Shanling M7 Review

Display

The M9’s mighty 6-inch 2K screen is not present with the M7. It’s still quite gorgeous for a higher-end DAP, it’s just that the M9 is a unicorn in the DAP world. So if you compare it to the M9, it doesn’t look special but it’s still a great screen. The M9’s screen is just too good.

Yet, Shanling retained the “floating screen” design with this model. The lifted appearance of this screen boosts the viewing experience. It is mounted a bit above the actual chassis with lifted chassis edges. A nice unique feature of the newest generation of Shanling players.

Software

The UI is mostly vanilla Android 10. The upgrade in the software department ensures long time app support, in this case streaming and audio applications. My experience with the software has been bug-free, smooth and flawless. I recommend following Shanling’s social media and Head-Fi accounts for staying up to date with their firmware releases.

Shanling Music

Shanling’s official music app stays the same with the same features and UI as the M8 and previous Shanling players. So no surprises there. The one criticism about Shanling player is the gapless ability and unfortunately, it’s still not present. Otherwise, the app has every possible feature that you need so I’m not going to dive into them one by one.

But one feature I like is the “SyncLink”. When you connect to the player with Bluetooth, you can open the “Eddict Player” application on your phone and control your DAP. This of course is only applicable when you’re in the Shanling music app. You can’t do this with streaming apps and others. Be aware that your album covers don’t appear on your phone on the “now playing” screen.

Sound Quality Overall

What Shanling started with Shanling M8 is truly special. They entered the “best” category with the M8 in my book, and they took it even further with the M9. When I think about the best available in the market, the M9 is certainly one of the choices.

The M7 aims to keep those qualities in a smaller chassis. And I honestly think Shanling managed just that. The new M7 is a wonderful compact player that ticks lots of boxes for an audiophile in terms of balance, separation, power, background and imaging.

The M7 is a balanced and brighter sounding DAP that takes a different route than the M8 and 9. The M8 is a very warm sounding device, whilst the M9 took it to a more balanced path with more space and air with fantastic refinement. The M7 is the least warm of the three, and that makes it sound a bit more analytical than the M9 in terms of presentation. It’s like the difference between the SP2000 and the SE180 (SEM3).

However, in terms of technical performance, it’s not too far away from the M9 with its resolution and transparency. It doesn’t have as much spaciousness and micro-detail as the M9, but the overall difference between the two is not night and day.

Sound Quality Details

The bass quality is again noticeable just like the M9. The M9’s bass is simply amazing, but the M7 also puts on a show with very dynamic and quick bass. It doesn’t have the rumble and the texture of the M9 but it’s certainly impressive. I think for the price the bass performance is excellent. The PRaT is very good and it’s a very well-controlled bass.

A Great Mid-Range

The mid-range is a bit elevated and it’s in front of the stage. The vocals and instruments sound engaging with great dynamism. This area is also very clean and crisp, without any veils or problems regarding resolution. This I think is the best section of the M7, especially when paired with clean-sounding IEMs with high transparency. It sounds very clean and transparent in the mid-range with good tonality and balance. It doesn’t have the micro-detail and transparency level of the M9, but it lives up to its own price bracket with a creamy and smooth mid-range with excellent dynamics.

Careful with the Treble

The high-frequency region is not as successful as the M9, which is understandable for the price. Probably because of the newly implemented ESS chip, the M7 present a different flavour as I mentioned above. It’s a bit more analytical and bright, and you can feel that the most in the treble range. It requires an ideal synergy with IEMs. If you’re sensitive to treble, you should take that into account. Other than that, it once again has good resolution and transparency here.

A Compact Device with a Technical Sound

The sound stage and separation are good, especially the separation side of things. The M7 has very good imaging capabilities with good focus and sharpness. The fantastic background blackness helps hugely in that regard. I mentioned that this was the best measuring DAP from Shanling, and the amplifier stage is indeed dead silent. For example, Vision Ears Phönix is a very sensitive IEM and it hisses with many DAPs, but it doesn’t have any noise when connected to the M7.

Especially the mid-range is quite impressive here. The vocals and instruments are exceptionally clean and transparent, significantly separated from other ranges. Complex passages are no problem for the M7 as it controls them nicely and separates the song with ease.

Whilst the imaging and separation, together with transparency and resolution are excellent, the M7 is not one of the widest or deepest sounding DAPs in terms of the sound stage. The width is quite good but the depth is a step back compared to the M9. The M8 is slightly better in terms of depth as well. So the layering performance is not flagship level.

Page 1: About the Brand and the Device

Page 2: Design, Build Quality, Package, User Experience

Page 4: Power & Synergy, Comparisons, Conclusion