Shanling UA2 Aborted Review (DAC & Amp)

[amirm]

This is an "aborted" review of the Shanling UA2 portable DAC and headphone amplifier "dongle" (adapter). It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $85.

The UA2 looks like any other dongle except that it has an unusual button to change USB mode from 1 to 2:

It has both balanced (2.5mm) and unbalanced (3.5mm) outputs which is nice.

EDIT: Updated review posted:

Shanling UA2 Review (portable headphone amp & dac)

This a quick review and measurements of the Shanling UA2. It was kindly drop shipped to me by a member and costs US $95. I previously tested one which due to owner preconfiguration, would not output much voltage. This is remedied in this new unit. Both balanced and unbalanced headphone...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The reason this is an aborted review is that no matter what I did, I could not get anything close to the rated output:

Switching to balanced out doubled this to just 0.1 volt.

Playing with Windows volume control would make a difference between zero and roughly 50% but nothing above that. I hooked up a Sennheiser HD650 to it to make sure there is no instrumentation error and same low volume issue persisted there.

Not sure if this is a firmware bug/regression or broken device. I have had fair number of requests to test this device so I thought I post this just in case others run into the same issue.

I will be on the look out for another one to test and should those results be different, I will update this review. For now, this is just an "FYI."

 

[sam_adams]

Of the unfortunately performing products that you have reviewed @amirm, this is the most unfortunate.

 

[amirm]

I hear you. I have been having really bad luck with stuff that doesn't work the last few months. I go through all the effort but nothing to show for it....

 

[sam_adams]

Maybe you can start a sister site to ASR that tests only broken stuff.

 

[jasonhanjk]

Use wav file and play tone instead?

 

[BillH]

While some may view this review as a non-review, I think it is useful that you established the unit doesn't work "out of the box" the way most of us will use it.
thanks for the effort.

 

[xarkkon]

Maybe you can start a sister site to ASR that tests only broken stuff.

Broken Science Review? Might as well!

 

[dmac6419]

Maybe you can start a sister site to ASR that tests only broken stuff.

What would Samuel L Jackson say?

 

[amirm]

Use wav file and play tone instead?

Yes. Both music and test tones. Real-time generated and from a file. Same results.

 

[sam_adams]

What would Samuel L Jackson say?

Something about snakes or saying the word 'what' again. Maybe something about 'furious anger'.

 

[dmac6419]

Something about snakes or saying the word 'what' again. Maybe something about 'furious anger'.

 

[Kachda]

 

[FlyingK]

UA2 has a companion app for Android where you can adjust gain / output levels. If the owner uses IEMs I could see him turning down the output:

 

[3125b]

On the bright side though we now know the 50mV SINAD is some 10dB worse than the Apple dongle

 

[HammerSandwich]

Broken Science Review? Might as well!

There are plenty of Broken Science reviewers already out there. How about (wait for it!)...

The Appalling Sound.

 

[vkvedam]

So much effort to get to rescue this, wondering why

 

[jae]

Maybe you can start a sister site to ASR that tests only broken stuff.

AMD. Audio Mystic Disposal.

 

[Tks]

UAC1 toggle? Wonder if it has to do with getting the PS5 to recognize it as an external sound device. UAC2 isnt supported which is the majority of devices out on the market.

 

[amirm]

UAC1 toggle? Wonder if it has to do with getting the PS5 to recognize it as an external sound device.

I think that is the reason.

 

[amirm]

UA2 has a companion app for Android where you can adjust gain / output levels. If the owner uses IEMs I could see him turning down the output:

Ah, I wonder if they made a mistake and are shipping them with the internal gain set too low. I already returned the unit or I would have tried it with their Android app.