The Battle for Best 1000$ Streamer, Decision came to One point! Shanling SM90 Review vs Kaiboer/Eversolo

Before we start: this review builds on two earlier pieces. For the full picture, read or watch my Kaiboer DMP-K8 Plus review and my Eversolo comparison guide, "Which Eversolo Should You Actually Buy?" , where I break down the whole Eversolo lineup, the A6 Gen 2 included.

A Brand I Trust, a Category I Dont

Some brands earn your trust with marketing. Shanling earned mine by building gear that lasts.

They've been making hi-fi since 1988, long before "streamer" was even a product category. In my experience, their products age well: the parts they choose, the way they implement them, the sense that someone expects you to keep this thing for years. Sometimes they ask a small premium for that. Usually it's worth it.

But the streamer market around 1,000 euros is brutal. Everyone has a touchscreen, everyone has Android, everyone promises the moon.

So can Shanling's old-school philosophy win in a category built on software?

Meet the SM90

The SM90 is Shanling's new mid-range streamer, DAC and preamp, priced at 979 euros or $969. It follows the "90" design language of the SCD3.3 and CT90: aluminium chassis, a glass front panel, a 4.96-inch 1080p touchscreen behind the glass, and a big volume knob ringed with light.

It's compact, too. 280 x 230 x 83mm and 3.3kg, happy on a desk, a sideboard, or that awkward spot next to the TV.

Spec	Shanling SM90
DAC	2x AKM AK4493SEQ, OPA1612-based output stage
Clocks	45.1584MHz + 49.152MHz, in-house FPGA
Platform	Rockchip ARM Cortex-A55, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, closed Android 12
Power supply	35W toroidal linear, region-locked 100V or 220V
XLR output	4.48V line, 5.32V preamp, 123dB SNR, 0.00025% THD+N
RCA output	2.24V line, 2.65V preamp, 120dB SNR, 0.00025% THD+N
Digital inputs	Coaxial, optical, HDMI ARC (192kHz/24bit), USB DAC (768kHz/32bit, DSD512)
Digital outputs	Coaxial, optical (192kHz/24bit), USB audio (768kHz/32bit, DSD512)
Wireless	Wi-Fi 6 dual band, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 5.2 receiver (LDAC, AAC, SBC)
Storage	Internal M.2 NVMe 2280 slot, USB drives tested up to 2TB

The headline feature is HDMI ARC, a first for any Shanling, which turns the SM90 into the audio hub for your TV as well as your music. Underneath sits a screw-on cover hiding an M.2 slot, so your whole library can live inside the streamer with no drives dangling off the back. Streaming covers Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect, AirPlay 2 and DLNA, with Roon Ready certification still ongoing.

And there's one feature you'll never see. Android, left alone, likes to resample audio. Shanling's own AGLO system bypasses that, sending PCM up to 768kHz/32-bit and DSD512 straight through.

One blunt practical note: the power supply is region-locked, so buy from a dealer in your region.

And one shock: there's no remote in the box. Hold that thought.

The Concept: Three Streamers, Six Rounds

Around $1,000, I already have two favourites: the Kaiboer DMP-K8 Plus and the Eversolo DMP-A6 Gen 2. The Kaiboer is the bold newcomer. The Eversolo is the one everyone else measures against.

So instead of reviewing the SM90 in a vacuum, I'm putting it in the ring with both.

The rules are simple. Six rounds: screen and controls, connections and features, build quality, software connection and stability, app experience, and sonic quality. I saved sound for last, because for me, it's the round that matters most. In every round, there's a first, second and third place. First gets 3 points, second gets 2, third gets 1. I'll keep a running score as we go, and at the end the points decide the winner.

No ties. No excuses. Let's go.

Round 1: Screen and Controls

Let's start with the first thing you see and touch. This round asks one simple question: how do you actually operate this thing from the couch?

The SM90's 4.96-inch 1080p touchscreen is the sharpest of the three. But it's also the smallest, and beyond that sharpness there's nothing special about it. With no remote in the box, the screen and your phone are the only ways in, and that makes the SM90 the least usable of the bunch.

The Eversolo's 6-inch screen is bigger, easier to read from across the room, and backed by more features on the interface. But it has no remote either.

And then there's the Kaiboer. Its 7.8-inch panel is still the best I've used in this category, and its taller shape gives synced lyrics real room to breathe. Add the AI lyrics and song-encyclopedia features, and a remote with home and back buttons, a real D-pad and a trackpad-style mouse mode, and it's not even close.

