It should be noted that I have absolutely no affiliation with Shanling. I’d like to thank Shanling for providing the sample for this review. This review reflects my personal experience with the Shanling M1s Music Player. Every opinion expressed is mine and I stand by it. The purpose of this review is to help those interested in the Shanling M1s DAP find their next music companion. The micro SD card slot can accept a card of up to 2TB of capacity. In my case, a 1TB can carry most of my FLAC file collection. The 650mAh battery charges fast at under one hour and a half from around 10% to full. There’s no wireless charging available and the charging is done via the USB-C port on the bottom of the unit. These three DAPs all have ESS technologies DAC sections so they seem to have similar sonic traits. What makes them sound different, especially in the case of the M1s is the amplification section. In the case of the M0 Pro, the extra power comes from the double SoC setup. Can recommend the ap80 pro X, small enough to use as a workout/chores unit and works great as usb dac or LDAC streaming from your phone. I don't like using tidal unless I have to so the m1s is kind of out for me. Course could stream it like ap80 pro X but the size is better on the hidizs for me.

One positive aspect I found which hit me off the Shanling M1s was the overall technical ability in proper placement and micropositioning. Fixed issue causing system freezing when accessing files on high-capacity cards / High number of files Since the M0 Pro was recently reviewed and is fresh in the memory bank I thought it would make an interesting comparison and contrast device. Even though they’re similar devices with similar features. As the crowning glory of the Shanling MTouch Player Series, Shanling Audio calls the Shanling M5s the best-sounding and most feature-rich member of this product line. The specified 14.5 hours of use seems accurate and it also goes up when you use the M0 Pro via Bluetooth since it takes less energy to transmit a BT signal compared to amplification output. It also seems to have a long standby time far as battery life.The player is super speedy, performing most tasks without any lag, including processing large file libraries or playing DSD iso files, things I’ve seen bog down many a player. There was an exception when performing a specific task, which I’ll review in a minute. So, you could connect the R2 II to a PC via USB and transmit its audio to a TWS or you could simply use the R2 II internal player to transmit to a TWS. What it can’t do is receive a BT transmission and then re-transmit to a TWS.

You also have the “Eddict Player” app from Shanling to control the device from your phone. It also has WiFi, although not for streaming purposes (for now), but for connecting to your home network. The smallest DAP from Shanling has now received a small but significant update, as the Shanling M1s Portable HiFi Player is now also equipped for TIDAL.I mean, It’s good to have this app, and is much appreciated but you can always transmit from any music app you have via Bluetooth to the M1s and it will work almost the same. This also applies to IOS users so don’t feel like the M1s will not fulfill certain duties. The HiBy R2 II also has a 2.4gHz WiFi radio that is capable of talking to a DLNA-capable device or an Apple Airplay device to stream music into the R2 II wirelessly. You can also access a NAS plus import files into the R2 II from said devices. To enhance the audio experience further, the M1S has dual independent RT6863 amp chips that produce up to 245 W of clean power via the balanced output port. Many audiophiles are fans of these chips, and that’s for a good reason; I’ve yet to hear of a terrible-sounding device that uses them.