[RTodd]

After repeated crashes of the Shanling player I also tried Hiby player (thanks btw!)
First it worked well and scanned the collection pretty fast. Sound was fine by me, too. But after an update of music and rescan it started to crash. The crashes reminded me of the Shanling app. Just stopped working and Android put the message like "<app> stopped working. Do you want to restart?".
After some "empty database", "reinstall app", "restart M8" etc. I found out that the actual problem seem to be a lack of internal storage. I guessed by checking in the settings/memory. A message from the app like "out of memory" or so would have helped, but ok ...
The album data database has to be stored somewhere of course. So if you put a lot of music in the internal storage and have a big collection on the SD card, the players seem to need quite some storage. After deleting 20% of the music stored internally, Hiby did the update again without problems ... and so did the Shanling app.
Since nobody here so far mentioned "potenial lack of internal storage space" so far, I would like to let you know.

Thanks makes sense, should be listed in the specifications so we can manage it.

 

[Whitigir]

After repeated crashes of the Shanling player I also tried Hiby player (thanks btw!)
First it worked well and scanned the collection pretty fast. Sound was fine by me, too. But after an update of music and rescan it started to crash. The crashes reminded me of the Shanling app. Just stopped working and Android put the message like "<app> stopped working. Do you want to restart?".
After some "empty database", "reinstall app", "restart M8" etc. I found out that the actual problem seem to be a lack of internal storage. I guessed by checking in the settings/memory. A message from the app like "out of memory" or so would have helped, but ok ...
The album data database has to be stored somewhere of course. So if you put a lot of music in the internal storage and have a big collection on the SD card, the players seem to need quite some storage. After deleting 20% of the music stored internally, Hiby did the update again without problems ... and so did the Shanling app.
Since nobody here so far mentioned "potenial lack of internal storage space" so far, I would like to let you know.

I normally leave internal storage alone . I do not understand why these flagship is only with 64-128 Gb Internal...LOL. Taking up a 10-20Gb is ok but don’t store further than that

Good to have you to clarify such things in details of your findings. This will help many people

 

[DaYooper]

I do not understand why these flagship is only with 64-128 Gb Internal...LOL.

I think that's really why I still have the 512GB internal memory SP2k.

 

[ScubaDrunk]

Hi Everyone.

I received a Romi Audio BX2+ this morning and I'm very very impressed with the quality and performance so far, amazing Amp for the money.

I'm running some test using 4.4 balanced in and out against 3.5 SE in and out and as far as I can tell with the HP I'm using I cannot tell the difference in sound quality - both sound amazing.

I am feeding the BX with my Shanling M8 and I have been informed by Shanling the the power out of the M8 when running balanced line out is just short of 5V compared to 2.6V SE. Obviously the BX2+ will also be using less power outputting SE to the phones.

So to me it makes sense to run both the M8 and the BX2+ in 3.5mm SE to drive the phones I'm using as this will use less power and I will get more battery life out of both units.

Can anybody recommend some good 3.5mm SE interconnects to go from the M8 to the BX2+ please. I'm looking for something short so i can stack the 2 together and preferably silver plated copper Litz.

I'm in the United Kingdom so would prefer a UK based store but its not essential.

Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[musictoear]

Does anyone know if this is a true balance for 4.4mm or just a socket fit? I have heard only the Sony z1 is true balance and everything else is just a plug intertwined wires that works as a fake balance. Confirmation of this would be nice. Thank you.

 

[DaYooper]

I'm in the United Kingdom so would prefer a UK based store

I wonder if CustomCans in London could have what you're looking for?

 

[Whitigir]

Does anyone know if this is a true balance for 4.4mm or just a socket fit? I have heard only the Sony z1 is true balance and everything else is just a plug intertwined wires that works as a fake balance. Confirmation of this would be nice. Thank you.

I don’t know if I can answer your question by answering with

The M8 is a true balanced player. It has dual DAC into Dual Channel L and R with 4 dedicated signals lines.

The player will automatically detect a short of L- and R- with the according module and then output a differential stages of L- and R- to render the output to become Single Ended.

Basically the best use case for M8 is balanced through and through

 

[ScubaDrunk]

I don’t know if I can answer your question by answering with

The M8 is a true balanced player. It has dual DAC into Dual Channel L and R with 4 dedicated signals lines.

The player will automatically detect a short of L- and R- with the according module and then output a differential stages of L- and R- to render the output to become Single Ended.

Basically the best use case for M8 is balanced through and through

Ohhhhhhhh hang on then.

Are we saying that it is best to output from the M8 via balanced into a balanced amp to get the cleanest signal through to the phones????

i.e. its NOT just about power??

 

[musictoear]

I don’t know if I can answer your question by answering with

The M8 is a true balanced player. It has dual DAC into Dual Channel L and R with 4 dedicated signals lines.

The player will automatically detect a short of L- and R- with the according module and then output a differential stages of L- and R- to render the output to become Single Ended.

Basically the best use case for M8 is balanced through and through

Thank you for the answer. I see the picture you talking/ explaining on their website.

 

[Whitigir]

Ohhhhhhhh hang on then.

Are we saying that it is best to output from the M8 via balanced into a balanced amp to get the cleanest signal through to the phones????

i.e. its NOT just about power??

Yes, it isn’t only the power.

Differentials have to be in place because M8 is fully Balanced at all time. So in order to pull 2 L and R negative signals to ground , they have to have differentials.

So, as you mentioned, the BX2 is also a balanced amplifier. If you are using Balanced from M8 into Balanced input on BX 2 and listening to Single ended out . The BX2 will have to differentiate by itself

So, the question here is , which one has a better differential stages ? Is it the internal by the M8 ? Or is it BX2 ?

