Addendum: The driving power test was done with the independent volume level on the UA4 set at 100 (Max) and purely adjusted at minimal on PC. This is NOT a recommended way to run a DAC/Amp! I did it just for the sake of testing the breaking point before an amp would be stressed when subjected to heavy load. The best setup should always be, on PC or Android volume set to 100% and then only adjust on the DAC/Amp only - this way we can avoid stress and micro distortions. Hope this is clarified.
Hey Andy, I could not resist and bought this dongle! haha I were waiting for a cheaper dongle with a sound signature like this for some time. Hope I enjoy it! Thanks, man.
Hi Andy, superb video as usual with lots of explanations and details. Thanks again for your work! I took advantage of Black Friday to buy the UA4, I couldn't wait for your review...I have 7 dongles and this UA4 is in my TOP 3, maybe even my new favorite. As you say, it has technical performance far superior to its ridiculous price. A must have purchase! Best regards
@@cliffordchan. No.1 is shared between CEntrance DACport HD and HIBY FC6, next would be Cayin RU7 and then IBasso DC04Pro. But I am growing very fond of this Aune Yuki now too
@@c.s.7749 I have heard that all hiby dongles have only 30 volume steps. Right now I have their FD3 and it's clear that there aren't enough steps. I find vol 6 too quiet and 7 too loud. Do you guys have the same problem with FC6?
thank you andy! i've been looking for a dongle around 100$ range and after watching this i decided to buy this later! awesome review, detail and really good
Was always been eyeing for the moondrop pro or the dc04 pro, bu then discover shanling ua4 to have a discounted and now only for 62$!! Definitely getting this now as my first dongle
I recently purchased Fiio BTR15 for about $100. Sounds and power are great to my ears. The most impressive feature is it's got USB and Bluetooth connection. And for USB, there's a phone mode where it doesn't draw phone battery. Switch to PC mode, you can listen to music and charge the battery. I am not aware any other dongle work like this, let alone at this price. Thought I share with the community. Cheers.
Do you use PC mode with you cell phone? I'd like to know if it can be used as a traditional dongle and as you say, in phone mode it relies on its own battery, not the same thing. If battery drains completely it automaticaly goes into pc mode or what?
@@JoseFerreira-zb7wh there are 3 modes, 1 for bluetooth, 2 for usb: pc mode that draw power from pc and function like traditional dongle that we're all familiar with. In phone mode, BTR15 uses its own on-board battery which means it does not draw power from phone, and doesn't diminish phone use time.
Thanks for the detailed review and the part on how to choose filter settings is super useful especially with the UA4 because I struggle a little with the settings especially when it doesn’t allow a longer listening before closing the setting menu. I am surprised that someone in FB claimed that this dongle is warm and I couldn’t attest to his claim until watching your review. I totally agree that there is some ESS ‘glare’ which is more apparent on mid treble centric iems. That said, please don’t pronounce Sabre as sar-brey any more, the proper pronunciation is say-ber.
Thanks!. Lol, from where I am here, Malaysia which used to be part of British colony, we tend to use British way of pronunciation, so the spelling of Sabre being said sa Sa-Bre, and I know the US English would spell them as Saber, hence Sa-ber. I take note of this. Cheers
Great vid and review Andy👍🏽😊 Would the Shanling be worth upgrading from the Dragonfly Black? Does the Shanling have pass through so it can be connected to an amp? 1:27
Thanks. Yes, it is a clear step up from Dragonfly Black to UA4. If you mean dedicated Line Out, not many dongles have dedicated LO mode, Cayin RU7, Lotoo PAW S1/S2 and MUSEHIFI M3 are the ones I can recall now offer dedecated LO AUX for amps. Otherwise any dongle can serve as LO if you set the volume to 75%
@@donglemadness Andy do you believe that the Colorfly M1P has a soundstage that can be in the same leagues as other hi end dongles? For headphones that are not known for their soundstage (HD600) will it be preferable to look elsewhere or the analog dongles are better?
@@Nordi1_0745 If soundstage is your concerns, then you need to look into CS series dongles especially CS43131. That would mean you look for iBasso DC04Pro, Moondrop DAWN Pro, AKLIAM PD4 Plus or even Truthear SHIO. M1P and UA4 while not being as wide with soundstage like the CS dongles, they are still fairly open sounding. Otherwise if you want to have everything, then consider Cayin RU7 or L&P W4
Ever heard of the Kuang Pai Plus 4 Looks a great dongle for what it has,strange enough seens like almost no one is talking about it. Waiting for the review on the BTR15.
That's because Kuang Pai Plus 4 is not an easy dongle to get, I did a search in AliExpress and didn't even find one match, I have no idea where people would go to buy one, if it is more accessible, I am sure many would have bought it already
@@donglemadness From what I found out there's only one store that sells it on AliExpress,I found the specs kinda strange,since it's not so common to see a dongle with all the three ports and the whole number of features it has and it because it cost a little above the DC04 Pro.
Forget about btr15. It's useless unless you like swollen batteries. It has too small of a battery which will die in 1-2yrs mine lasted 2yrs in btr5. & its soldered so you can't even easily swap the battery.
Just ordered one of these. It seems to be best value at around this price. I suppose q5 would be nice as well but I like the screen and form factor of this. I may regret this since I may prefer a smooth presentation. Ultimately would like Cayin RU7 but should be a worthy upgrade from dawn pro. The rattley build of the dawn pro creeps me out.
Hi Andy, I noticed hissing when my IEM are connected to the 4.4mm output and a music track is playing. If UA4 on standby, no hissing. But, as soon as a music is playing, during the silence part of the track, hissing is present. Not sure if you have notice this while using the 4.4mm output. My IEM is Simgot EW200, maybe due to the higher sensitivity and lower impedance, it is picking up hissing. Tried with a different IEM with lower sensitivity and still picking up hissing. Not sure if this is a defective unit or something else. No issue on the 3.5mm output.
I didn't hear any floor noises from my IEMs even from the super low impedance and high sensitivity Truthear NOVA which is more sensitive than Simgot EW200. You should check with Shanling support and report to them
The choice boils down to what sound signature you like the most, if you like bright, crispy and energetic modern tuning, UA4. M1P offers classic analog sound with velvety rich texture and less aggressive with dynamics. Both already excellent for what they do, and equally powerful
Hey Andy, I hope you are doing well. I just love watching your reviews. Lately I discovered a very amazing channel on YT. Everything is so perfect nd so detailed. You're always worth the time.. I just need a small nd quick help from you. I got stuck between iBasso DC03 pro nd Fiio KA13. In my region KA13 is just few more bucks higher on price than DC03 pro. In terms of technicalities nd audio quality which one do you prefer among KA13 nd DC03 pro?? My preference would be fun, musical, engaging nd wider soundstage with no compromise on the technicalities (ofcourse only for the asking price). This is going to be my first upgrade from the cheaper DAC so this will be my precious one. I heard that there are some QC issues with the stock USB C cable of DC03 pro (like loose cable/movement/not being tight) Not sure how it is going to work with mine. Will this affect the dongle functionality by anyway?? Is this still preferable with the stock cable? I hope you reply to me.. a big thanks to you brother.. love you as always ❤
Fun and engaging is what DC03Pro does better than the neutral KA13, however DC03Pro is not known for wide soundstage, KA13 is more open and spacious sounding. But assuming that you have limited access to only KA13 and DC03Pro, then I feel in the long run you would be better served with KA13, which also happens to be among the most powerful dongles in the market now. Resolution wise, DC03Pro has crisper imaging versus KA13 which favors smoother edged presentation. So I don't really see any problem with either one of them, you just need to decide which compromise suits your taste better, it is for your ears after all, not me or anyone else
Between PD4 Plus vs UA4, they both scored the same with Tone/Timbre and Sound Richness, UA4 has slight advantage on Dynamic and Technicalities for the more pronounced resolution without sounding too edgy and tamer energy, also for being slightly better with transient speed
Thanks. Both my A5000 and MP145 uses 4.4mm MixPP cables, as with many others on 4.4mm as I need to test many 4.4mm dongles. Then I use custom adapter to reduce to 3.5mm when needed
I have tried so many dongles till now like Ibasso brothers DC03 Pro/DC04 Pro, BTR15, Hidizs S9 Pro, Avani, Abigail, Abigail Pro, Odyssey HD, Creative SB Play 4, Fosi DS1, Jcally JM60 Among all these Dongles, one Dongle has given me the most musical enjoyment and the other is insane value Ibasso DC03 Pro has given me the most musical enjoyment and Creative SB Play 4 is the insane value. Waiting for my Shan UA4 to arrive. Lets see how that goes! I should have kept my DC03 Pro but sold it off, errggh!!
@@paxywayy UA4 is better in features, like it has play/paus, skip tracks etc even for balanced mode and is more powerful but sound wise , I liked DC03 Pro. You may also check out Fosi DS1, it is heavy and gets a bit warm but it is the most lively sounding dongle among all those I have mentioned above
Hi Andy, I just purchased the DC04 and the M1P due to your reviews, they both are great (first dongles I have, previous experience just the QuadDac of the LG G7 and V60, do you recommend me to get this UA4 as a third dongle in order to have a different sound signature? I mean, to heard some difference between this and the ones I have, right now is about the same price as the others two in Aliexpress, thanx
Hi Andy. thanks for another great review. From sound quality perspective only, for vocal, jazz, slow & relax music, audiophile kind of music, which one do you prefer between UA4, DC04pro and KA13? And why? Btw, sorry to put the following question here (instead of in the KA13 review) but I'm quite intrigue with the power of KA13, it has double power capacity compared to UA4 and DC04Pro. Makes it has more headroom, and made the other two seems to has "less power". I understand that you've mentioned that anything with 4v and above 200mW should be enough to drive most IEM. But if you have "less" headroom, and you push up the volume, will it relative easier to distort the "less powered" dongle? Something like if you compared the KA13 with the Burson? Or perhaps like in this UA4 "over engineered" power? ;) Thanks and cheers.
