[fish1050]

Great! I've heard that many Fiio players often lag,some if Hiby’s got that too, but I don't know about Shanling.

With Fiio you need to step up to the M11 to get a responsive DAP. I had the M9 for over a year and it was somewhat sluggish even with a stripped down android OS. It only has 768 MB of RAM vs 2 GB of RAM with the M3X so I would expect the M3X to be more responsive. Fiio has a long way to go on the hardware and feature side on the next M9 version to compete head to head with the M3X.

 

[vikibeats]

With Fiio you need to step up to the M11 to get a responsive DAP. I had the M9 for over a year and it was somewhat sluggish even with a stripped down android OS. It only has 768 MB of RAM vs 2 GB of RAM with the M3X so I would expect the M3X to be more responsive. Fiio has a long way to go on the hardware and feature side on the next M9 version to compete head to head with the M3X.

Thank you friend! I've seen your posts in topics about Sony players before.
I have my sony nw-a45 for the third year already, and I love him, especially when I recently updated to custom firmware. I'm generally a fan of Sony, but their meager lineup, which also costs a lot - that’s upset. The Sony nw-zx500 is expensive for me, and the shanling m3x is just perfect and also costs the price of the Sony nw-a105.
Do you think this is a worthy replacement for a Sony fan? I was still thinking about the hiby r5, but a bunch of reviews about defective batteries and peeling displays stopped me.

 

[fish1050]

Thank you friend! I've seen your posts in topics about Sony players before.
I have my sony nw-a45 for the third year already, and I love him, especially when I recently updated to custom firmware. I'm generally a fan of Sony, but their meager lineup, which also costs a lot - that’s upset. The Sony nw-zx500 is expensive for me, and the shanling m3x is just perfect and also costs the price of the Sony nw-a105.
Do you think this is a worthy replacement for a Sony fan? I was still thinking about the hiby r5, but a bunch of reviews about defective batteries and peeling displays stopped me.

I truly believe that Shanling is the best alternative to Sony. Like Sony they have a long history of making audio products (over 30 years) and I have demoed some of their excellent home audio products. Hiby is a software company that only started making DAP's in the last few years and is still figuring it out. Whereas Shanling knows how to get the hardware right and they do a great job tuning their DAP's as well (highly regarded for sound quality).

I have not had the chance to demo any of the Shanling android DAP's unfortunately. But the cheapest DAP I have ever owned is my current Shanling Q1 and it is also the best sounding DAP I have ever owned. I looked long and hard at the Sony A55 but I am glad I chose the Q1 instead. It offers a great balance of power, battery life and sound quality for the money at less than half the price of the A55. The Sony A35/45/55 series are long on battery life but short on power. I was following the A series custom firmware releases and nearly pulled the trigger on the A55 because of it and the A55 is a pretty old model. I never considered the A105 as it was way to expensive in Canada and still no improvement in power over the earlier A series DAP's.

If Shanling can make the $125.00 CDN Q1 sound this good I can only imagine how good the M3X will sound.

 

[vikibeats]

I truly believe that Shanling is the best alternative to Sony. Like Sony they have a long history of making audio products (over 30 years) and I have demoed some of their excellent home audio products. Hiby is a software company that only started making DAP's in the last few years and is still figuring it out. Whereas Shanling knows how to get the hardware right and they do a great job tuning their DAP's as well (highly regarded for sound quality).

I have not had the chance to demo any of the Shanling android DAP's unfortunately. But the cheapest DAP I have ever owned is my current Shanling Q1 and it is also the best sounding DAP I have ever owned. I looked long and hard at the Sony A55 but I am glad I chose the Q1 instead. It offers a great balance of power, battery life and sound quality for the money at less than half the price of the A55. The Sony A35/45/55 series are long on battery life but short on power. I was following the A series custom firmware releases and nearly pulled the trigger on the A55 because of it and the A55 is a pretty old model. I never considered the A105 as it was way to expensive in Canada and still no improvement in power over the earlier A series DAP's.

If Shanling can make the $125.00 CDN Q1 sound this good I can only imagine how good the M3X will sound.

thanks for the info! And I agree with your comments on a Sony's - A line. Also, what annoys me terribly is the old interface. To delete a song that I just heard and want to delete, I need to look for it in the folder. You also can't add a track to your favorites with one click - it's not cool.

