Shanling H3 & H3A Portable Hi-Res DAC/AMP with APT-X Bluetooth (ES9018K2M, OPA2134, TPA6120A2)

[nmatheis]

Greetings! 
For a long-time I've been a read-only Headfi user, but now let me jump into the discussion with my impressions of the H3. It has just arrived (purchased it directly from shenzhenaudio), and after the first 30 minutes of listening I can confirm that it sounds beautiful. 
The package contents are identical to the ones shown by nmatheis (thanks for the review, this was the key to my purchase decision). 
I may share my detailed impressions later. My greatest concern for this device is battery life, so I plan to measure it a lot. 

And my planned usage scenario for H3 appears to be uncommon for Head-fi - a want to use it 90% of the time with a Galaxy Note 4 smartphone via Bluetooth/APTx. For other uses I have a stationery DAC and Fiio X5 II. 

I'm glad my review was helpful, and thanks for sharing your experience so far. I'd definitely encourage you to share more detailed impressions and/or write a brief review. The H3 deserves more attention than it gets. And after trying a few products from Shanling, I truly think they're a company to watch.

 

[Zarazka]

Battery life observations:
 
All measurements were done on low gain at around 30% of maximum volume, with B&W P7 headphones attached
1) Playing Google Play Music from a PC via USB connection: 6 hours 10 minutes
2) Same from an iPhone via Bluetooth: 5 hours 21 minutes
3) iPhone via USB: 5 hours 54 minutes. 
So I've got around 6 hours playback at a moderate volume (comfortable for home or office, but not a street), with a low penalty when using BT connection (but not APTx, this I didn't measure yet). 
 
Charging time: Best result I've got is 5 hours 8 minutes. Worst: 5 hours 52 minutes. Tried three different chargers, the best result was achieved using a charger from an iPad. All of the chargers were rated 2A or more. 
Now this is a bit below my expectations. It appears that charging time of the H3 roughly equals play time. It wouldn't be an issue, if the H3 was able to charge itself while playing. But it doesn't. 
 
For a Phone-to-USB connection this is reasonable: a DAC shouldn't drain phone's battery, and on a iPhone a power-consuming DAC won't even work. But for Bluetooth scenario it would be nice to have an option to charge while playing. 
 
It also would be OK, if the total playing time on a single charge was at least 8 hours (or 10). But 6 hours is not enough for my typical full day of listening. And nothing frustrates more than a device shutting down when playing THAT song Possible solutions are (1) larger battery (obviously) (2) Ability to turn USB charging on-off with a selector on a device (3) a separate USB port for charging.
 
Since these options are possible for a future device only, personally I'm thinking of going a DIY way and trying to incorporate a larger battery in the device. For me it's an issue, but the benefit of listening music via this DAC is also very visible. It sounds exceptionally good with my B&W headphones, offering a sound quality similar to my desktop DAC. 

 

[Zarazka]

Bluetooth impressions:
 
Not everything worked as expected, but in the end I was happy with the H3. 
I value comfort and compatibility of my devices no less than good sound. And my initial scenario for the H3 was something like this: use the device as a bluetooth stereo receiver with my smartphone (which is APTx compatible Samsung Galaxy Note 4), to discover new music. I'm a heavy user of Google Music, Bandcamp, Podcasts and internet radio. I was not concerned about the lossy compression of the sound - first, with these services you deal with MP3/AAC anyway, second - I did a test run with my desktop bluetooth/APTx receiver, connected to my home DAC. Switching between lossless feed from a PC and bluetooth feed from a smartphone on the same track I didn't hear a difference. I beleive that lossy medium is less of an issue: what I needed is a good DAC/headphone AMP that actually makes a difference.
 
So here comes the H3, but before making a purchase I was evaluating my options, from Creative E5 (a bit bulky, many features I don't need, but otherwise a good concept) to Chord Hugo (expensive and, what is more important, HUGE for portable use). Made the choice thanks to the H3's good looks, smaller footprint and the choice of a well-regarded ESS DAC and TI headphone amp. 
 
First connection to my Android device was highly dissapointing: sound quality was good, but I experienced frequent dropouts. I did not solve this problem with Galaxy smartphone: looks like that H3 has problems receiving APTx data feed, even if the device is positioned right next to the DAC. I'm not really sure which device to blame, but the Galaxy is working fine with bluetooth/APTx mobile speaker and a desktop receiver. These two devices are used in a different way though: a smartphone and a receiver are not moving against each other that much. When the H3 is in your pocket and the smartphone is in your hand, they are moving all the time. A bit frustrated about that, I tried connecting H3 to an iPhone via Bluetooth and it worked. No dropouts when devices are in direct line of sight, but when something is between them - my hand or my body (tried putting the H3 in my back pocket for example) - music frequently stutters. 
 
