others who are sensitive to treble, or indeed an invitation to treble heads who are looking for this upper-mids/lower-treble emphasis. I don't think this is an exceptionally natural treble, but do think this is quite a unique tuning in this price range, as most others I have heard had the more popular V-shape with lots of bass.
(Just as a way of testing my impressions of the lower treble lift, I spent some time using the Cowon Plenue 2's excellent EQ and ended up lowering the 5.1 kHz and 6.2 kHz bands by 4 dB. This indeed made the ME100 a lot smoother and less fatiguing for me, although this of course did come at a cost of some of the clarity.)
Comparisons
-Final E4000-
Speaking of others within this price range. While I don't have many of those lying around, I do still have the Final E4000. When it comes to my personal preferences, the E4000 do really well. They are much more in line with the warm, V-shape I was talking about and have that warm, resonant bass. Bass impact is about the same as the ME100, but it is looser and more natural, where the ME100's bass is tighter and much more controlled. As a consequence of the bass tuning, the mid-range of the E4000 is much warmer giving more body to mid range instruments. Vocals do not necessarily feel stronger, but those too are warmer and male vocals sound more natural. The ME100 have more clarity and sound more detailed by comparison. The treble of the E4000 is a lot easier for me to live with, has a bit more sweetness to it and feels more extended.
Overall (it will come as no surprise) I much prefer the sound of the E4000, which I consider to be incredibly good value and a real winner for this price range. The ME100 on the other hand offer a sound signature that I have not come across in this price range very often and that in itself can make them a very interesting proposition for people looking to step away from the more "popular" tuning of the E4000 in favour of a much more clear and clean sound.
Conclusions
I think that with the ME100, Shanling have come up with high quality IEMs that set themselves apart within a very competitive segment with a tuning aimed towards clarity and detail. It is a clean and balanced sound with a brighter feel to it, which might well be just what some people are looking for. It can also be a bit too bright for others and a fatiguing after long listening sessions. For the right people I think that with the build quality, ergonomics, included accessories and balanced quality of the signature the ME100 present a very good value proposition that is certainly worth a closer look.
Disclaimer
I would like to thank Shanling for providing me with the ME100 in exchange for my honest opinion. No incentive was given for a favourable review.
ME100
- Drivers: Single 10mm dynamic driver
- Frequency response: 20 - 40,0000 Hz
- Sensitivity: 111 ± 3 dB
- Impedance: 16 Ω
- Cable: 8-wire, oxygen-free copper with MMCX connectors
- Price: US$ 119
Links:
https://www.shanling.com
https://www.facebook.com/Shanling-Audio-603230783166845/
Preamble
Although it might not always be obvious to those of us in the head-fi community who focus more on portable gear, Shanling is actually a Chinese Hi-Fi company with a long history. Established in 1988, Shanling finds its roots in stereo amplifiers and has since then gradually built up a portfolio with a wide range of products. The move into the portable gear market came in 2014 when Shanling released their first portable DAP, the M3, followed a year later by their entry-level M2 and in 2016 by both their flagship M5 and the highly popular miniature-sized M1. The M1 was recently succeeded by the even smaller sized M0, which I have been using as my training DAP and packs an awful lot of performance in a diminutive sized player. With their various DAPs, Shanling established itself as one of the most popular companies for affordable, yet high-quality players on the global market, breaking the stereotype that is sometimes still attached to Chinese products.
Most recently Shanling added a completely new product line to their portfolio by moving into IEMs. Shanling entered this market with the entry level, single dynamic driver ME100, which will be followed by the slightly higher-level hybrid ME500. At around US$120, the ME100 sit in a highly competitive market that seems to be flooded by IEMs of widely varying quality. There is a large selection of what a friend of mine recently called "generic meh" and maybe one or two really stand out as quality offerings. It is very rewarding if you can find those one or two, but I have tried to get a feel for the various IEMs and it feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack. So generally I don't get around to many offerings within this price range. The Final E4000 and E5000 were the exception up to now and I was really impressed by them. I still am actually, as the E4000 are these days paired with the M0 for a really great, small form factor training setup. So when I got in touch with Shanling about the ME100 I was a little sceptical at first, but soon found that Shanling had been putting a lot of thought into their first IEMs and I felt they sounded really promising. More than enough reason for me to have a closer look.
