Hi everyone,
Yesterday I got the Shanling EA5 that I bought from a reseller as a demo/reconditioned unit for what I consider a fair price.
I got it to try to see if I could use a single product to replace : the Raspberry Pi4 streamer + Aune X8 DAC + Aune X7 Headphone amp.
So after some hours of using it, here are my impressions.
UNPACKING :
First thing that should be mentioned is that the unit comes in a somewhat deceiving package.
Made of simple brown package and, especially, absolutely no accessories : a USB cable and a power cable.
No manual or instruction, nothing...
For a device that sells for 1000€ I would have expected something a little more attractive here.
Maybe a carrying pouch considering that the device would be perfectly "transportable"...
BUILD QUALITY IMPRESSION
Then you take the EA5 out of it's small wrap bag.
The unit feels like a solid one and the build construction does not seem to be on par with the package
It's a nice, hefty and solid well built unit... that inspires confidence.
FIRST SET-UP
I hooked it up to wall socket and fired it up.
The unit powers up and asks you which langugae you would like to use.
Once done, it asks you what Wi-Fi network to use. You can skip this step should you have an USB to Ethernet adapter.
It should be mentioned that configuring a STATIC IP ADDRESS DOES NOT WORK !
It's a simple, basic function...
Having it not working is somewhat not convincing.
It should also be mentioned that there is no way to install your own apps on the Android version provided. This is also disappointing...
Those features work and are available on even 50 dollars Android boxes. Why not on a device in this price class ?
And it also should be mentioned that, if you try to set the IP address to something "Manually" that SCREWS UP THE ENTIRE DEVICE.
There is no way to hook it up to network with Ethernet once you do this... until you do a factory reset. Come on !
This is simply not tolerable on such a device...
Anyways...
So let's go through the settings : it is here rather simple, there are almost NO SETTINGS.
You can consider that as a nice thing because there is nothing to do wrong (except of course the Network settings...).
Or you can consider it a little disappointing.
Me, I think for such a device, having relatively simple settings is not a problem.
On DAP's with phenomenal number of settings I often endend up not knowing what I cahnged or not and with things not functioning.
So, here it can be considered as OK.
Then it also should be mentioned that the whole GUI is not really super speedy
Here again : SD 430 SoC to power this device ?
I think this is a SoC you find in a 80€ brans new phone with 4G connectivity...
It is not fast, but it is OK anyways... Still on a device which such a price tag, a SD 6xx series SoC would not have been a mistake from the manufacturer.
But OK... Now I am here with a device that I have powered up and configured to work over wired network only.
If I want to play hi-res files, I trust wired network more that wireless...
Let's assume we will only use the provided Shanling Eddict app that you can find on the Google Play Store.
I installed that app on my tablet.
Once done, I tried to connect with the "Wireless projection" option.
I works nicely... Nothing to complain about it here
And I must say that through all the listening process, that option was on and never failed on me.
So I guess in the last Firmware version of the EA5 the instability problem that has been reported by other has been solved (see update above)
What I was unable to find out is what the SyncLink option is made for.
I could pair the EA5 with my phone (but not my tablet as it asks for location services to be turned on even if they are already).
But once paired I did not understand what I could do with that
The interface is a little "messy" at first : you have to find out that you need to press the two floating buttons for a second or two for them to respond to your demand.
Once integrated, navigation is OK.
I can also mention that I have set the GUI to display everything in french and found a hilarious translation error : "Internet Sevice" instead of "Internet SeRvice". Why hilarious ? Because in french "sevice" means "abuse" or "brutality"... Not really a mistake to make !
The scope of the device was to get rid of the Raspberry Pi4.
So I hoped it would be able to stream music directly from my NAS.
The NAS is a QNAP and it serves music over several DMS : Emby, Linn Kazoo and Plex.
I am happy to report that they all are working directly from the Eddict app from Shanling.
You have to know that you have to go on "Home Page" and then select "Internet Service" and in that new window select "NAS".
It lists all avaialble media servers... Just choose your flavor
Good
One thing that I would like to mention though : the display is automatically set to "Alphabetical" and you can't change that.
I like to have my albums sorted by release date. I cannot have that here
Unless I have overseen it...
BUT : that is not really a problem (I'll explain why later).
It should also be mentioned that displaying the artists or the Albums list does not show any image.
But once you begin to play, the "Playing" window display the album cover. It also displays the bitdepth and sampling rate of the played track.
Lovely
It should also be mentioned that if you want to jump from a specifi location inside a played track that is done quickly.
Also a nice and good point to mention
And then there is this nice option that allows to display those magnificent vu-meters, which quite unique
Love it...
So now here, we are.
