This is one of the most surprising threads on a usb adapter I have ever seen. It shows that people care about these adapters which is great.
It'll go down in history as the UA2 mishap.
I want to see dongles outperforming Apple USB-C at the same price (9-15).
Basically a Meizu-like USB-C adapter at the price of an Apple USB-C, by a dominant global brand like Samsung.
I want to see dongles outperforming SHDP/S8 at the same price (40-60).
Anything over 60 is just beyond my cost-performance radar.
Basically a USB-C dongle or adapter with UA2’s 768kHz PCM support, 9038D’s output power, better ASIO drivers, and overall measurements better than SHDP/S8, or approaching Topping at the same price as SHDP. No LED lights, no dependency on apps, but keeping volume buttons and memory of the last set volume.
For some reason all that is changing is the exterior and the extraneous. Complexity is increasing, transparency is decreasing, diversification is intensifying. Technical support isn’t keeping up with the complexity and non plug and play nature of these products. Behind all this is the difficulty in sourcing chips; even UA1 has to become a UA1 Pro, just as S9 became S9 Pro. Shipping fees are completely different now and ships take months of delay to leave ports. And nobody really takes these dongles seriously.
I reckon UA2’s stand out feature is its support for 768kHz PCM. But since Apple USB-C satisfies 98% of users of smartphones, and no HQPlayer exists for smartphones to enable 768kHz PCM, I really don’t see any point in Shanling enabling 768kHz PCM. They should have focused on PC ASIO support where competitors using Savitech’s ASIO drivers are somewhat less than satisfactory (especially control of latency/buffers), if they considered 768kHz PCM to be a selling point – although I guess they probably didn’t. They still view USB-C adapters as smartphone-centric, not as USB dongles for desktop PC use.
Actually I don’t want to see dongles better than Apple/SHDP/S8 with the same price, since the amount of dongles I have is more than a handful; I am saturated with dongles. I have 11, of which only 4 are proven to stand out from the rest: 2 Sonata HD Pros, 1 Meizu Hifi, and 1 Apple USB-C. So it is good to see UA2 aborted. Further, given the global chip shortage, a focus on loudspeakers is preferred.
Edit: I see dongles being released which are even further away from my 'cost-performance radar', such as YIN LU MEI S4, which does have 768kHz PCM support, and incredible output power. And I thought L&P's dongles were overkill.