Shanling M0 - Smallest Hi-Res Portable Player - New Firmware V3.6

[Shanling]

I think if Shanling pairs this ESS chip with a better amp on their next DAP like say the next version of the M2S or M3S I would buy it in a heartbeat. Still might spring for the M5S if it ever gets released in Canada.

ESS used in M0 is SoC, all in one unit.
Firstly, not sure if anybody knows how difficult would it be to work in this chip, change it's connections, software, etc.
Secondly, why to do that, when you can simply decide to use dedicated DAC chip if you are already putting there dedicated amp circuit, making the device bigger no matter what.

Anyone knows if it's possible to use m0 as a source for Android device via USB (phone or car media). maybe there's any Android app that can do so ?

Well, you can use M0 as USB DAC with Android phone. Not sure how would you like to use M0 as source for Android device? You can connect it in Transfer mode and view files on mSD card.

Just to chime in, i LOVE my m0. Bought it at CanJam London and have used it almost daily ever since. My main use is as a bt receiver for my iPhone (a necessary evil if i want the luxury of sitting with a phone in my pocket). The addition of controls in bt rx mode was huge for me. Big thank you. Running on aac, the m0 is a noticeable upgrade to not only my previous bt receiver but the hp jack on my SE. Kudos Shanling

However, there are little niggles and gripes that stop it from being as perfect as it can be.
First is the latency. Both in bt and usb modes. If i try to watch any kind of video on either pc or phone, the entire experience becomes unnecessarily frustrating. It is this blemish that stops this thing from being a part of the headphone itself.
Second is the eq but that's been mentioned umpteen times here already so i won't... Or did i?
Third is the sd slot cover. Admittedly, this is not pertinent to the functioning of the device but it annoys me every time i encounter it. Why is it there? Is it waterproof or something? It's so hard to pry open and I'm scared I'm going to tear the rubber gasket every time i dig my nail under it. It takes a good few attempts to open it too. And once you're done with the sd flap, it doesn't sit very well or flush either. Maybe i just have a janky Sd slot cover but nevertheless it's super annoying. I have multiple sd cards but i hate swapping cards on this DAP specifically because of this reason.
Next one is hardware so hopefully we can see it in the next iteration of the m0. The mic. How complete of a device would this be if it had a little hole at the top that served as a mic? Then i would have an uncompromising and complete experience with this thing. The M0 would become the 'it girl' of the audio and mobile world simultaneously and we'll drive off into the sunset together...

What? Back to the topic at hand, please

For the app, would it be possible to add the option for audible notifications from phone to m0? Vibrate is sometimes hard to notice while walking. I use the m0 mostly while I'm out and about. And the app can't come soon enough in my opinion. Love the size of the chassis, not so much the size of the screen. I know u can't have one without the other so... App please?

BT delay: You write you are using AAC, which has it's own delay caused by technology and no device on market can change that. Needs to be fixed by your phone, sometimes it can be hidden in some advanced setting or most video apps have setting for audio delay, exactly for this reason.
With USB delay, working on it.
I was testing early version of new EQ system recently, its sound is promising, so hopefully it will be in M5s and soon after that in M0.
Card cover, some people like it, some don't. Wast majority of users puts card into their player and takes it away once in a while, so for that we made cover that fits securely and doesn't flap around that randomly. If you think yours doesn't fit properly, you can try to play little bit with the o-ring, to make it fit more flush.
M0 is DAP first, so no plans to include Mic or functions to control phone calls. For that we will have UP2 with all functions of BT receiver.

Regarding phone notifications, M0 in that way acts as any other BT receiver or headphones. if you want notifications, turn on the volume on your phone.

Yes, that would be excellent, many want it, no Shanling plays Streaming? I liked the sound and I look for something with streaming but I can not find it? Which Sangling model is recommended? Even without streaming, M2? M3? Greetings and thanks!!

Streaming is always question of the system, developing system support for streaming apps takes time and simply using Android brings many other problems.

We believe our solution with using your phone and connecting over BT (or Wifi on M5s), is decent temporary way to get streaming on Shanling players, until better solution is finished.

Just curious if I could connect my Chromebook to my Shanling M0 via bluetooth and use it as a DAC to listen to movies / music from my couch...

M0 can works as BT receiver with pretty much all devices sending BT, so it's all about settings and possibilities on your Chromebook

I have a 3 albums from one artist that prompts "No File Found" when I click on the albums, but I can still see a list of all songs.Tried recopying the files to M0 and still has this issue. Only MP3 files in the folder. Has anyone experienced this before?

Send me one file in PM to check out, easiest way how to solve such problem.

Hopefully Frankie from @Shanling is listening (and remembers it was promised as a FW update at some point)...
Frankie - we're talking audiobook and podcast playback support. Nothing exotic - audible is "nice to have" but not mandatory, as many (most ?) people use plain MP3 format for audiobooks and podcasts...

Yeah, listening. Repeating posts on same topic will unfortunately not speed up our limited software team.

 

[Zachik]

Yeah, listening. Repeating posts on same topic will unfortunately not speed up our limited software team.

