Cowon Iaudio D2 (2011) vs Shanling M1 plus (2024)

HifiGuy · 2025-01-10T10:12:39+0000

Hi,

I have an Cowon Iaudio MP3 player from 2011.
Now there is the Shanling M1 plus DAP on the market, which gets good reviews.
I am looking for a DAP, merely for the music from storage (no streaming necessary), and the price of thsi Shanling is also not too expensive.

Can anybody say something about the sound of the Cowon compared to this Shanling?

Regards
Ron

Jasonovich · 2025-01-10T10:24:48+0000

HifiGuy said:
Hi,

I have an Cowon Iaudio MP3 player from 2011.
Now there is the Shanling M1 plus DAP on the market, which gets good reviews.
I am looking for a DAP, merely for the music from storage (no streaming necessary), and the price of thsi Shanling is also not too expensive.

Can anybody say something about the sound of the Cowon compared to this Shanling?

Regards
Ron

Cowon is pretty much yesteryear, you can't really compare apples with oranges.

Shangling DAP is capable of playing various lossless formats such as FLAC or DSD, whereas with the former you're limited to compressed music formats (not sure it plays WAV or FLAC?)

I have lesser known brand Tempotech V6 DAP which has the AKM chipset, this has an excellent sound. Also check out Caylin, Bassio, FiiO, there are many!

HifiGuy · 2025-01-10T10:36:55+0000

Thnx for your comment. I understand.
But there is no shop nearby where I can try and test everything.
I want to spend around 200 euros on the DAP, what would then be your choice?

My only prerequisites are good sound, minimum storage 512GB

Al ears · 2025-01-10T11:26:44+0000

HifiGuy said:
Thnx for your comment. I understand.
But there is no shop nearby where I can try and test everything.
I want to spend around 200 euros on the DAP, what would then be your choice?

My only prerequisites are good sound, minimum storage 512GB

Most have limited internal storage, you'll have to find one that takes a good size microSD card.
in fact it doesn't look like that Shanling has any internal storage.....

Jasonovich · 2025-01-10T13:11:24+0000

HifiGuy said:
Thnx for your comment. I understand.
But there is no shop nearby where I can try and test everything.
I want to spend around 200 euros on the DAP, what would then be your choice?

My only prerequisites are good sound, minimum storage 512GB

Most modern DAPs, don't have internal storage. You need to insert your MicroSD of choice which is a good thing.
My V6 can handle 2TB of storage but most have the same capability. I would advise avoiding the generic brands for obvious reasons, quirky software, poor quality and reliability etc.

I have some snapshots of my V6, just to give you a flavour, apologies for the bowl of soup, I was just having my lunch

I also looked at AliExpress, you'll probably find the same on eBay or Amazon. Tends to be cheaper on AliExpress but longer delivery. Check out the links below:

FiiO <£200