Introducing ONIX Overture XM5 - First Portable Player from ONIX

[Shanling]

For years a civil war has raged at the heart of Shanling headquarters. Stalwart, the software development team has barricaded itself behind closed doors and refuses to operate on any agenda but its own. "The people need more than 20000 tracks," management cries. But the pleas fall on deaf ears. "Please fix Eddict Player and give it a modern interface," management begs. "Never!!!!," answer the developers. "Do you think firmware updates might one day be possible on Macs?," management asks, meekly. "Ask again in 10 years," declares the development team's lead negotiator. In the deserted and debris-strewn basement hallways, lights flicker above discarded banners and signs as a chant echoes and bounces off slogan-covered walls: "20000, not one more, 20000, not one more, 20000, not one more."

At least, that's how imagine it based on the Shanling threads on Head-fi...

This actually closely describes relationship with many software teams in Chinese companies.

 

[Biskwit]

I agree with you 100%. Shanling's software team is absolute garbage. To date they have not corrected the errors with the M 8. But it doesn't matter, it's no longer produced. For me, the software team is the worst there is on the market. The only reason I bought a Shanling player again is the sound.

The hardware of the xm5 can handle more than 20k cap. Wish it really can. Here are my suggestion so far for XM5

-Uncap library limit
-Have at least the option to add custom art cover for Playlist or even just use first track added as Playlist art Cover
-Have the ability to sort Playlist tracks by date added and/or alphabetical
-Have the ability to sort the actual Playlist alphabetically (i'm glad that favourites tracks are sorted alphabetically by default)
-This is shoot to the moon but it is an OLED screen. Somehow lightup a portion of the screen to show track/audio bitrate (magenta mqa, white dsd etc..)
-When playing a track, to have the option to jump to the track's artist or/and album
-Spotify please ^^

 

[gylyf]

This actually closely describes relationship with many software teams in Chinese companies.

As the public “face” of the company who has to deal with customers, that must be very frustrating for you. Your responsiveness to questions and feedback here is appreciated (and, my joking post aside, I’m a big fan of Shanling’s products and house sound ).

 

[llysender]

It's sad to hear this. I instantly bought it after demoing it at jaben. The lack of internal storage is a pain but at least it accepts 1tb microsd card.

Played with it for awhile. Its interesting that for difficult to drive iems like tri starshine the XM5 needs to warm up first for about 10min. Otherwise it will sound very lopsided where the hard to drive EST just isnt getting enough juice. Similar lowish sensitivity but easy to drive like the Tri i3 mk3 there isnt any warm up needed. Im wondering if its the output impedance lowing as the amp warms up.

Also compared to the hiby R6 pro II this has a more A shape vocal signatre I feel and I can see the potentially thin issue since there is a slight bump in the 2khz area which reduces the relative body and along with the thin and precise timing it can get thin for folks more used to bass tilted and wetter signatures. My only very minor complain is that everything has a very slight smoothing over at least compared to AK4499EX stuff.

 

[KOM66]

Got mine today from a headfier. Really impressed. Loaded a 128gb sd card and works like a charm. Didn’t take me too long to learn how to use it.
Using with Focal Clear Pro and really love the sound.

 

[Inbaral]

This is a really good Dap but the eq limitations and the fact that there is no offline Tidal are quite significant drawbacks for me

 

[German Expat in Vietnam]

It's sad to hear this. I instantly bought it after demoing it at jaben. The lack of internal storage is a pain but at least it accepts 1tb microsd card.

Played with it for awhile. Its interesting that for difficult to drive iems like tri starshine the XM5 needs to warm up first for about 10min. Otherwise it will sound very lopsided where the hard to drive EST just isnt getting enough juice. Similar lowish sensitivity but easy to drive like the Tri i3 mk3 there isnt any warm up needed. Im wondering if its the output impedance lowing as the amp warms up.

Also compared to the hiby R6 pro II this has a more A shape vocal signatre I feel and I can see the potentially thin issue since there is a slight bump in the 2khz area which reduces the relative body and along with the thin and precise timing it can get thin for folks more used to bass tilted and wetter signatures. My only very minor complain is that everything has a very slight smoothing over at least compared to AK4499EX stuff.

Which player do you like better in terms of sound? The XM 5 or The Hiby R6 Pro II ?? Would perhaps a small comparison be possible? Thank you

 

[llysender]

Which player do you like better in terms of sound? The XM 5 or The Hiby R6 Pro II ?? Would perhaps a small comparison be possible? Thank you

Hard to say which one I prefer. R6 pro 2 is a detail heads wet dream imo esp with nutron player. Its basically the best marrage between the musicality of AKM and the microdetails of ESS with neutron player but granted that is additional cost. With the stock hiby player its a much more even playing field with the XM5 due to hiby player being tuned to be meaty in body and generally warmish even though its still on the thinner side due to 4499EX being naturally being quite thin sounding imo. R6 pro 2 gets the additional advantage of being android so you can install your streaming service of choice. Generally the only downside of the R6 pro 2 imo is the battery life lasting around 5~6hours and generally for a full day out and about you would want a battery bank.

