[Saloboy]

What music are you listening to and in what app? Do you have the earphones connected to 4.4mm output?
Because what you describing either sounds like some bad software processing of the sound, or your headphones are wired out of phase.

The problem was solved by replacing the usb-cable from the UA4-kit with another one. Cable from the UA4-kit had the same effect in other DACs. Apparently, I got a bad deal.

 

[Yevelnad]

I recieved my simgot em6l today and fired it up with UA4. Played Bad Liar by imagine dragons in UAPP. Its a 24bit 44hz flac from qobuz. When the vocalist starts to sing, i hear a noticeable grain/hiss in the background. I remembered that I used the filter 5 so change it to filter 0. It's still the same thing. There is still a grain when the vocalist starts to sing. I have the DC03 pro and it has no issues with it. Anyone of you experienced something like this? I will try it later on my PC if still the same issue.

Update: Ok, seems like the problem is the track itself. Poor quality. I did not get the same thing as other tracks.

 

[pong2541]

I recieved my simgot em6l today and fired it up with UA4. Played Bad Liar by imagine dragons in UAPP. Its a 24bit 44hz flac from qobuz. When the vocalist starts to sing, i hear a noticeable grain/hiss in the background. I remembered that I used the filter 5 so change it to filter 0. It's still the same thing. There is still a grain when the vocalist starts to sing. I have the DC03 pro and it has no issues with it. Anyone of you experienced something like this? I will try it later on my PC if still the same issue.

Hi, I'm curious if the 3.5mm from the UA4 is powerful enough for the EM6L during your listening experience?

 

[Yevelnad]

Hi, I'm curious if the 3.5mm from the UA4 is powerful enough for the EM6L during your listening experience?

At high gain, i can't go up anymore more than 32. At low gain can't go up 45 above. Yes, in conclusion it can drive it pretty easily without sweet. And also a great pairing imo. The ua4 compliments em6l darker tone with it's brighter tone. Though you will not get the stage that cs43131 dacs can produce. But for me UA4 is still the better pairing.

 

[pong2541]

At high gain, i can't go up anymore more than 32. At low gain can't go up 45 above. Yes, in conclusion it can drive it pretty easily without sweet. And also a great pairing imo. The ua4 compliments em6l darker tone with it's brighter tone. Though you will not get the stage that cs43131 dacs can produce. But for me UA4 is still the better pairing.

Ah ok, that's good to hear. I have the Simgot EA1000 and I found it to be a bit bright for my taste but still a great technical IEM overall. Guess I'll have to look at other dongle dacs that can help tone down the treble. I may buy the UA4 for my Yanyin Canon 2's darker tone in the future but for now I just want to keep a single portable dongle dac. Regardless, thanks a lot for writing your experiences with the UA4, it's been helpful

 

[Polky74]

I have to say that the UA4 exceeded my expectations by a lot... it's a great dongle with a really good price for what it offers. In combination with the RA2BFE and the IER-Z1R it is truly a spectacle to listen to.

Just for completeness:
With LG V30 UAPP Qobuz 4.4mm (no background noise)
With PC Qobuz APP 4.4mm (no background noise)
Connected to external amplifier 4.4mm 100/100 volume (no background noise)
Volume adjustment: no problem.

 

[adolchristin]

I just received this device and I have to say it's fantastic. @Shanling the last thing I'd suggest is would it be possible to add a menu toggle for the double click middle button disabling the screen? Many Android players support double click of pause for previous and triple click of pause for next. Having the ability to adjust the middle button behavior would allow me to have HW volume up/down play/pause/next/previous from the buttons on the DAC which would make this device essentially perfect IMO.

As it is that's a very small nitpick; this is easily the best $100 i ever spent on an audio device.

