Comfort and usage
Comfort
To nobody’s surprise, the Shanling ME800 first comfortably in the ear.
The solid nozzle holds the tips firmly and the semi-custom design completely fills the ear, to ensure a tight seal. I tried a few tips and ended up with the “vocal” ones, medium-sized, but the brand also has foam ones, if that’s more your jam.
Once again, I still prefer acrylic to metal, even more knowing that Shanling gave the ME800 an innovative Antibacterial Coating, that comes supremely handy in this time and period. It won’t be as potent as a UV lamp or the good old alcoholic wipes, but every little bit helps you know.
Isolation
Honestly, for an acrylic-closed IEM, I was a bit unimpressed by the Shanling ME800 noise isolation.
If the ear completely blocked the train noises, some conversations and voices kept on showing up into my music, whereas other acrylic models were almost “bullet-proof” in this regard. That may be due to the pressure port, but I had the sensation that much more sound leaked, into my music.
Strangely enough, and as I said above, for commuting, it worked flawlessly. But don’t use them at your office, they can be overwhelmed. For those times, I’d lean more in Apple’s territory with the AirPods Max and AirPods Pro.
Bundle
Inside the box
The Shanling ME800 comes with a nice bundle. In the box, you get:
- the Shanling ME800
- a Furukawa, octa-core single crystal copper cable, with 3.5mm, 2.5mm, and 4.4mm termination
- a faux-leather carry case
- a cleaning brush that doubles as a switch activator
- 6 bass eartips, 6 sound-stage eartips, 6 vocal eartips, 2 foam tips
A comprehensive bundle, that reminds me of the FiiO FD5 one which also got a very nice traveling case. Too bad you don’t get the cable removal tool, which is so useful that it should be included in EVERY IEM bundle. I know it sounded like a gimmick at first, but it’s so much easier to remove the cable with them…
Additional accessories
Honestly, the Shanling ME800 – comes with everything you might need. So, the only thing that I could suggest, would be a good DAC or DAP. Personally, I chose the Shanling M6 PRO 21 as my main source and the EarMen Sparrow + ddHifi TC28i on the go, but it’s up to you.
So yeah, it doesn’t get better than that. Let’s check what’s inside the box now.
So, time to check the specs!
The review continues on Page Four, after the click HERE or by using the jump below.
Page 1: About Shanling
Page 2: Design & Build Quality
Page 3: Comfort & Usage
Page 4: Specifications
Page 5: Tonality and conclusion
Joseph Irons
Thank you for this review. I really liked them. But the price is too high for me. Who knows whether it is possible to take a personal loan in order to cover half the amount?
Viacheslav
Can you please compare to the Fiio fh9? Thank you in advance!