Speaking of tonality and timbre generally R6 pro 2 weather on the stock player or neutron gets it spot on. While it can get decently warm sounding on the stock hiby player nothing sounds off to my ears. Unlike the XM5 the R6pro2 has correct transients with the attack and decay varying as needed and more importantly can produce both rounded and sharp attack tips so instruments sound both dry and correct.

Now on to the XM5. Where do I begin. The guy that was complaining about thin bright sound and the folks that say its a bass monster are both correct.It has a W shape sound signatre with a particuar vocal focus but there is notable tasteful bass and treble boost to create the truditional "hi-fi" sound. Also the Onix XM5 is very PRAT biased so there is a distinct shortening of sustain when there should be to fit into the general rythem it wants to voice. Also attack generally have a distinct but rounded tip so things that are supposed to to sound pircing like brass instruments have a distinct smoothing effect but still generally have majority of the microdetails. For me even though I usually run Apodising filter on ESS I feel Running linier slow roll off is almost a requiremnt to get some of the body back.

But dispite its drawbacks its specific colouration lends it very well to electronic and vocal heavy music so I wouldnt recomend the XM5 as someones endgame but for someone looking for a welldone coloured tuning that gives vocals that etheral yet plessent feel. Oh yeah almost forgot to add this because the XM5 is generally thin sounding and have a big sound stage it makes it sound extremely large but still with good imaging.

Also generally R6pro2 needs to run at high gain to get maxium dynamics while XM5 dynamics sound correct even on low gain and the gain is just a volume boost and I might be wrong also increases the impedance and noise floor so its best to run XM5 in low gain unless you truely need the extra volume unlike alot of other DAPs

Might give examples of songs XM5 excels at later as its 3AM local time and I just came bcak from work and will be going to bed.

 

[SteeLMinder]

Hard to say which one I prefer. R6 pro 2 is a detail heads wet dream imo esp with nutron player. Its basically the best marrage between the musicality of AKM and the microdetails of ESS with neutron player but granted that is additional cost. With the stock hiby player its a much more even playing field with the XM5 due to hiby player being tuned to be meaty in body and generally warmish even though its still on the thinner side due to 4499EX being naturally being quite thin sounding imo. R6 pro 2 gets the additional advantage of being android so you can install your streaming service of choice. Generally the only downside of the R6 pro 2 imo is the battery life lasting around 5~6hours and generally for a full day out and about you would want a battery bank.

Speaking of tonality and timbre generally R6 pro 2 weather on the stock player or neutron gets it spot on. While it can get decently warm sounding on the stock hiby player nothing sounds off to my ears. Unlike the XM5 the R6pro2 has correct transients with the attack and decay varying as needed and more importantly can produce both rounded and sharp attack tips so instruments sound both dry and correct.

Now on to the XM5. Where do I begin. The guy that was complaining about thin bright sound and the folks that say its a bass monster are both correct.It has a W shape sound signatre with a particuar vocal focus but there is notable tasteful bass and treble boost to create the truditional "hi-fi" sound. Also the Onix XM5 is very PRAT biased so there is a distinct shortening of sustain when there should be to fit into the general rythem it wants to voice. Also attack generally have a distinct but rounded tip so things that are supposed to to sound pircing like brass instruments have a distinct smoothing effect but still generally have majority of the microdetails. For me even though I usually run Apodising filter on ESS I feel Running linier slow roll off is almost a requiremnt to get some of the body back.

But dispite its drawbacks its specific colouration lends it very well to electronic and vocal heavy music so I wouldnt recomend the XM5 as someones endgame but for someone looking for a welldone coloured tuning that gives vocals that etheral yet plessent feel. Oh yeah almost forgot to add this because the XM5 is generally thin sounding and have a big sound stage it makes it sound extremely large but still with good imaging.

Also generally R6pro2 needs to run at high gain to get maxium dynamics while XM5 dynamics sound correct even on low gain and the gain is just a volume boost and I might be wrong also increases the impedance and noise floor so its best to run XM5 in low gain unless you truely need the extra volume unlike alot of other DAPs

Might give examples of songs XM5 excels at later as its 3AM local time and I just came bcak from work and will be going to bed.

Do you mean XM5 has better dynamic then R6Pro ?
Now I'm looking player that I could replace Sony NW-WM1A because i have Symphonium Crimson and Sony is not enough power to control them.

 

[laleeee]

I think the biggest flaw of the xm5 is that it lacks sub bass definition, it practically steals the bottom 1/4 of my music, which is completely unforgivable for me

 

[Shanling]

This is a really good Dap but the eq limitations and the fact that there is no offline Tidal are quite significant drawbacks for me

For advanced EQ and Offline Tidal you would have to look at our Android offerings.

 

[llysender]

Do you mean XM5 has better dynamic then R6Pro ?
Now I'm looking player that I could replace Sony NW-WM1A because i have Symphonium Crimson and Sony is not enough power to control them.