Strictly between the three you mentioned, easy for me to always pick DC04Pro. It is just the sort of sound I love, analog, airy and open (I listen to a lot of Jazz and Bluegrass). Yes DC04Pro may not be as acute with sharp imaging and resolution of UA4, but DC04Pro is already exceedingly resolving for my listening equipment. I am not sure what you are driving, but I am repeating myself like a broken recorder here, the majority of 2-4 Vrms dongles can satisfy the need for all IEMs, many of them are even so very adept at full sized headphones. The one concerns me more is synergy factor, that will determine the output quality or characteristics. If you are driving a 125dB 16 Ohm hybrid on KA13 or UA4 and activate high gain, chances are good you will distort the sound at certain threshold if you need louder output, this is why you will always see me preferring high impedance and low sensitivity IEMs, because they scale really well with more power. I know that IEMs like Campfire and a few brand like to make super sensitive IEMs, these sort of stuff would even sounded great even with 1 Vrms JCally JM7 or CX31993
@@donglemadness Wow. Thanks for a quick and impressive feedback. It's clear for me now. And this might be a great guideline for my first dongle purchase. Once again, thanks and cheers.
All three of them are tuned to be highly analytical and detailed, they all runs on ESS Sabre high end DAC so you can expect equal resolution and imaging from all three, just like many other recent dongles that are tuned to be highly techinical
Nice detailed video. I am sold on functionality, iOS, wide sounding, MQA & price 😉, would save up for this dac. Or if you have something more suitable for my priorities do let me know 😉.
+ Dear Andy, thank you for your detailed review videos. I slowly grow to like your videos more and more due to how sophisticate they are and the comparison chart in the end is the cherry on top for me. As a non-audiophile and average consumer of tech but very nitpicking, your videos are a blessing for me to make the right decision. + However I have a decision to make that will require a bit more information from someone who owned and heavily tested the 2 dongles: Shanling UA4 and the Ibasso DC04 Pro. + Recently, I upgraded my iems from the (neutral) 7hz Zero to the (not too V-shaped planar and easy to drive) Nice HCK F1 Pro with a 4.4 BAL cable option ( hope you will review it along side the Artti T10). I want to buy a dongle to I can use the F1 Pro's 4.4 BAL cable. * From my research on reddit and other websites: - The UA4 has a few issues: A noticeable 4.4 mm output noise floor, delays when press the multimedia buttons, it also eats 0,1 sec when change songs and/or gets buggy and doesn't work. Cheaper by costing ~78$ - While the DC04 Pro so far only has the loosely type c port. Pricy by costing ~106$ - I like the UA4 by its features, looks, build, the screen is great too. But those highlight features are buggy like I mentioned above. The DC04 Pro is already a well established rock-solid 5 stars option, natural tuning which is more to my liking, but cost a bit more. I can go to the official store to test these too products but it only going to clear things out a bit, these 2 both have 90 scores rating. Being my first dongle and I can only get 1 of them due to how expensive this is to me, I don't mind paying more for the DC04 Pro due to how it is tuned and abilities to perform. I can get DC04 pro for a good price on Shopee, hard to get it fixed if its got faulty, but I trust the solid quality of the DC04 Pro. - My question to you is, with the tuning of the Nice HCK F1 Pro Iems, which dongle would be best to drive it, make what the F1 Pro does well even better and have you personally experience any problems with the both of these dongles. Thank you very much for everything, Andy.
Thanks for the support!. I personally haven't tried F1 Pro so I would have no idea how it is. I personally never find any of the issues with floor noises on UA4 otherwise I would have not rated it highly, and I do not find the issues mentioned being a deal breaker either. You can nitpick on anything if you wish to, that's the nature of us humans. The issue on DC04Pro USB port however is real and worrying. My own DC04Pro now only usable after I super glued it permanently with a USB C cable to prevent it getting loose and losing connection signals - not good at all. If I may, for ease of mind, just go for EPZ TP50 which is the one I use regularly on daily basis and serves as my primary dongle now over 170 other dongles I have in my collection, even my all-time champ of FC6 is getting lesser usage time now since I have TP50. I always recommend what I personally use, and I stand behind TP50 firmly
@@donglemadness thank you for your recommendation, Andy. I'll go to the official shop soon to test out all 3 dongles you mentioned, I hope you will give the Nice HCK F1 pro and the artti t10 a try in your future vids (no rush, I appreciate your vids either way). Hope you have a nice day.
@@donglemadness Hi Andy, Kindly help me to choose a best DAC... my options are.. Fiio ka13, DCO4PRO, Shanling UA4 (If there is any other plz mention..). I also have a concern about ibasso dco4 pro, that some guys are complaining about usb c jack, it seems loose... my first choice is ibasso dco4 pro actually. Kindly suggest me plzz asap. Also, Thanks a Ton for your great reviews. Thanks in advance.
@@R_Mahesh5 Your concerns on DC04Pro USB integrity is well founded, and due to this if that worries you, then just get something like UA4 or Colorfly CDA-M1P, both of which are very robust of build and will last for a long time, any one of them is great
@@donglemadnessThank you for the reply! Really struggling between these two lol. What would you say the UA4 does better then the DC04pro and vice verse?
@@MobuFPS The biggest difference is the tuning, DC04Pro is something I like more for being closer to analog sound, but I know for people who like crisp Hi-Fi sort of presentation, UA4 would appear more compelling. So you could say UA4 offer sharper imaging versus the smoother edged presentation of DC04Pro. All in all you are asking me to say which of the two pristine diamonds worse than the other and I can't give you a proper answer because both really are amazing with their strength and character.
you should be aware that SAMSUNG A35 5G is INCOMPATIBLE with this device. Shanling ua4 works fine with 2 of my Samsung tablets but not with A35 mobile phone. The message I get is something related to "HIGH POWER USB DEVICE CONNECTED impossible to connect..."
On the contrary my unit here is super clean even with highly sensitive hybrid IEMs with 16 Ohm and 125dB of sensitivity, let alone S12 which is a planar that has higher tolerance to noises. No issues at all for me
Hi Andy! I noticed that you and I have the same tastes and preferences. And I would like to know from you which filter by number is better to use in DAC Shanling ua4 ?
The funny thing is, UA4 filters don't do much to the sound, so I practically pay no heed anymore which filters I use. Some dongles offer effective filters, some don't
I had sold my DC04 Pro so just now ordered Shan UA4 Its price to performance score should be 10 instead of 9 as it costs much lower than DC04 Pro So my new shiny Shan UA4 should get 91 score surpassing that old uncle DC04 Pro 😁😁
I have seen more than one person on HifiGo saying that there is a white noise problem in the 4.4 mm port of this dongle. Can you say anything about this issue? Have you experienced it?
hi, i have the shanling up4 22 and my headphones are: denon d5200, mangrid tea mk1, simgot em6l and gizaudio chopin. Do you recommend the ua4 over the up4? Sometimes with the denon a bit of more power could be helpful, i use spotify and tidal as music source
Have a look at section 19:00 and you decide which one suits you more? UA4 and DC06Pro pretty much offer similar highly technical sound, ultimately the decision is for you to make because it is meant for your hearing, not mine or anyone else. As I always mentioned before, any current crop of dongles that offer 2-4 Vrms of power especially with rating of 200mW and more, they are more than capable to drive planars, not just IEMs, but full sized planars like the one you see I tested regularly in my videos, Fostex T40RP MK3 which is among the most difficult to drive planar headphones, way 2x harder than most planar IEMs, so no worries on that, UA4 is just one of the many powerful dongle to choose from, and again I stress the word "many"
Using this dongle on uapp the song get cut at the start of playback, using other dongle like jcally jm6 i got no cut. But when i adjust dac warm up in setting i dont get cut. Do you think uapp is faulty or the dongle is faulty?
More likely a settings need to be be tuned in UAPP. You have to remember JM6 is much simpler and probably running on UAC1, your UA4 could be on UAC2 mode with more complex settings and thus superior too. I haven't used UAPP for quite a while so it is hard for me to say what you should check, but I am sure it has something to do with UAPP settings
Between DC03Pro and UA4, not much different tuning. If you really want something different, more neutral and transparent, then go for iBasso DC04Pro or ONIX Alpha XI
Yes, DAWN Pro is neutral, so does SHIO, Space and many other CS series dongles. But to get the closest to neutral/natural timbre to RU7, that would be DC04Pro
If you are asking my own personal preferences, then M1P is what I prefer more. M1P works better for my own personal taste and the type of music and gears I use
Hi bro. i never tried much dongle before. My 1st and last usage was VE Odyssey HD wayback 2020 until i switch to LG G7 and G8 as primary player. How will you compare this UA4 to LG's Quad DAC? Does UA4 will give improvement to my earbuds and IEM in terms of sound quality? i'm only using ve monk go final, eb2s pro and hzsound heart mirror only. I'm also planning to get planar iem or headphone like HE400SE
I have LG V35 and V50, from my own experience, UA4 and many other dongle rated 4 Stars and above are superior than both of my LG V35 and V50. So I can tell you now that UA4 being 5 Star rated is definitely better than any LG Quad DAC
@@donglemadness thanks, i want to buy btr15 since it has Bluetooth. But want to know if ua4 has better sound since it is cheaper. Read thru headfi and saw some user complaining about background noise on the 4.4mm. can you confirm it?