Unboxing
When the ME100 arrived I was quite surprised by what I received. Removing the white cardboard sleeve and opening the black box revealed a very nice presentation of the selection of included tips with above it a leather case in which the ME100 monitors were neatly presented together with the mmcx cable. Included also were a booklet and cleaning tool. I felt the presentation made the unboxing feel quite like you would expect with a premium product. Moreover, the selection of included accessories is really well thought through. The leather case is genuinely useful and the foam holding the ME100 monitors can be removed to create the perfect amount of space to place the ME100 connected to the M0, making for an ideal travel setup. The foam on which the tips are presented has an indication of what their effect on the sound is. Out of the box medium sized 'balanced' tips were fitted on the ME100, but also included are 'vocal' tips and 'bass' tips, all in small, medium and large sizes, as well as one set of medium foam tips.
Build quality and fit
Of course a nice presentation does very little if the product itself does not have the quality to live up to the expectation that is built up by it. Happily Shanling's attention to detail extends to the ME100 themselves.
The shells are made out of two pieces of CNC machined aluminium with a decorative piece of black tempered glass on it. From the website I gather that this design was inspired by the shape and smoothness of a water droplet. It is a nice design, but importantly, is also very solid and the shells feel like they will hold up to intensive use well. As the ME100 have a 10mm dynamic driver, the shells are vented and Shanling went for two vents, one on the back of the shell and one on the inside. It is smoothly done and indeed the whole shell is as smooth as a drop of water, giving great comfort. I have worn them for long listening sessions and found the shape to be very ergonomic, the weight to be nice and light, and the stems to have a good size (not too thick or too long). Overall comfort was among the best I have had from all the IEMs I have used.
The ME100 use MMCX connectors, which I personally think are a sensible choice. I know that not everyone is equally happy with those connectors, but my Shure SE215 have never given me any issues in all the years that I have abused them. Only my E4000 have given me some rare cut outs after I went running with those in the pouring rain and the hard wind blew the rain straight onto the IEMs for more than a hour. I expect that if you keep them dry and clean, they should work well long-term.
The included cable is another example of Shanling's attention to detail. It is an 8-wire, pure copper cable that uses quite a thin gauge. The braiding itself is quite tight, but the thinness of the individual wires means the cable maintains a nice suppleness and is not thick or bulky at all. The termination is made with a nice aluminium plug that is smooth, but has edges to provide grip, which is mirrored in the design of the aluminium y-split. The MMCX connectors have an aluminium base with a plastic cover that has ridges to provide good grip when plugging or unplugging the connectors. The ear guides are made of a pre-bent PVC tube, which is certainly more comfortable than the cables that also have a memory wire in them, but I am personally not a big fan of this either. When I wear the IEMs for long periods of time I do start to experience some skin irritation from the PVC rubbing against my ears.
Overall I think the ME100 offer an excellent build quality for this price range (and above), a well thought out design, good selection of parts and great comfort. So it is high time to have a look, or more accurately "a hear", to see if the sound too can live up to all the anticipation that is being built up.
Source
All listening was done with my AK70 from the SE out and some with the Shanling M0 and Cowon Plenue 2.
Presentation
As indicated in the unboxing, the ME100 come with three sets of silicone tips that have been selected for slight changes in sound to benefit 'vocals', the 'bass', or offer a 'balanced' sound. My sound impressions here were all with the 'balanced' tips, but I did briefly try out the others as well. To my ears the 'vocal' tips do indeed seem to add a hint of mid-range clarity, while the 'bass' tips add a bit more warmth, but the differences are very subtle. Still, it can certainly be an interesting way to fine-tune the sound a little based on the music you are listening to, or simply the comfort of the tips themselves.
Overall the ME100 are very clear and airy IEMs, and when I first started listening I was quite surprised by how airy the sound was, expecting the music to be more confined within my head. The ME100 have an uncoloured type of sound that is complimented by a well-controlled 'dynamic driver' bass. Emphasis though seems to be more towards the upper mids and lower treble, giving them a brightness that might not suit everyone. It creates a brighter and more articulate sound that can for some people, such as yours truly, get too close to their treble sensitivity. I did not have too many issues with it, but did notice that after a few hours of listening it became a little fatiguing. The advantage of it is that the ME100 are very detailed and offer a balanced sound for those who prefer their music to come through clear and detailed.
Bass
One of the things I thought was very interesting about the ME100 was that their sound seemed to be aimed at achieving a clear and uncoloured sound while using a dynamic driver. Dynamic drivers are usually more associated with a warm and bass-heavy sound because of their natural strengths. As a result, upon hearing the ME100, I found that the bass was much more controlled than I had expected and did not give off a lot of warmth to the mids and treble. However, it did give the extra texture that dynamic drivers do so well. Control over the bass is really quite good and the bass is not too noticeable unless it is actually called for. At that time it can offer a nice bit of rumble, although it does not extend very far into the sub-bass region. Playing Astronaut Ape's track Awaredance shows the ME100 are capable of some decent bass impact while keeping everything tight and avoiding the darkening of the signature. This is also very noticeable with Massive Attack's Angel, which I normally love for how dark it can get with the kind of warm and bass-heavy IEMs I love when I am not listening to classical music. With the ME100 there is none of that darkness and the track stays really clean and clear.