Thanks for the advice, friend! I will definitely buy this player from Shanling in the spring. By the way, in terms of audio characteristics, does this already refer to the beginning of the middle segment?

 

[fish1050]

thanks for the info! And I agree with your comments on a Sony's - A line. Also, what annoys me terribly is the old interface. To delete a song that I just heard and want to delete, I need to look for it in the folder. You also can't add a track to your favorites with one click - it's not cool.

Thanks for the advice, friend! I will definitely buy this player from Shanling in the spring. By the way, in terms of audio characteristics, does this already refer to the beginning of the middle segment?

I had an A17 for 4 years so I know what you mean about the older interface. The A55 is definitely showing its age going on 3 years from initial release.

Not sure I understand your question. I don't know if you can make that clear a classification. I mean in terms of price and features the Q1 for example would be considered entry level but in terms of audio quality it is mid-tier. So if the M3X sounds at least as good as the Q1 (should be better) I would classify it as a mid-tier DAP based on price and features as well.

Looking forward to reading your impressions of the M3X down the road

 

[vikibeats]

I had an A17 for 4 years so I know what you mean about the older interface. The A55 is definitely showing its age going on 3 years from initial release.

Not sure I understand your question. I don't know if you can make that clear a classification. I mean in terms of price and features the Q1 for example would be considered entry level but in terms of audio quality it is mid-tier. So if the M3X sounds at least as good as the Q1 (should be better) I would classify it as a mid-tier DAP based on price and features as well.

Looking forward to reading your impressions of the M3X down the road

Thanks my friend! Of corse!
I am already looking forward to getting the new DAP and was very worried to find a worthy replacement for Sony Walkman's, but you helped me a lot. Thanks for our conversation!

 

[fish1050]

Thanks my friend! Of corse!
I am already looking forward to getting the new DAP and was very worried to find a worthy replacement for Sony Walkman's, but you helped me a lot. Thanks for our conversation!

No problem, I sold audio products for many years and still enjoy helping others make solid purchases.

 

[davidcotton]

Looking like this could be my next dap purchase. Shanling m0 aside the last dap I bought was the original hiby r6, so about time for an upgrade methinks.

 

[TooPoorForHiFi]

Kind of disappointing that the Ports aren't at the bottom, otherwise this would have been a perfect device.

 

[Shanling]

Kind of disappointing that the Ports aren't at the bottom, otherwise this would have been a perfect device.

Position of ports is never ending question and there will be always people that wish it to be on the one end or the other.

 

[TooPoorForHiFi]

Position of ports is never ending question and there will be always people that wish it to be on the one end or the other.

I totally understand what you're saying. I'm just trying to say that its a more logical sense(IMO) for a Portable player to have the headphone ports at the bottom like your every other devices? Every time you take the device out of your pocket you'd have to flip it around but if your ports are at the bottom, you wouldn't have to? It's one of those poor design choices that I don't get.

I suppose it depends on what you're used to, Hopefully M5x doesn't follow suite.

 

[exile1973]

I totally understand what you're saying. I'm just trying to say that its a more logical sense(IMO) for a Portable player to have the headphone ports at the bottom like every other devices? Every time you take the device out of your pocket you'd have to flip it around but if your ports are at the bottom, you wouldn't have to? It's one of those poor design choices that I don't get.

Surely that's the other way around. On the dx160 headphone port on the bottom and every time I take it out of my pocket I have to turn it around as it's upside down in the pocket.

 

[bellyofthebeast]

Would this dap be a good replacement for desktop dac amp like topping dx3pro? Now i have it plugged to Nad amp so it works as a preamp. I would sell it and bought shanling for home and portable. Questions is how it would behave as a dac and preamp in normal use...

 

[holsen]

I totally understand what you're saying. I'm just trying to say that its a more logical sense(IMO) for a Portable player to have the headphone ports at the bottom like your every other devices? Every time you take the device out of your pocket you'd have to flip it around but if your ports are at the bottom, you wouldn't have to? It's one of those poor design choices that I don't get.

I suppose it depends on what you're used to, Hopefully M5x doesn't follow suite.

Whatever device I'm using, whenever I need to put it in my pocket, I just insert it so hat the cable input is at the top. The device doesn't care how I put it in my pocket and it plays just fine

 

[holsen]

I don't want to start any rumors, but @Shanling are there any plans for an M5x?