Hi.
I bought a Shanling UA2 to use as a cheap DAC on my desktop, so I could have a balanced 2,5mm output.
My problem with it is that the sound "pops"/fails when doing certain things on the PC, and it's driving me crazy.
Mainly, when I'm using a pdf reader, for instance, it doesn't matter what pdf reader it is, I've tried Acrobat, Foxit, Sumatra, Slim PDF reader, whatever one, when I'm in it while listening to music/watching a video, as soon as I scroll the page up or down, the audio starts failing, and comes back when I stop scrolling. But even stuff that was supposed to be simple, like dragging the mouse cursor on a folder to select multiple items makes the audio "pop".
Needless to say, this doesn't happen when I use the 3,5mm output directly from the motherboard, or when I use the monitor audio output through the display port, or even when I use a cheap, nameless USB-C to 3,5mm unbalanced adapter.
So far I've tried:
- changing the USB port where the DAC is connected (from the USB 3.0 ports to the USB 2.0 and the USB-C port, both front and back ports)
- changing the cable
- using the default driver Windows uses when I plug it in
- removing the Windows driver and installing the lates SHanling drivers for it, dated from May 2022
- connecting it to the PC while holding the "mode" button to make it connect in compatibility USB mode
- upgrade the firmware to v1.92.12, which is the most recent one I found from Shanling, dated from March 2022
I have a Ryzen 5 4650G, and an Asus TUF B550m motherboard with 32 GB memory and Windows installed in a NVMe drive. I'm running Windows 11 on the latest 22H2 version.
Checking task manager when the problem happens, to see if I have a processor peak or something like that, nothing unusual shows up. Testing with the PDF readers (which is the easiest way to replicate the problem) shows the pdf readers using from 10 to 13% of the CPU, which is pretty common because
pdf is a stupid format and programs that read it are unoptimized. I would be very sad if a 10% CPU use was enough to make the DAC fail though, and it wouldn't explain why the sound also pops/fails when I'm doing other stuff, like selecting multiple desktop items by dragging the cursor.
Did anyone ever see something like that? Do you guys know what can be happening? Is there a new driver or firmware update that I'm not aware of and that would solve this problem? Is there a magical tool/universal driver/whatever that would allow me to ignore the official driver and have it working better? Do I have a faulty unit and now I'll have to fight Chang on AliExpress to get a replacement or a refund?
