[zikarus]

OK, so it renders the DLNA audio on the phone, and delivers it to the player via Bluetooth. Do you really expect a significant audio quality bump? Maybe some, but IMHO not a lot. Receiving the digital bits on the device of the audio, and decoding them on board, that would ensure better audio quality. For my $429, I will wait for a device that read/decode/render the audio on the device.

Sure it works this way? Who said so?

Why should the digital bits not be delivered to the M5s and be decoded/rendered there? Given that one cannot stream music from a NAS directly to the M5s does not imply that the rendering works the way you state.

Sure it would be better to be able to play music from a NAS directly via the M5s without having to additionally use a phone as a transport though.

Hope this functionality will be added later. Why not work together with another company and try to port a stable app like Bubble to the Shanling system?

 

[dblml320]

Sure it works this way? Who said so?

Why should the digital bits not be delivered to the M5s and be decoded/rendered there? Given that one cannot stream music from a NAS directly to the M5s does not imply that the rendering works the way you state.

This is my guess. Anyone in the know, please refute me if I am wrong:

a) DLNA on phone Delivers a sound file to phone.

b) Phone renders the bits to audio

c) Bits are then converted to a stream that Bluetooth can transfer

d) Bits are transferred to DAP

e) Bits are converted to audio (again) to render to DAP's amplifier

As you all remember, Bluetooth does not really have the bandwidth to support 24 bit audio. Is LDAC used. Is it encouraging. From Wikipedia: LDAC is an audio coding technology developed by Sony, which allows streaming audio over Bluetooth connections up to 990 kbit/s at 24 bit/96 kHz (also called high-resolution audio).

However anything encoded above 24/96 is interpolated before being sent to the DAP. Most of my music is 24/192 FLAC or DSD with similar bit precisions. These files can be played directly from the memory card on the M5s, but sure would be nice if they could served from server. Yes, you can play DSD via DLNA .. My Onkyo Receiver does it today.

 

[zikarus]

You forgot that the M5s is WiFi capable. Usually you use your phone app to send the files to the renderer via WiFi not BT.

 

[mathi8vadhanan]

That's correct. In this scenario, Phone is the DMC and M5s is the DMR. Phone (DMC) just provides instruction about the location of media (in network) to be played to renderer (M5s).
For M5s to be able to search for servers (DMS) and play the media, it needs to be a DMP. A lot of andorid/iOS apps have this DMP function baked-in like Sony's walkman app. I think it will be a major effort to be added in a Linux based player.

• Digital Media Server (DMS): store content and make it available to networked digital media players (DMP) and digital media renderers (DMR). Examples include PCs and network-attached storage (NAS) devices.
• Digital Media Player (DMP): find content on digital media servers (DMS) and provide playback and rendering capabilities. Examples include TVs, stereos and home theaters, wireless monitors and game consoles.
• Digital Media Renderer (DMR): play content as instructed by a digital media controller (DMC), which will find content from a digital media server (DMS). Examples include TVs, audio/video receivers, video displays and remote speakers for music. It is possible for a single device (e.g. TV, A/V receiver, etc.) to function both as a DMR (receives "pushed" content from DMS) and DMP ("pulls" content from DMS)
• Digital Media Controller (DMC): find content on digital media servers (DMS) and instruct digital media renderers (DMR) to play the content. Content doesn't stream from or through the DMC. Examples include tablet computers, Wi-Fi enabled digital cameras and smartphones.

 

[fish1050]

OK, so it renders the DLNA audio on the phone, and delivers it to the player via Bluetooth. Do you really expect a significant audio quality bump? Maybe some, but IMHO not a lot. Receiving the digital bits on the device of the audio, and decoding them on board, that would ensure better audio quality. For my $429, I will wait for a device that read/decode/render the audio on the device.

For not much more than the cost of the M5S you can get a Sony receiver that supports wifi, airplay, and LDAC and stream from your NAS to the receiver. You will get amazing sound quality (much better than $400 DAP) as I do with my Sony STRDN860 and my 9TB home server connected via ethernet or wifi, alot more power and much greater flexibility like using it for a home theater as well. To me it makes no sense to get a portable audio device to then tether it to a NAS wireless or not. Kind of what a home audio system is for and then if you still want to be portable get the M0 and carry a few thousands songs at a time.

