[Whitigir]

So, the first thing you do when you buy something like the M8 is you take it apart? LOL,

, Actually the first thing Is to listen to it. If it isn’t interesting enough, then I would just move on.

 

[mzura]

Hello to everybody, especially Shanling.

I have recently owned the M8, the sound of which I am very pleased. As a device, the Shanling M8 is outstanding - especially in terms of sound quality.

However, the way player Shanling (not as a device) works leaves a lot to be desired. I want to share a few comments, because the way the files are cataloged in the library is not good, it makes the player experience difficult.

Proposals and comments:

• all artist's files should constitute one directory (currently the library in the Artist's directory divides one artist into two folders - copies of "The Cure", "Cure, The" - even though they are described in the same way and should constitute one directory),
• you must (if you are so kind) implement the "Artist Album" as a search option - only the artist's albums (currently the search in the Artist folder introduces complete chaos, for example - Steven Wilson & Nina Hayeb appears as a separate artist - 1 song, although Nina Hayeb is a session musician, and not the composer of the album),
• some high resolution albums are thrown from the artist's main catalog to the High Resolution catalog, which is not cataloged as albums at all, but as tracks, which results in complete confusion,
• absolutely all albums of a given artist must be in one catalog of this artist,
• no specific fonts for German (ä, ö, oe ü, ue, ß) and Scandinavian languages (æ, ø, å),
• Artist folder in Polish is called "Artysta" and not "Astysta" (spelling error),
• no gapless (but I heard you working on it).

I would like to ask you to correct the above-mentioned errors, because it will make the way of using the M8 more enjoyable. The most important thing is cataloging discs, which is not good. For comparison, I recommend the library in Ibasso players.

Thank you and best regards.

PS. Sorry for my english. ;o) I hope I was understandable.

 

[Whitigir]

Hello to everybody, especially Shanling.

I have recently owned the M8, the sound of which I am very pleased. As a device, the Shanling M8 is outstanding - especially in terms of sound quality.

However, the way player Shanling (not as a device) works leaves a lot to be desired. I want to share a few comments, because the way the files are cataloged in the library is not good, it makes the player experience difficult.

Proposals and comments:

• all artist's files should constitute one directory (currently the library in the Artist's directory divides one artist into two folders - copies of "The Cure", "Cure, The" - even though they are described in the same way and should constitute one directory),
• you must (if you are so kind) implement the "Artist Album" as a search option - only the artist's albums (currently the search in the Artist folder introduces complete chaos, for example - Steven Wilson & Nina Hayeb appears as a separate artist - 1 song, although Nina Hayeb is a session musician, and not the composer of the album),
• some high resolution albums are thrown from the artist's main catalog to the High Resolution catalog, which is not cataloged as albums at all, but as tracks, which results in complete confusion,
• absolutely all albums of a given artist must be in one catalog of this artist,
• no specific fonts for German (ä, ö, oe ü, ue, ß) and Scandinavian languages (æ, ø, å),
• Artist folder in Polish is called "Artysta" and not "Astysta" (spelling error),
• no gapless (but I heard you working on it).

I would like to ask you to correct the above-mentioned errors, because it will make the way of using the M8 more enjoyable. The most important thing is cataloging discs, which is not good. For comparison, I recommend the library in Ibasso players for comparison.

PS. Sorry for my english. ;o)

There are also more “spelling errors” around the UI, the “digital filters options” is an example . But these things are “small matters” that Shanling will have no problem fixing up for sure. I would also love to see a better categories, search functions In Shanling app too , so 1+ here

 

[mzura]

I agree. The way the library is cataloged hurts the most. Hopefully Shanling will redesign the way the library works.

I would like to add that I really care about Shanling player. Is fantastic. I compared with Neutron and USB Audio Player Pro. Shanling player is simply better.

 

[all999]

Here is a shot at internal boards of Shanling M8 and it Magic, showing the juicy Elna Silmic capacitors and POS-Caps.

Did You tear it down by yourself? I'm just wondering if there is any benefit of implementing just one headphone plug. Any advantage of making more space inside a dap? Battery, amp section, cooling system? Any more photos of internals?

Thanks!

 

[Whitigir]

Did You tear it down by yourself? I'm just wondering if there is any benefit of implementing just one headphone plug. Any advantage of making more space inside a dap? Battery, amp section, cooling system? Any more photos of internals?

