When you ask most Head-Fi readers about purchasing a USB stick like device for computer audio; they will generally talk about the Dragonfly family. Bracketed in between the two key Dragonfly unit prices comes the Shanling UP. Priced at $150, it offers a smooth sound and easy to set up PCM playback. If you want to turn your smartphone into a DAP you can add this unit and be off to the races.
For Apple users, you do not need to purchase the Apple CCK device ($40 for the latest version). The device has Mfi built in.
So let's explore both use cases; computers and smart phone.
Computer: The generic Shanling USB driver is easy to install on Windows 10 as it is digitally signed. The download for the USB driver seems to be corrupted for the UP; but you can download any of the Shanling USB drivers and they all work with this device. With the MAC no drivers are needed. How does it sound? With PCM, I found it smooth and powerful enough for my IEMs. But then again I no longer have any inefficient IEMs so that is not much of a test. It sounded good with the FLC8S and the Carbo Tenore. I did not test my LZ-A2 with this but that is fairly efficient also.
What about DSD? I was finally able to get this to work properly with FOOBAR and JRiver. It required quite a bit of fiddling with ASIO drivers to get this work properly. At first with JRiver the volume controls were inoperative. I switched from WASAPI to ASIO and then it started to work well. I got the idea for using ASIO from the FOOBAR support sites. I was also able to get FOOBAR to work witht the device after installing the needed ASIO and DSD plugins.
iPhone: I played back PCM and DSD files using my favorite swiss army knife media apps; NPlayer. I also used Nplayer to play a home converted video of live Rolling Stones (Marquee club to be precise). Yes, Handbrake can be your friend for those conversions. Everything sounded clean and correct; and better than the native iphone sound. Now the iphone has okay sound; but i don't think it is particularly smooth and certainly lacks in bass punch. The Shanling UP solved those problems.
The downside? Plugging right into the phone, the UP can suck power from the phone at a rapid rate. I would bet that phone power time is cut by more than 50% when using this device. I also had to reboot the phone once to get the device to work.
Using with M1: For gins and giggles I tried hooking up the USB C to USB C connector to the M1 and the UP. The idea was that many people are using the M1 as a transport; so why not a transport to the UP? Anyway, I did not get this working. Granted, I spent more time trying to get DSD working o the PC and did not have the patience to troubleshoot this very hard. I really do not know why it did not work.
Conclusion:
So why buy this thing? I think it would appeal to the road warrior that wants to minimize the number of devices used when travelling. For that context, it is great. If you don't mind multiple devices; a dedicated DAP may be the ticket. For example, my Shanling M2 can also be used as a DAC/AMP with the Apple Camera Connecting kit. So that is a much bigger setup. The effective cost is $90 higher; $50 more for the M2 vs the UP plus $40 for the Apple CCK. And the CCK needs to be powered to work (power connections are built into the new version of the CCK).
For its purpose, this is a good device and worth considering. It has a similar sound to the Shanling M1. Not as transparent as the M2 or, for that matter, higher end units, but still a nice step up from the built in DACs for most smart phones and computers.
If the "UP" was $50 or even $75 it would be a "no brainer" purchase for the audio gadget buyer. At $150 I think the buyer should carefully think through the merits of a USB stick vs a full on DAP in DAC mode.
For Apple users, you do not need to purchase the Apple CCK device ($40 for the latest version). The device has Mfi built in.
So let's explore both use cases; computers and smart phone.
Computer: The generic Shanling USB driver is easy to install on Windows 10 as it is digitally signed. The download for the USB driver seems to be corrupted for the UP; but you can download any of the Shanling USB drivers and they all work with this device. With the MAC no drivers are needed. How does it sound? With PCM, I found it smooth and powerful enough for my IEMs. But then again I no longer have any inefficient IEMs so that is not much of a test. It sounded good with the FLC8S and the Carbo Tenore. I did not test my LZ-A2 with this but that is fairly efficient also.
What about DSD? I was finally able to get this to work properly with FOOBAR and JRiver. It required quite a bit of fiddling with ASIO drivers to get this work properly. At first with JRiver the volume controls were inoperative. I switched from WASAPI to ASIO and then it started to work well. I got the idea for using ASIO from the FOOBAR support sites. I was also able to get FOOBAR to work witht the device after installing the needed ASIO and DSD plugins.
iPhone: I played back PCM and DSD files using my favorite swiss army knife media apps; NPlayer. I also used Nplayer to play a home converted video of live Rolling Stones (Marquee club to be precise). Yes, Handbrake can be your friend for those conversions. Everything sounded clean and correct; and better than the native iphone sound. Now the iphone has okay sound; but i don't think it is particularly smooth and certainly lacks in bass punch. The Shanling UP solved those problems.
The downside? Plugging right into the phone, the UP can suck power from the phone at a rapid rate. I would bet that phone power time is cut by more than 50% when using this device. I also had to reboot the phone once to get the device to work.
Using with M1: For gins and giggles I tried hooking up the USB C to USB C connector to the M1 and the UP. The idea was that many people are using the M1 as a transport; so why not a transport to the UP? Anyway, I did not get this working. Granted, I spent more time trying to get DSD working o the PC and did not have the patience to troubleshoot this very hard. I really do not know why it did not work.
Conclusion:
So why buy this thing? I think it would appeal to the road warrior that wants to minimize the number of devices used when travelling. For that context, it is great. If you don't mind multiple devices; a dedicated DAP may be the ticket. For example, my Shanling M2 can also be used as a DAC/AMP with the Apple Camera Connecting kit. So that is a much bigger setup. The effective cost is $90 higher; $50 more for the M2 vs the UP plus $40 for the Apple CCK. And the CCK needs to be powered to work (power connections are built into the new version of the CCK).
For its purpose, this is a good device and worth considering. It has a similar sound to the Shanling M1. Not as transparent as the M2 or, for that matter, higher end units, but still a nice step up from the built in DACs for most smart phones and computers.
If the "UP" was $50 or even $75 it would be a "no brainer" purchase for the audio gadget buyer. At $150 I think the buyer should carefully think through the merits of a USB stick vs a full on DAP in DAC mode.