The bass still feels somewhat lifted when I listen to classical music, with the bass section having a relatively prominent presence when I listen to Beethoven's 5th. This actually works rather well when I listen to the Rolling Stones, where drums have a nice impact and that helps to avoid the ME100 sounding too clinical or boring. The same goes for more heavy music such as metal by Disturbed, which has a nice energy to it, although again it is not as dark as I personally would like it to be. Clean and clear is where it is at with the ME100.
Mids
In the mids there is a focus towards the upper mids. This is most clearly noticeable with vocals, where the ME100 favour female vocals over male. Male vocals lack the lower chest and throatiness that come from the upper bass and lower mids. I felt this was especially noticeable with live albums of Sting and Eric Clapton, where I found the music lacked the intimate feeling and vocals sounded a little sterile and without much density. Despite favouring female vocals, I did not think the ME100 did great with those either. Especially with higher pitched vocals such as Norwegian singer Aurora Aksnes (Aurora) it can just sound a bit too bright for my liking. Yet I have to hand it to the ME100, when I put them to the ultimate test with Soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, I did find that they maintained an even tone that did not go into sibilance. It is bright, but balanced.
Interestingly I found that mid-range instruments in classical music had a pretty good tonality considering the overall brighter tone of the ME100. With classical music, instruments such as the clarinet and even the flute have a good tonality and can stand up well against the emphasis on strings and brass instruments. That same emphasis also comes back in electric and acoustic guitars, which sound pretty good and you can really hear the plucking of the strings.
Treble
The ME100 have to my ears a clear lower-treble lift, which is where a lot of the overall clarity comes from, but also where I personally find them a little too bright. To my ears it makes the treble very articulate and a little 'tinny' sounding. Especially in classical music, violin strings and brass instruments are a little too sharp for my liking and there is not enough warmth coming from the bass to counter that. It does bring cymbals and such instruments more forward in music such as rock and blues to add excitement, but here I feel the treble extension is lacking for it to sound natural.
Now I am far from a treble head and have often confessed to some degree of "treblephobia" and so it is really important to see my comments here in this context. I don't hear any sibilance and the overall tone is even. It is still quite bright and dances a little too much around my treble sensitivity. That can be a word of caution to others who are sensitive to treble, or indeed an invitation to treble heads who are looking for this upper-mids/lower-treble emphasis. I don't think this is an exceptionally natural treble, but do think this is quite a unique tuning in this price range, as most others I have heard had the more popular V-shape with lots of bass.
(Just as a way of testing my impressions of the lower treble lift, I spent some time using the Cowon Plenue 2's excellent EQ and ended up lowering the 5.1 kHz and 6.2 kHz bands by 4 dB. This indeed made the ME100 a lot smoother and less fatiguing for me, although this of course did come at a cost of some of the clarity.)
Comparisons
-Final E4000-
Speaking of others within this price range. While I don't have many of those lying around, I do still have the Final E4000. When it comes to my personal preferences, the E4000 do really well. They are much more in line with the warm, V-shape I was talking about and have that warm, resonant bass. Bass impact is about the same as the ME100, but it is looser and more natural, where the ME100's bass is tighter and much more controlled. As a consequence of the bass tuning, the mid-range of the E4000 is much warmer giving more body to mid range instruments. Vocals do not necessarily feel stronger, but those too are warmer and male vocals sound more natural. The ME100 have more clarity and sound more detailed by comparison. The treble of the E4000 is a lot easier for me to live with, has a bit more sweetness to it and feels more extended.
Overall (it will come as no surprise) I much prefer the sound of the E4000, which I consider to be incredibly good value and a real winner for this price range. The ME100 on the other hand offer a sound signature that I have not come across in this price range very often and that in itself can make them a very interesting proposition for people looking to step away from the more "popular" tuning of the E4000 in favour of a much more clear and clean sound.
Conclusions
I think that with the ME100, Shanling have come up with high quality IEMs that set themselves apart within a very competitive segment with a tuning aimed towards clarity and detail. It is a clean and balanced sound with a brighter feel to it, which might well be just what some people are looking for. It can also be a bit too bright for others and a fatiguing after long listening sessions. For the right people I think that with the build quality, ergonomics, included accessories and balanced quality of the signature the ME100 present a very good value proposition that is certainly worth a closer look.