I owned a Shanling CD player 15 years or so ago. I thought it looked “cool” with the blue lights on the tubes and such. It was a very poorly made player, broke twice and was actually gaudy looking. I advertised it here for sale as a “parts only player” and it sold almost as soon as I placed the ad. I saw a used one at a high end store in Framingham and the owner told me that he wouldn’t sell it to me since he knows me. He actually told me to purchase a used Walkman, said it sounded better. Lol.
New, Very Interesting CD Transport
On John Darko's website today we learn of the brand new Shanling ET3 CD Transport. And for $729 USD it looks really capable. Top loading with Philips SAA7824 drive. AES/EBU, coaxial, TOSLINK and I2S digital outputs. Plus Wifi and Bluetooth. USB to connect to a external HD and built in upsampling, too. It even will output digital to USB for connection to a DAC but not with upsampling.
Here's the skinny:
https://darko.audio/2023/06/shanlings-et3-cd-transport-comes-with-two-twists/