Shanling M0

6owners with an opinion

83%of verdicts positive

3/1positive/negative since 2024

1 yrslongest happy owner

0happy after 3+ years

Praised for value and portability; criticized for ease of use and ergonomics.

Where people moved

Came here from

SanDisk Sansa Clip1

What people wrote

Doesn’t like itOwned 1 year

Warning against Shanling devices. I bought a M0 Pro and it worked fine for about a year and then stone dead. No customer support at all. Now I'm looking at the Sony Walkman waterproof headband MP3 players. They were released almost 10 years ago, but price, function and quality seem to be good. No FLAC for you though.

Recommends itOwned 1 year

It sounds like the Shanling M0 fits your bill: https://en.shanling.com/product/222 I've used it for over a year and love it. It also works as a USB and Bluetooth DAC, so you get a nice little 3 in 1 tool.

Recommends it

> If I want to buy a new MP3 player, I have to buy something from a company I've never heard of with a terrible screen, use an old phone, or buy some sort of enthusiast audiophile flac player thing that costs way too much. I recently got the Shanling M0s. It runs its own OS and seems to me completely at parity with what MP3 players used to be back in the day; in fact I think it's the best one I've ever had, and I've been buying those devices since the Diamond Rio. If more people just got one, Shanling would no longer be a company nobody's ever heard of, and the economics would change to further bring down the price too (although I think it's not all that bad right now).

Likes it

> I would like an audio device which can play mp3, podcasts, internet radio. That internet radio is a whole magnitude of complexity, especially with the need for wifi (cellular?) if it needs to be portable. But there are options like specially modified android devices. I have the Shangling M0 with a 512GB card. I don’t even bother with converting my flac files. A nice other device is my kobo. It holds my entire fiction library with space to spare.

Likes it

We use a Garmin watch for location and comms with our kid. Works pretty well. I was using a Shanling M0 music player, and it's pretty nice, but I've become lazy and don't like the chore of loading music on it. I have not found a good solution yet for a music(& podcasts) only portable streaming player.

Doesn’t like it

I'd love for the iPod to come back. I have a small DAP, the Shanling M0, but it has not the iPod ergonomics. A phone can do what the DAP does, but not the way it does it. A better phone ergonomics would probably be a PDA. (I'm not defending Rabbit R1 and I think it's useless).

Likes it

Same. I have a Kobo Libra (I bough a Kindle Basic before this and it's so locked down I switched). I put Koreader on it (easy process) and I used it more than my phone. The current book is at most a button press away. It's lighter and more ergonomic than the phone too. I also have a dedicated audio player (Shanling M0). Great for listening to an album before sleeping or for focus sessions. I prefer having dedicated devices. The phone is only for communication, taking photos, and quick browsing. And some of the desktop apps I use have their mobile counterparts so I can do a quick tasks without getting the laptop. And I think that suits its main purpose for me, a PDA.

Likes it

Well, if you use Bluetooth you're no longer using the DAC inside the DAP, so it's not "driving" the headphones in the sense that GP meant. That said, most DAPs support bluetooth these days, with trendy codecs like LDAC, aptX-HD, etc. However, eschewing the device DAC kinda wastes a lot of the money you spent on the DAP. For Bluetooth usage a year or two ago I would have recommended the Shanling M0. All these devices have awful touchscreens and the M0 is no exception, but it's tiny, light, and has long battery life. Unfortunately, in this space the manufacturers tend to discontinue products in favor of new ones within a year.

Recommends itDoesn’t say they own it

As a former user of the Sansa Clip, I recommended the Shanling M0 as a modern alternative (they sell a separate case for the clip if you want that). Great audio quality and features, format and Bluetooth codes support.

Likes itDoesn’t say they own it

M0 is much lighter and cheaper and uses USB-C instead of a proprietary cable. The feature set is roughly similar (audio formats, USB audio, BT source/sink, etc.). It doesn't offer any media sync software, though. DAC should be good ("ESS Sabre ES9218P") but honestly I can't tell the difference between Apple's own 3.5mm-Lightning dongles and fancy audio equipment. At least it's not obviously noisy.