Both are portable players, $480 against $479. 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 iBasso DX180 reaches 100 dB on 566 of the 567 models here, the Shanling M3 Ultra on 562.
| Specification | iBasso DX180 | Shanling M3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| Power into 32Ω | 262 mW | 140 mW |
| Power into 150Ω | 56 mW | 30 mW |
| Power into 300Ω | 28 mW | 15 mW |
| Power into 600Ω | 14 mW | 7.5 mW |
| Output impedance | 0.6 Ω | 1 Ω |
| Output noise | not published | not published |
| Price | $480 | $479 |
| Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567 | 566 | 562 |
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.
4 headphones reach 100 dB on the iBasso DX180 but not on the Shanling M3 Ultra — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Symphonium Crimson, 1 more.
14 headphones are left alone by the iBasso DX180 under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Shanling M3 Ultra (64 Audio Nio, 64 Audio Volur, Campfire Audio Andromeda 2023, 11 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.
Each has a page of its own with every power figure traced to what the maker published and a full headphone list: iBasso DX180 and Shanling M3 Ultra. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.