[wyvernone]

@wyvernone: I do happen to have both and will try to get back to you soon-ish. Off the top of my head (and without a direct comparison, albeit), I'd say I lean towards the M5. I honestly never gelled that well with DX90. Not a big fan of the GUI. Battery life isn't great. Sound isn't as smooth as I'd like. Doesn't get much use. If I were going for iBasso, I'd be looking at DX80 which I've used and prefer to DX90.

As far as i5, in pretty excited to try that out. Cayin knows how to make a great DAP. If a touchscreen Android DAP is what you're looking for, Shanling is working on one, too. No release date, pics, specs yet, though. I'm also super excited to see how Shanling approaches this.

Looking forward to it. I don't like the touch screen UI of the DX90 either, but I recently loaded Rockbox for DX90 onto it and it is better + much more configurable - no where near my fav PowerAmp app though

The DX90 also has 0.1 Zout so my W4 are hopeless on it.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Thanks @RomanRise.

Looks good.

Wow one AK4490 configuration beats a dual mono ES9018k2m set up?

Not surprised. For me, AK4490 is actually the best DAC chip to date (until this year). I prefered each device I listened to (Cayin N5, AK380, Teac UD 503, Aune M2) against competitors with Es9018 or CS4398 chips. Way smoother, warmer, wider and musical. Some begs to differ but the AK4490 is a massive advantage.

 

[haens]

how si the playlist support? does it support externally created playlists? or can you make playlists in the player?

 

[nmatheis]

M5 is finally here:etysmile:  
I was surprised how light player is, i thought it's gonna be more "solid"
Sound, even without burning, it's crazy good, i'm in love
There is no compare with DX90, for sure, m5 has waaaay wider, warmer and just better sound.
Never heard such a wide soundstage. No issues with DSD.
Will update my thoughts when burn it (at least 100 hours) 

Glad someone else is here to help spread the word on how good this little guy is!

Is that Shanling's case or a Dignis case?

how si the playlist support? does it support externally created playlists? or can you make playlists in the player?

Haven't tried importing playlists. Don't use them. You can "favorite" songs into a sort of on the playlist. I use that sometimes.

 

[Mr Trev]

@nmatheis
 
How's things looking on the firmware front. Wondering about any WIP or TBD added features, since it seems Fiio did their final FW for the X5ii. I'll ask bout the Cayin too, while I'm here, but just reply in that thread (don't wanna incur the wrath of Shanling for discussing the competitors in their thread

)

 

[nmatheis]

haens; I just looked at the menu structure, and there is a Playlist option in addition to Favorites. Not sure if it's limited to simply creating playlists on the M5 or if you can import playlists, and I'm not a playlist guy at all so I'm not going to test it.

Mr Trev: I'm actually just learning about new FW and features as Shanling announces them at this point. What I will say is that Shanling uses the same base FW that Cayin, FiiO, and Questyle use. I haven't tried Questyle (yet - hopefully soon, though) but out of the others, I prefer Shanling's GUI customizations best. That's just me. Of course YMMV.

One cool thing is that M2 & M5 can be used as smartphone DACs, so if you're in the mood for streaming music you can just connect the Shanling DAPs and have high SQ on the go. Nice!

 

[Mr Trev]

Just wondering if Shanling had plans to add replaygain or any of the other features (or more) that Fiio added. Being how they're basically the same fw, I would imagine so. Still have yet to find anywhere in Canada selling the things yet

 

[nmatheis]

Just wondering if Shanling had plans to add replaygain or any of the other features (or more) that Fiio added. Being how they're basically the same fw, I would imagine so. Still have yet to find anywhere in Canada selling the things yet

Shanling: Would you be receptive to a list of FW requests?

Replaygain and accelerated scrolling would be on my list. What would others like to see?

 

[RomanRise]

Is that Shanling's case or a Dignis case?

Yep, thats shangling case

 

[nmatheis]

Yep, thats shangling case

Real leather? Looks nice!

 

[RomanRise]

Real leather? Looks nice!

"made from synthetic leather" - thats what i got on package, but it feels great

 

[haens]

pics of menu and interface would be appreciated, epsecially settings screen etc. I would like to see what can be adjusted and how. thanks

 

[nmatheis]

pics of menu and interface would be appreciated, epsecially settings screen etc. I would like to see what can be adjusted and how. thanks

If RomanRise doesn't get to it first, I'll try to get something up in the next couple days.

 

[haens]

and 2 more questions
1) how many "steps" has the volume + what could be the usual volume level for sensitive IEMs 
2) with how many steps is it possible to adjust the EQ? from the pics it looks like it offers only 3-4 steps (up/down) for each band
thanks

 

[Dudco]

Same question. AVGear dont sell Shanling M5 anymore.