What could be the reason? It could be a smartphone being not compatible with the H3's bluetooth module. It could be the choice of full metal enclosure for the H3 with a small window for a bluetooth antenna. Maybe it's just my particular device. So it would be interesting to hear the experience of other people with H3 or other bluetooth DAC about realiability of the connection. 
 
So the final setup is something like this: the H3 is in my pocket (it is small enough to fit in there), iPhone is nearby on the belt. Yes, it works. No, I'm not able to use the iPhone without dropouts. But I'm not using it much for anything except music, so it's fine. And I don't experience a noticeable drop in sound quality with a non-APTx iPhone. 
 
To sum up: If it's not only my device, I feel that the H3 was designed as a portable wired DAC in the first place, and much less effort was invested in making it a perfect wireless DAC. Hence the inability to charge in BT mode, less than ideal reception. The positive side is that the H3 really makes a difference in terms of sound compared to directly plugging my headphones in the iPhone. The change is apparent, and I like the way it sounds. The device matches perfectly with my B&W P7, but a bit less so with Earsonics SM3v2 IEMs. 

 

[nmatheis]

I also found that if something was blocking the window over the Bluetooth receiver, I'd get cutout with my iPhone. If it was line of sight, I had no problems.

Hisoundfi used it with his Android phone (LG?) and was satisfied. Maybe he can comment on connection stability with his phone.

 

[Zarazka]

Connected the H3 with another (but non-APTx) Android smartphone. Works flawlessly even 3 meters between devices. 
With APTx Samsung, even when on a desk next to a DAC I get infrequent dropouts, once or twice every ten minutes. 
It might be an issue with a DAC having problems with APTx for some reason. It might be a smartphone problem, although it works fine with another APTx bluetooth receiver. Additional feedback from an H3 owner using it with APTx smartphone would be very helpful. 

 

[nmatheis]

Good point. As an iPhone user, I'm not able to take advantage of APTx.

 

[nmatheis]

On sale for "singles day" at LMUE: LINK

 

[Zarazka]

APTx update: As I wrote before, I experienced regular dropouts when playing music from my Galaxy Note 4 smartphone via the H3. I just got my hands on a different APTx-enabled device (Sony Z4 Tablet) and can confirm that it plays normal, no dropouts of any kind (granted that the devices are not moving against each other). So it seems that the problem was on the side of Galaxy Note after all, and not Shanling.

 

[nmatheis]

Thanks for confirming Zarazka!

I had some issues with my iPhone 5s + H3 until iOS 9 update when Bluetooth got much more stable. I'm thinking it's usually the transmitter that gives trouble after both of our experiences...

 

[db003206]

Hello everyone. I too bought an H3 based off the reviews I read here and I have to say I am impressed with it as a USB DAC/AMP when connected to my Chromebook or iMac. Where I've been having problems though is when using it either USB OTG or bluetooth with my Galaxy S6.
 
In OTG mode I get quite a bit of "stuttering" -- nothing persistent, but quite regularly it will garble the music for a fraction of a second and it's very distracting. In addition, I can't seem to turn off "charge mode" and as soon as I have it connected to my phone it is draining the battery at a rate of around 15% per hour. Has anyone else figured out how to deal with this? Plugging the headphones and USB cable in at different times doesn't seem to have any affect; as soon as the OTG cable is connected to my phone and the headphones are in, the red charging light comes on on the H3.
 
Using it with bluetooth has a lot of temporary disconnections like other users have been describing but I'm inclined to think this may be a fault with my phone and not the H3.

 

[DeLuX]

I'm interested in this though the Bluetooth seems to be a deal breaker. I want to put my phone in one pocket and the H3 in the other but that doesn't seem doable? I'm i right? The only other option for a product like this seems to be the soundblaster which I'm not to keen on... Any other suggestions? Allso what happened to the review tour of this? There's not much info besides this thread a day the qbus "review"

 

[Shanling]

Congratulations @Zarazka, looking forward to your further sharing of the H3. 

 

[Armaegis]

Hmm, so neither my computer or phone recognizes the device via usb... is there some sort of voodoo I need to do here? at least bluetooth works

 

 

[nmatheis]

  Hmm, so neither my computer or phone recognizes the device via usb... is there some sort of voodoo I need to do here? at least bluetooth works

 

 
Hey, hey! Someone in Canada checking in with the H3. Nice! 
 
Do you have the M3, as well?
 
If you're on Windows, you'll need to install drivers (LINK). If you're on a Mac, it should just work.

 

[Armaegis]

Can you be a little more specific on that link or give me a direct link to the windows download? I can't exactly read that page to find to find the drivers...
 
I've also got the M2 and M3 in house, though haven't played with them yet. The M2 box has a usb stick but my computer can't read that one either