New, Very Interesting CD Transport

For those CD transport without numerical keypad on unit or remote, how do you select tracks? Do you listen to entire CD or play shuffle? My point was if we keep forward to track like track 15 of 20, would the laser/lens and CD mechanism fail over time.

I just found out about the ET-3 and although my Audiolab 6000 sounds really good, especially for the $350 I paid for it, including shipping, I feel a lot more comfortable with a top loader, but in no rush unless I get flush.

am considering the Jay’s CDT2-MK3. "

It is really as good as everyone says. I kind of got carried away. I bought the Cambridge CXC locally for $250 and really liked it. So naturally I had to try the Audiolab 6000CDT. It too sounded really good so when I found a Jay’s CDT2-MK3 for under $2k I jumped for it.

It’s so big, solid and smooth sounding. But, really, CDs are not that big in my life. Sure, the Transports had me dig out my old CD collection. And, I even bought some new and used CDs to add to it.

But thinking realistically I don’t need a transport at that $2000 level. So, I sold it for what I paid for it and ordered the Shanling. I was going to buy another Audiolab but the Shanling was about the same price. Done.

CDs outsold vinyl 2 to 1 in England this year. 

From the number of transport threads and the number of transports currently available, it looks like CDs are making a comeback. I know people love streaming because of the limitless choices, but sometimes too much choice has one flipping around rather than listening. Like Netflix. I find myself skipping from movie to movie, but when I put on a cd or a record, I’m much more likely to sit, listen and relax.

@creativepart  I look forward to your thoughts. I also prefer to get a top loader and am considering the Jay's CDT2-MK3. 

I have one on order for delivery on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I’ll report back then.

By the way... I’ve owned a Cambridge Audio CXC, an Audiolab 6000CDT and a Jay’s Audio CDT2-MK3 in the past year. So, it will be interesting to see how this sounds.

I loved the CXC but liked the sound of the 6000CDT better. The Jay’s CDT2-MK3 was fantastic, but I ultimately decided that I didn’t need a $2,000 CD Transport. I was going to buy another Audiolab, probably the 7000CDT but, after owning the Jay’s I decided that I liked the top loading of the Shanling better.

Just to renew this thread, has anyone purchased the Shanling ET3 transport and is willing to comment on it's sound?

 

I bought the ET3 (silver) and it looks and feels very nice. Solid build, great back panel with lots of options. The I2S worked with my Pro-Ject DAC Box RS2, sending complete CD info.

Sadly, though, the ET3 refuses to work properly. The firmware locks up every time I try to use it. It sends info to the DAC and I can see the CD spin, but the firmware will not let me cycle through WiFi, playback and other settings. I am working with the seller and Shanling, but there doesn’t seem to be much that we can do.

I truly believe that some listener's brains can't discern the difference sonic outputs from different pieces of equipment, cables, power conditioning, etc. Some of us can tell differences in the sonic signatures of various components.  And of those of us who can tell sonic differences there is a range of being able to discern these differences.

 

I don't for a new York millisecond begrudge those listeners whose ears don't resolve differences in equipment.  In turn, those who can't resolve sonic differences between audio kit need to quit harassing those of us who can.

Nice!

I was interested in this but bought the Jay’s Audio CDT2-MK3. I’m not interested in anything else now. The Jay’s is fantastic.

The US dealer for the Shanling ET3 transport now has them in stock:

 https://shop.musicteck.com/collections/shanling/products/shanling-et3-dedicated-digital-cd-transport

Well, no. I just bought the one remaining silver version at MusicTeck, and the black one had been sold out for some time.

Can't wait to see how this pairs with my Pro-Ject DAC Box RS2. I wanted to buy the Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 T CD Transport to match but the website says it's "temporarily" unavailable in the United States. Audio Advisor has the black model in stock but not the silver version.

 

The US dealer for the Shanling ET3 transport now has them in stock:

 https://shop.musicteck.com/collections/shanling/products/shanling-et3-dedicated-digital-cd-transport

I've inquired about a tryout period with no-hassle returns. I may give it a go.

It is good to see New Products, prior to any demo's having been received, go under the knife, I now know how this stands out against other Devices, in relation to how it can be utilised within a system.

What is yet to be understood, and possibly most contributors will never know, is how it sounds in a system, who is reporting an attraction for the sonic produced and who views the sonic produced as a repellent. This is a watch this space for future experiences being reported on.

As for the side subject, where all Transports CDP are the same and not able to show substantial differences to each other. This as a subject, making these type of statements is one I am not able to agree with, based on my own experiences.

I won't be quoting any hearsay, or using another's description as an affirmation my contribution is totally correct.

Firstly, I have been anti CD as a source in my system for many many years, CD has been close to 40 Years new when I adopted it as a Source Material.

The transition started through being loaned modified CDP's to be assessed in my own system, as well as in the system of the modifier.