I know mentioning it again won't speed things up - just making sure this one is not forgotten. Consider it just a reminder...

 

[Nolbert0]

BT delay: You write you are using AAC, which has it's own delay caused by technology and no device on market can change that.

Thanks for the reply. I learn new things every day!

M0 is DAP first, so no plans to include Mic or functions to control phone calls. For that we will have UP2 with all functions of BT receiver.

edit: found the UP2 page
C̶a̶n̶ ̶w̶e̶ ̶h̶o̶p̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶m̶p̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶f̶u̶l̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶M̶0̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶U̶P̶2̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶o̶f̶?̶
Jeez! Just tell me where and when to throw money at ya (again). Keep up the good work. I've owned all your smaller players since M1 and I think I'm starting to show signs of brand loyalty. Fiio eat your heart out!

 

[fish1050]

ESS used in M0 is SoC, all in one unit.
Firstly, not sure if anybody knows how difficult would it be to work in this chip, change it's connections, software, etc.
Secondly, why to do that, when you can simply decide to use dedicated DAC chip if you are already putting there dedicated amp circuit, making the device bigger no matter what.

I am not an engineer so no I have no idea how hard it is and it doesn't matter to me. If you have to use a different DAC chip on a higher end model as long as it sounds good that is all I care about.



Well, you can use M0 as USB DAC with Android phone. Not sure how would you like to use M0 as source for Android device? You can connect it in Transfer mode and view files on mSD card.



BT delay: You write you are using AAC, which has it's own delay caused by technology and no device on market can change that. Needs to be fixed by your phone, sometimes it can be hidden in some advanced setting or most video apps have setting for audio delay, exactly for this reason.
With USB delay, working on it.
I was testing early version of new EQ system recently, its sound is promising, so hopefully it will be in M5s and soon after that in M0.
Card cover, some people like it, some don't. Wast majority of users puts card into their player and takes it away once in a while, so for that we made cover that fits securely and doesn't flap around that randomly. If you think yours doesn't fit properly, you can try to play little bit with the o-ring, to make it fit more flush.
M0 is DAP first, so no plans to include Mic or functions to control phone calls. For that we will have UP2 with all functions of BT receiver.

Regarding phone notifications, M0 in that way acts as any other BT receiver or headphones. if you want notifications, turn on the volume on your phone.



Streaming is always question of the system, developing system support for streaming apps takes time and simply using Android brings many other problems.

We believe our solution with using your phone and connecting over BT (or Wifi on M5s), is decent temporary way to get streaming on Shanling players, until better solution is finished.



M0 can works as BT receiver with pretty much all devices sending BT, so it's all about settings and possibilities on your Chromebook



Send me one file in PM to check out, easiest way how to solve such problem.



Yeah, listening. Repeating posts on same topic will unfortunately not speed up our limited software team.

Well maybe if you gave us some timelines on when these things will and won't be implemented we would stop asking. I mean I have had my unit for 6 months and still waiting on features you said you were working on. By the time you do get these features added I may move on to another DAP and it may or may not be a Shanling. I can say this after this protracted release of features on the M0 I won't be buying any Shanling DAP's or any DAP's for that matter on first release again. I will wait until every feature is added before I consider buying one.

 

[ColdsnapBry]

@Shanling Thanks for the answer. Your presence on the forum shows that the company is willing to support the product. It's one of the main reasons I chose the Shanling M0 over other companies. It's not a very expensive purchase, but if I ever decide to upgrade a Shanling flagship DAP will be one of the first I look at.

 

[PiNgOa]

Hi everyone ! I've just received my M0 and they sound great paired with my Sony XM3 headphones using LDAC-HQ !

I have one question regarding the volume control though. I can set it either with the M0's scroll wheel or directly on the XM3 and these are two separate volumes as increasing or decreasing the volule on the XM3 doesn't change the level displayed on the M0.

So my question is : which volume should I keep using to get the best audio quality out of the M0 & XM3 pair ? Is one volume control more destructive than the other ?

Thanks !

 

[technobear]

I have a 3 albums from one artist that prompts "No File Found" when I click on the albums, but I can still see a list of all songs.Tried recopying the files to M0 and still has this issue. Only MP3 files in the folder. Has anyone experienced this before?

Can you play the files?

Have you moved the files to a different directory and then not updated the library?

When moving things around or updating tags, it's not a bad idea to delete the files from the player, update the library, then add the files anew and update again.

Does the album name contain special characters or punctuation? Does it end with a full stop?

 

[Nolbert0]

Well maybe if you gave us some timelines on when these things will and won't be implemented we would stop asking. I mean I have had my unit for 6 months and still waiting on features you said you were working on. By the time you do get these features added I may move on to another DAP and it may or may not be a Shanling. I can say this after this protracted release of features on the M0 I won't be buying any Shanling DAP's or any DAP's for that matter on first release again. I will wait until every feature is added before I consider buying one.