The ranking

1. Kaiboer DMP-K8 Plus: 3 points. The best screen, the best remote, and the smartest library features.

2. Eversolo DMP-A6 Gen 2: 2 points. A bigger screen with more features, but no remote.

3. Shanling SM90: 1 point. The sharpest screen, but the smallest and least usable.

Not the start Shanling wanted.

Round 2: Connections and Features

The SM90 is generous for its size: coaxial, optical, USB and HDMI ARC in; coaxial, optical and USB out; RCA and XLR; Wi-Fi 6, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 5.2 with LDAC, and an internal M.2 slot for your library. HDMI ARC is the star, a first for Shanling, and it turns the SM90 into the audio hub for your TV.

But the Eversolo goes further. It matches the SM90 almost port for port, then adds an HDMI output for multichannel and DSD to an AV receiver, a 12V trigger and Wake-on-LAN. It has the most features and the most connections of the three, full stop.

The Kaiboer is the interesting one. It has the fewest connections: one USB input, no HDMI ARC, no way to bring your TV into the system. But it has a few more tricks up its sleeve: a built-in CD drive that even plays DVDs and HDCDs, dual SSD bays, and AI lyrics and song-encyclopedia features baked into its software. Clever extras, but they can't make up for the missing inputs.

The ranking

1. Eversolo DMP-A6 Gen 2: 3 points. The most connections and the most complete feature set.

2. Shanling SM90: 2 points. Nearly as connected, with HDMI ARC and an SSD slot.

3. Kaiboer DMP-K8 Plus: 1 point. The most tricks, but the fewest ways to plug things in.

Round 3: Build Quality

Here's the awkward truth: all three are nicely built. Aluminium chassis everywhere, no flimsy panels, nothing that feels cheap in the hand. If you're worried about build at this price, you can stop worrying.

So what separates them? Size and weight, mostly. And that's where the SM90 earns its edge. At 3.3kg and 280 x 230 x 83mm, it's dense, compact and easy to place, with no rattles, no flex and no seams that make you wonder how many pieces it's made of.

The Eversolo is just as unified and premium, only a little bigger. The Kaiboer's aluminium is good too, but it's the largest of the three, and the chassis feels assembled from several pieces rather than carved as one.

The ranking

1. Shanling SM90: 3 points. Compact, dense, beautifully put together.

2. Eversolo DMP-A6 Gen 2: 2 points. Equally premium, just a little bigger.

3. Kaiboer DMP-K8 Plus: 1 point. Solid, but the biggest and least seamless.

And honestly? This is the closest call of the whole review. Any of the three could have won it on a different day.

Round 4: Software, Connection and Stability

Software is where I had to split the score in two. Because with streamers, there are really two questions. Does it connect, load fast and stay stable? And once it does, is it pleasant to use? The SM90 gives very different answers to each.

This round is the first question. And for me, it's the most important one.

The SM90 runs a closed version of Android 12, refined on Shanling's earlier SM1.3 and SMT1.3. Plug it in, connect it to your network, and it's playing music within minutes. It loads fast, it's minimal, and it stays stable. Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect work right out of the box: open the app you already use, pick the SM90, and it plays.

The Kaiboer is stable and quick too, but it has no Tidal, Qobuz or Spotify Connect, and it clicks through its outputs on every track change. The Eversolo has the richest platform of the three, but in my experience it's also the slowest and fussiest to get connected and keep connected.

The ranking

1. Shanling SM90: 3 points. The easiest to connect, the fastest to load, the most stable.

2. Kaiboer DMP-K8 Plus: 2 points. Stable and quick, held back by missing Connect support.

3. Eversolo DMP-A6 Gen 2: 1 point. Powerful, but the least effortless to connect.

Round 5: App Experience

And now the second question. Once it's connected, is it pleasant to use?

For the SM90, this is where it all falls apart. I design products for a living, so maybe I'm harder on software than most. But even by normal standards, this is one of the worst app experiences I've used in a long time.

Tidal Connect without a remote is half a solution. I listen to music from every decade, and mastering varies wildly from track to track. With no remote, and no way to adjust the SM90's volume through Tidal Connect, every loud or quiet track meant leaving Tidal, opening Shanling's app, changing the volume, and going back. Every single time.

A floating button from another era. The floating home button is an old pattern that should have stayed in the past. You spend more time deciding where to park it than pressing it.