This evolved to my having a CDP as a Source within my system, to the place I am now where I have a CDT>DAC in use.

The CDP's that have been is use and loaned for assessment have all been experienced in use through the DAC and a couple have been A/B Compared to the CDT > DAC as a a CDP and CDP > DAC.

The above does show I am limited in my experiences of other digital equipment, but what is has shown for myself, is that there are substantial Attractors/Repellents perceived for a set up during the time the demo's are being undertaken.

I feel very confident, that if the Shanling ET 3 has a demo' in my system and is analytically assessed when compared to the in use CDT, there will be plenty to discuss between any who is in attendance, as to where one has an attraction, or repellent. From a personal approach, the ideal outcome being a perceived repellent is not to overbearing/noticeable and is easily feathered into the perceived attractions, under the guise not all is, or will ever be perfect.       

HaHa....I've had the CEC TL5 for over a year....Belt drive...no jitter...Splendid and musical. A sweetheart of a top loading transport. When I teamed it up with a tubed R2R  Audio Mirror Toubadour IV I'm listening to a Live performance every night with all my favorite artists.....Sorry if some don't like it @jasonbourne......I love it !

@jasonbourne71 

"I already have on hand a Denon, a JVC and two Sony's (DVD and Blue Ray) players for use as transports."

Not sure why you have four transports if they are so good, but I am jealous.

Not often that one can be happy shopping for audio equipment at thrift shops and garage sales.

Years of experience actually do not mean anything, it comes down to what you have heard and in how many different systems. If you don’t think CD transports make a difference come to my Listening Room in Northern NJ. We have around 6 different ones and about 6 different DACs to hear and play with. PLUS we have been repairing/upgrading/modifying gear for 25 plus years. Were are not Techs but electronic design engineers. We build and sell our own audio components. We are in the industry and try to help and show people what makes sound do what it does. We enjoy meeting new people. If you really think that a $16 transport sounds the same and will complete with an Audiomeca Mephisto II, please we would be more than happy to have a listen. We are all about learning new things and we are cheap also!

Just wondering how would this compare to alternatives out there in that price range. Say $1,000 (plus / minus $500). Audiolab (6000, 7000, 9000 CDTs), Cambridge.... what else ?

You may want to look into Jay's-Audio CDT transports.  Very well made and reasonably priced (in my opinion) for what you get.  Pretty flexible outputs and sound great.  They have 2 units available, and both got terrific reviews.!  

tannoy56,

and they still do make it, esoteric still uses updated versions of the VRDS transport I've got the esoteric P10 from the '90s and it's still outperforms most of the transports out there to this day and it's built like a tank.

tannoy56,

Teac owns Esoteric lol

@magnuman :You're absolutely right.  However, I believe that TEAC made the VRDS clamping transport for Esoteric - just messing with you. Cheers. 

No experience with different spinners other than owning three different CD players since 1980’s. I do know that my last two sound different. Anything and everything in your system can potentially sound different, regardless of function. For example, I am using my most recent CD player as a transport only. Swapping out the S/PDIF digital 75 ohm coax cable to my DAC from $50 blue well made, highly rated (forget brand name) cable to a Silnote cable, there was noticeable improvement! Don’t ask me why or how a digital cable can make a difference, but it did! So, the bits are bits and wire is wire argument doesn’t fly with me. Different spinners can sound different from one another. Not saying more expensive is better, but can certainly sound different.

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. 

 

creativepart

I hope you know I was not trying to be negative about the unit. I don’t stream, understand little about streaming, so I focused on my needs, ignoring cost comparisons.

I have room for only 1 unit in my system, thus I want it to have both CD and SACD lasers, and the option of transport or play, better yet simultaneous choice to compare this to that, my friends bring their equipment here occasionally.

IF it's just transport, why does it upscale to Hi-Rez PCM and DSD, wouldn't that occur further down the chain?

 

 

The Shanling ET3 CD transport looks more impressive than I initially thought with a cnc machined case, Philips transport w/ Sanyo laser, and hi-res digital output.

https://en.shanling.com/article-IntroET3.html

 

Agon member vonhelmholtz didn't like the Audiolab 6000CDT, while member creativepart did. Two subjective impressions based upon how a particular transport sounded in two dissimilar systems. Not good enough to stand up in a court of law!

Never understand the "all transports" sound the same commentary. The same transport may itself sound different depending upon which output connection has been optimized by the manufacturer. The SQ through the SimAudio 260DT in my 2nd system sounds even better using AES/EBU than SPDIF. After hearing the difference I reached out to SimAudio to ask if any of the outputs had been optimized and was told AES/EBU thereby confirming what i heard.

Also, I initially had the Cambridge CXC in that system and it comes up well short of the SimAudio 260DT's SQ  SPDIF vs SPDIF.

