New, Very Interesting CD Transport

Hi @creativepart

Can you cancel oversampling in your Shanling EC3 transport?

It is important to any Chord DAC that has its own oversampling processing algorithm.

Hi @creativepart ,

Can you write more of your impressions about Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE?

I use the Chord Quetest DAC. And I'm planning to upgrade it in future.

Hi @creativepart

I just received Shanling ET3 transport. I used a Cary 303 mk1 as transport before. I changed the DAC from Chord Qutest to SMSL DO300EX, a very affordable Chinese DAC built on an AK4499 chip and sounds unbelievable good.
From the box Shanling ET3 doesn’t sound better than Cary. But my experience shows all digital stuff need a very long break-in. I tried two outputs: Coaxial and I2S. So far I2S makes congestion on orchestral tutti that Coaxial doesn’t. But my Coaxial cable, the NBS Signature2, is much more expensive than my HDMI I2S Audioquest Forest.
How long did your Shanling ET3 transport break-in take?

Guys,

Did you listen to ET3 transport yourself?

Ho can you judge any piece of equipment just by retail price?

My experience shows there is not price- sound quality correlation in audio equipment.

Especially if you go to vintage equipment, China audio or use DIY equipment. 

I had a DAC of one famous British company for 5 years. I bought a new Chinese DAC on 1/4 price. And it owerperformed my British DAC by big a margin. 

Hi @tweak1 

Do you want to use it as CD transport only?

It has a very good sound quality for it price, but a number of drawbacks.

Hi @tweak1

I use ET3 SPDIF and USB outputs.

I2S is tricky. It is not a HDMI standard. Each DAC producer connects I2S to HDMI pins differently.

Some sellers on AliExpress make custom HDMI cables. But in this cas you can’t choose your cable by sound quality and price.

Compared to the Cary 303mk1 with upgraded digital transformer, RCA connector and fuse that I used as transport, ET3 sounds more lean, with mose space between instruments and more accuracy.

I like its ability as a USB external memory player.

I don’t use oversampling feature because I listen to my DAC in NOS mode.

I don’t like in ET3 a number of things:

1. No song number in remote control.

2. Very bad application to use it as a USB memory player.

3. Once per number of CDs playing it jumps. Cary doesn’t do so.

4. ET3 doesn’t play 1 CD out of the 30 that I tried. Cary played all the CDs.

I use NBS Signature 2 SPDIF and Audioquest Carbon USB cable.

NBS sounds better with CD and Hires PCM files. I use Audioquest Carbon mostly with DSD files.

I tried 2 HDMI I2S cables. But they don't work with DSD because of a different pin connection, but with PCM I preferred NBS SPDIF cable sound quality over I2S I have.

It looks like sound quality depends more from cable quality than from interface SPDIF, I2S or USB. 

Hi @creativepart

ET-3 Plays DSD from USB memory and does it great!

I can use PCM oversampling though coaxial. But don’t need oversampling. My DAC has AKM AK4191 that is built to work with AKM 4499 DAC chip and does oversampling job better then ET-3. But I prefer not oversampling mode of AKM 4499.

And cable quality matters! My $1000 NBS coaxial SPDIF cable overperforms any $100 I2S cable that I have by a big margin!

Hi @creativepart 

I agree with you that ET3 is a good audio device and a great value for money. But we use a different set of features. 

Hi @tweak1 

If ET-3 plays DSD files from the USB memory - both USB and I2S output work.

If ET-3 plays CD and upsamples it do DSD you can use I2S output only.

If ET-3 plays CD and upsamples it do PCM you can use I2S or Coaxial outputs.