@@AhmadGhaziA No, I tried with 16 Ohm, 125 dB sensitivity IEM of Kimura Duo which is very sensitive and I don't hear any floor noises from the 4.4mm BAL
@@AhmadGhaziA i buy the UA4 today, at first i tried it at my phone iQoo 8pro, there is no background noise happen at 3.5mm( KZ DQ6) or 4.4mm( Ananda Nano), but in pc side there happen on 4.4mm on some songs on foobar2000 and Tidal , after i update the firmware that release from shanling official side, on pc foobar side both dsd and pcm songs are no noise zuo, but on pc tidal side will happen some times at beggining of the some songs
What would be your highest rec currently for the best timbre dongle, but does not sacrifice air, staging, and dynamics? By best timbre for me, I would want to avoid the upper-mids grain feeling alot of the hifi dacs have (usually the Cirrus Logic ones). But not over-compensating too much and feels too unsharp like the ru6. Something with all the strengths of the Cirrus Logic stuff but without that digital upper-mids/lower-treble feeling.
That would be HIBY FC6 or CEntance DACPort HD for the very best of the best on timbre & dynamic presentation. However for air and staging, I will have to give it to L&P W4, Cayin RU7 and iBasso DC04Pro. Well, can't have everything perfect yet in a single package do we? lol. My ultimate dongle would be a fusion of FC6 sound with RU7/W4 wide open staging (not that FC6 or DACport HD being narrow, RU7/W4/DC04Pro just happen to be a tad wider)
Hello Andy I have iBasso DX90 audio player. So, I carry two devices: my smartphone and this player, which is not really convinient. If I buy one of dongle DACs, what should I expect? An increase in sound quality or a decrease? Most reviews do comparisons within the same category: a dongle DAC vs. another dongle DAC. It would be nice to have reviews across device categories such as a dongle DAC vs. a dedicated audio player. PS: Are you from Malaysia?
I personally never tried DX90 so I have no idea how does it compares with dongles. But if you are wondering how dongles perform, since 2021 especially, I have stopped using expensive DAPs like Cayin N3 Pro and Cayin N6 both of which are well over RM6K combined in value because I like the sound more from high performing dongles like Hidizs S9Pro or Ovidius B1 at that time. And yes you can imagine now, 4 years later how much improved dongles are. I am based in Selanngor, btw. A Malaysian
@@donglemadness Thanks for your information. I'll consider it. Unfortunately, I don't have friends who I could borrow such dongle devices from for comparing against my audio player. I can buy based on reviews only, but it's just hard for me to imagine that such a tiny thing can accommodate all these electronics needed for high-quality sound. If it were possible, then how come audio players are still continued to be produced to be so big? Also, I guess dongles are not the only thing that have improved since 2021, audio players have also improved since that, haven't they? I live in Russia, but I currently work at a Malaysian company. Most Malaysians that I work with come from Sibu, Sarawak. Do you really listen to Satyricon? I thought that people in Malaysia never even heard about existence of such bands.
Gaming wise is it one of the best, great crisp and precise imaging and spatial staging, but like many other dongles of this size, they don't support inline MIC
i am curious abt your price/performance chart. they seem to not reflecting based on your sound category. you see ru7 is abt 2x price of dc04pro, with about 2 point differences, but you score their price/performance to be the same?
The's a mechanic to it. It depends on the level of sound and performance they offer together with other elements combined and if I feel that they deserve the price tag, then the rating for value will be higher, Like RU7 is running on exotic tech 1 Bit DSD DAC which is exceedingly difficult to implement in such size, so the tech behind it and the fact that it was implemented successfully, justify the price
UA2 is markedly warmer and more natural sounding, UA4 is a bit brighter and more analytical. So yes it will be different and technically UA4 is superior than UA2
I have a cx-pro 31993 that broke down and was thinking of buying a jm6pro, cx-pro 31993 I liked the sound energetic low tones and bass, are there any other small dac solutions
Have a look at my video here: czcams.com/video/H3CX9S08rPk/video.htmlsi=cSxtLitSs_V20eck I think you will find MEIZU dongles has better build for the size you looking for
I don't don't have KA17 so I don't know yet. As for M15, UA4 and KA13, you are asking me to condense a 15 minutes review each into one reply, to give you a condensed view on my opinion on them have a look here at how I rate them: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eKvWteIUUp61kpZcjRSxVI6NtllHzVos/edit?fbclid=IwAR38Rw8O7zNaMc9eQXHZ9NrMHECTMq5VhFMtuAE3s4avu52kbSvkcdCA2XM&pli=1#gid=371576178
Reseñas en head-fi indican ruido de fondo (noise floor) evidente en salida balanceada, asi como silencio automático que recorta las pistas unos milisegundos para enmascarar dicho noise floor. Has encontrado algo al respecto durante tu reseña? Gracias.
About the same, just that UA4 has sharper approach to it. Otherwise both resolves macro and micro details equally, just like other 5 Star rated dongles, we are talking about marginal differences here between the top guns
@@donglemadness awesome, thanks for ur prompt reply, this makes my decision making alot easier now since ua4 in my country is much cheaper than the m15. Ur da best !!
Please, no need for sir, thanks. The stock cable is already very good, the only reason you want to change it if you need longer cables and most OTG cable will do the job properly, look for anything that says USB 3.0 and you should be getting the best feed of power from the source especially phones or PC with USB 3.0 PD
Can you adjust everything on the lcd screen? I have a iPhone lol mainly gonna use it for IEMs and pc gaming. Trying to decide between this or the moondrop dawn pro
Adjust everything? what is your definition of everything? as far as I can tell, what I have shown in this video of UA4 LCD display and function buttons are what you can do with it, and as noted, it also happens to be one of the most feature packed dongle beside L&P W4 or Colorfly CDA M2 (dongles with LCD and controls). DAWN Pro is a lot simpler. For gaming I would choose UA4 over DAWN Pro as it has slight advantage on spatial imaging
@@donglemadness I was just worried I wouldn’t be able to change gain or the filter without having it hooked up to a android phone I appreciate the response a friend recommended your videos and I’m glad he did
I’m new to this portal dac world and I have the m50x Bluetooth headphones but I want to start plugging them into my iPhone will this dongle support those headphones if not what would you suggest getting. I tried the official apple dongle but weren’t loud enough even at full volume. Im looking for something in the sub 200 dollar range
If you plan to use on the cable and attach to a dongle, yes UA4 has the power you seek. Just make sure you run on High Gain mode and preferable your headphone can be swapped to a 4.4mm BAL cable to utilize 100% of what UA4 can offer
shanling ua4 didn't work on my samsung a54 and i get a notification that says "high power usb device connected, cannot access to this device, connected device needs an external power supply". but works fine on my iphone 8 with an otg adapter. i don't know what's causing the problem, i think the usb power in my a54 is very low? (and i only attached the 3.5 se output one not the 4.4)
I think it is what it is when your phone actually indicating unable to provide ample power. But I would say that's odd for an Android device. Usually they work well for newer phones released after 2020
@@donglemadness i think so, it's a kinda safety feature in my phone also. i think using Y splitter like ibasso cb19 will work then bc the power source is separated. and i ended up got a tempotec sonata bhd (non pro version) 😅
Qudelix 5k is dark and unsharp. Less staging. Despite being an ESS setup. Qudelix 5k is a good pairing with brighter iems. Only main strength of the Qudelix 5k is that I has no upper-mids digital glare feeling.
Technically they are similar but RU7 is better with staging width, openess and air. RU7 is also more analog while UA4 less analog sounding, as noted in my review, more of ESS Sabre sort of tuning (but done in a very mature way). You need to figure out which sound tuning you like more
@@alimsantoso5494 For electronic music, it probably would not make a difference as they are already digital sounding. But if you listen to Classical, Jazz, Folk, Acoustic and Instrumental music, being analog sounding means being natural realistic with the timbre and to some people that is very important
hi I am from India I currently using fiio btr 5 pls suggest me colorrfly m1p or ibasso dc 4 pro or Shanling Ua 4 Mostly i listen Bollywood slow songs which DAC will be perfect for me Thank you.
Close your eyes and pick any one of them, all three are already 5 Star rated and I don't see you being disappointed with any one of them. All of them very versatile for any type of music, boils down to just which feature you need more. They are all great
Si ua4 pro todavía no es igual de ancho que ibasso dc-04pro, entonces¿Cómo se compara con cda m1p en lo ancho y hacia el frente?ademas uno tiene 9 y el otro 10 es por diferencia en micro detalle?.
