Shanling Releases New Firmware for M2s and M3s
Adding new features and fixing bugs through firmware updates is always a good thing for customers/users. But, oddly enough, Shanling published new firmware updates for the M2s and M3s recently without actually announcing it on any of their social media accounts. So, what’s changed in the new updates?
The Secret Shanling Update
If you’re expecting some wild new features, don’t get your hopes up. In fact, once you read Shanling’s notes on what the update entails it becomes quite obvious why they didn’t really bother to announce it, as it’s not anything major.
According to Shanling, firmware update 3.2 for the M2s and firmware update 1.4 for the M3s is intended to address the 3 following key issues:
1. Fixed the problem of micro SD card not being recognised.
2. Fixed the problem of WAV playback.
3. Fixed the problem of Chinese language setting.
The first issue was a bug that was introduced with the previous updates (firmware update 3.1 for the M2s and firmware update 1.3 for the M3s).
However, there is another bug that was introduced by the previous updates that does not seem to have been resolved by the new updates.
For whatever reason, when connected to an external DAC, the volume can still be controlled. This is a big no-no.
In case you’re unfamiliar with why this is an issue – the entire purpose of connecting an external DAC device to a player is so that the digital data will be sent to the external device in its original form. If the playback volume can still be controlled via the source device when that same source device is connected to an external DAC device, then that means that the volume is being changed in the digital domain. And that means that the actual data is being changed, not the amplitude of an analogue signal. If you “reduce the volume” of a digital signal, you’re actually throwing out some of the data and hence reducing the dynamic range of the decoded music before it reaches the analogue amplification stage.
Get the update
If you do not regularly connect your M2s or M3s to an external DAC device, then the digital volume control bug won’t be an issue for you, and you can go ahead and grab the appropriate update for your device from this link.
