Soon it will be 1 year since Shaling revealed Shanling M0, an entry-level DAP. Flagship Shanling M5s was announced just 6 months ago. Now it’s time for Shanling to fill the gap between them with a new mid-tier player. And what could be a better fit than third generation of popular M2 model?
INTRODUCING THE NEW SHANLING M2X
Shanling M2x is smaller brother of Shanling current flagship M5s. Same beautiful design, MTouch system and rich feature list. And while M5s stays as our top model thanks to its superior sound quality, M2x will be tempting alternative for anybody looking for slightly smaller and cheaper player. This offers alternative for poor audiophiles like me to own a Hi-Res Audio Player.
Shanling M2x will come with few new features*:
Tidal support – For never-ending streaming of music (ONLINE mode only)
USB Bluetooth transmitter – For high quality wireless sound from any computer
Advanced USB output – For use with any external USB DAC, now including compatibility with DLNA, Airplay and Bluetooth receiver modes
* All new features will be implemented to other models in the future via firmware update
Specifications:
MTouch 2.0 system
Bluetooth 4.2, two-way connection
LDAC, AAC, apt-X, SBC support
2.5 mm balanced and 3.5 mm single-ended output
USB DAC function
DLNA & Airplay support
OTA upgrades
3.2 inch touch screen
Single micro SD card slot
Personal Opinion:
I think two-way Bluetooth connection now is a hype for DAPs. Big players like Sony had implemented this on their DAPs. This is a good implementation based on my opinion because it gives you an option to still stream while the DAP does not support the particular application.
I checked the online feedback on this new release and the comments are very controversial. Indeed, Shanling has not disappointed the community yet with their affordable DAPs. I am looking forwards to this DAP because I am fan of balanced output. There is not balanced output for M2S and I think this is a great improvement. Single micro SD card slot should be sufficient since recently Micron and SanDisk launched the first 1TB micro-SD card.
Well done Shanling!