M1P is not as wide as DC04Pro too, but at least it sounded more open than UA4. 10 because UA4 has sharper imaging and resolution, including micro details
You can do that using HIBY Music App or UAPP Bitperfect on Android. I did a video on how to do this here: czcams.com/video/1TpfJw1YJmY/video.htmlsi=RJhZFBR97LXs0q3d
Some other apps like Tidal also have exclusive mode. Just connect the dongle via usb and a window will appear for you to accept and connect in exclusive mode.
hi Andy @@donglemadness when I use the USB exclusive mode using shanling ua4 the playback button does not work. only the volume controller work. have you encounter the ssame problem? I'm using redmi k60 pro as source
Yes it worked for me, always Tidal exclusive mode. But I have no idea why it always resample to 48khz for you. Perhaps best to check with Shanling support
@@donglemadness also tried with another phone and the same happened. Then i tried with different dac. Same. I can only see the problem is with Tidal app. If i try hiby or uapp it's 44.1, bit perfect.
@@VishnuTVenu maybe it's a compatibility issue...but i've tried with a Xiaomi and Samsung phone and both display 48khz. I also tried a tablet from other brand, it also resampled. Strange... When i'm on the go i like to use tidal offline/ downloaded content and it's when i use dongles so it's a huge problem for me. I Guess this is where my dongle oddissey ends.
Hey andy, can you help me choose between ua4 or cda m1p? Is it worth spending a bit more for u4s? Or is m1p good enough? I have a strict budget but I can pay more if it's worth
If you already have M1P, you already have one of the best. The only reason you want UA4 if you need a different sound tuning of which M1P is truthfully analog yet analytical (similar to HIBY FC6), and UA4 is mostly ESS Sabre sort of analytical tuning, focus a lot on technicalities but not so much on analog timbre. Also if you like to have nice features on the dongle controls, UA4 has it where M1P is super simple
Better? not that straight forward. KA13 has a lot of power and more neutral tuning. UA4 is tuned slightly different to focus on resolution crispness and analytical imaging, but I would say KA13 will be more musical
@@donglemadness In my country KA13 costs 70 USD and UA4 costs 82 USD. I am using Truthear Nova IEM, can you advise me which dongle to buy to use with Truthear Nova? Or any other dongle under $100 for use with the Truthear Nova IEM. Thanks for the answer.
@@HuyNguyen-mr9to Nova does not need power, it is one of the most efficient IEMs with 14.8 Ohm and 123 dB, those are crazily sensitive numbers for IEMs. So KA13 or even UA4 sheer power can almost be overkill for it. I would say that try to get 2 Vrms dongles instead, something like iBasso DC03Pro or even 1 Vrms JCally JM7. Otherwise UA4 is still a good option especially if you plan to upgrade your IEMs later, just run it on 3.5mm and Low gain and you should be good
For EW200 both UA4 and DC04Pro are excellent really, so you can't go wrong with any one of them. The difference, DC04Pro offers wider soundstage and airy decays, UA4 offer a bit more energy and crisp imaging but not as analog sounding as DC04Pro, so you decide which type of presentation you like more
@@donglemadness sorry, I had the shanling in mind but I wanted to ask if it is better than the hidiz s9 pro plus Thank you for your response despite the confusion.
Hi there Andy. Yesterday, I came across a budget DAC dongle JCALLY JM6. However, it have 2 versions: 3.5mm unbalanced CX31993 chip & 4.4mm balanced CX31988 chip. Is 4.4mm balanced version really powerful in output than 3.5mm as both uses different CX chipsets or is it just for ease of use?
@@donglemadness yeah, my new Shan UA4, has to be good :) It will arrive on Monday for me. But I guess ESS DAC cuts the notes short as usual so it won't have much air. Not much air in notes means it may not be that musical and emotional but would have better technicalities
Addendum: The driving power test was done with the independent volume level on the UA4 set at 100 (Max) and purely adjusted at minimal on PC. This is NOT a recommended way to run a DAC/Amp! I did it just for the sake of testing the breaking point before an amp would be stressed when subjected to heavy load. The best setup should always be, on PC or Android volume set to 100% and then only adjust on the DAC/Amp only - this way we can avoid stress and micro distortions. Hope this is clarified.
Hi Andy. I'm a software engineer, so I really enjoy expressing subjective feelings through mathematics. Thanks for your tables, graphs, scores.)
My pleasure 😁
I did measurements of this dongle at maximum volume, the distortion level corresponds to 0.0002% with 2.5mm and 4.4mm output. Excellent!
Wow! That's amazing indeed
How does that compare to Apple dongle
Hey Andy, I could not resist and bought this dongle! haha I were waiting for a cheaper dongle with a sound signature like this for some time. Hope I enjoy it! Thanks, man.
My pleasure!
Thank you for the video..I purchased after your review..sounds fantastic with my timeless
That's awesome. Enjoy your music!
Great review as always Andy !!!
My pleasure
Hi Andy, superb video as usual with lots of explanations and details. Thanks again for your work! I took advantage of Black Friday to buy the UA4, I couldn't wait for your review...I have 7 dongles and this UA4 is in my TOP 3, maybe even my new favorite. As you say, it has technical performance far superior to its ridiculous price. A must have purchase! Best regards
You're welcome!
I’m curious what your top 3 dongles are
@@cliffordchan. No.1 is shared between CEntrance DACport HD and HIBY FC6, next would be Cayin RU7 and then IBasso DC04Pro. But I am growing very fond of this Aune Yuki now too
@@cliffordchan. Questyle M12, Hiby FC6, Shanling UA4 ;-)
@@c.s.7749 I have heard that all hiby dongles have only 30 volume steps. Right now I have their FD3 and it's clear that there aren't enough steps. I find vol 6 too quiet and 7 too loud. Do you guys have the same problem with FC6?
Hail Andy, the dongle King 🤴!!!
Excellent review! Now I think I will just have to try both UA4 and DC04pro
thank you andy! i've been looking for a dongle around 100$ range and after watching this i decided to buy this later! awesome review, detail and really good
My pleasure
Another great review, thank you! for the algorithm
My pleasure!
As usual awesome review Andy 😄
Thanks again!
Was always been eyeing for the moondrop pro or the dc04 pro, bu then discover shanling ua4 to have a discounted and now only for 62$!! Definitely getting this now as my first dongle
That is quite a bargain!
On Indian seller site 3.5mm single ended is rated 2.1v 137mW @32ohms Andy
Thanks
Thanks for the review ❤❤😊
This is really good I can change many things without using app 😮
No worries :D
I recently purchased Fiio BTR15 for about $100. Sounds and power are great to my ears. The most impressive feature is it's got USB and Bluetooth connection. And for USB, there's a phone mode where it doesn't draw phone battery. Switch to PC mode, you can listen to music and charge the battery. I am not aware any other dongle work like this, let alone at this price. Thought I share with the community. Cheers.
I have BTR15 with me now, feature rich yes indeed
Fiio BTR15 and Shanling UP5 are great BT DAC/Amps with BTR15 being more neutral/hi-fi and UP5 being warmer/more organic.
Do you use PC mode with you cell phone? I'd like to know if it can be used as a traditional dongle and as you say, in phone mode it relies on its own battery, not the same thing. If battery drains completely it automaticaly goes into pc mode or what?
I totally mixed things up. I have BTR5 and BTR7, not BTR15...
@@JoseFerreira-zb7wh there are 3 modes, 1 for bluetooth, 2 for usb: pc mode that draw power from pc and function like traditional dongle that we're all familiar with. In phone mode, BTR15 uses its own on-board battery which means it does not draw power from phone, and doesn't diminish phone use time.
Thanks for the detailed review and the part on how to choose filter settings is super useful especially with the UA4 because I struggle a little with the settings especially when it doesn’t allow a longer listening before closing the setting menu. I am surprised that someone in FB claimed that this dongle is warm and I couldn’t attest to his claim until watching your review. I totally agree that there is some ESS ‘glare’ which is more apparent on mid treble centric iems. That said, please don’t pronounce Sabre as sar-brey any more, the proper pronunciation is say-ber.
Thanks!. Lol, from where I am here, Malaysia which used to be part of British colony, we tend to use British way of pronunciation, so the spelling of Sabre being said sa Sa-Bre, and I know the US English would spell them as Saber, hence Sa-ber. I take note of this. Cheers
I need something more akin to the DC04Pro while not as expensive as DC Elite. Thanks again for a great review.
My pleasure!
RU7?
Hiby fc6
@@AndrewLamas19 No balance output...
Aune Yuki is for you then.. 😉👍👍
Great vid and review Andy👍🏽😊
Would the Shanling be worth upgrading from the Dragonfly Black?
Does the Shanling have pass through so it can be connected to an amp? 1:27
Thanks. Yes, it is a clear step up from Dragonfly Black to UA4. If you mean dedicated Line Out, not many dongles have dedicated LO mode, Cayin RU7, Lotoo PAW S1/S2 and MUSEHIFI M3 are the ones I can recall now offer dedecated LO AUX for amps. Otherwise any dongle can serve as LO if you set the volume to 75%
Thanks Andy for being the best reviewer 😊 So do you like more colorfly m1p than UA4? It has a higher score 😮
My pleasure. As a matter of personal preference, yes M1P is more favorable to me, M1P is close enough to DACportHD and FC6 sound
@@donglemadness Andy do you believe that the Colorfly M1P has a soundstage that can be in the same leagues as other hi end dongles? For headphones that are not known for their soundstage (HD600) will it be preferable to look elsewhere or the analog dongles are better?
