Both are portable players, $369 against $919. This page puts them side by side on the only three things a maker can be held to — power, output impedance and noise — and then asks the question that actually matters: which headphones do they treat differently?
On raw power they are level: each reaches 100 dB on 565 of the 567 non-electrostatic models here.
| Specification | Shanling H5 | Shanling M6 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| Power into 32Ω | 227 mW | 240 mW |
| Power into 150Ω | 48 mW | 51 mW |
| Power into 300Ω | 24 mW | 26 mW |
| Power into 600Ω | 12 mW | 13 mW |
| Output impedance | 4.7 Ω | 1.0 Ω |
| Output noise | not published | not published |
| Price | $369 | $919 |
| Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567 | 565 | 565 |
A figure marked not published is missing from the maker’s own material, which is not the same as being good or bad. Where one of these two publishes a number and the other does not, the comparison on that axis cannot be made at all — and saying so is more useful than guessing.
| Load | Shanling H5 | Shanling M6 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| 32 Ω | Published | Published |
| 150 Ω | Derived | Derived |
| 300 Ω | Derived | Derived |
| 600 Ω | Derived | Derived |
Both makers publish a power rating, which is less common than the table above makes it look: of the 280 sources here, 209 publish a figure at at least one load and only 2 publish one at all four. Shanling H5 publishes at 32 Ω; Shanling M6 Ultra at 32 Ω. Every other row is worked out from those — between two published loads, or beyond them holding voltage constant, which understates rather than flatters.
The two publish at the same loads, which is the one case where the rows of this table can be read straight across.
What each of these labels means, and why a derived figure is still worth printing, is set out in how this data was built.
On power they are interchangeable across this whole database: there is no headphone here that one reaches 100 dB on and the other does not.
371 headphones are left alone by the Shanling M6 Ultra under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Shanling H5 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Ocean, 368 more).
565 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both. That is a power count and nothing more; whether either source suits a given headphone also depends on the two lines above.
The counts above say how many models the two treat differently. This says by how much. The same 8 headphones appear on every page of this kind, ordered from the easiest to drive to the hardest, so a row can be read across pages as well as across columns. Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.
Across all eight the two stay within half a decibel of each other, which is a way of saying that on power this pair is one product.
The hiss columns are empty for Shanling H5 and Shanling M6 Ultra because neither maker publishes no output noise figure. That is a gap in the specification, not a quiet amplifier, and it is left blank here rather than filled with a plausible number.
| Headphone | Impedance | Needs | Shanling H5 headroom | Shanling M6 Ultra headroom | Shanling H5 hiss | Shanling M6 Ultra hiss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shure SE846 | 9 Ω | 0.04 mW | +32 dB damping | +32 dB | not published | not published |
| Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 | 9 Ω | 4.0 mW | +12 dB damping | +12 dB | not published | not published |
| Audeze LCD-2 Classic | 70 Ω | 0.79 mW | +21 dB | +21 dB | not published | not published |
| Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω) | 250 Ω | 0.63 mW | +17 dB | +17 dB | not published | not published |
| HiFiMAN HE400se | 25 Ω | 7.9 mW | +13 dB damping | +14 dB | not published | not published |
| Audio-Technica ATH-R70X | 470 Ω | 1.6 mW | +10 dB | +10 dB | not published | not published |
| Sennheiser HD 600 | 300 Ω | 6.6 mW | +6 dB | +6 dB | not published | not published |
| HiFiMAN Susvara | 60 Ω | 50 mW | +4 dB | +4 dB | not published | not published |
The Shanling M6 Ultra costs $550 more than the Shanling H5. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 371 more models left alone under the one-eighth rule.
Nothing runs the other way: there is no axis here on which the cheaper of the two does better.
Everything in this paragraph counts only figures the two makers published. An advantage on an axis one of them leaves blank cannot be counted, and is not counted — how often that happens is its own page.
Each has a page of its own with every power figure traced to what the maker published and a full headphone list: Shanling H5 and Shanling M6 Ultra. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.