If you can hear the same performances by Balanced-Balanced and then SE-SE. then that means the BX2 is great at Differentials stage by itself. Then you don’t need to look for another Se-Se cables because you will only be using M8 built in differential instead

 

[ScubaDrunk]

Yes, it isn’t only the power.

Differentials have to be in place because M8 is fully Balanced at all time. So in order to pull 2 L and R negative signals to ground , they have to have differentials.

So, as you mentioned, the BX2 is also a balanced amplifier. If you are using Balanced from M8 into Balanced input on BX 2 and listening to Single ended out . The BX2 will have to differentiate by itself

So, the question here is , which one has a better differential stages ? Is it the internal by the M8 ? Or is it BX2 ?

If you can hear the same performances by Balanced-Balanced and then SE-SE. then that means the BX2 is great at Differentials stage by itself. Then you don’t need to look for another Se-Se cables because you will only be using M8 built in differential instead

To be honest I cannot tell any difference in sound quality between SE-SE-SE to Phones compared to BAL-BAL-BAL to phones

So what your saying is the M8 will be internally balanced up to the socket when using the 3.5mm SE and will then go into the BX2 as SE and onto the phones SE? and thus the BX is great at the Differential stage?

If so it makes sense to run SE to save power as the M8 and BX will use less when connected SE all the way to the phones

 

[Whitigir]

To be honest I cannot tell any difference in sound quality between SE-SE-SE to Phones compared to BAL-BAL-BAL to phones

So what your saying is the M8 will be internally balanced up to the socket when using the 3.5mm SE and will then go into the BX2 as SE and onto the phones SE? and thus the BX is great at the Differential stage?

If so it makes sense to run SE to save power as the M8 and BX will use less when connected SE all the way to the phones

Yes, if you listening at SE out on BX2. Otherwise to fully explore M8, it is balanced

 

[malocadi]

I'm using UAPP almost exclusively for the M8 and at times the sound will just bug out, becoming half static and shifting all audio to one side. Does anyone else experience this? If I use other apps the audio sounds fine. Restarting UAPP fixes it quickly fortunately.

 

[tret]

I'm using UAPP almost exclusively for the M8 and at times the sound will just bug out, becoming half static and shifting all audio to one side. Does anyone else experience this? If I use other apps the audio sounds fine. Restarting UAPP fixes it quickly fortunately.

I experienced this is exact same issue and was unable to resolve it. It even happened w/ the stock Qobuz/Tidal apps but less frequently than w/ UAPP. See my older posts below. In the end I had to send the player back.

Has anyone experienced any of the following output issues w/ their M8?

• Playback interrupted by garbled static until you stop and restart playback
• Periodic static "blips" during playback at varying intervals
• Sudden lack of output regardless of volume or factory reset

I just received my M8 on Monday and over the past couple of days I experienced all of the above. Regarding the last one, after letting it sit powered off for ~12 hours output has resumed but the static noise issues are still occurring periodically. I reached out to the dealer I bought it from and I'm hoping they approve a return because I feel like there's something very wrong with the DAC or Amp. cc @Shanling

I'm still struggling with periodic static output issues, perhaps 3-6 times per day. Currently waiting for @Shanling next steps but I haven't seen anyone else report this so I suspect a faulty unit. So far have reproduced the behavior with the 4.4mm, 2.5mm and unbalanced 3.5mm sockets. I recorded a few videos showing the issue to better convey the behavior/symptoms.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lMJ0QqTRFIHh-CE92GCu6l_daQfq4ULb?usp=sharing

 

[Shanling]

Wondered if anyone is getting clicks when changing tracks in tidal masters? I get about 3/4 clicks when the bit rate changes and it misses out about 4 seconds of the songs. I’m also getting one click when changing tracks on other apps at lower bit rates but it doesn’t miss out any of the song.

Any word when offline Qobuz will be fixed?

It might be that due to the MQA and added processing needs, it's causing more problems with Tidal.

Please make sure to use only internal memory for Qobuz offline and it should work fine.

After repeated crashes of the Shanling player I also tried Hiby player (thanks btw!)
First it worked well and scanned the collection pretty fast. Sound was fine by me, too. But after an update of music and rescan it started to crash. The crashes reminded me of the Shanling app. Just stopped working and Android put the message like "<app> stopped working. Do you want to restart?".
After some "empty database", "reinstall app", "restart M8" etc. I found out that the actual problem seems to be a lack of internal storage. I guessed by checking in the settings/memory. A message from the app like "out of memory" or so would have helped, but ok ...
The album data database has to be stored somewhere of course. So if you put a lot of music in the internal storage and have a big collection on the SD card, the players seem to need quite some storage. After deleting 20% of the music stored internally, Hiby did the update again without problems ... and so did the Shanling app.
Since nobody here so far mentioned "potenial lack of internal storage space" so far, I would like to let you know.

Thanks for finding this out. Will tell our software team to adjust it, at least give some warning message.

Does anyone know if this is a true balance for 4.4mm or just a socket fit? I have heard only the Sony z1 is true balance and everything else is just a plug intertwined wires that works as a fake balance. Confirmation of this would be nice. Thank you.

M8 works as completely balanced audio design.

Can you please send us some links, that makes such claims about Sony being only true balanced?

Ohhhhhhhh hang on then.

Are we saying that it is best to output from the M8 via balanced into a balanced amp to get the cleanest signal through to the phones????

i.e. its NOT just about power??

Balanced output is measurably better, not just in power. And to me ears a step up over Single ended.

If you don't need more power and care more about battery life than sound quality, using single ended is just fine.