[Skullar]

My biggest problem with streaming is the lack of music. Only about 1 in five songs I have in my local library can be found on streaming platforms. Not all good music are being taken care of by their right holders. Having the possibility to missing out on good music is too much of a risk for me to commit to streaming. Today I'm still doing discogs+ripping.

Well i find +70m songs sufficoent on amazon HD. But if youre into some niche music it might still be an issue.
Honestly few quid/month is nothing compared to how much some music costs, so its not much of a commitment as far as i am concerned.

 

[Benny030]

Well i find +70m songs sufficoent on amazon HD. But if youre into some niche music it might still be an issue.
Honestly few quid/month is nothing compared to how much some music costs, so its not much of a commitment as far as i am concerned.

I hear a lot Jazz and Rock from the Fifties up to now and i would say at Quboz they have an Minimum 9 from 10.

 

[Edric Li]

I hear a lot Jazz and Rock from the Fifties up to now and i would say at Quboz they have an Minimum 9 from 10.

I think for old music that are 1) owned by a big company and 2) of a genre popular in the US, streaming is fine.

Well i find +70m songs sufficoent on amazon HD. But if youre into some niche music it might still be an issue.
Honestly few quid/month is nothing compared to how much some music costs, so its not much of a commitment as far as i am concerned.

There is a catch to the 70m songs on streaming platforms (compared to discogs' "modest" 14.2m releases): most of them are by modern internet musicians and indie labels, e.g. songs made by me and my roommate in college

Based on the newest numbers there are 60,000 songs being uploaded to Spotify every day. That’s almost 22 million tracks per year. A study has shown that of these, 1.2 million songs were released through major labels. DIY artists released 9.5 million tracks, meaning eight times as many. The remaining 11 million songs are covered by independent labels. (https://www.igroovemusic.com/blog/how-many-artists-actually-make-bank-on-spotify.html?lang=en)

DIY artists and indie labels release 2020 music. Major labels release mostly 2020 music; they'll also upload old catalogs if they happen to own the right. If they don't and there's a demand for a song to be on spotify, they'll purchase the right and put it on. The bottom line is, streaming platforms are majority modern niche music.

If you are a bandcamp kind of person that likes to stay on top of the trend (in addition to listening to some timeless classics), I can see the attractiveness of streaming. The kind of music that I'd like to see pop up on my radar, releases that were popular (not niche) in the past by major labels (that may not exist any more) of the past, can rarely make their way to spotify.

 

[szore]

What Shanling could do is offer a trade in for existing M8 users + extra $ top up. That way they could reuse the AK4499 DACs from the M8 for the M9 for more sales. Win-win situation for everyone lol

Sounds expensive for them....unsolder all the A&K chips? Does not sound realistic.

 

[Whitigir]

Not only that it sound unrealistic but these sensitive DAC are meant to be soldered in only Once!!! For the best performances
I am not saying that it is impossible to reuse, but if you can’t hear the differences then be my guess. Then if that be the cases then you may want to rearrange the priority while at it lol. However, I really meant that you can’t hear the differences even if you reused it, just technically…you shouldn’t be doing it

Sounds expensive for them....unsolder all the A&K chips? Does not sound realistic.

 

[Levanter]

Sounds expensive for them....unsolder all the A&K chips? Does not sound realistic.

Expensive for them? Not really, I didn’t mention a straight trade up, but with $ top up from our side to cover any cost difference to ensure they don’t suffer any loss.
They could even use the trade-in M8 excluding the 4499 chips and reuse all their other internals for any warranty parts services or even for M9 internals since I’m sure some of the internals are the same. All in all it’s a very cost effective and efficient process if they plan it right.

 

[RPKwan]

What Shanling could do is offer a trade in for existing M8 users + extra $ top up. That way they could reuse the AK4499 DACs from the M8 for the M9 for more sales. Win-win situation for everyone lol

That's what Hifiman did for the HM1000, though that had challenges in itself.

 

[fish1050]

I'm sure there are people that would be happy with a single player without Android and Streaming. But demands from our distributors don't show that.