@@Nordi1_0745 If soundstage is your concerns, then you need to look into CS series dongles especially CS43131. That would mean you look for iBasso DC04Pro, Moondrop DAWN Pro, AKLIAM PD4 Plus or even Truthear SHIO. M1P and UA4 while not being as wide with soundstage like the CS dongles, they are still fairly open sounding. Otherwise if you want to have everything, then consider Cayin RU7 or L&P W4
Hi!
You have one of the BEST audio-channels in the whole CZcams.
Do you know ?
:D
Ever heard of the Kuang Pai Plus 4
Looks a great dongle for what it has,strange enough seens like almost no one is talking about it.
Waiting for the review on the BTR15.
That's because Kuang Pai Plus 4 is not an easy dongle to get, I did a search in AliExpress and didn't even find one match, I have no idea where people would go to buy one, if it is more accessible, I am sure many would have bought it already
@@donglemadness
From what I found out there's only one store that sells it on AliExpress,I found the specs kinda strange,since it's not so common to see a dongle with all the three ports and the whole number of features it has and it because it cost a little above the DC04 Pro.
Forget about btr15. It's useless unless you like swollen batteries. It has too small of a battery which will die in 1-2yrs mine lasted 2yrs in btr5. & its soldered so you can't even easily swap the battery.
@@datdudeinred
Ok,thanks I guess🫤
Just ordered one of these. It seems to be best value at around this price. I suppose q5 would be nice as well but I like the screen and form factor of this. I may regret this since I may prefer a smooth presentation. Ultimately would like Cayin RU7 but should be a worthy upgrade from dawn pro. The rattley build of the dawn pro creeps me out.
Congratulations 😁
Hi Andy, I noticed hissing when my IEM are connected to the 4.4mm output and a music track is playing. If UA4 on standby, no hissing. But, as soon as a music is playing, during the silence part of the track, hissing is present. Not sure if you have notice this while using the 4.4mm output. My IEM is Simgot EW200, maybe due to the higher sensitivity and lower impedance, it is picking up hissing. Tried with a different IEM with lower sensitivity and still picking up hissing. Not sure if this is a defective unit or something else. No issue on the 3.5mm output.
I didn't hear any floor noises from my IEMs even from the super low impedance and high sensitivity Truthear NOVA which is more sensitive than Simgot EW200. You should check with Shanling support and report to them
really its dongle madness! COLORFLY CDA-M2 released
...Yeahhh...my friend.This is so important when i think to record some tapes😅
Andy .Please give me advice on what to choose. Shanling ua4 or Colorfly c da M 1 P is one thing. I'll listen to music on my laptop. For pleasure.
The choice boils down to what sound signature you like the most, if you like bright, crispy and energetic modern tuning, UA4. M1P offers classic analog sound with velvety rich texture and less aggressive with dynamics. Both already excellent for what they do, and equally powerful
@@donglemadness❤
Спасибо дорогой Andy
Hey Andy, I hope you are doing well. I just love watching your reviews. Lately I discovered a very amazing channel on YT. Everything is so perfect nd so detailed. You're always worth the time..
I just need a small nd quick help from you. I got stuck between iBasso DC03 pro nd Fiio KA13. In my region KA13 is just few more bucks higher on price than DC03 pro.
In terms of technicalities nd audio quality which one do you prefer among KA13 nd DC03 pro?? My preference would be fun, musical, engaging nd wider soundstage with no compromise on the technicalities (ofcourse only for the asking price). This is going to be my first upgrade from the cheaper DAC so this will be my precious one.
I heard that there are some QC issues with the stock USB C cable of DC03 pro (like loose cable/movement/not being tight) Not sure how it is going to work with mine. Will this affect the dongle functionality by anyway?? Is this still preferable with the stock cable?
I hope you reply to me.. a big thanks to you brother.. love you as always ❤
Fun and engaging is what DC03Pro does better than the neutral KA13, however DC03Pro is not known for wide soundstage, KA13 is more open and spacious sounding. But assuming that you have limited access to only KA13 and DC03Pro, then I feel in the long run you would be better served with KA13, which also happens to be among the most powerful dongles in the market now. Resolution wise, DC03Pro has crisper imaging versus KA13 which favors smoother edged presentation. So I don't really see any problem with either one of them, you just need to decide which compromise suits your taste better, it is for your ears after all, not me or anyone else
@@donglemadness thank you so much for the reply Andy.. so does this also depend on the IEM which we connect to?? Or is this independent??
@@razz_v95 Both dongles are versatile and will work with any IEMs. No worries
Thank you for the review andy. How does this compare to the more budget pd4 plus? On what aspects would you say is this an upgrade over it.
Between PD4 Plus vs UA4, they both scored the same with Tone/Timbre and Sound Richness, UA4 has slight advantage on Dynamic and Technicalities for the more pronounced resolution without sounding too edgy and tamer energy, also for being slightly better with transient speed
@@donglemadness Thank you Andy!
So many dongles this year!! I do not have enough ears to listen to the dongles I own all the time. 😢😢😂😂😂
Yeah,kinda surprised that the UA4 got this high, thought it would get 85 or close.
Great review, Andy! Question for your A5000 cable. Do you use 4.4mm bal or 3.5mm for the mixPP 6N?
Thanks. Both my A5000 and MP145 uses 4.4mm MixPP cables, as with many others on 4.4mm as I need to test many 4.4mm dongles. Then I use custom adapter to reduce to 3.5mm when needed
Thank you so much!
¿Alguien sabe cuando saldra colorfly CDA M2? En algunos vídeos parece que ya esta listo para venderse
I have tried so many dongles till now like Ibasso brothers DC03 Pro/DC04 Pro, BTR15, Hidizs S9 Pro, Avani, Abigail, Abigail Pro, Odyssey HD, Creative SB Play 4, Fosi DS1, Jcally JM60
Among all these Dongles, one Dongle has given me the most musical enjoyment and the other is insane value
Ibasso DC03 Pro has given me the most musical enjoyment and Creative SB Play 4 is the insane value. Waiting for my Shan UA4 to arrive. Lets see how that goes! I should have kept my DC03 Pro but sold it off, errggh!!
how was the ua4, better than the dc03 pro?
@@paxywayy UA4 is better in features, like it has play/paus, skip tracks etc even for balanced mode and is more powerful but sound wise , I liked DC03 Pro. You may also check out Fosi DS1, it is heavy and gets a bit warm but it is the most lively sounding dongle among all those I have mentioned above
Hi Andy, I just purchased the DC04 and the M1P due to your reviews, they both are great (first dongles I have, previous experience just the QuadDac of the LG G7 and V60, do you recommend me to get this UA4 as a third dongle in order to have a different sound signature? I mean, to heard some difference between this and the ones I have, right now is about the same price as the others two in Aliexpress, thanx
Thanks. Yes I would say that UA4 offers different sound tuning compared to DC04Pro and M1P so if you looking for variety, I'd say go for it!
@@donglemadness I will, thanks Andy, saludos desde México!
Hi Andy. thanks for another great review.
From sound quality perspective only, for vocal, jazz, slow & relax music, audiophile kind of music, which one do you prefer between UA4, DC04pro and KA13? And why?
Btw, sorry to put the following question here (instead of in the KA13 review) but I'm quite intrigue with the power of KA13, it has double power capacity compared to UA4 and DC04Pro. Makes it has more headroom, and made the other two seems to has "less power". I understand that you've mentioned that anything with 4v and above 200mW should be enough to drive most IEM.
But if you have "less" headroom, and you push up the volume, will it relative easier to distort the "less powered" dongle? Something like if you compared the KA13 with the Burson? Or perhaps like in this UA4 "over engineered" power? ;)
Thanks and cheers.
Strictly between the three you mentioned, easy for me to always pick DC04Pro. It is just the sort of sound I love, analog, airy and open (I listen to a lot of Jazz and Bluegrass). Yes DC04Pro may not be as acute with sharp imaging and resolution of UA4, but DC04Pro is already exceedingly resolving for my listening equipment.
I am not sure what you are driving, but I am repeating myself like a broken recorder here, the majority of 2-4 Vrms dongles can satisfy the need for all IEMs, many of them are even so very adept at full sized headphones. The one concerns me more is synergy factor, that will determine the output quality or characteristics. If you are driving a 125dB 16 Ohm hybrid on KA13 or UA4 and activate high gain, chances are good you will distort the sound at certain threshold if you need louder output, this is why you will always see me preferring high impedance and low sensitivity IEMs, because they scale really well with more power. I know that IEMs like Campfire and a few brand like to make super sensitive IEMs, these sort of stuff would even sounded great even with 1 Vrms JCally JM7 or CX31993
@@donglemadness Wow. Thanks for a quick and impressive feedback. It's clear for me now. And this might be a great guideline for my first dongle purchase. Once again, thanks and cheers.
@@pickcick1580 No worries
which one has more detailed sound?ka17 vs ua4 vs dc06 pro
All three of them are tuned to be highly analytical and detailed, they all runs on ESS Sabre high end DAC so you can expect equal resolution and imaging from all three, just like many other recent dongles that are tuned to be highly techinical
Nice detailed video.
I am sold on functionality, iOS, wide sounding, MQA & price 😉, would save up for this dac. Or if you have something more suitable for my priorities do let me know 😉.
