I had decided to give writing a break seeing that my audio gear writing hardly made a splash, but despite that my Shanling Q1 review seems to be relatively popular and if you google the device my review is on the first page. As exciting as all that is I’ve had more time with the Shanling Q1 — three months to be exact.
There have been improvements on the device via firmware, deeming my review a little out of date. I’m not going to be making review updates like this in the future, it’s just that seeing my review was strangely popular that it was worth a try to give writing another chance. This semi-revision has been written after the release of Firmware version 1.4:
On the 5th of March I have received my Shanling Q1 with a lot of expectations of the device, it was an inexpensive yet competent little DAP. Far from perfect, it had its quirks here and there but Shanling kept updating it along the way. The firmware updates ranged from UI refinements to straight up new features, and things have been pretty interesting with this little device.
As mentioned in the review, I’m still using my Sony Walkman NW-ZX300 as my daily music driver but that doesn’t mean the Q1 was neglected this entire time. In fact for a whole two months it’s been my music player away from home. My hardware issues with the button are still the same, far too sensitive and it’s still hard to keep track of which button is which but I managed to handle it without setting them off.
UI refinements
In my review I complained about how the UI is often unresponsive and that scrolling tends skip depending on your swipe, many of these issues have been addressed in the updates thankfully. The interface is still not perfect, I do encounter some unresponsive taps and swipes from time to time but they’ve been significantly reduced. That is probably something we’ll see improved in the future, the firmware update proves that it’s possible.
In-vehicle mode
Suppose you only use the Shanling Q1 in the car, and want to save the battery for all the time between trips. The in-vehicle mode helps makes this easier by turning on when the device is plugged into a charger and turning off the moment the device is unplugged. While it’s a great feature to have, your mileage may vary.
In my car while it connected via Bluetooth without a hitch, but the audio system couldn’t read the music data (track name, artist, album, etc.) on the screen. This wasn’t an issue with the NW-ZX300 I mentioned in the Shanling Q1’s review, I’m not if this is something we’ll see fixed in later updates but it’s something I assume is fixable.
SyncLink
Alongside firmware version 1.3 (same version as the in-vehicle mode), Shanling released an Android app called SyncLink that allows you to control the Q1 from your phone via bluetooth. A feature I considered quite valuable for the device due to my previous UI complaints, but as an iPhone user my new inconvenience is that the SyncLink app is currently android only with plans on releasing an iOS version being uncertain:
SyncLink itself is still in beta, with many quirks needing to be sorted out. In the current version (the one that comes with ver 1.4) there’s an option to sign in (unclear what is it for, but doesn’t seem necessary), registration requires telephone number but it doesn’t take in consideration the telephone region code. Other problems include that it doesn’t give a clear reading of the bit rate of certain tracks, inconsistent connection with the Q1, some settings and features not being available at this point in time, and the app not showing Album art. As I said the app is a work in progress and I assume there will be more things to come.
The Shangling app doubles as a local music player app on the phone, I assume it’s the same app available on their Android-based DAPs so if you have music on your phone you can listen to the music there too.
Bluetooth connectivity tweaks:
In my review, I didn’t dabble much with Bluetooth since it sounded pretty good with most of the headphones I thrown at it (except for the airpods pro, those are getting their own article soon), I didn’t have much to complain about so I didn’t delve deep on the matter. With the firmware update apparently they improved on the sound quality, added additional audio volume, and focused on improving stuff for truly wireless headsets(?).
Upon reading that in the changelog, I can’t really spot any significant change apart from the volume settings improving on a few headsets including the Airpod Pros. However I came across problems with the Airpod Pros where they became unresponsive to pause and play and switching noise cancelling on and off, the airpods started falling off sync with one another and having choppy connectivity. I’m not sure if that’s an error from the Q1 or the Airpods but it only happened once.
A-B Repeat:
The least significant of the updates but also nice to have, it lets you repeat a single segment of a track rather than the entire song. I have a few songs I like repeating certain segments of them, and this makes it convenient.
But what about the device itself?
My opinions on the device have mostly stayed the same, it’s a fantastic device the does a lot of things DAPs triple its price range are capable of. Think of it as the Koss KSC75s, an inexpensive product that does a lot for its asking price (yeah, shameless way to plug another article). As a matter of fact, they sound great together too. For anyone considering getting into hi-fi or audiophile gear, The Shanling Q1 is a great stepping stone that won’t dent the wallet.
The improvements only made the Q1 an already good device better, who knows what else will be included in future updates.
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