I have a device that can replace the Raspberry Pi4 quite nicely...
I also tried to see if I could play files over a USB Stick. The answer is "Yes, provided you do things the right way".
That means : format your drive in FAT32 format. If you're lucky, that should work
One last thing about USB files : you should look at "Workarounds" and at "Desired features" for more info
Can it also replace the AUNE X7 headphone amp ?
In other words, if I connect the Shanling EA5 to my headphone amp, will I hear a difference between those ?
I listen to music over 2 different headphones : the Sony MDR-Z7 closed back and the OPPO PM-1 open back.
I have to admit that when I saw the specifications of the EA5 I feared it would be a little insufficient to drive my headphones.
I listen to music with Gain set to Medium. It offers power enough to drive my headphones. Then again they're not the most demandful ones
But in case you're wondering : power seems to be sufficient to drive harder headphones. I am on "Medium" gain and on level 25 out of 100 on sound output.
So I assume even much more demanding headphones will be driven as they should with the EA5.
So from a simple "power" point of view, yes, the EA5 can replace the AUNE S7 headphone amp at least with my headphones.
(EDIT : just ordered an Dan Clark AEON Headphone - Will of course listen with those as soon as they arrive in 2 days)
Now how is the sound of the EA5 compared to the AUNE combo : X8 DAC and X7 Heaphone amp ?
It is of course somewhat difficult to say.
And it should be noticed that the output of the RCA Analog outputs is really low.
I have to crank up level of HP Amp to the max (or almost) to achieve decent volume
What follows is the comparison between EA5 used as streamer + DAC + Headphone amp and the EA5 used as streamer and DAC but to feed the AUNE X7s headphone amp.
[ALMOST COMPLETE - IMPRESSIONS WITH DAN CLARK HP TO COME] :SOUND IMPRESSIONS
Here are my
impressions (no science here)after some listening to my "reference" tracks that are following :
- JAN GARBAREK, In praise of dreams (from "In praise of Dreams" album)
- PINKK FLOYD, Hey You (from "The Wall" album)
- MELISSA ETHERIDGE, Kingdom of Heaven (from "The Awakeing" album)
- LOREENA MCKENNITT, Caravanserai (from the "Night at the Alhambra" album)
- BEETHOVEN, Symphony N. 5, First movement and Symphony N. 7 II, Allegretto (2 versions here : HONECK conducting the Pittsbugh orchestra and VANSKA conducting ghte Minnesota orchestra).
IN PRAISE OF DREAMS :
- EA5 with Oppo PM-1 : This will be the reference line. The track shows a nice contrats between a "mudded" bass ine and the nice mid/treble counter part in saxo and violin and cello. Here we have a nice bass line and a sense of coherence. It sounds like all musicians are playing together... Quite nice. Track has been run 2 times to make sure.
- AUNE with Oppo PM-1 : compared to the previous listening, there is something here that is different. Bass is maybe a little deeper and more controlled. The violin and sax are going a little higher. There's more precision. But that comes with a cost : it sounds like the soundstage is more "separated", slightly less natural. Of course, those are only "impressions" and those can be tricky
- EA5 with Sony MDR-Z7 : let's try this same track with the closed back Sony MDR-Z7. It is immediatly clear that this track is to be heard with a closed back headphone... Or maybe the Oppo PM-1 is not that good ? Anyways, the bass was nicer, you have the impression that you can hear Jan Garbarek's fingers on his sax. And you can hear the nice pulse on the violin a little later...
- AUNE with Sony MDR-Z7 : the same impression that was there before that the AUNE had slightly more details and better separation between instruments is still there, but a little attenuated. Still, that separation sounds a little less natural than the more coherent stage from the EA5. I think that which one you like more is a matter of taste. BUt in any case, both devices sound really nice.
PINK FLOYD, Hey You
- AUNE with Sony MDR-Z7 : given the results in the first track, I took this combination as the reference one here. Sound was really nice, no questions asked. The drums have a really clear and nice attenuation when then first come in the track and the "sonar" at the near end of the track is splendid. I was nevertheless a little disappointed with the high guitar in the middle which should normally rip your ears off (if listened loud enough) and I had the impression it was a little laid back. Still : magnificent...
- EA5 with Sony MDR-Z7: wow... After the AUNE Combination, I thought this would be hard to beat. I was wrong. To my ears, the EA5 is better here : the guitar is as I expected it to be, the somar is at least on par with the AUNE Combination and the drums have the same impact as with the AUNE. It confirms that the AUNE is a tad (but then again, it's small) more detailed, but a little less "natural" sounding to my ears. Again, in both cases, I can live with both sounds and there is no flaw in any of the devices.