Get this one bro, will suit you perfectly
+ Dear Andy, thank you for your detailed review videos. I slowly grow to like your videos more and more due to how sophisticate they are and the comparison chart in the end is the cherry on top for me. As a non-audiophile and average consumer of tech but very nitpicking, your videos are a blessing for me to make the right decision.
+ However I have a decision to make that will require a bit more information from someone who owned and heavily tested the 2 dongles: Shanling UA4 and the Ibasso DC04 Pro.
+ Recently, I upgraded my iems from the (neutral) 7hz Zero to the (not too V-shaped planar and easy to drive) Nice HCK F1 Pro with a 4.4 BAL cable option ( hope you will review it along side the Artti T10). I want to buy a dongle to I can use the F1 Pro's 4.4 BAL cable.
* From my research on reddit and other websites:
- The UA4 has a few issues: A noticeable 4.4 mm output noise floor, delays when press the multimedia buttons, it also eats 0,1 sec when change songs and/or gets buggy and doesn't work. Cheaper by costing ~78$
- While the DC04 Pro so far only has the loosely type c port. Pricy by costing ~106$
- I like the UA4 by its features, looks, build, the screen is great too. But those highlight features are buggy like I mentioned above. The DC04 Pro is already a well established rock-solid 5 stars option, natural tuning which is more to my liking, but cost a bit more. I can go to the official store to test these too products but it only going to clear things out a bit, these 2 both have 90 scores rating. Being my first dongle and I can only get 1 of them due to how expensive this is to me, I don't mind paying more for the DC04 Pro due to how it is tuned and abilities to perform. I can get DC04 pro for a good price on Shopee, hard to get it fixed if its got faulty, but I trust the solid quality of the DC04 Pro.
- My question to you is, with the tuning of the Nice HCK F1 Pro Iems, which dongle would be best to drive it, make what the F1 Pro does well even better and have you personally experience any problems with the both of these dongles.
Thank you very much for everything, Andy.
Thanks for the support!. I personally haven't tried F1 Pro so I would have no idea how it is.
I personally never find any of the issues with floor noises on UA4 otherwise I would have not rated it highly, and I do not find the issues mentioned being a deal breaker either. You can nitpick on anything if you wish to, that's the nature of us humans.
The issue on DC04Pro USB port however is real and worrying. My own DC04Pro now only usable after I super glued it permanently with a USB C cable to prevent it getting loose and losing connection signals - not good at all.
If I may, for ease of mind, just go for EPZ TP50 which is the one I use regularly on daily basis and serves as my primary dongle now over 170 other dongles I have in my collection, even my all-time champ of FC6 is getting lesser usage time now since I have TP50. I always recommend what I personally use, and I stand behind TP50 firmly
@@donglemadness thank you for your recommendation, Andy. I'll go to the official shop soon to test out all 3 dongles you mentioned, I hope you will give the Nice HCK F1 pro and the artti t10 a try in your future vids (no rush, I appreciate your vids either way). Hope you have a nice day.
Hi Andy.
Will there be Rose Technics newly launched RZ-500 DAC dongle review anytime soon?
I hope so
The actual power output of UA4 is
3.5 mm - 2.1 V, 137 mw
4.4 bal - 2.7 V, 211 mw
As per original info... correct me if i am wrong. Thank you..
Thanks
@@donglemadness Hi Andy, Kindly help me to choose a best DAC... my options are.. Fiio ka13, DCO4PRO, Shanling UA4 (If there is any other plz mention..). I also have a concern about ibasso dco4 pro, that some guys are complaining about usb c jack, it seems loose... my first choice is ibasso dco4 pro actually. Kindly suggest me plzz asap. Also, Thanks a Ton for your great reviews. Thanks in advance.
@@R_Mahesh5 Your concerns on DC04Pro USB integrity is well founded, and due to this if that worries you, then just get something like UA4 or Colorfly CDA-M1P, both of which are very robust of build and will last for a long time, any one of them is great
@@donglemadness Thanks Andy
How much better is the sound stage on the DC04Pro compared to this? I know you said it's better but maybe a % will help me understand more. Thanks!
It is like 10% wider and more open and airy too for DC04Pro vs this UA4, rough estimation.
@@donglemadnessThank you for the reply! Really struggling between these two lol. What would you say the UA4 does better then the DC04pro and vice verse?
@@MobuFPS The biggest difference is the tuning, DC04Pro is something I like more for being closer to analog sound, but I know for people who like crisp Hi-Fi sort of presentation, UA4 would appear more compelling. So you could say UA4 offer sharper imaging versus the smoother edged presentation of DC04Pro. All in all you are asking me to say which of the two pristine diamonds worse than the other and I can't give you a proper answer because both really are amazing with their strength and character.
@@donglemadness Think I'm gonna go with the DC04pro based off what you're saying :) Happy Holidays and thank you again!
Andy shanling ua4 or colorfly m1p which have more lush warmer smoother denser sound?
M1P
Thank You !!!!!!!!
My pleasure!
you should be aware that SAMSUNG A35 5G is INCOMPATIBLE with this device. Shanling ua4 works fine with 2 of my Samsung tablets but not with A35 mobile phone. The message I get is something related to "HIGH POWER USB DEVICE CONNECTED impossible to connect..."
Hi andy, i have read on headfi that the noise floor is really bad on the 4.4 output, how does it behave with very picky iems (like the shouer s12)?
On the contrary my unit here is super clean even with highly sensitive hybrid IEMs with 16 Ohm and 125dB of sensitivity, let alone S12 which is a planar that has higher tolerance to noises. No issues at all for me
You read troll comment there
Hi Andy! I noticed that you and I have the same tastes and preferences. And I would like to know from you which filter by number is better to use in
DAC Shanling ua4 ?
The funny thing is, UA4 filters don't do much to the sound, so I practically pay no heed anymore which filters I use. Some dongles offer effective filters, some don't
@@donglemadness Thanks Andy!
Bought this on your recommendation. Make my Dunu FU sing now to hook it up to Pula PA02 or pull the trigger on Hype 4... Hmmmmm
Thats awesome. Enjoy your music!
I had sold my DC04 Pro so just now ordered Shan UA4
Its price to performance score should be 10 instead of 9 as it costs much lower than DC04 Pro
So my new shiny Shan UA4 should get 91 score surpassing that old uncle DC04 Pro 😁😁
I have seen more than one person on HifiGo saying that there is a white noise problem in the 4.4 mm port of this dongle. Can you say anything about this issue? Have you experienced it?
I can confirm I am not hearing it even with the most sensitive IEMs I have with me
@@donglemadness Thank you for your quick reply. 🙏
hi, i have the shanling up4 22 and my headphones are: denon d5200, mangrid tea mk1, simgot em6l and gizaudio chopin. Do you recommend the ua4 over the up4? Sometimes with the denon a bit of more power could be helpful, i use spotify and tidal as music source
It would be hard for me to compare UP4 vs UA4, I never tried UP4. But if power you looking for, UA4 has it
@@donglemadness thanks, is this dongle also power enough to drive properly a sennheiser hd600?
Hi andy, would you recommend this over the dc06 Pro , and which one would drive planners like kiwi ears melody with more power?
Have a look at section 19:00 and you decide which one suits you more? UA4 and DC06Pro pretty much offer similar highly technical sound, ultimately the decision is for you to make because it is meant for your hearing, not mine or anyone else. As I always mentioned before, any current crop of dongles that offer 2-4 Vrms of power especially with rating of 200mW and more, they are more than capable to drive planars, not just IEMs, but full sized planars like the one you see I tested regularly in my videos, Fostex T40RP MK3 which is among the most difficult to drive planar headphones, way 2x harder than most planar IEMs, so no worries on that, UA4 is just one of the many powerful dongle to choose from, and again I stress the word "many"
Using this dongle on uapp the song get cut at the start of playback, using other dongle like jcally jm6 i got no cut. But when i adjust dac warm up in setting i dont get cut. Do you think uapp is faulty or the dongle is faulty?
More likely a settings need to be be tuned in UAPP. You have to remember JM6 is much simpler and probably running on UAC1, your UA4 could be on UAC2 mode with more complex settings and thus superior too. I haven't used UAPP for quite a while so it is hard for me to say what you should check, but I am sure it has something to do with UAPP settings
@@donglemadness thanks for the reply.
what player did you use?
Andy..
i own ibasso dco3 pro
now i planning to buy Shn Ua4.
what do you think?
I want a different sound tuning
Between DC03Pro and UA4, not much different tuning. If you really want something different, more neutral and transparent, then go for iBasso DC04Pro or ONIX Alpha XI
I already bought Onix Alpha,
it's worth it..
Thank,
Andy ❤️
I want to Buy this Dac for my Kiwi Quintet and MOONDROP Variations how will they PERFORM WITH THIS DAC...Thank you For this reviw👏👏
Yes of course, they will synergize great
@@donglemadness Cool Thank you 🫡for quick reply 👏Loving your Review Man
Is there a cheaper product with a neutral tone similar to Ru7?
