Shanling - M7 Digital Audio Player

When we released our flagship M9 portable player at the end of last year, it represented a big step forward for our Android DAPs. Coming with a significantly more powerful CPU, allowing us to upgrade to the Android 10, offering more memory and all packed into an aluminium body featuring new “Wave” design.

Now we are going to squeeze these new features into a smaller body with the Shanling M7!

It features the same 5-inch Full-HD screen as our older M8, but in a sleeker “Wave” design, measuring 129 x 78 x 20 mm at 312g. On the inside, it adopts advancements from the M9, including the single-piece aluminium inner body and the single-board integrated acoustic design.

Audio circuit of the M7 is based around ESS Sabre ES9038PRO DAC. The flagship model of the ESS line, power hungry 8-channel beast and DAC that we started to really like last year, when we implemented it into our top-of-the-line CD Player CD3.2 (21). All the experience of adapting it into a classic Hi-Fi machine helped us in optimizing its performance for the M7.

The ES9038 PRO is run in its current-mode operation, combined with a matching ESS ES9311 voltage regulator, a power circuit adapted from the M9 and our in-house developed I/V conversion stage. When paired with our OP + BUF amplifier architecture, which was further optimized for the M7, we are actually getting our best measuring portable player so far.

Specification:

• Dimensions – 129 x 78 x 20 mm
• Weight – 312g
• Display – 5-Inch 1920 * 1080 
• Operating System – Open Android 10
• CPU – Qualcomm Snapdragon 665
• Memory – Ram 6GB, ROM 128GB + single Micro SD card slot
• Hi-Res support – 32/768 & DSD512 & MQA 16X
• Bluetooth – Bluetooth 5.0, two-way, LDAC, LHDC, aptX HD, aptX, SBC Support
• Wi-Fi – 2.4G/5G, supporting DLNA, Airplay
• DAC – ESS ES9038PRO
• Amplifier – ADA4896-2 + MUSES8920 + OPA2211 + BUF634
• Output Power – Single-ended 400 mW@32Ohm  // 900mW@32Ohm Balanced
• Output – 3.5mm single ended and 4.4mm balanced
• Output impedance - Less than 1 Ohm
• Battery – 7000 mAh, supporting 18W quick charging
• Battery life – Up to 10 hours in single ended and 8.5 hours in balanced

Single-Ended Output：

 1. Output Power

         Low Gain：   0.73 V@32 Ohm  (17 mW)

         Medium Gain：   1.88 V@32 Ohm  (110 mW)

         High gain：   3.61 V@32 Ohm  (406 mW)

2. Frequency Response：20 Hz - 40 KHz (0.2 dB)

3. THD+N：0.0007%

4. Channel separation：75 dB @ 32 Ohm

5. Dynamic Range：126 dB

6. Signal-To-Noise：126 dB        

7. Noise：>116 dB(<1.6 uV)（Low Gain）

8. Output Impedance：<1 Ohm

Balanced Output：

 1. Output Power

         Low Gain：   1.46 V@32 Ohm (66 mW)

         Medium Gain：   3.35 V@32 Ohm (350 mW)

         High gain：   5.43 V@32 Ohm (920 mW)

2. Frequency Response：20 Hz - 40 KHz (0.2 dB)     

3. THD+N：0.0007%

4. Channel separation：115 dB @ 32 Ohm

5. Dynamic Range：128 dB

6. Signal-To-Noise：128 dB        

7. Noise：>113 dB(<2.2 uV)（Low Gain）

8. Output Impedance：<1 Ohm