Shanling M9 Plus Review

Display

The mighty 6-inch 2K screen, which is also kept for the M9 Plus enhances the DAP experience to me. I know, a DAP doesn’t need to have a 2K screen at all, but when you use the M9/M9 Plus and see the album covers at that resolution and color quality, it’s not easy to return to other DAPs. The lifted appearance of the screen also boosts the experience. Shanling calls this design a “floating screen”. The screen is mounted a bit above the actual chassis with lifted chassis edges.

Speaking of the screens, the new secondary screen is a cool touch in my opinion. Especially when setting up the volume it’s helpful to see the actual level on it. You don’t have to open the whole display to see the value. When playing songs, the small screen shows the sample rate the whole time. I think it provides nice usability together with a cool design touch. You can turn it off or change its settings in the settings menu.

Going back to the 2K display, I need to say this once again: As a guy who never cared about DAP screens at all, I’m very impressed by this glorious 2K panel.

Software

The UI is mostly vanilla Android 10. It 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 updating your system version to 1.06 once you get the player.

Still, the new model could’ve had a new Android 11 software in it, and that would’ve made everything perfect, but it’s still great as it is.

Shanling Music

Shanling’s official music app stays the same with the same features and UI as the M9 and previous Shanling players. So no surprises there. The one criticism about Shanling’s 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

The new M9 Plus retains the overall characteristics of the M9. However, there’s more refinement, better dynamism, and more air in its sound than the predecessor. The M9 Plus strikes the most with its layering performance as well, which is on par with the best flagship DAPs of today. 

The musicality, or the “Shanling house sound” is there, but with the best possible quality in terms of technical performance. So overall, the M9 Plus is one of the best DAPs in the market in terms of merging good dynamism, musicality, and technicalities. You might prefer a sharper presentation, and there are options for that in the market too, but if your choice lies toward musicality and “natural” sound, the M9 Plus is one of the DAPs that you should target.

Thanks to the new flagship Quad-DAC design and the overhauled power/amplifier sections, the new unit is more successful in terms of driving power too. When you combine that with excellent resolution, detail, and airiness, you can feel that the M9 Plus is a step ahead of the M9 for being a “reference” DAP. That means that it’s not that much musical, warm, or thick as the M9. So in terms of delivery, there’s a noticeable difference, but it’s still a Shanling DAP, meaning that you still have a musical touch but not as dominant as the M9. 

Sound Quality Details

I feel the M9 Plus has a bit more leaner and more controlled bass than the M9. The bass hits cleaner with more focus and to me, it sounds quicker. The decay is nicely done and the bass overall has excellent balance. I’m surprised that Shanling took a more neutral approach here, but it makes the player sound wider and more spacious in my opinion. The new audio circuit of the M9 Plus certainly makes a significant difference in the bass section, as the bass region is very clean, detailed, and textured.

Overall the presentation is more dispersed, wide, and open than the predecessors. The mid-range focus is no longer prominent, and the spectrum has a great balance. I’m very impressed by the development of the Shanling flagship players starting from the M8. The M8 was an excellent DAP but the presentation was solely musical. Then came the M9 and refined/improved its qualities, taking a step ahead for being a reference player. Now, this new M9 Plus is the latest step towards being more airy, reference, and maybe a bit more “studio-like” to some degree.

With that said, the M9 Plus manages to sound soft and smooth and that certainly is the feat of the Shanling sound. So it’s not a dead neutral and analytical sounding DAP, but it’s more in between a fully neutral and fully musical sound, which to me is a very nice quality to have. As a result, it’s not difficult to match it with different DAPs and IEMs. 

With that said, I don’t think the difference between the M9 and the M9 Plus is enormous, compared to the difference between the M8 and the M9. The M9 to me was a huge leap for Shanling, but of course that was a limited production unit, given the circumstances at the time. Now I guess Shanling wanted an even more refined, well-rounded product with noticeable improvements here and there, with much more availability. And they certainly achieved that.

Page 1: About the Brand and the Device

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

Page 4: Technical Performance, Comparisons, Conclusion