- EA5 with Oppo PM-1: now this has been interesting. The Oppo PM-1 clearly gets it's revenge here. The sound was much better to my ears than it was with the Sony. Please do not misread me : it remains more than enjoyable with the Sony... But the "legibility" of the whole track is much better with the open back Oppo that I felt it was with closed back Sony. The level of details at then end of the song was better, the highs of the guitar also...
- AUNE with Oppo PM-1 : exactly the same impression as before. Superb but with that small "laid back" when guitar goes to highs in the middle of the song. Really nice sound but to my ears a little less good than the EA5.
MELISSA ETHERIDGE, "Kingdom of heaven"
The things I will listen to here is the "reverberation" in Melissa Etheridge's voice when she begins to sing. I will also take note of the drum "tonk-tonk" that phrases the song and of course, the guitar solo that is (I assume) supposed to reproduce the deflagration of the waist bomb in the middle of the song... All in all the devices should be able to reproduce the tension of this song which should reflect the lyrics... Let's see
- EA5 with Oppo PM-1 :
- AUNE Oppo PM-1:
- EA5 with Sony MDR-Z7
- AUNE Combination with Sony MDR-Z7
LOREENA MCKENNITT, Caravenserai (and two other songs : Solent Child and The Bonny Swans for the pleasure
What should we pay attention on those tracks ? Of course Loreena's voice, but the quality of this recording gives a lot of details. Especially on the song "The Bonny Swans" you should be able to place guitar player and Violin player exactly where they stand (you can check that on the video from that performance). ON Caravanserai the bass is there but should not eat up the rest of the message and hide a lot of details you can hear there !
- EA5 with Oppo PM-1 : as this is the first reference, I can say that sound is, at first impression, absolutely magnificient. Lorreena's voice is reproduced with a lot of subtleties when she sings louder of when the voice becomes more quiet. Tis particularly spectaculatr on the song "Stolen Child". Guitars and bass are also clearly nicely repdoced without eating up the rest of the audible spectrum. Of course this is all subjective, but I must say that I like what I hear
And I can already say that, should this be the only one device I would be force to keep, it will be absolutely no torture to have to listen to it for hours
Let's see if the AUNE X8 does better... or the Sony headphone
- AUNE with Oppo PM-1 : WOW ! Did not expected that. I must say that I was sure the sound could be improved, but I did not expect it to be on that level
Sorry EA5 ! But here, the more "analytical" sound of the AUNE X7 headphone amp allows to have better sense of space. You can litterally recreate the sound stage. On other recordings, as mentioned before, I found that this aspect lacked a natural side of things. Here it shows how it can sound even better
Don't get me wrong, this does not put the EA5 to shame. The EA5 has slightly more bass (yes... that surprises me either) but sounds less "aerial" (whatever that means to you, it means something to me). So here, if I had to keep the EA5 and get rid of the X8 headphone amp, I know I wouild be able to live with it, but I'll also know that I can reach for better
- AUNE X7 with Sony MDR-Z7 : well, here again, the sound of the MDR-Z7 is really nice, but I think it cannot compete with the Oppo PM-1. Probably because on this live recording the sound needs to escape and the closed back does not allow that as the open back planar of the Oppo does. Not to say the sound is not good. It is obviously really nice. But if you look at the images on the video, you do not have the impression to be at an open air venue like it was. But in a smaller concert hall. Of course, this is again purely subjective...
- EA5 with Sony MDR-Z7 : There are moments when I do not understand the logic of audio devices. As I wrote a little earlier, on this recording, the AUNE X7 did a better job than the EA5 with the Oppo headphones. But here the thing is totally different. That sense of space that was lacking with the AUNE X7 has gone here. You are under the impression that the place where the concert took place is much larger now... Maybe not as large as with the Oppo PM-1, but still, nicely larger than with the AUNE X7. I must say that I did not expected that...
BEETHOVEN 5th and 7th
What to listen here ? Well, I must admit that I am a big fan of Beethoven's symphonies. With time I have been able to collect about 45 different versions of the comllete set and you can add some "partial" recordings". Even though the cycle by Manfred HONECK and the Pittsburgh Orchestra belongs to the second catagory I have good hope he will complete the series with the 3 first symphonies that are missing for now. Because this is really an impressive set. Sound is superlative and this is one of the first times I can feel a real personal interpretation in those monuments of classical music !!! And as the 7th is my all time favorite symphony, I am glad I have VANSKA, with superb recordings and really nice interpretation AND HONECK delivering both those magnificent sets. So now, where will the most pleasure be ?