Thanks!

One headphones plug instead of the “removable” socket ?

 

[all999]

One headphones plug instead of the “removable” socket ?

One removable socket instead of three sockets like in M6.

 

[pv815]

Hello @Shanling

Seems that I am having issue activating Google Play Store. I have used your instructions from earlier post, updated firmware first to 1.1 got the Google Service Framework (GSF) code and went to the g.co/apps-custom logged in where copy pasted and clicked on register it said it was accepted and when I try to use ID again it says value already registered so I know that part is done. Rebooted a couple of times. It has been more than a few hours but still getting device is not play protected when i try to login to Play Store. Any suggestions or do you have a seperate patch I can run to register device.

 

[Whitigir]

One removable socket instead of three sockets like in M6.

That is what M8 is doing. It only has 1 socket that can be used with all type of other plugs according to the provided set

 

[gonzfi]

Hello @Shanling

Seems that I am having issue activating Google Play Store. I have used your instructions from earlier post, updated firmware first to 1.1 got the Google Service Framework (GSF) code and went to the g.co/apps-custom logged in where copy pasted and clicked on register it said it was accepted and when I try to use ID again it says value already registered so I know that part is done. Rebooted a couple of times. It has been more than a few hours but still getting device is not play protected when i try to login to Play Store. Any suggestions or do you have a seperate patch I can run to register device.

You'll have to redo it. Factory reset. Then run the patch again. It will generate a new code and should work.

 

[rantng]

Not only that, as I have been mentioning previously. The M8 is the First player to have implemented a “proper cooling techniques“. It has 3 main chips sitting directly on the chassis with Graphene cooling thermal paste. The aK4499EQ is a Desktop IC chip. It consumes a lot of power in both forms Currents and voltages swing depends on task, and so it “heats up” very quickly. It was meant to be in a “proper cooling design”. It should have Coolant fins, or sitting directly on top of Metal surfaces that can help it dissipate the heats during operations.

I have yet to see any Portable Player to have incorporate such design on the chassis like the M8. All I have seen is that a “thermal Stripes” were inserted and route toward the chassis to help it cool down (Cayin N8). Or just leave it alone with a lot of Ground plane to cool itself (Sony DMP-Z1), or just leave it as is, and possibly “throttle down” (the SP2K or possibly FiiO M15).

So, The M8 being heated up, it is just an indications that the chassis are conducting the generated heats efficiently and away from both AK4499EQ and the SnapDragon 440 main chips.
Take it this way, if you are cooling down something by the chassis, but your chassis is not heated up enough, then you have failed at doing it.


To better dissipate the heats, you could also use it without the Leather case to expose as much Chassis surface as possible. Even thought the case is well designed and has as much exposure as possible, the 4 corners are still retaining and trapping it back. It should be best to use M8 as is with just a screen or glass protections

I am just enthusiastic about these devices and my background is related to this field in some degrees as well.

LOL, enthusiastic he says, without a hint of boastfulness. You sir, undersell yourself.

You guys are killing me though. I thought I was satisfied with my M15...

 

[pv815]

You'll have to redo it. Factory reset. Then run the patch again. It will generate a new code and should work.

I was hoping not to but did a factory reset and tried process again. After reboot immediately at top there is notification that device is not play protect certified and trying to log in to play store brings same notification. I am not running a patch but following the steps from @Shanling post #342

 

[Shanling]

Hi @Shanling. All my music files use embedded album covers in themselves and my M5s handles them just fine. The second issue I am facing is there is at least a 10 seconds lapse before the next song is played. This happens either when I wait until the current song finishes or when I press the next button to play the next song while the current song is still playing. I can see that the Shanling app gets to the next song when I press the next button, but the song does not play until at least 10 second later. This happens either in shuffle mode or non-shuffle mode. The third issue I am seeing is the total number of songs randomly changes whenever I go back and forth to main selection screen to choose among the main six options for playing all songs and so on. Sometime the shanling app displays the correct number of songs, 13398, and some other times it displays some random numbers like 3000, 2000, or even 3300. Thank you so much for your kind help with these issues.

For cover art, can you please send me 1-2 over PM to check?

10 second gap is definitely out of ordinary and it definitely isn't happening to others. Are you seeing it with all apps or only Shanling Music?

