DAP Review

Shanling Q1

Under the hood.

At the first glance of the spec, you can see that Q1 guts match M0 very close since it uses the same ESS Sabre ES9218P DAC, Ingenic X1000E CPU, and MTouch OS.  Other similarities include the power rating of 3.5mm headphone output being closer to 80mW with output impedance under 0.2ohm.  Supporting two-way Bluetooth 4.2 with LDAC, AAC, and SBC codecs, while aptX only in transmit, and being able to use it as BT transmitter when connected to PC.

Q1 also supports majority of lossy and lossless audio formats, such as APE, FLAC, ALAC, WMA, AAC, OGG, MP3, OPUS, WAV, AIFF, DSF, DIFF, CUE (verified OK) with hi-res file resolution supporting up to 384kHz/32bit, DSD64 and DSD128.  Similarly, there is no internal storage, but you can use micro SD, up to 2TB.  Also, you can use Q1 as USB DAC, though limited to PCM 192kHz @24bit, or as a digital transport driving the output connected to its USB-C port.  I will cover all this in more details later in the review.

A lot of similarities under the hood, but due to a bigger size of Q1 chassis (in comparison to M0), Shanling was able to double the battery capacity up to 1100mAh (M0 has 630mAh), which also results in a longer battery life of around 21hrs (M0 is rated to max 15hrs).  It’s hard to avoid comparison to M0 when talking about Q1 which has a bigger size, bigger touch screen, physical playback buttons, and a bigger battery.  Everything related to sound difference will be discussed further in the review.

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GUI.

The GUI design of Q1 is very similar to M0.  When you power up the DAP, you are in the Main Menu screen with selection of My Music (where you can view all songs, frequently played ones, recently played or recently added, and sort by album, artist, composer, genre, or hi-res), My Favorites (songs tagged as favorite), Browsing songs by Folders, viewing Playlist, and Playback and System settings.

Notification bar, which is visible from any screen, has playback status, time, and battery percentage.  When you swipe Notification bar down, you have shortcuts to access Bluetooth, Lock controls, switch between Low/High gain, switch between USB and DAC modes, turn on/off EQ, switch between Phone (headphone) output and Line out, and go into Playback and System settings menu.

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At the bottom of the Main Menu screen you have a view of the currently playing song.  Tapping on it brings you to the main Playback screen, and from Playback screen you swipe up to get back to Main Menu.

As a quick summary of settings, in Playback settings menu you can set Max volume, Default volume, Resume mode (off, by track, or location), Gapless on/off (verified to be working OK), EQ (with 8 genre specific presets for Pop, Rock, Dance, Blues, Metal, Vocal, Classical, Jazz, and 3 custom presets where you can adjust 10 bands 31Hz, 64Hz, 125Hz, 250Hz, 500Hz, 1kHz, 2kHz, 4kHz, 8kHz, 16kHz, and pre-Gain), Gain (high/low), Digital filters (associated with ESS dac: linear fast, linear slow, minimum fast, minimum slow, apodizing fast 1, apodizing fast 2, corrected min fast, and brick wall), Channel balance (Left/Right), Play mode (list play, repeat track, shuffle, and repeat All), and Folder Skip (during playback).

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In System setting, you can Update library, go into Bluetooth setting, adjust Brightness, go into Idle setting (sleep timer, auto-standby and auto-shutdown, and screen off), USB mode selection (usb file transfer or DAC), Date and time adjustment, Lock screen enable, Double Click wake (for volume wheel), Buttons lock, DSD output mode, USB Audio output (volume either fixed or variable), 3.5mm output option (headphone or Line out), Language selection, About, Reset settings to factory default, or System update (with new fw).

In the main Playback screen, you can swipe between 3 screens.  In the first one you have Song/track title, Play/Pause and track skip, repeat mode selection, and Favorite tag.  In the second screen, you have a seek bar to fast forward through the song, Add to playlist, Song info, and Playback setting.  The last, third screen, displays lyrics if one is available.  Also, the background of the Playback screen will display song artwork if one is embedded.  If no artwork is embedded, Q1 will display a default background image.

The Playback control screen is lifted from M0, and it worked quite well with a small touch screen of M0 where you had a limited real estate.  But swiping between first screen with play/pause and skip and to the next one to fast forward through the song or to add it to playlist is not as efficient, and in my opinion, I would combine these two screens together.  And instead of Playback setting shortcut, I would add EQ shortcut.  Playback setting could be accessed easily from notification bard, but to select and to edit the EQ takes more steps to get to it.

Page 3 – Sound analysis and Pair up.
Page 4 – Comparison, Wired/wireless connection, and Conclusion.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

22 thoughts on “Shanling Q1”

  1. Do you think the Q1 has enough power to drive the Sennheiser HD650? The Sennheiser is not terribly demanding compared to Planars but still has a 300 ohm impedance. Thanks.

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    1. I get this question asked a lot, after many dap reviews. One of these days I might have to buy a used pair of HD650 just for review testing… I can’t answer this question without trying this pair up. But my gut feeling tells me it won’t pair up well in this case.

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      1. Thanks for your answer. I guess because many people own a pair of HD650 (or Drop HD6xx) or at least are familiar with its tuning and capabilities so its a good reference headphone that people can immediately associate with. haha

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      1. Thans . I think that could be interesting give a balanced output to Q1 with iBasso Dc01, but I know that Q1 is better than Dc01. And what do you think about Q1 + Iem Fiio f9 pro ? Thank you for your replay !

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    2. Alex, great review. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come back to it for reference.

      If I may, the D2 is higher quality in every way SQ-wise on a test bench, but of course, you must pay a lot more for it. It is also more powerful. That said, at the ear, with the right filter, I see no appreciable difference between the D2 and the Q1. The difference is 3dB at the top end, where the Q1 tops out at 118dB or 117dB and the D2 tops out over 120 for dynamic range and noise.

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  4. @ohm thanks for adding your answer. I seriously doubt between the D2 and Q1 .
    I do have M0 for now and Cowon iAudio X5. I prefer the sound of the latter, it’s more natural comparing to M0, but the X5 battery dies, I’m not that handy to fix that.

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    1. should have a good wide soundstage, and more balanced natural tonality. A little on a smoother side in mids, not the most technical, but a very pleasant tonality, similar to M0.

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  7. Hello, how would the sound quality compare to a Fiio BTR5 or BTR3 or any other Bluetooth dac you have?

    Thanks,

    Sev

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  8. Hi, very helpful review!

    This is my first time buying a DAP so I am going to get this one. Have been hearing a lot of good things about them. Can I ask a big favor? I am ordering from this website ( http://www.headphonezone.in ) because I am from India. Could you suggest me a good pair of IEM and over the ear Headphones that matches nicely with the Q1?
    I’ll be eternally grateful!💕🌌💕

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    1. There are literally hundreds of IEMs out there, and often it comes down to your sound preference and budget. A few of my favorite iems are in $2k-$3k USD price range which I use with $1k-$2k USD cables. But I have a feeling, that is not what you are looking for to use with your first dap. Another problem, you might find some you think you like but it won’t be your cup of tea when you get them and you will be stuck. So, talk to the local guys at headphone zone, I heard good things about that store. Figure out and tell them your preferred sound sig, type of music you listen to, and most importantly the budget. Narrow it down to a few choices, and if you are still stuck making the final decision – comment here again.

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