Shanling M0 Pura Compact Portable Digital Audio Player

The Shanling M0 Pura is the fourth generation of Shanling’s smallest music player, which Shanling describes as its long-standing best-seller. It keeps the same tiny shape as before, 43.8 × 45 × 13.8mm and just 35.8g, with the same rich feature set, but its audio section is new: two Cirrus Logic CS43131 DACs in a fully balanced circuit and up to 250mW into 32Ω. It plays your own music from a microSD card of up to 2TB on a 1.54-inch touchscreen, streams to Bluetooth headphones or receives from your phone, and doubles as a USB DAC. Shanling made it for audiophiles who want the smallest balanced player, for travellers who want their music always with them, and for anyone who wants a simple, standalone player for music and podcasts.

Dual Cirrus Logic DACs, upgraded audio section

The fourth M0 pushes the sound quality of such a compact player further again. Two CS43131 DACs give a fully balanced output with a 128dB signal-to-noise ratio and 0.0007% distortion, and play PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD128. Through the standard 3.5mm connection it measures 121dB and 0.0004%.

A powerful little player

Up to 250mW into 32Ω from the balanced output (2.8V), or 100mW (1.8V) single-ended: a powerful little player that weighs just 35.8g and is always with you. Choose black and orange for perfect contrast, vibrant orange or berry purple.

Combined 3.5mm output

Shanling’s special 3.5mm connector gives two output modes in one socket. It works with all standard 3.5mm headphones as a single-ended output, or unlocks the full power of the balanced circuit with Shanling’s 3.5mm to 4.4mm balanced adapter (sold separately) for headphones with a 4.4mm plug.

Touchscreen and MTouch OS

The perfectly fitted 1.54-inch, 240 × 240 touchscreen gives intuitive control over your music and the advanced features inside: tap or swipe through songs and playlists, with vibrant album art on show. Shanling’s MTouch OS, a well-proven system developed in-house and running on a power-efficient Ingenic X1000 platform, focuses purely on simple, immediate music enjoyment. It includes a car power mode, sound customisation, music management and custom screensavers.

Podcasts, audiobooks and lectures

Playback speeds of 1×, 1.25×, 1.5× and 2× and A-B repeat make the M0 Pura a handy podcast player or a tool for learning from audio lessons.

Every format you need

From basic MP3 to Opus and hi-fi favourites like FLAC and DSD, the M0 Pura plays DSD (ISO, DSF and DFF), DXD, APE, FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, AIF, DTS, MP3, WMA, OGG, MP2, M4A and AC3, with CUE sheets and M3U playlists. It is certified Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless by the Japan Audio Society.

Two-way Bluetooth 5.0

Use it as a compact Bluetooth source for any Bluetooth headphones or speakers, sending LDAC, aptX, AAC or SBC. Or switch to receiver mode, and the M0 Pura becomes a Bluetooth DAC and amp for your smartphone and its streaming services, receiving LDAC, AAC or SBC and playing through your wired headphones.

USB DAC, transport and SyncLink

Connect it to a computer and it becomes a USB sound card, playing up to 32-bit/192kHz and DSD128, or use it as a bit-perfect digital transport into any USB DAC. With SyncLink, the Eddict Player app on Android or iOS moves playback controls and library browsing to your phone’s bigger screen.

Battery and storage

The 650mAh battery is tiny, but Shanling’s battery optimisation gives up to 9.5 hours of continuous playback and about a month on standby, with simple charging over USB-C. Storage is a microSD card of up to 2TB, so you can start small or large and match the card to the size of your library.

Good to know

• There is no built-in storage, so you will need a microSD card.
• There is no separate 4.4mm socket: the balanced output needs Shanling’s 3.5mm to 4.4mm adapter.
• In the box: M0 Pura, USB-C to USB-A cable, two screen protectors and documentation.
• For earphones to start with, see the FiiO JD1.