Number of songs, this is due to bad library system in our app, as it kinds of loads it up slowly every single time again.

Proposals and comments:

• all artist's files should constitute one directory (currently the library in the Artist's directory divides one artist into two folders - copies of "The Cure", "Cure, The" - even though they are described in the same way and should constitute one directory),
• you must (if you are so kind) implement the "Artist Album" as a search option - only the artist's albums (currently the search in the Artist folder introduces complete chaos, for example - Steven Wilson & Nina Hayeb appears as a separate artist - 1 song, although Nina Hayeb is a session musician, and not the composer of the album),
• some high resolution albums are thrown from the artist's main catalog to the High Resolution catalog, which is not cataloged as albums at all, but as tracks, which results in complete confusion,
• absolutely all albums of a given artist must be in one catalog of this artist,
• no specific fonts for German (ä, ö, oe ü, ue, ß) and Scandinavian languages (æ, ø, å),
• Artist folder in Polish is called "Artysta" and not "Astysta" (spelling error),
• no gapless (but I heard you working on it).

Can you please send me some of your Cure files? If app sorts it in two artists, there is something different in their tags.

Album artist was added to all our MTouch players, so I hope our software team will manage same for our app soon.

For the Hi-Res , agree, it's kind of too rough in current implementation.

If albums are not showing correctly under one artist, there is something going with their tags. Send us some file showing this issue and we can check it and fix it.

Will check on these symbols and Polish text.

Did You tear it down by yourself? I'm just wondering if there is any benefit of implementing just one headphone plug. Any advantage of making more space inside a dap? Battery, amp section, cooling system? Any more photos of internals?

Thanks!

Another advantage is that we can add more plugs in the future. We have some crazy looking prototypes running around office now.

Seems that I am having issue activating Google Play Store. I have used your instructions from earlier post, updated firmware first to 1.1 got the Google Service Framework (GSF) code and went to the g.co/apps-custom logged in where copy pasted and clicked on register it said it was accepted and when I try to use ID again it says value already registered so I know that part is done. Rebooted a couple of times. It has been more than a few hours but still getting device is not play protected when i try to login to Play Store. Any suggestions or do you have a seperate patch I can run to register device.

This can happen in some cases. Sometimes it gets fixed by waiting few days, when Google decides to register your device. But faster method is simply to do factory reset, which gets you new device ID. No other way how to fix this.

 

[LoveMusicEveryday]

For cover art, can you please send me 1-2 over PM to check?

10 second gap is definitely out of ordinary and it definitely isn't happening to others. Are you seeing it with all apps or only Shanling Music?

Number of songs, this is due to bad library system in our app, as it kinds of loads it up slowly every single time again.



Can you please send me some of your Cure files? If app sorts it in two artists, there is something different in their tags.

Album artist was added to all our MTouch players, so I hope our software team will manage same for our app soon.

For the Hi-Res , agree, it's kind of too rough in current implementation.

If albums are not showing correctly under one artist, there is something going with their tags. Send us some file showing this issue and we can check it and fix it.

Will check on these symbols and Polish text.



Another advantage is that we can add more plugs in the future. We have some crazy looking prototypes running around office now.



This can happen in some cases. Sometimes it gets fixed by waiting few days, when Google decides to register your device. But faster method is simply to do factory reset, which gets you new device ID. No other way how to fix this.

Hi @Shanling,

Thank you for getting back to me. I have just sent a few files with embedded album cover to you via PM.

Regarding the 10 second gap between songs, I think this might be due to one of the music folders in which I have placed about 10K files (just copied it using the same structure as on my M5s player) and the Shanling app just needs more time or something to get to the next song. I did some experiments today with the folder structure on the M8 and rebuild the folder structure to make it works with the M8 Shanling app. So far, it has worked smoothly now with the switching time is about at most 2 seconds or less (without the gapless feature which I believe your team is working hard on it to make it happens for M8 ).

As for the 3rd issue regarding the random number of total number of tracks, it seems your software team is aware of it and hopefully is looking into fixing this bug.

Thanks again for your kind help!

 

[jarvincassidy]

fresh review from Headfonics on the M8 with comparisons to the M15, m6 and M6 Pro

https://headfonics.com/shanling-m8-review/