Shanling M6 Player - New version with ESS DACs coming soon

[Redmasta]

The Leathercase is looking very fine. I will never change this one to silicone

 

[nmatheis]

Happy New Year fellow Shanling fans!!!

The good, I ordered an M6 plus silicone and leather cases. Woohoo!

The bad, the multifunction wheel on my old M3s started malfunctioning, so I ordered a replacement which arrived yesterday. Unfortunately, the screen was really stuck and the cables forcibly detatched when the screen finally came off. Upon reconnecting the cables to see if it was still functional, the screen would light up but without the GUI - only the backlight. Probably damaged one or both cables. Boo!

 

[originalsnuffy]

Anybody here have both the HiBy R5 and the Shanling M6? I would be curious on your thoughts about the two.

 

[Nayparm]

Shanling M6 for sure, I tried an R5, had R6/R6Pro, nice daps but i prefer the M6 sound.

 

[nmatheis]

Anybody here have both the HiBy R5 and the Shanling M6? I would be curious on your thoughts about the two.

Shanling M6 for sure, I tried an R5, had R6/R6Pro, nice daps but i prefer the M6 sound.

Could you provide a brief sound signature/quality comparison for Hiby R5 vs Shanling M6 @Nayparm?

 

[monsieurfromag3]

We have a few people in this thread like @Nayparm who find the M6 great for metal, while others like @cleg describe a smooth signature, and a certain lack of aggression around the lower treble that would seem like a problem for drum-heavy music. Would you guys, or any of the rare early owners care to elaborate?

 

[Nayparm]

Cleg is probably using the shanling player which I ditched fairly quickly (I've tried
again after each firmware update) I'm using Neutron with fixed 768khz out to the AK4495SEQs and using my personal PEQ settings I transfer between daps (my flat line) Ironically I created these PEQ settings when I had an LPGT. The M6 hardware is capable of incredible bass. I just can't use the shanling music player as the eq isnt that great for me.

 

[Nayparm]

Could you provide a brief sound signature/quality comparison for Hiby R5 vs Shanling M6 @Nayparm?

It would be from memory, but both using identical peq (config file copied over) I hear more detail but smooth detail from the M6, no harshnes, a wider sound stage (R5 is quite narrow) and a nice thicker extended low end on the M6 . The R5 although very good too had a more fatiging sound to me.

 

[dmkbox]

It would be from memory, but both using identical peq (config file copied over) I hear more detail but smooth detail from the M6, no harshnes, a wider sound stage (R5 is quite narrow) and a nice thicker extended low end on the M6 . The R5 although very good too had a more fatiging sound to me.

Can confirm. Same impression.

 

[nmatheis]

It would be from memory, but both using identical peq (config file copied over) I hear more detail but smooth detail from the M6, no harshnes, a wider sound stage (R5 is quite narrow) and a nice thicker extended low end on the M6 . The R5 although very good too had a more fatiging sound to me.

Thanks for the comments. Even if from memory, they're still helpful. That matches up with what I've learned about the two. It seemed like R5 would be too thin/cold for my taste, so I went for the M6. I imagine it'll sound quite good with IT03 + Ares II Balanced.

 

[Shanling]

After update I was confused by changing sound signature. Many highs and more thin bass.

Am I wrong?
Listened same track yesterday and today right after update.
Soundstage became wider by poison highs, but I'm not like this.

We make no adjustments to sound in our firmware updates. Yet in past we got multiple people reporting change. Just another interesting part of Hi-Fi industry.

We have a few people in this thread like @Nayparm who find the M6 great for metal, while others like @cleg describe a smooth signature, and a certain lack of aggression around the lower treble that would seem like a problem for drum-heavy music. Would you guys, or any of the rare early owners care to elaborate?

Honestly, this is way too common in Audio. In past two years, I heard from customers so diverse sound impressions on the same model, I now prefer to say almost nothing about the sound of our players and just link them to reviews or recommend to audition for themselves if possible.

For M6, there is another element, software player you use. We already got some feedback from people preferring this or that software over others. In this case it's similar to discussion about effect on sound quality from software players on PC/Mac.

 

[dmkbox]

We make no adjustments to sound in our firmware updates. Yet in past we got multiple people reporting change. Just another interesting part of Hi-Fi industry.

I never report if I no doubt. Right after update I hear changes.

 

[Redmasta]

I never report if I no doubt. Right after update I hear changes.

I also hear different sounding, the highs are more now.

 

[cleg]

We have a few people in this thread like @Nayparm who find the M6 great for metal, while others like @cleg describe a smooth signature, and a certain lack of aggression around the lower treble that would seem like a problem for drum-heavy music. Would you guys, or any of the rare early owners care to elaborate?

It's a bit less aggressive than "average" but that doesn't mean totally lacking aggression or something like that. M6 is pretty universal in terms of genres, so I can't say it has problems with metal. Anyway, any genre-specifics is a matter of taste, and too aggressive DAP is even more problematic, especially with poorly recorded tracks.
Actually, DAPs difference isn't big in general (I'm not speaking about cases like Zishan vs Ultima), and all similar level DAPs will be sounding pretty close to each other, and ~80% of difference will make an IEMs
So, if you like M6, it can be a really safe choice even without listening (but of course it's better to test it yourself)

 

[davidcotton]

Decent upgrade from the hiby R6? Oh and up for preorder on hifiheadphones for £499