Shanling M6 Pro Vs Fiio M11 Pro: The Mid-Level DAP Battle!!

The Digital Audio Player market is developing at a quick rate. Today we have multiple options to choose from while deciding on our next purchase. There are various well-known brands that offer quality products at almost every price range. Shanling and Fiio are just two such brands. Whether we talk about digital audio players or in-ear monitors both of these brands have brilliant products in almost all price ranges. The Fiio M11 Pro and the Shanling M6 Pro are the latest mid-level kings available in the market as of now. The M11 Pro was released early this year while the M6 Pro from Shanling is released just now.  While both the DAP’s share a similar technical specs on paper, they obviously have their own differences. And today we are going to compare both of them for you all.

About Fiio and Shanling:-

Both the Fiio and Shanling are China-based audio equipment manufacturers. They both have a wide range of products that starts from 100$ price range and goes up till the flagship segments costing 1000$ or more. FIiO apart from DAP’s and IEM’s also makes USB DAC/AMP’s. Shanling has the smallest Digital Audio Player in the market in the form of Shanling M0. Both the brands have earned a lot of positive image with their well-sounding products.

Technical Specifications of Fiio M11 Pro and Shanling M6 Pro:-

Build Quality:-

Both the Fiio M11 Pro and M6 Pro are well built. They have an all-aluminum casing with glass back panels. The back panel of M11 pro also has a carbon fiber design to it which gives a more rich and premium looks. The Shanling M6 Pro has a 2.5D glass on the back panel that is more durable and rich looking as compared to the M11 Pro back panel. The Shanling M6 Pro has an analog rotating volume control wheel on the right side that also acts as the power button. The M11 Pro has a volume rotating wheel on the left side with a separate power button on the top of the player. Both the players have three media control buttons on the left side. Fiio M11 Pro has a larger screen with a 5.15” display with 720P crisp resolution while the Shanling M6 pro features a 4.7” display with large bezels on the top and bottom. The build quality of both the devices is very good and premium.

User Interface:-

Both the devices have lightning-fast processors. They offer a lag-free user interface. Both of them run open Android OS, you can install any app from the play store, we have tested UAPP(USB Audio Player Pro) and Neutron Player and both of them work flawlessly. The user interface is buttery smooth and lag-free, navigating through a 6k+ songs library on a 400GB card is very smooth. Cover arts load almost instantly, there is no lag while fast-forwarding DSD or 24/192 files in any of the device. Both devices provide a high-class user interface.

Sound Quality:-

Now, this is where they differ from each other, even though they have similar specs on paper. The Fiio M11 pro houses the same Dual DAC setup as that on the Shanling M6 Pro. The only difference in terms of chipset is with the amplification circuit, the Fiio M11 Pro houses a THX AAA-78 Amp module while the Shanling M6 Pro has a custom amplification module featuring four different LPF featuring OPA1622+ADA4610-2 + BUF634 x 2 chips. Please note that we used the same songs on two devices, Sivga P-II and Audiosense DT200. We used a 4.4mm port and 3.5mm port on both the devices. Following things were noted:-

>The Shanling outputs a more powerful and clean output as compared to the M11 Pro.

>For the same song 50% volume at low gain on the Shanling M6 Pro is sufficient for Sivga P-II, while for the M11 Pro we have to push the volume to as far as 75% on low gain.

>The output is cleaner and crispier with the Shanling M6 Pro as compared to the M11 Pro.

>FiiO M11 Pro gets hotter as compared to the Shanling M6 Pro under the same circumstances.

>The lower end shows more depths and better slams in the M6 Pro as compared to the M11 Pro.

>Mids and Vocals are crispier in the M11 Pro as compared to the M6 pro, Vocals felt more natural.

>Highs are similar in both the DAP’s though the M6 Pro showed a bit more detailed with better extensions as compared to the M11 Pro.

>Soundstage representation of M6 Pro is Wider as compared to the M11 Pro.

>The Driving Power of Shanling M6 Pro is much better than the M11 Pro with a more powerful output.

Both the devices are similar in build quality and specs on paper. The Fiio M11 Pro has a bigger display, better vocal representation, extra ROM space, and large MicroSD card support. On the other hand, the Shanling M6 Pro has a more powerful output, provides better driving power, full-body sound representation, and wider soundstage. Both the devices are available at a similar price point with Fiio being 80$ cheaper than the M6 Pro.