As much as I love this scene, it does seem to be only market where it is totally acceptable, and is now modus operandi to sell a product as soon as only the hardware is ready and software/features is an afterthought. I wonder if a phone, tv or car maker can get away with doing the same - selling a product advertising features they might not even add at an undisclosed future date. (Not saying this is the case here, per se but it's a general trend for daps to have common features missing at time of release)

Of course, we all chose to buy it for ourselves, so... And if you're here you should already know this is how it works around here - whether we like it or not. I concur that firmware updates should be for fixing issues, not adding features that should have already been there from the start.

Of course, the plus side is that we are all sort of involved in shaping the final product that we love.

And i too chose the m1, m2s and now m0 because of Shanlings presence/responsiveness here. Much appreciated.

 

[Shanling]

edit: found the UP2 page
Jeez! Just tell me where and when to throw money at ya (again). Keep up the good work. I've owned all your smaller players since M1 and I think I'm starting to show signs of brand loyalty. Fiio eat your heart out!

UP2 unfortunately comes around the time of Chinese new year, so I would say March if everything goes alright.

As much as I love this scene, it does seem to be only market where it is totally acceptable, and is now modus operandi to sell a product as soon as only the hardware is ready and software/features is an afterthought. I wonder if a phone, tv or car maker can get away with doing the same - selling a product advertising features they might not even add at an undisclosed future date. (Not saying this is the case here, per se but it's a general trend for daps to have common features missing at time of release)

Of course, we all chose to buy it for ourselves, so... And if you're here you should already know this is how it works around here - whether we like it or not. I concur that firmware updates should be for fixing issues, not adding features that should have already been there from the start.

Of course, the plus side is that we are all sort of involved in shaping the final product that we love.

And i too chose the m1, m2s and now m0 because of Shanlings presence/responsiveness here. Much appreciated.

Only thing advertised with M0, that wasn't available on release, was LDAC in BT receiver mode. Which was delayed due to delay of coding and was added in early firmware update.

Everything else is just requests of end users, often limited to small group or specific market. And with our new system being developed in house, we will be happy to add as much of them as possible, as time goes.

 

[Nolbert0]

Everything else is just requests of end users, often limited to small group or specific market. And with our new system being developed in house, we will be happy to add as much of them as possible, as time goes.

Precisely why I got the M0 in particular. I have faith

Tho, do me a favor and crack the whip (lovingly?) on the Shanling elves working on the app. Thanks

 

[fish1050]

As much as I love this scene, it does seem to be only market where it is totally acceptable, and is now modus operandi to sell a product as soon as only the hardware is ready and software/features is an afterthought. I wonder if a phone, tv or car maker can get away with doing the same - selling a product advertising features they might not even add at an undisclosed future date. (Not saying this is the case here, per se but it's a general trend for daps to have common features missing at time of release)

Of course, we all chose to buy it for ourselves, so... And if you're here you should already know this is how it works around here - whether we like it or not. I concur that firmware updates should be for fixing issues, not adding features that should have already been there from the start.

Of course, the plus side is that we are all sort of involved in shaping the final product that we love.

And i too chose the m1, m2s and now m0 because of Shanlings presence/responsiveness here. Much appreciated.

True but at this point as long as DAP's have been around manufacturers should know what features are most in demand and have them included on first release. Are people suddenly not going to want playlist support or say replaygain when DAP's have had these features for a few years now? Not having these features on initial release to me speaks to companies not knowing the market they are selling to.

 

[D'Ford'Guy]

Well maybe if you gave us some timelines on when these things will and won't be implemented we would stop asking. I mean I have had my unit for 6 months and still waiting on features you said you were working on. By the time you do get these features added I may move on to another DAP and it may or may not be a Shanling. I can say this after this protracted release of features on the M0 I won't be buying any Shanling DAP's or any DAP's for that matter on first release again. I will wait until every feature is added before I consider buying one.

Couldnt have said it better myself. The only reason why i didnt even cosider the M5s is because of how things were being worked out on the M0. Whats worse.....companies with a shady track record like Hidizs have also capitalized and come with excellent stuff for the same price which are not only on par if not better than the M0. Even though there is good intent and support from Shanling......its getting slower by the day. I mean how hard is it to implement a custom EQ and replay gain on a device launched prior to 8 months now? And with absolutely no timeline in site, i myself stopped recommending the M0 to people because it aint right on my part to give false promises on a missing feature which even Shanling cant guarantee or provide a timeline on.

Thats said, this is an excellent device purely being held back from its true potential by its small niggles and flaws, all of which can be sorted if Shanling is a little quicker to work the timelines.

 

[Blazer39]

wouldn't be nice to have sound similar to M0 but with bigger screen(perhaps like M1 orM2s), and more output power?!
just saying...

 

[endgame4]

The only thing really missing for me, using the M0 as a DAP only, is ReplayGain support.

Especially when shuffling over multiple albums or songs from different albums it would be very useful not to have to adjust the volume level each song.

Support for audiobooks/podcasts which involves having to create a user interface might be quite some work, but ReplayGain should be fairly easy.

 

[Nolbert0]

Since, we're on the long overdue checklist, mine are:

ReplayGain
EQ
Companion app
(slightly less but still) bookmark/audiobook

These things will shut me up with a smile. (almost mis-spelled shut. Ooops)