Shanling UA3

UA3 joins our highly popular line of UA models and it marks an important point for Shanling, as it will be our first model using a brand-new DAC from the relaunched line of AKM DACs.

For many years, AKM DACs were the core part of Shanling’s audio designs, as they played a crucial role in delivering our house sound to all our fans. But following the fire at AKM’s factory in 2020, we had to look for alternative solutions, being unsure about the AKM’s future. It affected most of our releases in 2021, but we managed to transition successfully, keeping the strict Hi-Fi standards we have been building up for past 34 years.

In early 2022, AKM relaunched their line of DACs and we immediately started working on new designs, diving into the possibilities of this updated generation of DACs. UA3 is first of these designs, utilizing a freshly released AK4493SEQ DAC, for the first time bringing the sound of AKM into our UA line of portable DAC/AMPs.

UA3 builds upon the popular UA2, but takes over some features from the UA5. Balanced output is now using a more robust 4.4mm connector, we added hardware buttons for volume or playback control and the power output was improved to match the UA5.