 

Maybe he got the bargain of the century at $16. All I know is my CDT sounds better than one living in a Marantz CD player I have.

Bogart99,

you got it right that is a load of twaddle, anybody that can't hear the difference between transports is got to have their ears examined and especially when they're using $16 transports doesn't say much about his system does it lol

is seem quite good ,, what comparson with marantz 63 ot marantz 67  ,,, just wondered

OP- You missed my point.  What's the truth, who knows... we all take the ride. That means you like whatever you like, who is anyone to debate you. If you want to buy a new transport and luv the sound... you gain from that. If you don't like the sound you can sell it and buy something else. No worries....

Whatever you see in my system is what I like, and I know 1/2 of a million fellow audio gurus will say it's junk. Who is to know? 

We each have a bias based upon experience.  My bias is based upon my purchase of an Audiolab 6000CDT, which isn’t anyone’s idea of the best transport.  I just didn’t like what I heard.  Fast forward to a major upgrade of DAC and the purchase of an Aurender N20 and my full CD collection now resides on the Aurender and the better CDs sound quite musical and really didn’t leave me wanting more.  So, my bias with regards to digital is to put the money into a great DAC and streamer/server.  That said, perhaps someday one of you will bring over a transport that puts my streamed files to shame.

’71’ is certainly the resident skeptic.  I know that his power cable skepticism comes from a decades old dealers PC comparison.  I suspect his bits are bits declaration has a basis in his experience.  So, @jasonbourne71 a true upgrade to ‘52’, what past experiences/events have you convinced that inexpensive transports provide, or can provide equivalent performance to more exotic offerings?

@2psyop 

Bits are bits. Wires are wires. No difference in the sound of any turntable(s) because they all just spin an album.

I looked at your systems - you know the difference. Now you're just trolling.

@magnuman 

JasonBourne71

I don't think you've been at this longer than me at all I've been doing this for over 40 years.

Humm, I'm 73 and got my first turntable in 1965. Let's see, that's 58 years. So, that either means I'm too old to know any better... or some kind of audio genius. Depends, I guess, on who you talk to.

JasonBourne71

I don't think you've been at this longer than me at all I've been doing this for over 40 years and if you think of $16 transport is going to be an esoteric transport you better get your head examined and get your ears checked cuz you're totally clueless if you think that every transport sounds the same so tell me what your system is and I'll tell you what mine is, mine is worth 72,000 and I guarantee you it'll kick the crap out of your system if you're using $16 transports lol give your head a shake buddy you know absolutely squat.

Bits are bits. Wires are wires. No difference in the sound of any turntable(s) because they all just spin an album. Someone stated a Sony Walkman portable CD player running on batteries is the best CD player for his audio system. All amps sound the same. What’s the truth, who knows?... we just take the ride.

 

Looks nice for the price compared to the competition by Cambridge, Audiolab and Pro-Ject.

In a interesting sort of way it reminds me of an ’upgraded’ portable CD player with much better chassis and internals.

I like it.

@creativepart 

I heard other great reviews of the Audiolab CDT6000 in the same price range as the CXC. So, taking a bit of a risk I bought a used one of those, too. I really like the CXC but the CDT6000 is just that little bit better.

These two models are on the used market for between $300 and $400. You owe it to yourself to try one - don't be a bits is bits guy proud of his $16  purchase on eBay. Don't be someone with zero actual knowledge how good your CDs can sould and then tell others that it's crazy to spend more on something designed to do a much better job doing a single job as perfectly as possible.

Salient points. I know that some listeners report  hearing no difference between a very cheap player/transport and  higher end versions. If that is their  experience, who am I to argue with them ? They  have  saved themselves considerable money. This just has not been the case in my experience. Consistently  better built, better engineered and designed CD transports sound significantly better in my listening experience.

I have also observed (As cited above)  that the higher quality better sounding  transports are dedicated CD only rather than a jack of all trades multi format approach. So again, it depends on what someone is trying to accomplish.

Charles

I didn’t mean CDs don’t spin at differing rates - but a constant velocity as you mentioned. A different velocity from SACDs and Video disc playback. The drive is optimized for Redbook playback. The laser is optimized for Redbook playback. The power supply is optimized for the CLV of Redbook playback.

I didn’t say DSD wasn’t a plus as a format. Just that when you are working at Redbook optimization the multiple lasers, tracking angle, speeds and extra cost are not a plus to include a SACD dirve in a Redbook CD Transport.

I too once used an LG BluRay player as a transport, then the ever popular Onkyo 7030 CDP. Both sounded blah but I was willing to believe it was just the CD medium.

I heard someone raving about CD Transports and as luck would have it someone local was selling a Cambridge Audio CXC Transport. So, I could find out for myself immediately. WOW, eye opening improvement. Not subtle at all.

