Shanling X – An Upcoming Player

Shanling has produced some of the finest portable players on the market, and in a recent post on Head-Fi they hinted at an upcoming device which seems scheduled for release this year.

At first no-one really knew what to expect as the only info given was the name, “Shanling X”, and that it’s due for release in 2019. 

What is the Shanling X?

Well, thus far we don’t have any definitive info, although eagle-eyed Head-Fi member endgame4 suggested that the tags at the top of the Head-Fi post should give us some clues.
These turned out to be apt-x, bluetooth, dap, hires, ldac, player, portable player, shanling, tidal, and wifi. 

So, what we can speculate from this is that the Shanling X is most probably the company’s next portable player (possibly a flagship device?) which features Bluetooth and compatibility with numerous Bluetooth formats, specifically LDAC.

However, it’s those last two tags that seem the most interesting. “Tidal” and “wifi” suggests that the Shanling X will likely not only be able to receive OTA firmware updates, but also give users access to streaming services. Well, at least Tidal anyways.
So, does that mean that the Shanling X would be an Android-based device, or perhaps something a bit more customised like the Hiby R3?
If it is the latter, then there is a good chance that this new device might not have access to other streaming services like Spotify or Deezer.

But, whatever, this is all just a bunch of speculation at the moment, right? So keep an eye on that Head-Fi post for the next few days or weeks as I’m sure Shanling won’t leave us in the dark for too long. But we’ll be sure to post more information in a separate post if/when we hear more regarding the Shanling X.