 

[Peti]

Can it output DSD up to 128 natively or DoP to my Chord Mojo DAC?

 

[dblml320]

To me it makes no sense to get a portable audio device to then tether it to a NAS wireless or not. Kind of what a home audio system is for and then if you still want to be portable get the M0 and carry a few thousands songs at a time.

My home theater receiver does the same (Onkyo). Lots of times my wife watches TV using that receiver, and I listen to a DAP with headphones. In this scenario, serving the music from a server is a good application. I am not married to DLNA, but it is gaining wider support. I would be OK with a network drive sharing setup. Its all about flexibility and being able to listen to anything I have without having to take the card out of the device, update it, then put it back in. In a clumsy moment, I cracked a microsd card in half. That's all I am saying. People are getting used to connectivity .. I am one who argued for many years it would never happen .. and I was wrong.

 

[Shanling]

OK, so it renders the DLNA audio on the phone, and delivers it to the player via Bluetooth. Do you really expect a significant audio quality bump? Maybe some, but IMHO not a lot. Receiving the digital bits on the device of the audio, and decoding them on board, that would ensure better audio quality. For my $429, I will wait for a device that read/decode/render the audio on the device.

When using M5s with DLNA, there is no bluetooth transfer in there. M5s communicates with server over Wifi, phone serves only as controller (as for example tablet serves as controller for AC receivers). So you getting full quality of the files, no Bluetooth limitations apply.

I completely understand. For me, my music library has grown to 6TB of various bit-rate FLAC and DSD. No doubt the M5s will play these files quite well from the memory card. What is the max of a card? 1TB maybe .. The case for playing from a server gets very interesting in this scenario...

Theoretical maximum size of current Micro SD card standard is 2TB. On market we only have 512GB so far.

Can it output DSD up to 128 natively or DoP to my Chord Mojo DAC?

At current firmware (1.3), it can do only D2P over USB out. DOP USB out will be coming with next firmware. Not sure if international units will be already updated to next firmware, or if they will come with current build.

 

[dissembled]

Please, pleeeease, pleeease add a Spotify app on the player. I and countless others discover new songs via Spotify all of the time and with Spotify coupled with the sound quality of the M5 player itself? It will be a freeeakin epic combination. I'm practically begging on my knees. Please, Shanling, make it happen.

 

[Shanling]

Please, pleeeease, pleeease add a Spotify app on the player. I and countless others discover new songs via Spotify all of the time and with Spotify coupled with the sound quality of the M5 player itself? It will be a freeeakin epic combination. I'm practically begging on my knees. Please, Shanling, make it happen.

We would love to add Spotify, but due to few reason discussed in this thread already, it's almost impossible to get Spotify on non-android devices.

 

[tonehk]

We would love to add Spotify, but due to few reason discussed in this thread already, it's almost impossible to get Spotify on non-android devices.

hi, is it possible to have the device Spotify connect compatible? even if no Spotify app, would be v useful as a Spotify streamer.

 

[Luke Thomas]

We would love to add Spotify, but due to few reason discussed in this thread already, it's almost impossible to get Spotify on non-android devices.

Why do we not use a android system?

 

[technobear]

Why do we not use a android system?

There are other DAPs you can buy that have Android.

This one, thankfully, does not.

 

[Luke Thomas]

There are other DAPs you can buy that have Android.

This one, thankfully, does not.

With spotify and streaming popularity. your think android is the go to system.

 

[kukkurovaca]

With spotify and streaming popularity. your think android is the go to system.

As I understand it, the problem is that modern versions of Android won't run on the chips that are normally used in DAPs. Making a DAP with smartphone hardware that will run Android well will increase cost quite a bit, and then you end up with something like the Hiby R6. Plus, Android is kind of a mess of an operating system. (IMO)

As a value proposition to the buyer, the question is, do you want the bulk of the cost to be going into making the DAP sound its best, or do you want a lot of it to go into making it able to run apps. There's no one answer to that question, it will all depend on your priorities. But there's definitely a market for folks who prefer more stripped-down software.

You can also get DAPs that do everything extremely well, but they're $$$

Or you can skip the DAP and just get an amp or DAC/amp to use with your phone where Spotify, Tidal, etc. are sure to run great.