This is a review, measurements and listening tests of the Shanling M0 Pro digital audio player and DAC. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $129.99 on Amazon.
As you see, this is a very diminutive player, easily fitting in your pocket weighing almost nothing. Music is stored on micro-SD card that you have to provide:
Using the USB connection, you can treat the device as a mass storage unit and transfer files to it. Or you can configure it as a DAC. I did not test it but apparently it can also act like a host, driving other DACs.
The 3.5 mm plug can be converted to 4.4 mm balanced using their adapter which I did not have. Shame as I would have preferred balanced output if they are going to provide one connector.
The sole control is a rotary one which controls the volume. You can click it in to wake up the unit. Other input is through swipes on the touch panel which I barely learned to use. I wish the processor was faster as scrolling can be somewhat sluggish. Overall too annoying for me to use but you may think otherwise.
Shanling M0 Pro Measurement
As noted, I don't have the balanced adapter which would increase the output level and possibly lower distortion at the same level as 3.5mm produces. So let's go with what we have in high gain unless stated otherwise:
Nice to see 2 volts output as I would be grumpy otherwise. There is fair bit of distortion which directly impacts SINAD. Lowering the volume helps with that. Going with what we have and treating the unit as a "DAC," performance is "fair:"
I would have wanted SINAD over 100. Good news is that noise performance is quite good:
Which is what you want as most people likely would use an IEM with this unit.
I tested Jitter even though playback was from SD card (most of the time jitter is internally generated and not from the external source):
This is quite a bit cleaner than many dongles.
Good multitone performance shows what you get when the output level is lower:
Power is just about everything in a headphone amp so let's measure that at 300 ohm:
This is the area that would improve the most if you used balanced output. As is, performance is respectable especially if you compare it to what you can get out of a phone dongle.
32 ohm is current limited so likely won't matter if you have balanced:
Shanling M0 Pro Listening Tests
I started with my everyday Dan Clark Stealth headphone with is both low impedance and difficult to drive. Predictably, at anything other than soft levels bass notes would get distorted. Switching to Sennheiser HD-650 improved things quite a bit, allowing enjoyable listening at even elevated levels. Balanced output would make it perfect.
Conclusions
Measured performance of M0 Pro is "good" in my book when you add it all up. User interface is adequate if you are not picky like me. Overall package is tiny, and very lightweight which is a major plus. And of course the price is right as there are phone dongles that cost nearly this much.
Overall, I am going to give the Shanling M0 Pro a recommendation even though personally I would not use it.
Manufacturers Specifications:
Dimensions: 43.8 x 45 x 13.8
Weight: 36.8g
Display: 1.54-Inch 240 x 240
DAC: Dual ESS ES9219C
Memory: MicroSD card slot, up to 2TB support
Battery: 650 mAh
Battery Life: Up to 14.5 hours
Bluetooth 5.0
BT Codec Support: LDAC, aptX, AAC, SBC Transmitter / LDAC, AAC, SBC Receiver
Hi-Res support: 32 bit / 384 kHz & DSD128
Single-Ended Output
Output Power: 1.7 V @ 32 Ohm (90 mW)
Frequency Response: 20 Hz – 40 kHz
THD+N: 0.0006%
SNR: 118 dB @ 32 Ohm
Channel Separation: 72 dB @ 32 Ohm
Output Impedance: 0.4 Ohm
Balanced Output
Output Power: 2.75 V @ 32 Ohm (236 mW)
Frequency Response: 20 Hz – 40 kHz
THD+N: 0.0004%
SNR: 119 dB @ 32 Ohm
Channel Separation: 109 dB @ 32 Ohm
Output Impedance: 0.8 Ohm
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
As you see, this is a very diminutive player, easily fitting in your pocket weighing almost nothing. Music is stored on micro-SD card that you have to provide:
Using the USB connection, you can treat the device as a mass storage unit and transfer files to it. Or you can configure it as a DAC. I did not test it but apparently it can also act like a host, driving other DACs.
The 3.5 mm plug can be converted to 4.4 mm balanced using their adapter which I did not have. Shame as I would have preferred balanced output if they are going to provide one connector.
The sole control is a rotary one which controls the volume. You can click it in to wake up the unit. Other input is through swipes on the touch panel which I barely learned to use. I wish the processor was faster as scrolling can be somewhat sluggish. Overall too annoying for me to use but you may think otherwise.
Shanling M0 Pro Measurement
As noted, I don't have the balanced adapter which would increase the output level and possibly lower distortion at the same level as 3.5mm produces. So let's go with what we have in high gain unless stated otherwise:
Nice to see 2 volts output as I would be grumpy otherwise. There is fair bit of distortion which directly impacts SINAD. Lowering the volume helps with that. Going with what we have and treating the unit as a "DAC," performance is "fair:"
I would have wanted SINAD over 100. Good news is that noise performance is quite good:
Which is what you want as most people likely would use an IEM with this unit.
I tested Jitter even though playback was from SD card (most of the time jitter is internally generated and not from the external source):
This is quite a bit cleaner than many dongles.
Good multitone performance shows what you get when the output level is lower:
Power is just about everything in a headphone amp so let's measure that at 300 ohm:
This is the area that would improve the most if you used balanced output. As is, performance is respectable especially if you compare it to what you can get out of a phone dongle.
32 ohm is current limited so likely won't matter if you have balanced:
Shanling M0 Pro Listening Tests
I started with my everyday Dan Clark Stealth headphone with is both low impedance and difficult to drive. Predictably, at anything other than soft levels bass notes would get distorted. Switching to Sennheiser HD-650 improved things quite a bit, allowing enjoyable listening at even elevated levels. Balanced output would make it perfect.
Conclusions
Measured performance of M0 Pro is "good" in my book when you add it all up. User interface is adequate if you are not picky like me. Overall package is tiny, and very lightweight which is a major plus. And of course the price is right as there are phone dongles that cost nearly this much.
Overall, I am going to give the Shanling M0 Pro a recommendation even though personally I would not use it.
Manufacturers Specifications:
Dimensions: 43.8 x 45 x 13.8
Weight: 36.8g
Display: 1.54-Inch 240 x 240
DAC: Dual ESS ES9219C
Memory: MicroSD card slot, up to 2TB support
Battery: 650 mAh
Battery Life: Up to 14.5 hours
Bluetooth 5.0
BT Codec Support: LDAC, aptX, AAC, SBC Transmitter / LDAC, AAC, SBC Receiver
Hi-Res support: 32 bit / 384 kHz & DSD128
Single-Ended Output
Output Power: 1.7 V @ 32 Ohm (90 mW)
Frequency Response: 20 Hz – 40 kHz
THD+N: 0.0006%
SNR: 118 dB @ 32 Ohm
Channel Separation: 72 dB @ 32 Ohm
Output Impedance: 0.4 Ohm
Balanced Output
Output Power: 2.75 V @ 32 Ohm (236 mW)
Frequency Response: 20 Hz – 40 kHz
THD+N: 0.0004%
SNR: 119 dB @ 32 Ohm
Channel Separation: 109 dB @ 32 Ohm
Output Impedance: 0.8 Ohm
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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. The setup has good power with hd6xx headphones although I use this with iems mostly.
