Shanling M1s – The new member of the Shanling MTouch Player Series

With the new Shanling M1s MTouch HiFi Portable Player, the company Shanling Audio wants to bring a very special hi-res audio player to the market later this year, which can offer a variety of exciting features in a compact form. The new Shanling M1s MTouch HiFi Portable Player joins a line of products that were all designed as such compact solutions, which Shanling Audio describes as the Shanling MTouch Player Series. The new addition, however, is said to combine the best features of all models available so far.

Shanling M1s MTouch HiFi Portable Player – Combining the Best of the Shanling MTouch Player Series

First and foremost, of course, is the Shanling M1, the company’s first compact portable player, which was launched back in 2016, and whose direct successor is the new Shanling M1s MTouch HiFi Portable Player.

But Shanling Audio is also leading the way with the Shanling Q1, which they presented with a retro-style design to set it apart from the classic portable players and bring something out of the ordinary to the market.

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 new Shanling M1s MTouch Player is now said to combine the best of the previous models, making it the ideal representative of the Shanling MTouch Player Series.

All the features of the Shanling M5

The new Shanling M1s has all the features of the Shanling M5, including WiFi and streaming functionality. The user interface has also been taken over from the Shanling M5 to guarantee comfortable control, and the new Shanling M1s comes with a housing that corresponds to the form factor of the Shanling Q1 and is equipped with a 2.8-inch touchscreen display. This is complemented by controls inspired by the Shanling M Series with Google Android, the Shanling M3X and Shanling M8.

The basis of the new Shanling M1s is an Ingenic X2000 platform, which ensures appropriate performance and also enables possible future expansions through software upgrades.

The signal processing of the new Shanling M1s is based on an ESS ES9038Q2M DAC design from specialist ESS Technology Inc. and the manufacturer refers to a design based on the latest FPGA technology, which was developed specifically for the Shanling M1s. The Shanling M1s MTouch HiFi Portable Player is able to support all relevant data formats, including audio data encoded in MQA.

The output stage was designed to guarantee a comparatively high output power for the small size of the Shanling M1s in order to be able to operate a wide range of headphones without any problems. Thus, the Shanling M1s is not only able to drive unbalanced headphones via a 3.5 mm stereo mini-jack, but also balanced via a 4.4 mm Pentaconn.

Of course, Bluetooth is also included, with a Bluetooth 5.0 module from Qualcomm Inc. that can transmit as well as receive and is equipped for signal transmission in hi-res audio.

Prices and availability

Unfortunately, Shanling Audio has not yet announced a price for the new Shanling M1s, which is to be announced shortly before the market launch in December 2022.

Getting to the point

It is the best solution of the Shanling MTouch Player Series presented so far, says Shanling Audio about the new Shanling M1s MTouch HiFi Portable Player, which is supposed to combine all features of previous solutions, but is still extremely compact and therefore especially easy to take along everywhere.