Shanling M0s Digital Audio Player Review: Tiny Tunes Done Dirt Cheap

Do you remember the iPod Shuffle or iPod Nano — those tiny music players barely larger than a postage stamp? The Shuffle had no screen, just buttons and music. The 6th-gen Nano had a tiny screen, but it was still all about the music. The Shanling M0s is basically a modernized version of that 2010 Nano — also with a touchscreen — and adding USB-C, high-res audio and even Bluetooth. Best of all, it includes expandable memory via a microSD slot for significantly more storage space than just about any iPod.

With excellent fit and finish, the M0s feels well made and has a surprisingly nice design for something small and inexpensive. It’s easy enough to put all your music, even high-res lossless up to 384 kHz at 32-bit, on a high-capacity microSD card, and have hours of tunes with zero internet access required. 

It’s not quite as easy to use as the best portable media players, but the M0s has some useful high-end features for under $100. Suppose you have a collection of high-res audio files, or even just a collection of MP3s gathering virtual dust. In that case, the M0s is an inexpensive way to enjoy them without the distraction or annoyance of an internet connection.

Hardware

• DAC: Cirrus Logic CS43131
• Headphone amp power: 60mW@32ohms (claimed)
• High-res compatible: up to 32bit/384kHz
• Bluetooth codecs: aptX, AAC, LDAC (plus the required SBC)
• File formats: DSD, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, MP3, WMA, AAC, M4A
• Storage: microSD
• Battery life: 10h (claimed)
• USB DAC mode: Yes
• Screen: 1.54-inch, 240×240 resolution
• OS: Proprietary

The M0s (and for the record, that’s M-zero-S) is impressively small for something with a screen. It’s bigger than a postage stamp, but not by much: 43.8x45x13.8mm, or in Freedom Units 1.72×1.77×0.54in. A single scroll wheel on the unit’s side controls the volume and is also a button, turning the M0s on or off. Using the control feels like winding a watch and is certainly faster at changing volume than buttons. I wish there was a lock for it, though, since you could accidentally adjust the volume if it’s bouncing around in your pocket. In the menus, you can add double- and triple-click functionality to the wheel’s button press. You can customize these to play/pause tracks or skip forward or backward.

Inside is a Cirrus Logic CS43131 DAC and an amp capable of 60mW at 32 ohms. The latter is lower than Shanling’s more expensive M0 Pro, which is visually very similar but has a 4.4mm balanced output and 240mW. While primarily a portable media player, you can enable a USB DAC mode which lets you stream higher-quality audio from your computer through the M0s. There is no Wi-Fi, nor are there any apps. This is an old-school media player: an iPod reborn in 2024.

It’s not something I think most people would do, but you can also use the M0s as a Bluetooth receiver. In this use, you’d connect the M0s to your phone, and then you’d connect your wired headphones to the M0s. Seems a bit extreme to me, but the option is there. I couldn’t get the function to work with my Pixel 7, but Android connectivity and app compatibility can be a wildcard. 

In an extremely rare feature, you can manually select what Bluetooth codec you want, from the base SBC to AAC, aptX (just the standard version), and even LDAC.

Usability

The small screen does make the M0s a little more difficult to use than, say, the big screen on the Sony NW-A306. Not having to slog through the Android operating system with a slow processor makes the overall experience about the same. The M0s isn’t as smooth as a modern high-end phone, but it scrolls fast. Perhaps, too fast. If there’s some specific song you want to hear, and you have a big collection, it can be a little time-consuming to find and select it. If the UI had a way to select by letter, that at least would make things faster and less annoying.

There’s no desktop software, so if you want to make a playlist you’ll have to do that by selecting the songs in the player’s OS. That’s easy enough since you can just swipe to a screen to do so while playing the song, or selecting a menu that’s accessible next to the song name in the main list.

There’s a surprising amount of power in the tiny M0s. Rated at 60mW into 32 ohms, I was able to get plenty of volume even powering big Audeze LCD-3 planar-magnetic headphones. It doesn’t have ear-splitting volume, but more than necessary and far more than the Sony NW-A306. If you have especially hard-to-drive headphones then it might not be enough, but I doubt most people with headphones like that would consider a sub-$100 audio player.

Otherwise, the sound was… well, whatever I put into it. Lossless FLAC tracks sounded great, prehistoric 128kbps MP3s sounded like 128kbps MP3s. A dedicated USB amp might give you marginally better sound, but at a higher price with lower portability. Not having the power issues of the more expensive NW-A306 is certainly a win for sound quality.

Tunes 2 go

The Shanling M0s slots in somewhere between the ultra-simplicity of the Sony NW-E394, and the far more complex NW-A306. Since it has far more features, most notably Bluetooth and expandable storage, it’s a better deal than the NW-E394 while being slightly less easy to use. I wouldn’t give the M0s to an elderly relative looking for portable music, for example, the screen is just too small to navigate without a lot of digit dexterity. That, and the occasionally laggy interface sometimes seems to ignore swipes (although disabling the lock screen in the main menu helps).

For someone looking for an inexpensive music player, something that’s highly portable and is overall easy to use, the M0s is fantastic. You can go for that fully old-school experience with wired headphones or earbuds, and the Bluetooth option is available if you want it. If you have a big library of music, especially FLAC or other high-res music, this is a great way to play your tunes on the go while staying offline.

As well as covering audio and display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, medieval castles, epic 10,000-mile road trips and more.

Also, check out Budget Travel for Dummies, his travel book, and his bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines. You can follow him on Instagram and YouTube.