 

[Yevelnad]

Ah ok, that's good to hear. I have the Simgot EA1000 and I found it to be a bit bright for my taste but still a great technical IEM overall. Guess I'll have to look at other dongle dacs that can help tone down the treble. I may buy the UA4 for my Yanyin Canon 2's darker tone in the future but for now I just want to keep a single portable dongle dac. Regardless, thanks a lot for writing your experiences with the UA4, it's been helpful

You can tone down it's brightness by using pure copper cable. I'm actually using pure copper usb-c cable to tone down the thinness a bit. And a braided silver cable for iem to balance it out.

 

[pong2541]

You can tone down it's brightness by using pure copper cable. I'm actually using pure copper usb-c cable to tone down the thinness a bit. And a braided silver cable for iem to balance it out.

Oh ok, I didn't know cables can actually change the FR of an IEM. I've heard others say it at worst cables don't change the FR of an IEM and that it's snake oil. Although some say it does change the FR so I'm confused. I'll have to keep researching to see how this cable thing works.

 

[arczangel]

Paired with XINHS 4.4 Balanced Cable to Simgot EW200, WOW! Never heard so good before than this! Did not experienced the floor noise like some poster posted here. Its so quiet!!!

 

[Polky74]

The more I listen to the UA4, the more I am convinced that the Shanling engineers know perfectly well what they are doing when they get their hands on a DAC, even if it has recently been released and has capabilities yet to be discovered. If the UA3 convinced me for its general balance and the naturalness of the sound expressed without exaggeration of any kind, this new UA4 raises the performance bar even further. The new ESS ES9069Q immediately demonstrates its technical capabilities as well as its very low power consumption. The higher the expectations and qualities of the DAC, the more the skill of a company's technical department must be at a high level to get the most out of the material they have available and with the new ES9069Q ESS has taken advantage of the many criticisms received in his previous creations. The road becomes narrow and not easily passable but not for those who have a clear idea of the result to be achieved and how to achieve it. This UA4 will truly leave you with a wonderful feeling listening to it and you will immediately realize the level now reached by these little music machines that we call dongles. Then, when such performance is achieved by taking a little of everything into account, construction quality, consumption, usability, price, solidity, it becomes really difficult not to be surprised. Looking at it for the first time and reading the price I thought... the usual dongle with an aggressive price that we didn't miss... instead I have to say that never before was I wrong like this time... don't consider the price, the shape, the display, the aesthetics in general... it's not "the usual dongle" and you'll notice it immediately, upon first listening. The only real flaw I found is that the too low price doesn't really make us understand what it is... certainly not the "usual dongle". Well done Shanling!!!

 

[terminatorpro87]

Paired with XINHS 4.4 Balanced Cable to Simgot EW200, WOW! Never heard so good before than this! Did not experienced the floor noise like some poster posted here. Its so quiet!!!

Can you tell me which firmware are you running ?

 

[rxpresid]

Firmware V1.0.3 released for UA4

Full notes and download link available on our website:

https://en.shanling.com/article-UA4V103.html

I can confirm that both UA4 and UA5 is struggle to play DOP & DSD that is larger than DSD64 (DSD128, DSD256, DSD512) when using USB Audio Drivers v2.4 it will produce crackle and distorted sound, sometime it won't be able to produce sound at all because of the struggle.

I owned UA5 and the reason I bought UA4 is because I thought that UA4 will be more stable in term of the firmware. But in the end they both have the same problem.

I played it on Windows 11 PC, using Foobar v1 & v2 with SACD plugin.

The problem is relatively minimum when using USB Audio Drivers v2.1 and v2.2. But both drivers has a bug that some time when you switch to a new browser window (like opening YouTube in incognito) it will not produce any sound, so you have to unplug and re-plug the USB cable. USB Audio Drivers v2.4 fixed it, but it introduce the struggle bug as I mention before.

If you're still try to be a positive person then just keep DSD64 at maximum, or just be a good pedestrian by playing PCM only and don't complain. Although you're wasting your money because you won't be able to play the advertised sample rates that you're expected.

I can confirm that iBasso DACs don't have this problem since they're using the inferior Cirrus Logic according to the buggy ESS Sabre. The inferior Cirrus Logic can only play DSD256 at maximum, while ESS Sabre advertises that it able to play DSD512 while in reality DSD64 is the maximum it can handle.