I guess you could say that although I feel it's more of a bass and treble boost over actual boosted dynamics as transients generally have the same amount of peak loudness.

With regards to crimson sadly I can't share anything other than it didn't sound good to me on the dx300 or R6PRO2. No idea about XM5 and won't go down to the store to demo for awhile sorry.

Good luck on finding something synergistic.

 

[punknotyet]

I'm considering this DAP as a replacement for A&K SR25II, but have several questions about its software.

Questions about 20000 songs limit (i.e. what happens when the limit is exceeded):
- does Onix try to perform the scan each time after the connection to PC / SD card update (files addition/removal, tags adjustment, etc.) anyway?
- does Onix report some error/warning after these scans (when the limit is exceeded)?
- does Onix show incomplete contents in Albums / Artists / All Songs views (i.e. only for 20000 successfully scanned files) or are these views simply empty, when the limit is exceeded / scan fails?
- is it possible to add new files (songs) / directories (albums) from the Folders view (the only option, when the limit is exceeded) to the Currently Played list?
- also, what's your overall experience with the interface, especially if you have a big library (>20000 tracks) and using Folders view?
i.e. is it convinient enough (or not) to scroll through the long lists of folders considering Onix's relatively small screen?
and is there any additional slowness or lags/glitches in this case (for owners of big libraries)?

Questions about Bluetooth:
- does Onix spend significantly less battery on playing music via Bluetooth to wireless headphones/earphones/speakers vs via the regular (wired) connections?
e.g. how many percents are spent during the playback of the same album via Bluetooth vs using wired headphones?
- does Onix have some kind of Bluetooth timeout, that allows to break the connection / turn off Bluetooth automatically after some period of inactivity (when the music is stopped)?
- does Bluetooth connection to headphones/earphones remain stable on the street (i.e. no sound issues like interruptions), when Onix is placed in something like over-the-shoulder bag?

Question about power off vs idle mode:
- do you turn off Onix, when its not used for hours (or days), or keep it turned on?
i.e. does it lose a lot of power in idle mode (WiFi / Bluetooth / screen off, music not playing) or it's not significant (e.g. 2-3 percents per day or even less)?

 

[Shanling]

Questions about 20000 songs limit (i.e. what happens when the limit is exceeded):
- does Onix try to perform the scan each time after the connection to PC / SD card update (files addition/removal, tags adjustment, etc.) anyway?
- does Onix report some error/warning after these scans (when the limit is exceeded)?
- does Onix show incomplete contents in Albums / Artists / All Songs views (i.e. only for 20000 successfully scanned files) or are these views simply empty, when the limit is exceeded / scan fails?
- is it possible to add new files (songs) / directories (albums) from the Folders view (the only option, when the limit is exceeded) to the Currently Played list?
- also, what's your overall experience with the interface, especially if you have a big library (>20000 tracks) and using Folders view?
i.e. is it convinient enough (or not) to scroll through the long lists of folders considering Onix's relatively small screen?
and is there any additional slowness or lags/glitches in this case (for owners of big libraries)?

Questions about Bluetooth:
- does Onix spend significantly less battery on playing music via Bluetooth to wireless headphones/earphones/speakers vs via the regular (wired) connections?
e.g. how many percents are spent during the playback of the same album via Bluetooth vs using wired headphones?
- does Onix have some kind of Bluetooth timeout, that allows to break the connection / turn off Bluetooth automatically after some period of inactivity (when the music is stopped)?
- does Bluetooth connection to headphones/earphones remain stable on the street (i.e. no sound issues like interruptions), when Onix is placed in something like over-the-shoulder bag?

Question about power off vs idle mode:
- do you turn off Onix, when its not used for hours (or days), or keep it turned on?
i.e. does it lose a lot of power in idle mode (WiFi / Bluetooth / screen off, music not playing) or it's not significant (e.g. 2-3 percents per day or even less)?

- Automatic scan be turned on/off as you wish.
- There is no error message. It simply stops.
- Scan goes by folders, so it shouldn't show just half of album if your files are sorted in some reasonable way in folders.

- If you using Bluetooth out, your battery life would jump to something like 65 hours.
- No, there is no timeout for Bluetooth on the side of XM5.
- This can differ significantly, based on what exact Bluetooth headphones you using, which codec and which codec setting, what exact street is, what's your surrounding buildings, etc.

- In Standby mode it should go easily for many days without any impact on battery life.

 

[llysender]

for continous use I would say around 12 hrs with BT on standby/on and randomly used throughout the day.

@laleeee if you dont mind can you share some songs that have serous issues with XM5, my only potential worry on my end is that transient spikes are a little smoothed off and that vocals have this slight trailing making them slightly but still noticabily wetter than everything else. Otherwise I dont really listen to compicated bassy stuff since im more of a slam head I prefer my bass dry. Otherwise this colouration at least for my ears is quite nice for most people but I wanna see what it fails at.