You can't go anywhere from a song. In every other music app, you tap the artist or album name to jump there. Here? Nothing. You go back, search by name, find it in a list, and only then pick something else. It's nightmarish.

Search that makes you work. Type "Radiohead" and results are split into Tracks, Artists, Albums and Playlists tabs, defaulting to Tracks. Tap a track from that list and you're stuck in it, with nowhere to go.

Hide the bit rate, why not. To see whether a track is 16-bit/44.1kHz or 24-bit/96kHz, you go to the artist, then the album, then the song. I want that in the list, before I press play.

The Eversolo's app is the most refined of the three: the most settings, the most options, and years of polish. The Kaiboer's PureOS is thoughtfully laid out, clearly designed by people who studied everyone else's mistakes.

The ranking

1. Eversolo DMP-A6 Gen 2: 3 points. The most refined and complete app.

2. Kaiboer DMP-K8 Plus: 2 points. Thoughtful, well organised and pleasant to navigate.

3. Shanling SM90: 1 point. One of the clumsiest app experiences I've used in years.

Round 6: Sonic Quality

Let's address the elephant first. The AK4493S isn't AKM's flagship, and it isn't new. The Eversolo runs two ES9038Q2M chips, the Kaiboer runs four ES9039Q2M. On a spec sheet, the SM90 brings a knife to a gunfight.

And yet it's the one I keep coming back to. Which tells you that Chip as it self is not a awlays 100% certintly of best sound. It needs to be backed by great power supply, isolations, I/O, Clocks and few other things. And honestly all of those are more importatn than what chip does the streamer have. Shanling does give a great support to it`s chip to extract as much as possible sonics out of it.

A DAC chip is only one part of the story. Shanling surrounded the AK4493S with a 35W toroidal linear power supply, a dedicated clock for each family of sample rates, an in-house FPGA, and clean inputs and outputs. And this is where proper implementation pays off, because the SM90's greatest strength isn't something any chip gives you on its own.

Every instrument gets its own lane

Separation. Amazing, amazing separation.

On the SM90, every instrument has its own place, its own room, its own lane. Nothing fights for space. And the stage extends beautifully, both horizontally and vertically, so a dense mix opens up instead of collapsing into one block of sound.

The soundstage itself is just as impressive: wide, tall and well organised. This is what hooked me, and what kept pulling me back.

Bass: rounded, present and disciplined

Don't expect the deepest extension here, and don't expect the signature velvety richness of AKM's flagship chips. That's not what this is.

But the bass is rounded and present, and the SM90 gives it real energy, helping your amp and speakers pull more air out of the low end. That extra body also helps tame a bit of treble harshness in brighter systems. And thanks to that careful implementation, it stays well contained. The bass never bleeds into the mids.

Vocals with chest

Speaking of mids: vocals have chest and presence. They get body and more timbre. Decay is a touch slower than on the competition, yet voices still have enough room to stay clean and centred. A beautiful rendition, certainly best streamer out of these to listne to vocals. They have presence and chest, and yet are well organised on sonic stage. You might miss ESS more showmanship and forwardness and texture in vocals. But I loved smooth presentation of Shanlig

Where it falls short: treble

But here's the weaker part. The treble is less informative than the competition at this level. It isn't bad. You can clearly hear and feel cymbals, drums and percussion. But it doesn't deliver the texture, the detail, or the upfront showmanship some other streamers do. It simply doesn't feel as alive.

And the darkness between the notes

Background blackness also sits a step behind the others in this comparison. Again, it's good. But its rivals give you more insight into the room where the music was recorded and mastered. The SM90 shows you the performance, and a little less of the space around it.

Four albums that tell the story

Björk, Homogenic. This record is a collision: lush string arrangements on one side, harsh, crunching electronic beats on the other. Plenty of streamers turn "Jóga" or "Hunter" into a tug of war. On the SM90, the strings and the beats each get their own lane and simply coexist. The deepest synthetic bass doesn't dig as low as it could, but it has weight and punch. And Björk's voice sits right in the centre, full-bodied and present.

Radiohead, In Rainbows. "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" is a puzzle of interlocking guitar lines, and the SM90 keeps every one of them separate, layered across a wide, tall stage. "Reckoner" is where you hear the trade-off: the falsetto has body and air around it, but the shimmering cymbals and tambourine lack a little of the sparkle and texture they get elsewhere.