Yes, DAWN Pro is neutral, so does SHIO, Space and many other CS series dongles. But to get the closest to neutral/natural timbre to RU7, that would be DC04Pro
Prefer m Which one do you prefer, Shanling U4 or M1P for All Rounder, but I often play pop songs, slow rock and metal, I use msr7se headphones
If you are asking my own personal preferences, then M1P is what I prefer more. M1P works better for my own personal taste and the type of music and gears I use
Hi bro. i never tried much dongle before. My 1st and last usage was VE Odyssey HD wayback 2020 until i switch to LG G7 and G8 as primary player. How will you compare this UA4 to LG's Quad DAC? Does UA4 will give improvement to my earbuds and IEM in terms of sound quality? i'm only using ve monk go final, eb2s pro and hzsound heart mirror only. I'm also planning to get planar iem or headphone like HE400SE
I have LG V35 and V50, from my own experience, UA4 and many other dongle rated 4 Stars and above are superior than both of my LG V35 and V50. So I can tell you now that UA4 being 5 Star rated is definitely better than any LG Quad DAC
@@donglemadness thanks bro for your great review, being helpful and responsive to your subscribers 👍🏼
I just realised you have an interesting fan setup for your PC 😂
Lol. It was customised to help with cooling even better. 6 fans now not including GPU fans
Nice. Can you compare this to btr15 in your next review?
Thanks. Yes I can do that
@@donglemadness thanks, i want to buy btr15 since it has Bluetooth. But want to know if ua4 has better sound since it is cheaper. Read thru headfi and saw some user complaining about background noise on the 4.4mm. can you confirm it?
@@AhmadGhaziA No, I tried with 16 Ohm, 125 dB sensitivity IEM of Kimura Duo which is very sensitive and I don't hear any floor noises from the 4.4mm BAL
@@donglemadness nice. Some unit qc issue then.
@@AhmadGhaziA i buy the UA4 today, at first i tried it at my phone iQoo 8pro, there is no background noise happen at 3.5mm( KZ DQ6) or 4.4mm( Ananda Nano), but in pc side there happen on 4.4mm on some songs on foobar2000 and Tidal , after i update the firmware that release from shanling official side, on pc foobar side both dsd and pcm songs are no noise zuo, but on pc tidal side will happen some times at beggining of the some songs
Which of these two has a wider soundstage, DC04 or Shio?
Very close, but DC04Pro is a bit more with width
What would be your highest rec currently for the best timbre dongle, but does not sacrifice air, staging, and dynamics?
By best timbre for me, I would want to avoid the upper-mids grain feeling alot of the hifi dacs have (usually the Cirrus Logic ones). But not over-compensating too much and feels too unsharp like the ru6.
Something with all the strengths of the Cirrus Logic stuff but without that digital upper-mids/lower-treble feeling.
That would be HIBY FC6 or CEntance DACPort HD for the very best of the best on timbre & dynamic presentation. However for air and staging, I will have to give it to L&P W4, Cayin RU7 and iBasso DC04Pro. Well, can't have everything perfect yet in a single package do we? lol. My ultimate dongle would be a fusion of FC6 sound with RU7/W4 wide open staging (not that FC6 or DACport HD being narrow, RU7/W4/DC04Pro just happen to be a tad wider)
hi andy, will there be a review of the tempotec sonata bhd pro?
I am trying to get one for me to test and review
When you get it, update to the latest version, the sound is much better.
@@user-qm9wr3kn2y Will do, thanks
Hello Andy
I have iBasso DX90 audio player. So, I carry two devices: my smartphone and this player, which is not really convinient. If I buy one of dongle DACs, what should I expect? An increase in sound quality or a decrease?
Most reviews do comparisons within the same category: a dongle DAC vs. another dongle DAC. It would be nice to have reviews across device categories such as a dongle DAC vs. a dedicated audio player.
PS: Are you from Malaysia?
I personally never tried DX90 so I have no idea how does it compares with dongles. But if you are wondering how dongles perform, since 2021 especially, I have stopped using expensive DAPs like Cayin N3 Pro and Cayin N6 both of which are well over RM6K combined in value because I like the sound more from high performing dongles like Hidizs S9Pro or Ovidius B1 at that time. And yes you can imagine now, 4 years later how much improved dongles are.
I am based in Selanngor, btw. A Malaysian
@@donglemadness Thanks for your information. I'll consider it. Unfortunately, I don't have friends who I could borrow such dongle devices from for comparing against my audio player. I can buy based on reviews only, but it's just hard for me to imagine that such a tiny thing can accommodate all these electronics needed for high-quality sound. If it were possible, then how come audio players are still continued to be produced to be so big?
Also, I guess dongles are not the only thing that have improved since 2021, audio players have also improved since that, haven't they?
I live in Russia, but I currently work at a Malaysian company. Most Malaysians that I work with come from Sibu, Sarawak.
Do you really listen to Satyricon? I thought that people in Malaysia never even heard about existence of such bands.
which will be better in terms of sound quality, BTR 15 or UA4?
I am still testing BTR15, so I can't draw verdict on that one yet. Very soon BTR15 review will be out
Have you already tried The New TempoTec Sonata BHD-DSD (non-Pro NO-MQA) ?
I hope to do that soon. Heard so many great things about it
Shanling UA4 or EPZ TP50, which one is more suitable to unlock the driver's potential of the EA500LM?
Both, UA4 if you want a more crispy edged sound, TP50 for more natural analog timbre and smoothness, technically both are equal
@@donglemadness thanks master
OUTPUT POWER 2.1V@32Ω (137mW@32Ω) for SE
How does this dongle work for gaming? Does it work well with the mic?
Gaming wise is it one of the best, great crisp and precise imaging and spatial staging, but like many other dongles of this size, they don't support inline MIC
i am curious abt your price/performance chart. they seem to not reflecting based on your sound category. you see ru7 is abt 2x price of dc04pro, with about 2 point differences, but you score their price/performance to be the same?
The's a mechanic to it. It depends on the level of sound and performance they offer together with other elements combined and if I feel that they deserve the price tag, then the rating for value will be higher, Like RU7 is running on exotic tech 1 Bit DSD DAC which is exceedingly difficult to implement in such size, so the tech behind it and the fact that it was implemented successfully, justify the price
@@donglemadness seems like you percieve it based on many things so i can approve it. Peace mate
Hey Boss, would you please review Shanling EC Mini CD player and DAC ? which cost $360 !!
I would love to. Thanks
I already own UA2, should I get this? If I do, can I expect any difference?
UA2 is markedly warmer and more natural sounding, UA4 is a bit brighter and more analytical. So yes it will be different and technically UA4 is superior than UA2
UA4 or fiio ka5? Both currently very good price on Ali express sales
UA4 would be the one I would get for the same price
I have a cx-pro 31993 that broke down and was thinking of buying a jm6pro, cx-pro 31993 I liked the sound energetic low tones and bass, are there any other small dac solutions
Have a look at my video here: czcams.com/video/H3CX9S08rPk/video.htmlsi=cSxtLitSs_V20eck I think you will find MEIZU dongles has better build for the size you looking for
I looked and the choice fell on Meizu
Questyle M15 vs Shanling ua4 vs Fiio ka13 vs fiio ka17?
I want to know your opinion!!
I know it's annoying but i still want to know😊
I don't don't have KA17 so I don't know yet. As for M15, UA4 and KA13, you are asking me to condense a 15 minutes review each into one reply, to give you a condensed view on my opinion on them have a look here at how I rate them: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eKvWteIUUp61kpZcjRSxVI6NtllHzVos/edit?fbclid=IwAR38Rw8O7zNaMc9eQXHZ9NrMHECTMq5VhFMtuAE3s4avu52kbSvkcdCA2XM&pli=1#gid=371576178
Reseñas en head-fi indican ruido de fondo (noise floor) evidente en salida balanceada, asi como silencio automático que recorta las pistas unos milisegundos para enmascarar dicho noise floor. Has encontrado algo al respecto durante tu reseña? Gracias.
No, I tried with 16 Ohm, 125 dB sensitivity IEM of Kimura Duo which is very sensitive and I don't hear any floor noises from the 4.4mm BAL
@@donglemadness Gracias por responder y por tu reseña.
ua4 vs questyle m15, which one can retrieve more details and has higher resolution in general?
About the same, just that UA4 has sharper approach to it. Otherwise both resolves macro and micro details equally, just like other 5 Star rated dongles, we are talking about marginal differences here between the top guns
@@donglemadness awesome, thanks for ur prompt reply, this makes my decision making alot easier now since ua4 in my country is much cheaper than the m15. Ur da best !!
sir, what third party type c to type c cable do you recommend??? and how many lengths of cable are needed??
Please, no need for sir, thanks. The stock cable is already very good, the only reason you want to change it if you need longer cables and most OTG cable will do the job properly, look for anything that says USB 3.0 and you should be getting the best feed of power from the source especially phones or PC with USB 3.0 PD
@@donglemadness thank you very much
Can you adjust everything on the lcd screen? I have a iPhone lol mainly gonna use it for IEMs and pc gaming. Trying to decide between this or the moondrop dawn pro
Adjust everything? what is your definition of everything? as far as I can tell, what I have shown in this video of UA4 LCD display and function buttons are what you can do with it, and as noted, it also happens to be one of the most feature packed dongle beside L&P W4 or Colorfly CDA M2 (dongles with LCD and controls). DAWN Pro is a lot simpler. For gaming I would choose UA4 over DAWN Pro as it has slight advantage on spatial imaging
@@donglemadness I was just worried I wouldn’t be able to change gain or the filter without having it hooked up to a android phone I appreciate the response a friend recommended your videos and I’m glad he did
@@B9W4N No worries, it will remember the settings
What filter to use for the MP145 silver nozzle with balanced tips
MP145 always better with any type of Linear Slow Roll Off
@@donglemadness OK , thank you !