Suddenly, the 800 CDs in my attic became a playground of new/old discoveries. 300 of which have made it into my listening room. Now I wish I had not given away all those CD Racks.

I heard other great reviews of the Audiolab CDT6000 in the same price range as the CXC. So, taking a bit of a risk I bought a used one of those, too. I really like the CXC but the CDT6000 is just that little bit better.

These two models are on the used market for between $300 and $400. You owe it to yourself to try one - don't be a bits is bits guy proud of his $16  purchase on eBay. Don't be someone with zero actual knowledge how good your CDs can sould and then tell others that it's crazy to spend more on something designed to do a much better job doing a single job as perfectly as possible.

True:

ANYTHING that reads a CD spins at the same variable speed to maintain the bit rate?

CDs spin at an angular speed of 500 rpm when read from the center and 200 rpm when read near the circumference. Besides having an angular velocity, the CD also has a constant linear velocity (CLV). The CLV of a CD has been standardized by Philips at 1.2 to 1.4 m/s.

SACD's have separate lasers, focused on the hybrid's alternate SACD/DSD layer. Beneficial, not a handicap. Note the optional upscale to DSD in the unit you mentioned.

The Shanling transport looks interesting and has a few features that mat be valuable to some users. One of the key things about the Shanling is that they specify the brand and model of drive they are using. I don’t know whether or not this Phillips drive was developed specifically for audio playback but hopefully it is a robust drive. The overarching problem with audio transports is that they often use a cheap drive meant for computer use (spin up, read data, turn off) and these tend to fail under audio use. A computer drive was not designed for hour upon hour of playback on a daily basis and they simply wear out.

I’m the unlucky victim of this problem. I bought a PSA PerfectWave Transport ($4k retail) which seems to be built to a high standard except for the assembly at the heart of the unit - the drive itself. They used a cheap rotgut computer drive that must have cost them $10 wholesale (yes, in a $4,000 transport) and I’m on my third drive and it is beginning to fail. PSA wants $500 to fix it which ain’t gonna happen. I’m going to try the surgery myself and if I ’f it up it goes to the recycling center.

My advice about transports is to make sure the heart of the thing is actually designed for the demands of music playback. My strategy to solve this problem long term is that I bought a Marantz KI Ruby SACD player on closeout ($3000) which has a drive optimized for music playback. It was designed and built by Marantz from the ground up and should last forever. I’ve had two other Marantz players which I played the hell out of and never had a drive failure. The reason I need a transport is that I have a Black Ice tube DAC that I like the sound of for CD playback.

OTOH, if you are comfortable that all transports sound the same then a cheap DVD player is a great option. For $30 bucks you can just replace the thing when it breaks.

Folks, there are those that are transport aware and those that are not.

It’s not a plus for CD playing to have a disc drive and electronics that handles SACD or BluRay. That’s actually a minus. Different colored lasers arcing in different patterns are required for SACD, etc. Also, Computer disc drives, and multi-format drives have to play at different speeds, constantly speeding up and slowing down.

A pure Redbook CD Transport is optimized for CD playing - the drive, the drive speed, the laser, the power supply, the digital handling within are all important. As you may have heard everything is important in digital playback.

This player competes against the Audiolab CDT7000 at $800, the Audiolab CDT9000 at $1,500, The Jay’s Audio CDT2 MK3 at $2,500, the Pro-Ject RS2T at $3100. And other transports between $5000 and $18000.

For this price, the Shanling surpasses all in terms of inputs and outputs and overall features.

How does it sound? It’s not been released yet. Just announced and set to be released by next month.

So reading the specs on this thing it appears to be a streamer with a disc drive as it supports:

Playback from USB Drive

-        2.4G/5G Wi-Fi with DLNA/Airplay support

-        Bluetooth 5.0 input  with LDAC, AAC and SBC support

So a CD transport but more it looks like a solid value Shanling has been building disc spinners for quite a few years now.

I see no mention of SACD, and

"strictly a digital transport"

"Optional internal upsampling to hi-res PCM or DSD comes courtesy of a CT7302CL chip." A bit more info about that would be helpful. 

as well as over-clocking, filters if any ... the other ingredients of the salad.

I’m having a more difficult time refuting ‘71’s cheap CD player claim than his stance on power cords. I used a cheap drive and software that compares results to others that have ripped the same CD to store a bit perfect copy on my Aurender and that copy compares to Qobuz streaming. This does use an error checking step that isn’t available with a player. I always thought that cheap transports provided error prone reads, or more transmission errors, but not sure that this is always the case.

I’ll note that the review posted above is limited to a review of features and is pretty limited should you be using this review in order to make a purchasing decision. On another topic, I just received two Chinese made rice storage bins and I can report that they each store 15Kg of rice, but no Wi-Fi, or USB functionality.

Makes me want to order one and get my collection of Monster CD Sound Rings out of storage.