I don't think Shanling will ever try to fix this, they might just launch another new DAC and then give up and then just launch another new DAC.

Sad but true.

 

[Polky74]

I can confirm that both UA4 and UA5 is struggle to play DOP & DSD that is larger than DSD64 (DSD128, DSD256, DSD512) when using USB Audio Drivers v2.4. It will produce crackle and distorted sound, sometime it won't be able to produce sound at all because of the struggle.

I owned UA5 and the reason I bought UA4 is because I thought that UA4 will be more stable in term of the firmware. But in the end they both have the same problem.

I played it on Windows 11 PC, using Foobar v1 & v2 with SACD plugin.

The problem is relatively minimum when using USB Audio Drivers v2.1 and v2.2. But both drivers has a bug that some time when you switch to a new browser window (like opening YouTube in incognito) it will not produce any sound, so you have to unplug and re-plug the USB cable. USB Audio Drivers v2.4 fixed it, but it introduce the struggle bug as I mention before.

If you're still try to be a positive person then just keep DSD64 at maximum, or just being a good pedestrian by playing PCM only and don't complain. Although you're wasting your money because you won't be able to play the advertised sample rates that you're expected.

I can confirm that iBasso DACs don't have this problem since they're using the inferior Cirrus Logic according to the buggy ESS Sabre. The inferior Cirrus Logic can only play DSD256 at maximum, while ESS Sabre advertised that it able to play DSD512 while in reality DSD64 is the maximum it can handle.

I don't think Shanling will ever try to fix this, they might just launching another new DAC and then give up and then just launching another new DAC.

Sad but true.

PS: At least MQA works flawlessly.

I'm sorry to read this, I haven't encountered this defect because I don't use DSD files but only Qobuz in high resolution and this problem doesn't exist. I hope that Shanling can solve the problem and I am confident of it, as long as the ESS DAC is really capable of reading these types of DSD, otherwise both Shanling and ESS should report it.

 

[Shanling]

I can confirm that both UA4 and UA5 is struggle to play DOP & DSD that is larger than DSD64 (DSD128, DSD256, DSD512) when using USB Audio Drivers v2.4 it will produce crackle and distorted sound, sometime it won't be able to produce sound at all because of the struggle.

I owned UA5 and the reason I bought UA4 is because I thought that UA4 will be more stable in term of the firmware. But in the end they both have the same problem.

I played it on Windows 11 PC, using Foobar v1 & v2 with SACD plugin.

The problem is relatively minimum when using USB Audio Drivers v2.1 and v2.2. But both drivers has a bug that some time when you switch to a new browser window (like opening YouTube in incognito) it will not produce any sound, so you have to unplug and re-plug the USB cable. USB Audio Drivers v2.4 fixed it, but it introduce the struggle bug as I mention before.

If you're still try to be a positive person then just keep DSD64 at maximum, or just be a good pedestrian by playing PCM only and don't complain. Although you're wasting your money because you won't be able to play the advertised sample rates that you're expected.

I can confirm that iBasso DACs don't have this problem since they're using the inferior Cirrus Logic according to the buggy ESS Sabre. The inferior Cirrus Logic can only play DSD256 at maximum, while ESS Sabre advertises that it able to play DSD512 while in reality DSD64 is the maximum it can handle.

I don't think Shanling will ever try to fix this, they might just launch another new DAC and then give up and then just launch another new DAC.

Sad but true.

PS: At least MQA works flawlessly.

I'm not sure why your first message in the UA4 thread has right away such negative outlook, but I will gladly assist you with troubleshooting this.

When playing in Foobar, can you tell us which Output and SACD plugin options you have set? Maybe screenshot.
Have you tested it just on one computer or more?
Does UA4 show correctly the DSD128 on its screen?

I just tried on Windows 10 machine, USB Driver V2.4, following settings in Foobar, and got no issue with DSD128 or DSD2526 playback.
Will try Windows 11 tomorrow.