I’m new to this portal dac world and I have the m50x Bluetooth headphones but I want to start plugging them into my iPhone will this dongle support those headphones if not what would you suggest getting. I tried the official apple dongle but weren’t loud enough even at full volume. Im looking for something in the sub 200 dollar range
If you plan to use on the cable and attach to a dongle, yes UA4 has the power you seek. Just make sure you run on High Gain mode and preferable your headphone can be swapped to a 4.4mm BAL cable to utilize 100% of what UA4 can offer
Thank you for the reply. What about the ibasso dc04? How would you recommend I use that one?
How does it compare to the KA13 you reviewed recently?
UA4 has stronger dynamic resolution compared to KA13
shanling ua4 didn't work on my samsung a54 and i get a notification that says "high power usb device connected, cannot access to this device, connected device needs an external power supply". but works fine on my iphone 8 with an otg adapter. i don't know what's causing the problem, i think the usb power in my a54 is very low? (and i only attached the 3.5 se output one not the 4.4)
I think it is what it is when your phone actually indicating unable to provide ample power. But I would say that's odd for an Android device. Usually they work well for newer phones released after 2020
@@donglemadness i think so, it's a kinda safety feature in my phone also. i think using Y splitter like ibasso cb19 will work then bc the power source is separated.
and i ended up got a tempotec sonata bhd (non pro version) 😅
@@DevaraAlvianB UA4 works fine on my S20FE 5G
@@sorcerermax5111 i tried it again at local audio dealership with xduoo c to c l shaped cable and it works fine. the cable is the culprit here.
where wuld the qudelix 5k stand in the timbre siganture chart?
I would know once I have it in my hand, for now I have no idea
Qudelix 5k is dark and unsharp. Less staging. Despite being an ESS setup. Qudelix 5k is a good pairing with brighter iems.
Only main strength of the Qudelix 5k is that I has no upper-mids digital glare feeling.
Hi Andy! What is your opinion UA4 vs RU7 in sound quality ?
Technically they are similar but RU7 is better with staging width, openess and air. RU7 is also more analog while UA4 less analog sounding, as noted in my review, more of ESS Sabre sort of tuning (but done in a very mature way). You need to figure out which sound tuning you like more
Will analog sound benefit EDM/breakbeat kind of music?
@@alimsantoso5494 For electronic music, it probably would not make a difference as they are already digital sounding. But if you listen to Classical, Jazz, Folk, Acoustic and Instrumental music, being analog sounding means being natural realistic with the timbre and to some people that is very important
@@donglemadness Thanks Andy! Goodluck 👍
hi
I am from India I currently using fiio btr 5 pls suggest me colorrfly m1p or ibasso dc 4 pro or Shanling Ua 4 Mostly i listen Bollywood slow songs which DAC will be perfect for me Thank you.
Close your eyes and pick any one of them, all three are already 5 Star rated and I don't see you being disappointed with any one of them. All of them very versatile for any type of music, boils down to just which feature you need more. They are all great
@@donglemadness
Sir pls I am troubling you to pls suggest me a IEM under 100 dollars or how is thruthear HEXA. thank you ANDY SIIR
@@nileshtrivedi1576 Please don't call me sir. Thanks. For $100 I recommend get Simgot EA500 or Oriveti OD100 or Kefine Klanar
Si ua4 pro todavía no es igual de ancho que ibasso dc-04pro, entonces¿Cómo se compara con cda m1p en lo ancho y hacia el frente?ademas uno tiene 9 y el otro 10 es por diferencia en micro detalle?.
M1P is not as wide as DC04Pro too, but at least it sounded more open than UA4. 10 because UA4 has sharper imaging and resolution, including micro details
@@donglemadness en detalle que tanto porcentaje es?
@@andresvr8357 Details are the same, it is just UA4 as I mentioned sounded sharper, DC04Pro sounded smoother, but they are equally detailed
Shanling UA4 vs Aful SnowyNight
Which one will be your pick ?
Similarly priced at my place
Artti T10 planar iems to pair with
I would pick UA4 because it offers lots of features which you will not find on Snowy night, UA4 is also more technical
Hello Andy, how to use USB exclusive mode? Thank you.
You can do that using HIBY Music App or UAPP Bitperfect on Android. I did a video on how to do this here: czcams.com/video/1TpfJw1YJmY/video.htmlsi=RJhZFBR97LXs0q3d
Some other apps like Tidal also have exclusive mode. Just connect the dongle via usb and a window will appear for you to accept and connect in exclusive mode.
@@JoseFerreira-zb7wh thank you for the information.. How about apple music?
@@cs11mu don't know, never used.
hi Andy @@donglemadness when I use the USB exclusive mode using shanling ua4 the playback button does not work. only the volume controller work. have you encounter the ssame problem? I'm using redmi k60 pro as source
Does it work in exclusive mode with Tidal? Mine doesn't. It does, but it resamples to 48khz.
Yes it worked for me, always Tidal exclusive mode. But I have no idea why it always resample to 48khz for you. Perhaps best to check with Shanling support
@@donglemadness i tried with other gear and the sample rate is now 96khz. But i what i have contracted is 44.1 max. 😂 Something is definitely wrong.
@@donglemadness also tried with another phone and the same happened. Then i tried with different dac. Same. I can only see the problem is with Tidal app. If i try hiby or uapp it's 44.1, bit perfect.
Me also have this problem with apple music and my local music files. Display always showing 48khz
@@VishnuTVenu maybe it's a compatibility issue...but i've tried with a Xiaomi and Samsung phone and both display 48khz. I also tried a tablet from other brand, it also resampled. Strange... When i'm on the go i like to use tidal offline/ downloaded content and it's when i use dongles so it's a huge problem for me. I Guess this is where my dongle oddissey ends.
Hey andy, can you help me choose between ua4 or cda m1p? Is it worth spending a bit more for u4s? Or is m1p good enough? I have a strict budget but I can pay more if it's worth
If you already have M1P, you already have one of the best. The only reason you want UA4 if you need a different sound tuning of which M1P is truthfully analog yet analytical (similar to HIBY FC6), and UA4 is mostly ESS Sabre sort of analytical tuning, focus a lot on technicalities but not so much on analog timbre. Also if you like to have nice features on the dongle controls, UA4 has it where M1P is super simple
Thanks for your answer, i think now i know which one to get
Is Shanling UA4 better than Fiio KA13?
Better? not that straight forward. KA13 has a lot of power and more neutral tuning. UA4 is tuned slightly different to focus on resolution crispness and analytical imaging, but I would say KA13 will be more musical
@@donglemadness In my country KA13 costs 70 USD and UA4 costs 82 USD. I am using Truthear Nova IEM, can you advise me which dongle to buy to use with Truthear Nova? Or any other dongle under $100 for use with the Truthear Nova IEM.
Thanks for the answer.
@@HuyNguyen-mr9to Nova does not need power, it is one of the most efficient IEMs with 14.8 Ohm and 123 dB, those are crazily sensitive numbers for IEMs. So KA13 or even UA4 sheer power can almost be overkill for it. I would say that try to get 2 Vrms dongles instead, something like iBasso DC03Pro or even 1 Vrms JCally JM7. Otherwise UA4 is still a good option especially if you plan to upgrade your IEMs later, just run it on 3.5mm and Low gain and you should be good
Hi Andy, I need your suggestion, I have EW200 and I want to buy a DAC dongle, what do you prefer between dc04 pro and ua4 for EW200 iem?
For EW200 both UA4 and DC04Pro are excellent really, so you can't go wrong with any one of them. The difference, DC04Pro offers wider soundstage and airy decays, UA4 offer a bit more energy and crisp imaging but not as analog sounding as DC04Pro, so you decide which type of presentation you like more
@@donglemadness Thank you Andy for your explanation
@@donglemadness But, in UA4, the soundstage of EW200 will improve or not?
@@muhamadsugiharto2141 Just normal
@@donglemadness Which one gives warmer sound in EW200?
btr15 or ua4 ?
If you need LDAC and prefer neutral/natural sound, BTR15 is better. UA4 is less organic but very analytical, and runs on USB only
Do this dong support Nintendo switch?
If you referring to UAC1 mode, yes. I believe Switch need UAC1
SNR -- SE 124dB@32Ω AND BA 120dB@32Ω
better than shanling ua4?
Better than Shanling UA4?, which dongle you asking to compare to?
@@donglemadness sorry, I had the shanling in mind but I wanted to ask if it is better than the hidiz s9 pro plus
Thank you for your response despite the confusion.
Hi there Andy.
Yesterday, I came across a budget DAC dongle JCALLY JM6.
However, it have 2 versions:
3.5mm unbalanced CX31993 chip & 4.4mm balanced CX31988 chip.
Is 4.4mm balanced version really powerful in output than 3.5mm as both uses different CX chipsets or is it just for ease of use?
Regardless of the jack size, the internals are the same. So, same power
compare it to the fiio ka5
UA4 is a bit more resolving and stronger/sharper with details imaging
@@donglemadness yeah, my new Shan UA4, has to be good :) It will arrive on Monday for me. But I guess ESS DAC cuts the notes short as usual so it won't have much air. Not much air in notes means it may not be that musical and emotional but would have better technicalities
😂 "Promo sm"