Стримеры — Shanling SM90

The SM90 is a streaming DAC from Shanling in the compact 90 series, designed to sit next to the CT90 CD transport, and described by the maker as a smaller and more affordable version of the SM1.3. It was announced in April 2026 with deliveries from May at GBP 999, USD 969 and EUR 999. It is the first Shanling component with an HDMI ARC input, and its aluminium body with a glass front is offered in a choice of two colours, black and silver.

Key specs that matter

Two AKM AK4493S chips perform the conversion and feed an analogue stage built on OPA1612 op-amps, with PCM decoding up to 32-bit/768 kHz and native DSD512. Total harmonic distortion plus noise is given as 0.00025%. The analogue signal leaves through XLR and RCA sockets, and the digital outputs are coaxial, optical and USB audio. The inputs are coaxial, optical, USB DAC and HDMI ARC. For the network there is a Gigabit LAN port plus Wi-Fi 6 working on both 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz, and Bluetooth 5.2 receives LDAC, AAC and SBC. The chassis measures 280 x 230 x 83.1 mm and weighs 3.3 kg.

Engineering and use context

Two dedicated crystal oscillators at 45.1584 MHz and 49.152 MHz clock the 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz sample rate families to keep jitter low. The streaming side runs on a 64-bit ARM Cortex-A55 processor from Rockchip with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage, under a closed Android 12 system. A 4.96-inch 1080p touchscreen on the front handles control. An internal M.2 SSD slot and USB drives of up to 2 TB hold local music, and NAS libraries are reachable over DLNA. Native apps cover Spotify, TIDAL, Qobuz, Apple Music, Apple Classical, Amazon Music, Presto Music, KKBox and Radio Paradise, alongside TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect and AirPlay 2, while Roon Ready certification was still pending at launch. Power comes from a 35 W toroidal transformer feeding a linear supply inside the case rather than an external adapter.

Pairing

The fixed XLR and RCA outputs go to an integrated amplifier, a preamplifier or active speakers. The HDMI ARC input lets a television send its audio into the SM90, so one box covers music streaming and TV sound in a two-channel system. The USB DAC input accepts a computer, and the coaxial and optical inputs take a CD transport such as the CT90, whose case shares the same width and depth. The digital outputs can also pass streams on to a separate, higher-grade DAC.

Alternatives

The Shanling SM1.3 is the larger streamer DAC in a 280 x 280 x 110 mm case with an AK4499EX converter, a headphone amplifier and a 5.8-inch touchscreen.