- EA5 with Oppo PM-1 :
- EA5 with Sony MDR-Z7
- AUNE Combination with Oppo PM-1
- AUNE Combination with Sony MDR-Z7
CONCLUSION
To me the EA5 is a wonderful device for the price I paid for it as a reconditioned unit.
Let's begin with the "Cons".
About the software :
- no real gapless playback from the original Eddict App (the delay between tracks is short, but it still is there
- what is the use of the SyncLink feature ?
- UI not super reactive (but probably hardware related)
- not a lot of options and no ability to install third party software
About the hardware :
- Unit powered by a really old SoC : a SD from the 4xx series
- Display is nice but small and not tiltable (that is now for the EM7, but different price league)
- Seems to be controlled in it's own way and thus not totally compatible with other software to drive it
- Package is a little poor : a carrying pouch would have been nice and the device philosophy.
NOW TO THE "PROS"
- software does not have a lot of options, so you can't get lost
- design is nice and compact (with a large golden button that can not go unnoticed !)
- build quality seems to be serious and you feel confident this unit will last
- nice "totally all-in-one" design : can replace 4/5 different devices (file storage, streamer, DAC, headphone amp, pre-amp, amp)
- related to the previous : you can transport it (too bad there's no pouch to do so in the package)
- the wireless projection works as it should and allows you to control the unit with your phone
- headphone amp part can probably drive about any headphones available on the market
- from what I have heard (even though it remains to be completed) sound quality is good and varies between really good and sublime
[TO BE COMPLETED AFTER SOUND IMPRESSIONS ARE COMPLETE]
WORKAROUNDS FOR THE ENCOUNTERED PROBLEMS :
1°) No configuring of a satic IP Address :
Well, you cannot do that from the device itself.
But you can always give it a fixed IP address from with your router.
That is what I did
You can also use this to rename the device to make it appear as "Shanling EA5" on your network
2°) Better display of Artist/Album info with images
The reports that I made have all been done from the Eddict app.
But the REALLY nice thing about this is that you can use the EA5 as a UPNP Renderer.
So, to have a better presentation of my Artists/Albums/Tracks I can use my tablet with Emby/Linn Kazoo/BubbleUPNPN/HiFiCast or, my favourite one : Symfonium.
You just select the source (NAS) and then redirect the stream to the EA5 which is immediatly detected as a compatible UPNP/DLNA device.
Thus you can have benefit of all the display options of those apps... I found Symfonium, Emby and BubbleUPNP to offer the most abilities, but that is a personal taste.
3°) Not enough power to feed a USB Hard drive
The EA5 does not have enough power over it's USB input to feed anything else than a USB Stick.
I consider this deceiptful because the ad for it's EM5 sibbling says you can just add a USB Drive...
Anyways, there are some USB Hubs out there that will allow you to circumvent this inconvenience.
I have taken a USB-C Hub that adds 4 USB-A ports and also has a USB-C port for power.
I plugged a UBC-cable from a spare phone charger in the latter.
I then plugged in a NVMe drive in an USB enclosure + a hybrid SSHD that is 2TB.
Good thing is, they can both be driven by the USB Port...
Not really elegant, but really convenient should you be on vacation and decide to take the EA5 with you
4°) I would like to be able to drive the EA5 from my computer. That would be an interesting feature. But that is probably not feasible as it is Android stripped powered
You can try to use Emby on your computer.
And send files to the EA5 using Emby on the computer.
It worked flawlessly on Volumio/Moode on the Pi4.
It works on the Shanling EA5... But just for one track. You then have to manually go to the next track which is not convenient.
I think that the Shanling EA5 is not "fully" DLNA/UpNP compliant.
If it works for you, please report as this may be a hardware issue... I can try help you to set the thing up...
DESIRED FEATURES - BUG REPORT) :
1°) FEATURE REQUEST - BUG : GAPLESS PLAYBACK
The Shanling Eddict software does not allow semless gapless playback of files.
The delay between tracks is indeed rather short.
But it is there.
Most of the time that is not a real problem. That is, if you listen to a full album that is a studio recording.
But there a some cases where the absence of gapless playback is a problem. These are the three scenarios where I can thing that is a problem :
- if you listen to a live concert : having a small interruption, even if that is when the public applaudes, is not nice. Listen to Springsteen "On Broadway" and you'll figure the problem soon enough I think
- if you listen to a "concept album". There a not a bunch of those out there. But some of them are real masterpeices. Just to mention two of those : PINK FLOYD : The Wall and Pink FLOYD : The Dark Side of the Moon. Go on dev : listen to those (they're easy enough to find) and listen to those. You'll get my point.
- if you listen to an opera. The album is often split into several and numerous "small" tracks even if they all belong to the same "time and space" in the action. Having a small interruption there is also really a problem.
