Using the Shanling M1s as a DAC

Shanling M1s being used as a DAC

So I found a good deal on a used Schiit Jotunheim 2, but it doesn’t come with a DAC. I expect I’ll pop in a $100 ES9028 card and probably splurge and pay the $50 to have Schiit install it. I’m positive I could do it, but Schiit will bump the warranty on the whole package to 2 years if I do that: “For out-of-warranty products, having Schiit install the DAC module re-activates the warranty on the complete product for 2 years.”

But I haven’t done that yet. And I should be responsible and sell off some of the gear I’m not using to cover the cost of the upgrade. (I already sent a Schiit Hel off to a new home...) But I know me and I know I’m going to want to play with my new “toy” at least a little bit, which means it’s going to need a signal. 

At first I was going to drop $25 or so on an Apple USB-C to 3.5 mm dongle, a USB A/C adapter, and a decent 3.5mm to RCA Cable, but then I screeched the needle off the record and realized how silly it was to spend a quarter of the price of the DAC I’m going to install on a temporary solution ... Echoes of my teenage years when I bought 2 or 3 amps of increasing cost and ability, before getting the one I wanted in the first place - significantly and stupidly increasing the ultimate cost. 

Doubly so when I probably have enough bits and pieces here already to get something working.

I can’t find my UGREEN USB to 3.5mm “sound card,” though I have at least one Creative Labs Sound Blaster Play! 3 that could work (but it’s running my Philips SHP9600MB headset or my trusty Bose QC25 headset for virtual meetings, VoIP calls, etc). I have a Play! 4 ... somewhere (I think it’s at the office?). I could use my Schiit Fulla E? Anyway. I didn’t.

I remember reading that the Shanling M1s could be used as a USB DAC and since I mostly listen to my Walkman, and this will be a temporary application, so I set that up. Changed USB mode to “DAC” in system settings, connected it using a surplus USB A to USB C cable (that came with a Tokyo 60 keyboard), and dug out a 3.5 mm to RCA cable that has to be at least 25 years old. Tossed it all together with the A40 (which I’m still using to run headphones, for now) and, yup, works and sounds fine. Have to crank the Loxjie up quite a bit, but I don’t expect that will still be the case with the Jotunheim (Maximum Power at 300 Ω: 1.2W RMS per channel balanced; 330mW RMS per channel single ended). Yay for not spending money unnecessarily! (Amazon Prime is too f’ing addictive that way.)

One thing I do notice is a faint “clicking” in the background when nothing is playing. It’s annoying. It appears to be coming from the Shanling, because when I move the 3.5mm cable to, e.g., my Walkman, it disappears. Whatever, it’s a temporary solution...