SHANLING EH2 DAC Headphone Amplifier Black

Excellent (with one easily fixable caveat)
I am impressed with the EH2. I wanted a small, flexible all in one device for headphone listening on my desk. So that I do not have to fire up my more powerful class A dacs and amps for a spontaneous ad hoc listening session. I got exactly that and more.

Driving power
With sensitive iems it has no audible background noise.
I like to hear my music loud and this little dac-amp delivers. Full sized headphones are driven very well – both high impedance dynamic and low sensitivity planars. It can get my Verite Closed and my Arya Organic to very loud levels where I can feel the physical rumble on my ears without any distortion (knob range between 12 and 3 o clock). In comparison my FiiO K7BT can drive the Arya Organic, but if I push the volume any louder it’s protection circuit kicks in and shuts the device off (with red error LEDs). This did not happen with the EH2 (as to be expected: the EH2 has ~4000mW, double the value of the K7 with ~2000mW).

Tone controls
The tone controls are a nice addition. Fine adjustments in bass and treble are immediately noticeable. Turning the bass to the max would satisfy bass heads. The tone control knobs have a notch in the center that you can feel. In this position the tone alterations are completely off. It’s there if you need it, but you don’t have to use it.

How does it sound?
Nowadays the quality of dacs, even in the lower price segments, has vastly increased to the point that it is difficult to notice differences between dacs. Headphones are the most important factor in the chain. With that aside, yes the R2R dac of the EH2 sounds excellent. It is very clear, detailed, smooth and at the same time full sounding with a nice note weight. No harshness, noise or distortion whatsoever.

Notes
- It produces no pop noise when turning on or shutting off like some other amps.
- Even after many hours listening it does not get very hot, only hand warm.
- Plugging a headphone cable in the front shuts off the line/pre-outs in the back. So if you want to use it purely as a dac to other amps you have to detach any headphone cable in the front.
- The tone controls (bass, treble) also affect the pre-out in the back, but doesn’t alter the line-out (when the switch is set to line-out).
- The small blue LED above the power button is always on, even in standby mode.
- It is very small, about the size of an adult human hand.

Caveat: standby mode is useless
When the EH2 is turned on and not playing music (idle) it consumes about 5 Watt.
In standby mode it still consumes about 4 Watt doing nothing! This mode might as well not exist.
The FiiO K7BT consumes 0 Watt when turned off.
My solution:
As a workaround I plugged a simple power switch between the power supply and the EH2 power socket.
Now I do not use the standby button at all. I turn the EH2 on and off only with the power switch. When it receives power it automatically turns on, no need to additionally press the power/standby button again.
This is working great.

EH1 vs EH2
If you are on the fence about choosing the smaller EH1 or the EH2. Get the EH2. For the extra money you get a lot more: headphone driving power, a real R2R dac instead of delta sigma, more inputs (coax, opt, Bluetooth) and a balanced output. It can drive anything from iems to full sized headphones with no issue. Even if you plan to only listen to easy to drive iems, the EH2 is more future proof with its plus in power and flexibility.

This is a fantastic little powerhouse all in one. It fits many use cases. Headphone all in one, pure R2R dac, tone adjustments, BT receiver, TV Audio via optical input. Small enough for any desk space. Even if one owns bigger “normal size” dac and amp stacks this is still worth getting as a flexible desk device for the office or another room.
Price to performance is very high. I think Shanling priced this aggressively low, to get new customers to know the brand.
I’m glad that it exists. Highly recommended!

Excellent (with one easily fixable caveat)
I am impressed with the EH2. I wanted a small, flexible all in one device for headphone listening on my desk. So that I do not have to fire up my more powerful class A dacs and amps for a spontaneous ad hoc listening session.

Driving power
With sensitive iems it has no audible background noise.
I like to hear my music loud and this little dac-amp delivers. Full sized headphones are driven very well – both high impedance dynamic and low sensitivity planars. It can get my Verite Closed and my Arya Organic to very loud levels where I can feel the physical rumble on my ears without any distortion (knob range between 12 and 3 o clock). In comparison my FiiO K7BT can drive the Arya Organic, but if I push the volume any louder it’s protection circuit kicks in and shuts the device off (with red error LEDs). This did not happen with the EH2 (as to be expected: the EH2 has ~4000mW, double the value of the K7 with ~2000mW).

Tone controls
The tone controls are a nice addition. Fine adjustments in bass and treble are immediately noticeable. Turning the bass to the max would satisfy bass heads. The tone control knobs have a notch in the center that you can feel. In this position the tone alterations are completely off. It’s there if you need it, but you don’t have to use it.

How does it sound?
Nowadays the quality of dacs, even in the lower price segments, has vastly increased to the point that it is difficult to notice differences between dacs. Headphones are the most important factor in the chain. With that aside, yes the R2R dac of the EH2 sounds excellent. It is very clear, detailed, smooth and at the same time full sounding with a nice note weight. No harshness, noise or distortion whatsoever.

Notes
- It produces no pop noise when turning on or shutting off like some other amps.
- Even after many hours listening it does not get very hot, only hand warm.
- Plugging a headphone cable in the front shuts off the line/pre-outs in the back. So if you want to use it purely as a dac to other amps you have to detach any headphone cable in the front.
- The tone controls (bass, treble) also affect the pre-out in the back, but doesn’t alter the line-out (when the switch is set to line-out).
- The small blue LED above the power button is always on, even in standby mode.
- It is very small, about the size of an adult human hand.

Caveat: standby mode is useless
When the EH2 is turned on and not playing music (idle) it consumes about 5 Watt.
In standby mode it still consumes about 4 Watt doing nothing! This mode might as well not exist.
The FiiO K7BT consumes 0 Watt when turned off.
My solution:
As a workaround I plugged a simple power switch between the power supply and the EH2 power socket.
Now I do not use the standby button at all. I turn the EH2 on and off only with the power switch. When it receives power it automatically turns on, no need to additionally press the power/standby button again.
This is working great.

EH1 vs EH2
If you are on the fence about choosing the smaller EH1 or the EH2. Get the EH2. For the extra money you get a lot more: headphone driving power, a real R2R dac instead of delta sigma, more inputs (coax, opt, Bluetooth) and a balanced output. It can drive anything from iems to full sized headphones with no issue. Even if you plan to only listen to easy to drive iems, the EH2 is more future proof with its plus in power and flexibility.

This is a fantastic little powerhouse all in one. It fits many use cases. Headphone all in one, pure R2R dac, tone adjustments, BT receiver, TV Audio via optical input. Small enough for any desk space. Even if one owns bigger “normal size” dac and amp stacks this is still worth getting as a flexible desk device for the office or another room.
Price to performance is very high. I think Shanling priced this aggressively low, to get new customers to know the brand.
I’m glad that it exists. Highly recommended!