[Polky74]

Tested volume 1 and no hiss on the balanced 4.4mm port. It must be said, however, that I don't use the supplied USB cable (I don't do it with any dongle) so perhaps the problem is related to the USB cable. Whoever can, try to replace it and see if the situation resolves itself.
The cables I rely on for dongles (in ascending order of cost) are:
1) Shanling L3
2) DHifi TC09S
3) Luxury&Precision WP1
4) Luxury&Precision WP2

 

[Shanling]

does update will solve the problem?

No, this is nature of the used ESS DAC. It has a bit higher higher noise on 4.4mm output at ultra low volume levels due to voltage setting.

 

[sofastreamer]

I have both: and both Shanling UA4 and FiiO KA17 are musically excellent for the price!
I'm not interested in power, only musicality and obviously the FiiO is superior:
- More refinement
- More clarity.
- More subtleties
- More legato
- Finer, more subtle details
- More distinct instruments and voices
- More overall dynamics too and dazzling transients
- No need to discuss bass, mids, treble, the music is there, nothing else and this with excellent image width and depth.
- And especially the air of the recording location, masterfully rendered.
- An extremely lively reproduction!

could you please compare the soundstage depth and layering capabilities?

 

[griguoli09]

could you please compare the soundstage depth and layering capabilities?

I'm not UA4 owner despite I just bought it. Anyway I own KA17 and I can tell you that soundstage is, I think, the strongest point of this DAC. It's immersive as anything else. To make things clearer is like you are listening songs 10m comparing to my other DACs. I hope I've been clear

 

[sofastreamer]

I'm not UA4 owner despite I just bought it. Anyway I own KA17 and I can tell you that soundstage is, I think, the strongest point of this DAC. It's immersive as anything else. To make things clearer is like you are listening songs 10m comparing to my other DACs. I hope I've been clear

what do you mean by "listening songs 10m"? Which other dongles/dacs did you compare it to? btw i dont care for width, only interested in depth and layering.

 

[griguoli09]

what do you mean by "listening songs 10m"? Which other dongles/dacs did you compare it to? btw i dont care for width, only interested in depth and layering.

I'm sorry, I made a mistake typing on my keyboard. I meant "listening songs 10 metres closer". I tried ibasso dc03 pro, sonata tempotec E44 and Fiio Q1 mark 2.
In my opinion:
Depth 9 out of 10
Layering 9 out of 10

 

[sofastreamer]

I'm sorry, I made a mistake typing on my keyboard. I meant "listening songs 10 metres closer". I tried ibasso dc03 pro, sonata tempotec E44 and Fiio Q1 mark 2.
In my opinion:
Depth 9 out of 10
Layering 9 out of 10

thank you for clarification! i like beeing far away from the stage though. when i listen to large orchestra i dont want to be placed next to the musicians on the stage but somehwhere in the middle of the audience of a large concert hall. thats the main requirement i had for all my headphones. so it might not be what i am looking for.

 

[Swy05]

I recently received my UA4 and the sound is great. However I'm noticing a rhythmic clicking sound every 5 seconds or so and notice some "scratchiness". Fearing that it was an issue with the UA4 I tried using another USB C cable (from my iBasso DC04Pro) and the clicking/scratchiness sound is gone. I can confirm it's the cable.

How do we go about or is there a way to get a replacement USB C cable?

 

[Shanling]

I recently received my UA4 and the sound is great. However I'm noticing a rhythmic clicking sound every 5 seconds or so and notice some "scratchiness". Fearing that it was an issue with the UA4 I tried using another USB C cable (from my iBasso DC04Pro) and the clicking/scratchiness sound is gone. I can confirm it's the cable.

How do we go about or is there a way to get a replacement USB C cable?

You can contact your seller for this.

Interesting case, what source did you use?

 

[Swy05]

You can contact your seller for this.

Interesting case, what source did you use?

Smartphone (OnePlus 12R and Pixel 8) with Apple Music is my primary source.

 

[DW10]

On Windows, UA4 works together with Tidal app to achieve the full 16x unfolding. Tidal app does first unfolding and UA4 other 8x.
Tidal app must be set to Passthrough OFF to have it working correctly.
If set this way, UA4 will indicate MQA playback with MQA logo moving across the screen, with 88.2 or 96 kHz show under it.

Similar MQA implementation was used on our older UP5.
It differs from the way how our other models process MQA.


UA4 acts as MQA renderer, same as other USB DACs.
For MQA Full decoder you need to look at devices such as Shanling H5/H7 or our portable players.


We are checking on the Android Tidal app, we saw some problems with the V2.96 version this week. At Tidal they keep adjusting how the Tidal MAX outputs from the app.

If you are getting MQA logo and 88.2/96kHz with UAPP, the output is working correctly at its full MQA capabilities.

I purchased the UA4 recently from Amazon as the description says it is a FULL MQA decoder. It turns out it is not. Too expensive for not being a MQA decoder. My Fiio Q3 MQA and BTR15 are doing full decoding from Foobar2000 (exclusive) output, but when I hook up the UA4 it stays in PCM 44.1Khz. The Q3 cost less than the UA4 and the BTR15 cost $10 more than the UA4 and has Bluetooth. I just needed a small DAC without rechargeable battery for one of my other desktop PC.

 

[Shanling]

I purchased the UA4 recently from Amazon as the description says it is a FULL MQA decoder. It turns out it is not. Too expensive for not being a MQA decoder. My Fiio Q3 MQA and BTR15 are doing full decoding from Foobar2000 (exclusive) output, but when I hook up the UA4 it stays in PCM 44.1Khz. The Q3 cost less than the UA4 and the BTR15 cost $10 more than the UA4 and has Bluetooth. I just needed a small DAC without rechargeable battery for one of my other desktop PC.

UA4 must be used with MQA Core Decoder for MQA playback (Core decoder doing the 2x unfolding, with UA4 unfolding it further).

It was designed to work with Tidal app, which is the main source of MQA files and it works for MQA playback with it.

We didn't test it with Foobar.

 

[DW10]

UA4 must be used with MQA Core Decoder for MQA playback (Core decoder doing the 2x unfolding, with UA4 unfolding it further).

It was designed to work with Tidal app, which is the main source of MQA files and it works for MQA playback with it.

We didn't test it with Foobar.

That is my point, why it is advertised as a full MQA decoder on Amazon when it is not. Wonder how Fiio did it for the Q3-MQA and the BTR15. The UA4 is just a MQA Renderer, you guys need to change the description, it is not accurate.

 

[Shanling]

That is my point, why it is advertised as a full MQA decoder on Amazon when it is not. Wonder how Fiio did it for the Q3-MQA and the BTR15. The UA4 is just a MQA Renderer, you guys need to change the description, it is not accurate.

Seems Amazon team posted inaccurate description, will notify them about it.

 

[War Penguin]

Hi I just received my UA4 and it's overall very nice. I have one question how do I save the hardware volume. Everytime I connect it to my Linux based music player the simple control PCM and PCM 1 get set to about 40% and I have to manually increase it to hundred percent each time. I use the dacs on device volume which saves fine and will continue where I left off even if I connect it to a different device. I would like it to remember the hardware volume like my other dongle dacs with hardware based volume control, how do I do this?