Both are portable players, $479 against $2959. 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?
The Shanling M9 Plus reaches 100 dB on 566 of the 567 models here, the Shanling M3 Ultra on 562.
| Specification | Shanling M3 Ultra | Shanling M9 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Power into 32Ω | 140 mW | 520 mW |
| Power into 150Ω | 30 mW | 111 mW |
| Power into 300Ω | 15 mW | 55 mW |
| Power into 600Ω | 7.5 mW | 28 mW |
| Output impedance | 1 Ω | 1 Ω |
| Output noise | not published | not published |
| Price | $479 | $2959 |
| Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567 | 562 | 566 |
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 M3 Ultra | Shanling M9 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| 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 M3 Ultra publishes at 32 Ω; Shanling M9 Plus 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.
4 headphones reach 100 dB on the Shanling M9 Plus but not on the Shanling M3 Ultra — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Symphonium Crimson, 1 more.
562 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.
The widest gap on the list is the Sennheiser HD 600: Shanling M9 Plus has +9 dB of headroom there against +4 dB. 6 dB is about 3.7 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.
The hiss columns are empty for Shanling M3 Ultra and Shanling M9 Plus 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 M3 Ultra headroom | Shanling M9 Plus headroom | Shanling M3 Ultra hiss | Shanling M9 Plus hiss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shure SE846 | 9 Ω | 0.04 mW | +30 dB | +36 dB | not published | not published |
| Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 | 9 Ω | 4.0 mW | +10 dB | +16 dB | not published | not published |
| Audeze LCD-2 Classic | 70 Ω | 0.79 mW | +19 dB | +25 dB | not published | not published |
| Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω) | 250 Ω | 0.63 mW | +15 dB | +20 dB | not published | not published |
| HiFiMAN HE400se | 25 Ω | 7.9 mW | +11 dB | +17 dB | not published | not published |
| Audio-Technica ATH-R70X | 470 Ω | 1.6 mW | +8 dB | +13 dB | not published | not published |
| Sennheiser HD 600 | 300 Ω | 6.6 mW | +4 dB | +9 dB | not published | not published |
| HiFiMAN Susvara | 60 Ω | 50 mW | +2 dB | +7 dB | not published | not published |
The Shanling M9 Plus costs $2480 more than the Shanling M3 Ultra. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 4 more models driven to 100 dB.
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 M3 Ultra and Shanling M9 Plus. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.