Weather Report, Heavy Weather. Jaco Pastorius's fretless bass on "Birdland" and "Teen Town" is the perfect showcase for the SM90's low end: round, present, energetic, and never bleeding into Zawinul's synths or Shorter's saxophone. Every player has their place. But the percussion running through the record shows the treble's limits: always there, just not as textured and alive as it could be.

Talk Talk, Spirit of Eden. This record lives in silence: long pauses, near-whispered passages, sudden swells. It's the ultimate test of background blackness, and it shows the SM90's honest limit. The space is beautifully laid out, but the silences aren't quite as black, and you hear a little less of the room than you do on its rivals.

A preamp you didn't pay for

And here's the surprise I didn't see coming. The SM90 works incredibly well as a preamp. In preamp mode it puts out 5.32V from the XLR outputs and 2.65V from RCA, enough to drive a power amp or active speakers directly, and it does that job remarkably well.

I honestly didn't expect a preamp section this good in a 1,000 euro streamer. If you're planning to skip the integrated amp and run it straight into a power amp, that's a big plus.

How the rivals compare

So where do the Kaiboer and Eversolo win? Information. Both are more informative streamers, with more fire in the treble and upper mids, more showmanship in vocals, and more absolute clarity and blackness in the sound. The Kaiboer is the clearest of the three: transparent, a touch bright, and unforgiving of bad recordings. The Eversolo is detailed, textured and dynamic.

And honestly? Which one you'll prefer comes down to taste. If you want energy, sparkle and insight, the Kaiboer and Eversolo give you more of it. If you want space, body and every instrument in its own lane, the SM90 is the one.

But let me be clear: all three sound really, really great. There's no wrong answer here, only a different flavour.

The ranking

1. Shanling SM90: 3 points. The best separation and soundstage of the three, with bass and vocals that have real body.

2. Kaiboer DMP-K8 Plus: 2 points. The clearest, most resolving sound, at the cost of some warmth.

3. Eversolo DMP-A6 Gen 2: 1 point. Detailed and capable, but it doesn't move me the way the other two do.

Overview and Conclusion: Three Winners

Round	Shanling SM90	Eversolo DMP-A6 Gen 2	Kaiboer DMP-K8 Plus
Screen and controls	1	2	3
Connections and features	2	3	1
Build quality	3	2	1
Software: connection and stability	3	1	2
App experience	1	3	2
Sonic quality	3	1	2
Total	13	12	11

Conclusion

Thrteen. Twelve. Eleven.

One point between each of them, and the lead changed hands four times along the way. That's the whole story.

There is no obvious winner here. All three are winners, each amazing in its own right, each doing something the other two simply don't.

The Eversolo is the most complete streamer of the bunch. The most connections, the most features, the most refined app. If you want one box that does everything, this is it. The best streamer for most people

The Kaiboer gives you a tiny edge in transparency and separation, the most fun screen in the category, and the only remote here that's genuinely useful. Sonically if you like ESS sound is the best sounding of 3.

The Shanling? A different take on sound: space, body, and every instrument in its own lane. Plus the most stable, fastest-to-connect software of the three. Just don't open the app more than you have to.

So which one is for you?

Honestly, I can't tell you. This is as subjective as hi-fi gets. You need to know yourself, what you listen to, how you listen, and what drives you mad, to know which compromise you can live with.

But I hope this helps when you're picking your next $1,000 streamer.

Until next time, keep daydreaming. To Buy and Learn more: https://en.shanling.com/product/490

Pros

• Amazing instrument separation and a wide, tall soundstage: proof that a well-implemented older DAC can beat newer chips

• Rounded, energetic, well-contained bass and vocals with real chest and presence

• An excellent preamp, far better than you'd expect at this price

• Compact, dense, beautifully built

• The fastest, most stable software to connect, with Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect, AirPlay 2 and DLNA

• HDMI ARC, a first for Shanling, plus an internal M.2 SSD slot

• Serious internals: 35W toroidal linear supply, dual dedicated clocks, in-house FPGA, OPA1612 output stage

Cons

• No remote control at nearly 1,000 euros

• Poor app experience: no artist or album links from a playing song, tabbed search that defaults to tracks, format info buried, a floating home button, no volume control through Tidal Connect

• Treble less textured and informative than the competition

• Background blackness a step behind its rivals

• Smallest and least usable screen of the three

• Fewer connections and features than the Eversolo

• Roon Ready still pending

• Region-locked power supply