I have been with my EM7 for 2 weeks. First I want to thanks Andrew at Musicteck for the fast shipping and outstanding service!
For EM7 itself, I really enjoy it as my secondary system. I have tested it as a ultimate one-stop solution as well as a DAC/AMP combo feeding by my phone to play some YouTube tracks. It is a very fun toy to play with.
As a player, it is fully capable with Tidal and Qobus, I don't use apple music and Amazon Music nor Spotify, I am not sure about those. For the streaming services, I found the interfaces is a little bit too small from both Tidal and Qobus, other than that I am fine with the overall experience, no lag or any bug.
I also tried play music through my NAS and upsampling the tracks to DSD512, the upsampled tracks sounds much better than I expected. It is noticeably more natural than Roon's default upsampling tools. The bass and dynamic was not eliminated, but more details can be catched easier and clearer.
In terms of the sound, EM7 is on the neutral slightly calm side. Well, that's what I expected from a ES9038 (or any ESS chips in general) + class D( correct me if I am wrong
@Shanling ) combo. In return you will get a outstanding soundstage with great separation and texture.
What really surprised me is the Amplification sector. EM7 has a super clean yet powerful amp, it can easily power up HD800, Verite, and even HE6SE. It can also drive sensitive IEMs with no noise. The background is extremely dark which reminds me of my CFA3 Amp.
Here are something I think can be improved with firmware update. First, I wish the cellphone APP can really work... I never had any luck to link my EM7 with the Eddie player. Even it works I wish Shanling can add at more streaming services to the APP, currently it only supports Spotify. Also, if it is possible, I wish Shanling could add EQ tool to the EM7, at a moment I wish I can boost the bass and treble a bit, especially when I was listening to some metal albums.
I will publish a full review soon, I will have a in depth introduction of the sound and some great pairings I have tested. So far, I had some enjoyable time with EM7. I can finally enjoy music while laying on my bed