SHANLING M3 Ultra MP3 MP4 Player Portable Hi-Res Bluetooth Audio Player 4 2inch LCD Touch Screen MQA 16X

Music has always been my greatest love of life. Other than family I don't think anything else is as important to me as music. It gets me through life. It's always there for me in good times and bad. I've always known about audiophile quality sound and Hi Res audio gear and was of course intrigued by it but always figured I wasn't the type of person who could afford to be an Audiophile so I stuck with my CDs and Spotify streaming. Well recently for my 45th birthday I decided it was finally time to get my feet wet and dabble in the Audiophile life. Now thanks to Chi Fi we norms can enjoy Hi Res audio at affordable prices. I did some research and compared many DAPs from different makers. I settled on the Sony walkman A306. Bought an assortment of affordable in ear monitors and earphones and took the plunge down the Audiophile rabbit hole. The Sony was nice and all but something just wasn't right. I didn't feel like I was getting much better sound quality than I was when using my phone with a DAC streaming Tidal. Well I started researching again with models a little higher than the Sony A series and came across this beauty. The Green color caught my eye and the design looked perfect. When it comes to hi res audio it's always best to splurge a little bit more to get what you really want. This thing is amazing. In my 45 years this is by far my favorite gadget I've ever had. It feels perfect in your hand, has a nice heft to it. Solid build quality and the sound. My God the sound. I loaded my whole library of CDs into this thing and it's like I'm listening to them all for the first time again. I'm hearing details I've never heard before. I've refallen in love with old favorites. Other than using this for music it does have Android version 10 which is a tad old now but you'll still be able to download and use most apps and games. Especially Poweramp. The best music app in my opinion. Battery life is pretty good. I've been using it constantly mostly through wired monitors and by the time I go to bed I'm around 50 percent. I even leave the screen on longer because I like the visualizations on Poweramp so it could last even longer for most people who don't bother with that. There are only 2 negatives I've come up with when it comes to the M3 Ultra. First is it's kinda hard to find a proper case for it. Shangling sells a leather slip on case but I don't want anything covering up the beautiful green color. I found a clear silicone sleeve on eBay for it and a glass screen protector fortunately. It's finding a proper travel case that's been a problem. Right now I use a random external hard drive case that works well enough. You just need to check dimensions and find one that works. It was a bit of a hassle with this player. And finally the other negative. There is an issue with using Bluetooth on anything other than the stock audio app. I prefer Poweramp as I said but when using Bluetooth on it the sound is distorted and slowed down. It's all wrong. I read other people having the same issues with other music apps as well. It appears that until there is a patch to fix the issue you can only use Bluetooth with the pre installed music app. For me this isn't a huge deal. I only use Bluetooth out of convenience since it's not the best audio quality and the pre installed music app isn't really bad at all. For now I'm fine with having to use the vanilla player when using Bluetooth. I'd be pretty surprised if a patch wasn't eventually released to fix the issue. Even so I want best quality so I usually always go wired so it's not a big issue with me. So I highly recommend this to anyone looking to get the most out of their music library without having to spend a God awful amount to enjoy Hi Res. It does seem to me that the $500 range is a kind of sweet spot for DAPs. You get most of what you want in that price. range. This little gadget definitely hit the sweet spot. That's for sure. Read more

The SHANLING M3 Ultra MP3/MP4 Player has proven itself as a reliable device with commendable audio quality and a smooth operating system. The 4.2-inch LCD enhances the overall user experience, making navigation a breeze. The sound quality is impressive, delivering a hi-res audio experience that satisfies audiophiles. The system's fluidity adds to the positive aspects, ensuring a seamless and enjoyable interaction with the player. However, the one significant drawback is the consistently loose memory card cover. It's frustrating that such a well-designed player falls short in this area. The annoyance of having the memory card cover repeatedly coming loose and falling out detracts from the overall satisfaction of using an otherwise excellent device. In conclusion, the SHANLING M3 Ultra is a strong performer in terms of audio quality and system functionality. Still, the persistent issue with the memory card cover compromises its overall reliability and leaves room for improvement. Read more

There appears to be an entire universe of people shopping for and reviewing DAPs. A buyer can spend thousands of dollars on one. What does a DAP do? It can stream, download and store (usually on an SD card) files (typically of music) that you then play back through headphones. That's it. You should use wired headphones for best results since Bluetooth has to reduce the size of your music file. This DAP is about the size of a pack of cards, heavy, and very well built. Much weightier and solid than a phone. I use it to download classical music from one of the high quality streaming services (there are only a few) then listen to it later. I had very good experience with customer service when I had some questions about setting it up. You can also buy a leather case from the same company that matches perfectly. I'm very happy with this purchase. Read more

So the description on the Amazon product page says ... "Dear customer, you can contact Shanling if you have any questions, whether it is technical consultation or after sales service, we will answer you 24 hours a day". No, not really. I am returning this product. Every single menu item on this device is in Chinese. I have sent 4 separate emails to two different Shanling email accounts and also messaged their product page on Facebook. The Facebook page returned a message that in essence said "Sorry, we don't do weekends. See ya Monday". I received this player at mid-day on Friday and it is now late Sunday afternoon and I have not heard a single word from Shanling. I even went through Amazon's protocol in sending a message to Shanling. No response. Meanwhile, the player just sits on my desk, unusable. Terrible customer service. The "user guide" is a 3" x 4 1/2" pamphlet that basically names the outer controls, how to turn it off & on, and how to insert the micro SD card. That's it! I have now returned three Chinese manufactured products. (1) HiFi Walker ... volume pegged a max and non-adjustable (2) FiiO M11S ... too many bugs to mention and (3) this player. In all three instances, whether it be user-guides or websites, basic sentence structure and grammar are sorely lacking. Overall, I've bounced over $1700 through my Amazon account trying to find a solid, usable DAP. Read more