Introducing Shanling M9 - High-End Portable Android Player

[Whitigir]

The dx300 has two batteries too though, which should be more useful than the dual AKM chips but I get the desire. I assume AKM chips will be back though.

Exactly! That is another ground breaking technology in a DAP that ain’t costing an arm/leg lol

 

[14christ]

About 5.4 VRMS according to the calculator that is found here

Man that's sad for a device at this price.

 

[mungster]

Exactly! That is another ground breaking technology in a DAP that ain’t costing an arm/leg lol

Soon it will cost 2 arms and 2 legs in the future! At least your still left with 2 ears to enjoy the dap. Lol

 

[Whitigir]

Man that's sad for a device at this price.

It is actually not that bad at 32 ohm loads. But Shanling needs to hire better marketing team, and software team LOL

 

[gadgetgod]

One thing to praise here would be at least this is compact unlike other flagships now that have become "transportable". But yes the pricing is

 

[DAPpower]

Man that's sad for a device at this price.

Yes, this is actually quite low considering this DAP was intended for headphone use as well with it's more beefier design, the iBasso DX300 has around 8VRMS with AMP12 at max output and it already puts a lot of DAPs to shame with it's hardware and bang for buck value.

 

[DarginMahkum]

It is actually not that bad at 32 ohm loads. But Shanling needs to hire better marketing team, and software team LOL

+1 for that. M30 lost me not on the device itself but lack of customer support and terrible software quality. Now I approach every Shanling device with negativity, although this looks on the paper awesome.

@Shanling , the lack of proper software support is making you lose customers. I have been asked by several people about the M30 and I told them to stay away. This is because of non predictable customer support approach for the software bugs. Other companies, especially FiiO, are much more in contact and responsive to customers and it is a much more positive experience, and I am ready to trade any more positive experience to added value of hardware or features. You have great sounding devices with great concept. But that software part is taking it away. Please let those managers know and understand that.

Anyway, this looks to be a well engineered device. Please support it with better software quality and support.

Have a good product launch.

 

[bflat]

So if these sell out, gross revenue is $1.4M USD. Assuming the retailers get a cut and parts cost about $100, Shanling stands to make about $800K. Given this is a new design with new tooling plus R&D, I don't think the net profit is very high, but I assume it's a lot better than just selling the AKM chips on the secondary market.

In brief, my personal opinion is that there is no price gouging, but a reasonable profit margin.

 

[Shanling]

Sorry to ask this but how much VRMS is 920mW@32Ohm Balanced?

5.4V in Balanced, in highest gain.

Does the M9 still have AMOLED screen? I am pretty sure it was mentioned before, but I don't see it here.

No, it's LCD screen. it was changed from original announcement in summer.

+1 for that. M30 lost me not on the device itself but lack of customer support and terrible software quality. Now I approach every Shanling device with negativity, although this looks on the paper awesome.

@Shanling , the lack of proper software support is making you lose customers. I have been asked by several people about the M30 and I told them to stay away. This is because of non predictable customer support approach for the software bugs. Other companies, especially FiiO, are much more in contact and responsive to customers and it is a much more positive experience, and I am ready to trade any more positive experience to added value of hardware or features. You have great sounding devices with great concept. But that software part is taking it away. Please let those managers know and understand that.

Anyway, this looks to be a well engineered device. Please support it with better software quality and support.

Have a good product launch.

I try to be in contact as much as possible. Unfortunately I do not have power over our software team.

 

[DarginMahkum]

I try to be in contact as much as possible. Unfortunately I do not have power over our software team.

I know, but unfortunately the software team and management are not there yet.

 

[111MilesToGo]

+1 for that. M30 lost me not on the device itself but lack of customer support and terrible software quality. Now I approach every Shanling device with negativity, although this looks on the paper awesome.

@Shanling , the lack of proper software support is making you lose customers. I have been asked by several people about the M30 and I told them to stay away. This is because of non predictable customer support approach for the software bugs. Other companies, especially FiiO, are much more in contact and responsive to customers and it is a much more positive experience, and I am ready to trade any more positive experience to added value of hardware or features. You have great sounding devices with great concept. But that software part is taking it away. Please let those managers know and understand that.

Anyway, this looks to be a well engineered device. Please support it with better software quality and support.

Have a good product launch.

I know, but unfortunately the software team and management are not there yet.

I second that from my general experience (no particular Shanling experience of mine). Good to great hardware is like 50 something percent of the cake, the remainder being the operating system and the apps. (Please understand 50% as just a ball park number.)

As someone who has experienced and still is experiencing deficiencies on the software = OS + Apps side, I do two things:
(1) Point out the importance of software
(2) Try to help software engineers, app developers etc as much and as cooperatively as possible.

 

[NPWS]

why there is a NOTCH?

 

[twister6]

The more I look at the spec and the design, the more I see Shanling positioning M9 on the level and in the category of SP2000 which I assume will be its closest competitor (even BAL power output is close enough considering SP2k spec without a load), aside from M9 having open Android 10 (and a ton of RAM) and leapfrogging over a more common 660 to the next 665. I think Android 7 was holding Shanling back, and I hope moving forward all their DAPs will move to this new Android 10/Snapdragon 665 digital platform.

 

[crabdog]

The M0 and Q1 both got significant updates recently. Considering its age, the M0 is a beast for features. I think Shanling's software support is pretty good. I'm yet to try an Android-based Shanling player though, so maybe that's a different story.

 

[Rockwell75]

Intrigued but the price and increased size relative to the M8 are deal breakers for me. I'm more tempted to by a second M8.