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Jeff gets goosebumps from a Shanling, thanks Toby

Tobias dropped by my place today with his Shanling CDP. We listened to a few cuts with my current rig, both vinyl and my trusty YBA CDP. Although not perfect I like my main rig; it's not trivial to get electrostatics to sound right AND remove the brightness inherent with such designs without treating a room. I was in the mood for some analog but hey, we wanted to hear/compare CDP's so we got the shiny discs out (had to hear some Elvis Costello on vinyl first, it's a must).

We plugged in his Shanling and I thought "hmmmm, a bit bright and forward for my taste". As we bounced around from one track to another it certainly grew on me and the magic moment snuck up on me. For the fun of it I put on Tom Cochrane's live CD, The Symphony Sessions, and went right to one of the more revealing tracks, "Avenue A". Goosebumps. The emotion came through in a way I never heard before, it was remarkable. I sense I may see a Shanling or the like in my system before too long. Next stop is Toby's place, I'd love to sit in the sweet spot and enjoy listening to his rig for a while (my son wants to tag along, we'll see).
Thanks Toby!!!!!
jeffloistarca
jeffloistarca OP
1,004 posts
 
Model 100. It's the Redbook player with HDCD, the 200 is the SACD that evidently does a great job with SACD's but according to Toby is somewhat average with Redbook. My boss picked up a 200 on Friday, I'll be curious to hear his thoughts on it as it breaks in. As much as I liked the Shanling 100, truth be told, I really prefer my Oracle turntable. No slight to Tobias or his Shanling but even the better CDP's just can't quite match up to analog. Having no experience with SACD I may be ignorant to the new technology, time will tell...
tobias
1,534 posts
 
It was my CD-T100, its tubes are upgraded to WE 396A's. I've had it about a year now, and my review is posted here.

Jeff's system is a very good one, it rocks like crazy, but IMHO the CDP, a YBA Intégré, is his next upgrade. We could both hear a difference, and it was very pleasant to let ourselves be convinced by the music instead of analyzing things. That Tom Cochrane CD is super. Looking forward to hearing it at my place !
zaphodb
1 posts
 
Jeff,
I think I mentioned to you I auditioned a Shanling when I was searching for the new CDP (but it had the stock tubes) and ended up going with the Cary 303/200 instead. There are more changes to the system, (JM Lab Micro Utopia instead of Vandersteen 2s) and also would like your input on subs to match the JM Labs if you ever have time. Offer still stands for a listening session here, next time you're down this way on business, so you can see what the Cary in the system can do to the music you bring.
Zaphodb
lemmycaution's avatar
lemmycaution
31 posts
 
"according to Toby is somewhat average with Redbook" Not according to those who have listened to the 200.

It is apparently as good as the 100 if not better on Redbooks.

We'll see next week.
tobias
1,534 posts
 
Hi guys.

What Toby says is this : the two players are specialized to do different jobs. The CD-T100 is built to play Red Book CD's. It will do this beautifully. This is its purpose. The CD-T100 won't play SACD'S at all.

The T200 will play SACD's beautifully, It also does a pretty good job on CD's, but it is not optimized for this. If you are looking for a machine that will play CD's as well as the CD-T100, the T200 is not it. In other words, for the price of the T200, you do not get a top-notch SACD player PLUS a built-in US$2000 CD player.
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