PART 6 : USAGE WITH DLNA
As I wrote in the first part, scope of this device was to have a device that would be an all in one and that could replace my Streamer + DAC + haedphone amp and do it all with a decent level of quality and ease of use and nice ergonomics. So is it something that can be achieved with the EH-3 ?
Let's find out.
And let's begin with Eddict app and then see if we can circumvent that app...
Part 6-a : Using the EH-3 with Eddict software
To use the EH-3 as a really stand alone device (of course not really stand alone because you will need to add a USB drive...
A suggestion : add an internal slot for a SSD or NVMe Drive ? We can dream of it can't we ?
You can of course use Eddict, the in-house app that is provided to compliment the EH-3.
You can use the software in 2 different ways : with Synclink or while selecting the EH-3 as the NAS and then play files to the EH-3 with DLNA.
So let's explore both ways to do it
1°) Eddict with SyncLink
This is quite easy to do but still a little clumsy
Here are the steps :
- launch Eddict (of course)
- in the upper left corner hit the 3 lines icon
- in the drop down menu, select SyncLink
- you will be presented a list of device to connect to
- select EH-3
- you're now linked to the EH-3.
This litterally takes 20 seconds and works really well out of the box...
So why did I mention that this is a little clumsy ?
Well, now you're linked to the EH-3 you'd probably want to hit the small dented wheel next to the EH-3 that is now listed.
Of course you can do that and that will give you access to set-up of EH-3.
BUT you will not be able to access your music and play it from there
To do that you will have to :
- hit the "Back arrow" at the upper left corner of the display
- on the page where you landed hit the "Cross" in the upper right corner
- and then hit "Local music" on the page with all the icons... The other options will not work.
SUGGESTION TO SHANLING : Maybe place a shortcut to "Music" in the "Set-up page" would be a good idea ?
At least this is something I would expect and if I do, there are probaly lots of other people waiting for this too...
But OK, once you are there, you can browse your library...
Sort of
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if you browse by "Track" you are presentend with a list of all tracks on the drive sorted alphabetically ; hardly usable
And this is default. Another sugestion : make at least Albums" the dfault landing point
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if you browse by Artist, it should be usable, provided you made sure your tags do not show up all artists that participated in the album... But that is of course not Eddict's fault, so will not blame the software here... So this might be an option. And good thing is, if you hit "Artist" you are taken to the list of Albums by that artist. Good, that is what is to be expected. And, last but not least, the albums will use the "Disk number" tag and as such display the tracks in the correct order. This is good ! It can be used nicely
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if you browse by Albums, you will have all albums in your library listed in Column view... But with no cover art showing up... Usable if you have about 50 albums in your disk. But with much more, this will come in quite difficult to use... Unless you retag your albums to, i.e. have the name of the artist showing in front of the Album's name. Not really practical to use ;
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you can browse through"Hi res" files... OK. I will for sure not use that so I will not comment on this.
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you can browse through genres ; as the latter, I will not use that. The tags are most of the time out of line and people in charge of tagging music you buy should be blamed for this. SO I will not use that and will therefore not comment on it.
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you can browse through directories. And if you sorted your playlist quite decently, like I do, this may be the best way to do it.
So yes, this is fully functional and deserves to get attention if you want to use the device as a really stand alone device.
There is only one thing missing there : if you enable SyncLink, you will not be able to use any EQ.
So you will have the raw sound. This is not a problem as the sound is really good, but that means you will rely on your headphones sound orientation...
Some may be able to live with it, others less
But if I should give this a mark, I'd probably give it a 8/10 :
- add the cover view while browsing albums
- add cover art while browsing Artists => Albums
- allow to apply some EQ (from the set-up page or anywhere else)
And you'll get a 10/10 for that SyncLink.
Fingers crossed for this to happen...
Nice addition : if you use SyncLink, the cover art is showed on the small display at the front of the EH-3 and shows the bitrate ande sample rate with the artist's name and the track name.
Really, if we could have those 3 things mentioned above (I think the first two are quite easy to add ; no idea about the third one) the EH-3 would be a totally stand-alone player and you can stay in the Shanling Ecosystem and won't have to look elsewhere...
2°) Eddict as both NAS and Renderer
How is this done ?
This is quite simple :
- 1°) start Eddict
- 2°) select "NAS" and then "Search sources"
- 3°) in the offered sources, select EH-3 (obviously)
Once done, you can browse your USB disk hooked up to the EH-3 with Eddict. But that is not superbly convenient.
Is it nice to use ? Some quirks...
First, browsing through the files is really really slow
Second, you can browse by Artist... But for some reason, if you do, you will not get the same result as the one you get with SyncLink.
There, opening an artist would take you to a list of albums by that artist.
Here, opening an artist will take you to a list of tracks by that artist. Sorted by album fortunately.
But that makes the Artist browsing really uncomfortable
So let's stick to the "Dir" tag tha will allow you to browse your music by directories.
Much more convenient, provided you have arranged your content nicely...
Benefits of using this ?
So, now fire up a track.
Once the track is fired, hit the 3 dots and select "DLNA".
Music will be "pushed" to the EH-3 from the EH-3... Really stand-alone is it not ?
There are two really nice things to mention here :
- 1°) the display at the front at the EH-3 will even display the cover art, with track info... Superb ;
- 2°) it will play almost gapless (a small blank between tracks, but probably less than 0.5 seconds).
So what's the catch ?
Of course there is a catch
After 30 seconds or so, Eddict will stop showing what you're playing.
So you do not have any control over the EH-3 with the Eddict player app.
You will have to use the remote control or the hardware buttons on the EH-3.
Again, a really nice feature BUT somewhat turned down by the unreliable aspect of Eddict when used this way (but I assume this is not really how this is meant to be used... and you have SyncLink which is much more convenient to use).
And of course, in this way, there will be no EQ possible