Shanling ONIX XM5 Portable Player

The ONIX Overture XM5 is ONIX’s first portable player, designed by ONIX and made by Shanling: high-end audio in your pocket, focused on pure music. It is built around ESS’s flagship ES9039PRO DAC, and two TPA6120A2 amplifiers give over 1W into 32Ω balanced. Its simple music-only system plays from microSD, TIDAL, DLNA and AirPlay, with a 3-inch OLED touch screen.

Unmistakable ONIX design

Classic ONIX looks are modernised for today, so the Overture sits perfectly alongside the Miracle and Mystic. The body is CNC-machined from high-grade aluminium in ONIX’s ribbed style, strong and beautiful, with gold accents and a gold-plated volume wheel that is smooth and tactile. Four physical buttons make control simple and comfortable, and the square 3-inch OLED touch screen (720p) is clear and sharp.

High-end audio configuration

Inspired by the audio design of the ONIX Miracle stack, the XM5 brings the sound of the flagship ES9039PRO to a portable player: highly detailed and full of dynamics and energy, with husky, smooth voices. Two TPA6120A2 amplifiers in a balanced configuration give exceptional power for a portable, ONIX’s in-house FPGA keeps PCM and DSD processing true, and a dedicated XMOS XU316 chip gives desktop-quality USB DAC performance. Files play at up to 768kHz/32-bit and DSD512.

A pure music system

The in-house system on the Ingenic X2000 platform is simple and fast, made for demanding listeners and free of smartphone distractions. Play hi-res files from a microSD card of up to 2TB, stream from TIDAL, or play over DLNA and AirPlay with 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi. A custom button puts your favourite function on a single press, the screen can be rotated by 90° to suit you, and Shanling’s Eddict Player app (Android and iOS) controls it remotely with SyncLink.

A multifunctional hi-fi component

Although it is mainly a portable player for headphones, the XM5 fits many roles at home, at work or in a hi-fi system. Two-way Bluetooth 5.2 sends music to wireless headphones or receives it from your phone (LDAC, aptX HD, aptX, AAC and SBC). Plug it into a laptop as a USB DAC and amp, send its digital output to a separate USB DAC, or play from a USB drive. Three gain levels (low, medium and high) match it to a wide range of headphones through the 3.5mm and 4.4mm outputs.

About ONIX

ONIX began in Brighton in 1979, when founder Tony Brady designed his first amplifiers in a small warehouse near the pier; with Michael O’Brien he established the ONIX hi-fi brand in 1984, exporting amplifiers to 28 countries. After years with Rogers Speakers and, from 1997, Taiwanese ownership, ONIX now works with Shanling, which builds its products.

Good to know

• Output impedance is 6.6Ω balanced and 4.7Ω single-ended, higher than most players, so bear it in mind with low-impedance multi-driver IEMs. Use low gain for sensitive earphones.
• The built-in player doesn’t play DST-compressed DSD files.
• The Nappa leather case is sold separately.
• In the box: XM5, USB cable, screen protectors and manual.