While many of today's digital audio players aim for a slick modern aesthetic, the Shanling Q1 goes back in time for inspiration – to the curvy, colorful 1950s.
"In the world of portable music players, it’s all about strict minimalist design on one side and opulent technical extravagancy on the other," said Shanling Audio in a press release. "And for past few years, Shanling Audio was setting some of these trends. Now it’s time to set a new one. For our next player, we went back to unique look of 1950s. Back to smooth round edges, creamy pastel colors and distinct chrome-like parts. Creating something stylish, something playful, something cute. Creating Shanling Q1, modern portable hi-fi player with wide range of features and with stylish retro design."
The 75 x 62 x 16.5-mm (2.9 x 2.4 x 0.65-in) Q1 benefits from durable zinc alloy construction, with chrome hardware buttons and volume wheel, and a 2.7-inch touchscreen display out front that's topped by a tempered glass panel. The retro-stylish portable music player is built around a ESS Sabre ES9218P system-on-chip supporting the playback of 32-bit/384 kHz PCM formats and up to DSD128. Frequency response is reported to be 20 Hz to 40 kHz, distortion comes in at 0.004 percent and signal-to-noise ratio at 118 dB.
Music files are stored on microSD and there's Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity using LDAC, aptX and AAC codecs. Shanling says that the Q1 can be used to stream music and movies to a smartphone or tablet, and serve as a USB Bluetooth transmitter or Hi-Res soundcard for computers. And it offers a per charge battery life of up to 21 hours, and runs on the company's own operating system.
The Q1 is currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, where it has already blown past its campaign target with a little less than a month to run. Pledges start at HKD 699 (about US$90) and, if all goes to plan, shipping is estimated to start in February, 2020. The video below has more.
Source: Shanling Audio
