Shanling isn’t one to rest on its laurels. They took the M5 (2016) back to the drawing board and emerged with the M5S, a revamped successor that manages to offer tons of features while never getting bogged down in bad usability. And as of October 2020, a fresh firmware update makes it MQA-enabled.
The M5S has racked up rave reviews from across the internet. The headphonelist dubbed it “virtually the perfect DAP.” Headphonics.com applauded its awesome value, saying that it punched “way above [its] list price. ” And everyone’s talking about its feature richness. “The Shanling M5s does it all,” said the Headphonelist , “with style.”
Effortless Operation
Shanling is known for making players that feature tons of capabilities, but never at the expense of portability. At 4.6 inches on its longest size (and weighing just over 6oz), the M5S fits snugly and easily in the palm, even for those with smaller hands.
MQA-Enabled
MQA, or Master Quality Authenticated codec, is one of the hottest recent trends in hi-fi music. It’s easy to understand why. MQA is an audio codec like MP3 or FLAC, but unlike MP3--which only delivers about 10% of the quality of the original studio recordings--MQA files deliver the full uncompressed studio sound quality.
WiFi and Bluetooth
The only wire the M5S requires is its charging cord. Other than that, everything can be done wirelessly. Stream music via Airplay or DLNA over WiFi. Play CD-like quality music over Bluetooth. It even updates its firmware over-the-air (OTA), so you’ll never need to hook it up to your computer if you don’t want to.
Product highlights:
Two AK4493EQ DAC chips
MQA-Enabled
High/ Low Gain Option
External Storage Up to 2TB
WiFi Enabled
Bluetooth Enabled
3.2 Inch Screen
17 Hour Battery Life
45 Day Deep Standby
Single-ended and Balanced Outputs
Sleek Metal Body
Improved MTouch 2.0 OS
Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth 4.2
Bluetooth Codecs:
Bi-directional: LDAC & AAC
Transmit Only: aptX
Audio Formats: DSF / DFF / ISO / DXD / APE / FLAC / WAV / AIFF / AIF / DTS / MP3 / WMA / ACC / OGG / ALAC / MP2 / M4C / AC3 / M3U / M3U8
Supports: 32 bit / 768 kHz DSD 256
Gain: High/Low
Storage: External Micro SD Card (up to 2TB)
Output Impedance: < 0.3 ohms
Single Ended Output
Output Power: 240 mW @ 16 ohms, 130 mW @ 32 ohms, 13 mW @ 300 ohms
SNR: 121 dB (A-weighting)
Channel Separation: 65 dB @ 32 ohms, 85 dB @ 300 ohms
Dynamic Range: 121 dB
THD + N: 0.001%
Balanced Output
Output Power: 540 mW @ 16 ohms, 300 mW @ 32 ohms, 29 mW @ 300 ohms
SNR: 121 dB (A-weighting)
Channel Separation: 109 dB
Dynamic Range: 121 dB
THD + N: 0.001%
Wi-Fi Standards: IEEE 802.11b/g/n
Wi-Fi Features: DLNA, AirPlay, OTA Firmware Upgrade
Battery Life: 17 hours (single-ended), 10 hours (balanced)
Battery Capacity: 3400 mAh
Charge Time: 3-4 hours
Charging: DC5V 2A / USB Type-C
Screen: 3.2 inch, 320 x 480 Resolution
Size: 2.3 x 0.6 x 4.6 inches (59 x 16 x 117 mm)
Weight: 6.2oz (178g