Setting up Shanling Android Players

Applicable for all Snapdragon 665 CPU based players – Shanling M9 and more in the future

No matter if you are a complete beginner when it comes to modern operation systems, iOS user being slightly confused by Android, or an experienced user just looking for few advanced tips, we hope this setup guide will be helpful for you.

First step – Quick Start Guide

Quick start guide comes with each player and you can find it in the packaging, alongside other accessories. We recommend to read it first, to get familiar with some key basics of our players.

Firmware update

Before you start setting up all menus and installing apps, we strongly recommend to firstly update firmware of your player.

How can you find out which firmware are you currently using? Go to System Settings (gear icon), scroll all the way down to “About device” and there you can see current firmware version under “Build number”.

You can check for new firmware in News or Download section of our website, or check for any updates with Over-the-Air (OTA) update function.

For OTA update:

1.       Open “Support” app (purple light bulb icon).

2.       Tap on “Firmware Update”

3.       App will check for any new firmware updates for your player. If available, app will offer you to download the firmware and install it. Please keep in mind that firmware updates are larger files (around 1GB) and downloading can take a while.

4.       When fully downloaded, confirm installation and wait until system finishes its automatic update. After device restarts, everything is ready for you.

5.      Please check the firmware notes on our website. After some firmware updates, some data clearing or the factory restart might be needed.

Note: If you will be facing any problems with OTA update, you can download firmware update directly on your computer and proceed with a manual update. Check News or Downloads section for download links and how-to-guide.

Installing apk files

To install apps using .apk files, you can use pre-installed “Files” browser. You only need to copy .apk file onto Micro SD card (internal memory can’t be used for this) and then access .apk file through “Files” browser.

Quick access menu

Swipe down from top of the screen to access:

-          Brightness settings

-          Wi-Fi settings

-          Bluetooth settings

-          PO - Headphone / LO - Line-Out switch

-          Full Android / simplified Prime Mode switch (in Prime mode, only Shanling Music app is available)

-          High / Medium / Low gain switch

-          Over-Ear Headphone mode

-          USB Mode switch (Disk / USB DAC)

-          Screenshot button

-          Screen Off button

Transferring files to players from computer

Firstly, make sure player is switched to USB Mode Disk, accessible in Quick access menu.

When you connect the player to a computer with a USB cable, at default it will only start to charge. You need to swipe down from top of the screen to view system notifications and there you will see notification “charging this device via USB”. Tap on this notifications and switch to “File Transfer”

Now both the internal memory of player and inserted Micro SD card will show up on your computer as new drive. Simply copy there all your audio and other files.

Note: Mac users might need additional settings or software to allow file transfer for Android devices.

Using Player as USB DAC

Firstly, make sure player is switched to USB Mode USB DAC, accessible in Quick access menu.

Mac system works without any need for special drivers. For Windows users, please download and install Shanling USB Drivers: 

Connect the player to computer using a USB Cable. It will automatically enter USB DAC MODE and will show up in your system as a new sound device.

Some non-standard system settings

Settings > Bluetooth

 > Bluetooth Amp Mode – Activate to use player in Bluetooth receiver mode with smartphone or tablet.

Settings > Audio     

 > Lowpass filter mode – Switch between different digital filters, affecting sound of player.

 > Boot volume – Set default volume that will be set when player turns on.

 > Max volume – Set limit on volume, to prevent any accidental volume rise.

 > Wireless playback quality – Set which Bluetooth codec will be used when connecting player to Bluetooth headphones and speakers. This setting has no effect on Bluetooth receiver mode.

> Airplay – Activate Airplay function, switching player to Airplay Receiver.

Settings > General

> Navigation mode – Switch between Gesture, Floating box or Virtual buttons navigation modes.

>Scheduled power off

> Set sleep poweroff - Sleep timer, sets time after which player will automatically turn off. ( 1-120m)

> Idle Poweroff - If player is not being used, it will automatically turn off after set time ( 1-50m, can be turned off completely).

> Key-Lock  - Choose which buttons will be un-locked while screen is locked.

>Show Volume – Shows volume in top status bar.

> USB Audio Fixed Volume – Enable, is using player as a digital transport for USB DAC, with independent volume control / pre-amplifier. Disable if using with USB Dongle / USB Headphones without independent volume.

>Vehicle Mode – When enabled, player will turn on automatically when connected to charger. If charger is disconnected, it will turn off after 1 minute.

Shanling Music App

Default pre-installed music player.

To start playing your music, you need to firstly perform “Library Update”, it’s the first item in menu. It will scan all audio files for their tags and sort them into library, accordingly to Album, Artist, Genre, etc.

Files can be also accessed through basic “Folders” browsing, even without need to perform Library update. This can be helpful if you are often switching between different Micro SD cards and don’t want to wait for library update.

FAQ:

What is Over-Ear Headphone Mode?

Special gain setting for power demanding headphones, offering maximum power output of the player. 

When enabled, standard gain setting is disabled.

How is it with Android’s Sample Rate Conversion? Does it affect apps I install?

We customized Android on our players to avoid any sample rate conversions and its negative impact on sound quality. All audio played on players will be output at its default sampling rate, including all High-Resolution files. To make sure it’s working properly, currently used sampling rate is displayed in status bar.

This applies to all apps installed on the player.

Please be aware, some music player apps are doing their own resampling of files. Some apps will be stuck at 48kHz, other apps will try to re-sample to 192 kHz. Please consult the app developer, how to adjust settings of the app for clear output without any resampling.

How to change language setting

Please follow this simple guide.

Does player support gapless playback?

Gapless playback depends on which app are you using. Default Shanling Music player is not capable of gapless playback, but other apps offers this basic feature.

How to perform factory reset.

If your system shows some performance issues, our recommendation is to do complete factory reset and test the player at default setting.

Warning: Factory reset deletes all data from internal memory, deletes all installed apps and resets all settings.

Go to System settings > System > Reset Options > Erase all data (factory reset)

How to enter Android Recovery menu?

If you will be facing some system breaking issues, it’s always possible fix them with help of Android Recovery menu.

1.       Turn off player. 

2.       Hold down volume wheel and top left button at the same time, hold until Shanling logo appears and then let go. If performed successfully, player will boot into Android recovery menu.

3.       Use volume wheel up/down to go through menu and press volume wheel to confirm. Wipe data/Factory reset option can be found in the middle.