Shanling M3X Portable Lossless Digital Audio Player & USB DAC

Product Information

If you’ve read through my review of the M2X DAP, you probably know that I’m a huge fan of the M2X DAP, and I loved the unique sweet tonality Shanling went for when creating the M2X. Instead, M3X has a bass that’s refined, and softer, absolutelty delightful for Jazz and slower, chill music. To put it simply, the M3X Limited is a warm-neutral sounding DAP with a focus on adding fullness and thickness to the mids. I also noticed that it tends to pair best with thicker, warmer IEMs / Headphones, so anything like Campfire Vega 2020 or Dorado 2020, Rhapsodio Zombie works best.

The main competition for M3X is made of M2X, because I want to highlight how much Shanling has been improving with their newer DAPs, but also iFi xDSD, as you can use M3X as a USB DAC, and FiiO M11 PRO, and iBasso DX160. I would describe it as being a resolving and musical-sounding DAP with fast snappy transients, open soundstage, full-sounding mids, and good detail retrieval. The spare protector films can also be used on the back glass panel, as the front and back share the same proportions. Gear used​Lotoo PAW S1, iFi GO Blu, Shanling M3X, IKKO OH10, THIEAUDIO Clairvoyance, UM MEXT, Moondrop Variations and Sennheiser HD560S. Every other app has a bad tendency to hitch and stop playing during tracks, or just fail to load the next track in an album or playlist.M3X has more focus on a treble sparkle, and the treble is also a bit smoother in texture, with a gentle roll off in the super high treble frequencies. The Shanling M3X features the latest high-resolution two-way Bluetooth connectivity with codecs including, LDAC, LHDC, aptX HD, and more.

AGLO is optimized for bit-perfect audio, and it completely bypasses Android’s limitations and SRC thanks to the work of Shanling’s skilled engineers.

I have tested the Shanlig M3X with numerous IEMs, such as Dunu SA6, Faerless S8P, BGVP DM8, Tansio Mirai TSMR 5, Vision Ears VE3. If you’re using any streaming apps like I do, there is always the risk that the devs will drop support for older operating systems one day.