You don't have a Canadian distributor even with the introduction of more advanced android DAP's. If it takes ordering your DAP's from China to get your MTouch DAP's I am prepared to do that. I love my Q1 and would buy another new MTouch model if offered. At least keep releasing Q1 class DAP's for people like me that don't stream and have a very large music collection.

Even us old cronies love listening to music and have large music catalogs and have little interest in the resampled, autotuned sludge that passes for music today. I pretty much have every track I love in my catalog and have no use for streaming and therefore android DAP's with streaming that need crazy powerful hardware to run and are often still sluggish to use. The awesome Q1 has what, 64 MB of RAM and a low power SOC and has very good responsiveness and functionality. Please keep the Q1 level or higher Linux DAP's coming I beg you!!! Everyone who has listened to my Q1 has been totally impressed by the sound quality and love the portability and reasonable price.

 

[Edyeded86]

Will this support Apple Music lossless?

 

[Shanling]

Will this support Apple Music lossless?

Yes, it works with Apple Music Lossless (at least current release of the app, who knows what Apple might do)

 

[jlemaster1957]

Given that SQ is so good on the M8, if the M9 costs a grand more (?) it will need to have more than snappy Android Os to justify the difference.

Keep an eye on the $1500 space though - Hiby is releasing an R-2R unit the (R6S) that may compete well. Currently for streaming their R8 seems a closer competitor to the M9, if one can pick up a unit free of QC flaws (which reportedly is more frequent among R8s than one would desire).

Each of us has to decide what is most of value and what Os worth (!) paying this much for. Are you into Leading Edge or Trailing Edge tech?

 

[hardpike]

I hope it costs 2000 usd tops

Otherwise will be out of my orbit

And right now I am waiting for it....

 

[jlemaster1957]

I hope it costs 2000 usd tops

Otherwise will be out of my orbit

And right now I am waiting for it....

It seems that Shanling may be competing directly on this one with iBasso DX300 Max, which also includes AK4499 DAC chips. It had a run of 500 units which sold for ~$2300 and is now largely sold out in the US and Canada (at least I cannot see an available seller online). https://www.headamp.com/products/ibasso-dx300-max. Again, both of these players (M8 and DX300, R8 also) have very good specs and it seems that 'use case' as well as user preference will drives sales. From the other player reviews out there for Android devices running Android Os 9 or later, the UI looks very snappy and response and review forums are not very noisy re: buggy software, so if the "M8 sound" is retained in the M9, I think Shanling may hit this one out of the park, as long as the price point is competitive (which I am sure it will be).

 

[MarkPharaohII]

It seems that Shanling may be competing directly on this one with iBasso DX300 Max, which also includes AK4499 DAC chips. It had a run of 500 units which sold for ~$2300 and is now largely sold out in the US and Canada (at least I cannot see an available seller online). https://www.headamp.com/products/ibasso-dx300-max. Again, both of these players (M8 and DX300, R8 also) have very good specs and it seems that 'use case' as well as user preference will drives sales. From the other player reviews out there for Android devices running Android Os 9 or later, the UI looks very snappy and response and review forums are not very noisy re: buggy software, so if the "M8 sound" is retained in the M9, I think Shanling may hit this one out of the park, as long as the price point is competitive (which I am sure it will be).

I guess my question would be what exactly would we be getting beyond what the M8 delivered at only $1650? An Android and screen update isn't worth $400-700.

 

[Whitigir]

It seems that Shanling may be competing directly on this one with iBasso DX300 Max, which also includes AK4499 DAC chips. It had a run of 500 units which sold for ~$2300 and is now largely sold out in the US and Canada (at least I cannot see an available seller online). https://www.headamp.com/products/ibasso-dx300-max. Again, both of these players (M8 and DX300, R8 also) have very good specs and it seems that 'use case' as well as user preference will drives sales. From the other player reviews out there for Android devices running Android Os 9 or later, the UI looks very snappy and response and review forums are not very noisy re: buggy software, so if the "M8 sound" is retained in the M9, I think Shanling may hit this one out of the park, as long as the price point is competitive (which I am sure it will be).

I hoped for it, but doesn’t seem it is that way.
Ibasso Dx300MAX while using Dual AK4499EQ, has 2 different batteries systems . You can see here. It is one for amplifier and one for DAC. I don’t see M9 to have 2 battery systems