Shanling M8 Android Portable player

[Ojisan]

Yep
I think there was some rule of like source impedance to be some percentage of the IEM impedance but I don't remember the exact value.
With almost 13 Ohm you could yet have an acceptable bass with around 1 Ohm or a bit higher whereas with my Andro Golds it's supposed to be at around 0,5 Ohm to have enough punch from my experience...
But others like @Rockwell75 have far more expensive with that I suppose...

You are probably referring to the rule of 8. So 8:1 is a kind of rule of thumb people use. It works as a general guide but you might just have to hear it

For example, I loved the Cayin N6ii/A01 SE (OI=0.6ohm) with my Andro. I didn't like it so much with balanced out 1.2ohm, not to mention hiss that came with it. Out of Fiio M11, Cayin N6ii (all modules), DX228/9/8FE/8custom, and M8, M8 balanced/SE is my preferred pairing.

 

[FooFighter]

You are probably referring to the rule of 8. So 8:1 is a kind of rule of thumb people use. It works as a general guide but you might just have to hear it

For example, I loved the Cayin N6ii/A01 SE (OI=0.6ohm) with my Andro. I didn't like it so much with balanced out 1.2ohm, not to mention hiss that came with it. Out of Fiio M11, Cayin N6ii (all modules), DX228/9/8FE/8custom, and M8, M8 balanced/SE is my preferred pairing.

Thx for bringing that back to my mind

 

[Shanling]

Effect grows with lower IEM impedance.
My Andro Golds have 7! Ohm.
That's were the effect will be mostly more than subtle but that can be also a very specific Andromeda thing.

It's not about the value itself, but about the impedance curve and its shape.
You can have IEMs with very low impedance that are quite immune to impedance changes.
This is truly different from IEM to IEM and depends more on their individual design.

 

[RTodd]

Thx for bringing that back to my mind

 

[davidmolliere]

New firmware for M8 now in beta testing, hopefully will be officially released this week.



MQA is supported in Shanling Music for local files and Tidal for streaming. Not sure how is UAPP currently working with it.

MQA is not supported when using M8 as USB DAC. M8 is not designed to work as a USB DAC with iOS.

You can charge and use device at the same time.

When used with MQA enabled DAC, M8 will output full MQA. If you are using non-MQA DAC, decoding will be done by TIdal app and output as 24/88.

Great news, I have had quite a bit of issues with bitrates in Tidal, track stopping play, HiFi tracks playing at MQA bitrates... etc and it has gotten annoying...
Look forward to this... I love my M8 and use Tidal extensively

 

[fzman]

Speaking of which, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Peter Gabrioel, Steve Hackett and Phil Collins all have excellent solo work as well.

 

[ian91]

Great news, I have had quite a bit of issues with bitrates in Tidal, track stopping play, HiFi tracks playing at MQA bitrates... etc and it has gotten annoying...
Look forward to this... I love my M8 and use Tidal extensively

The Tidal app on occasion appears to upsample when it shouldnt, namely when there is a Masters recording available. I think thats Tidals problem.

As for the firmware, I'm waiting with bated breath for an update, as the last update was that it would be out last week.

Loving my M8 so far!

 

[Kiats]

Great news, I have had quite a bit of issues with bitrates in Tidal, track stopping play, HiFi tracks playing at MQA bitrates... etc and it has gotten annoying...
Look forward to this... I love my M8 and use Tidal extensively

Does the M8 unfold MQA on Tidal 8X? Would be most interested in the M8 if it does Tidal nicely...

 

[Kiats]

@Shanling : I assume that there is no issue with QQ Music for the M8? That’s the other main use case for a DAP for me. Thanks

 

[davidmolliere]

Does the M8 unfold MQA on Tidal 8X? Would be most interested in the M8 if it does Tidal nicely...

It does but right now I have the same issue I had with Hiby R8 back in the early firmwares... playing stops often when changing tracks, bitrate seems "forced" and sometimes when you have both hifi and masters track the hifi tracks don't revert to the right sample rate. I am sure this is going to be fixed soon like it was for R8.

 

[ian91]

and sometimes when you have both hifi and masters track the hifi tracks don't revert to the right sample rate

I believe this is Tidal at work here, not M8 firmware. If there is an MQA version for a HIFI track (even if mqa is turned off in settings) tidal will stream the folded/partially folded mqa file and not the true lossless 'hifi' file.



Please see above video at around the 12min30sec mark.

 

[davidmolliere]

Yeah well, I don't think that's the issue, I had the same with R8 and now it's gone, plus DX300 and R6 2020 are working fine on the very same tracks...

 

[ian91]

Interesting. Some of these technicalities are beyond me. Lets hope @Shanling can shed more light on your issues.

 

[davidmolliere]

Interesting. Some of these technicalities are beyond me. Lets hope @Shanling can shed more light on your issues.

I'd be very surprised to be the only one, now I only updated via OTA maybe I missed an upgrade being swamped with work and all...

 

[ian91]

I don't think you're the only one and in fact if what you're saying is true I may experiencing the same thing. I also don't think you've missed any updates!