Shanling started a Kickstarter campaign to release a very nicely designed ‘nostalgic’ portable hi-res music player.
Well, that the new intended Shanling Q1 portable hi-res music player is about to come. Already after a few days on Kickstarter, the financial goal has been amply exceeded. The Compact Q1 looks a bit like a device that escapes the fifties, including the availability in various sweet colours. Make no mistake, it’s much more than a toy. The Shanling Q1 has an ESS Sabre ES9218P DAC and is therefore a hi-res player. You control the device via a touch screen, the whole thing runs on Shanling’s own MTouch OS. The Q1 can also be paired with Bluetooth headphones and speakers. In this case, the codecs LDAC, aptX and AAC are at your disposal. Or use the Q1 as a Bluetooth receiver from a smartphone or tablet, while the player can also act as a Bluetooth transmitter when connected to a laptop or PC.
External DAC via USB
The maximum resolution supported by the Shanling Q1 is 32 bit / 384 kHz and DSD 128. The player uses a micro SD memory card, so you decide how much storage you want to invest in; upgrading afterwards is only a matter of replacing such a card. It is nice that external DACs can be connected to the Q1 via the USB connection. This makes it an extremely versatile player. And it all costs you twisted little. The early birds only paid $79 (those slots have been forgiven), at the time of writing at least the Kickstarter special price of $89 is still available, and several combo packages containing extras such as a Bluetooth in-ear. If you grab next to that, there’s no man overboard. The final price of the Shanling Q1 will be $119 US dollar, so that’s overlooked!