New, Very Interesting CD Transport

First, I’m not a fan of MQA. I tried it with Tidal and a MQA capable DAC when it first came out. I ended up thinking it was not a good thing. It did sound different, I suppose at one time I thought it was better or maybe just different. But after trying Qobuz and listening to higher res files without MQA I dumped Tidal and sold the MQA capable DAC.

I bring all this up, because the Shanling ET3 is capable of playing MQA CDs-yes, that’s thing evidently.

I’m always up for trying things. I was listening to a new Bob James Trio album (Feel Like Making Live) on Qobuz and liked it. Then I heard it was available on a MQA CD. Humm.

Amazon had it for less than $20 (vinyl was nearly $70!) so I thought I’d try it. It arrived today and included a separate "Immersive audio’ BluRay disk, too) Which I’ll never play.

So, I’m listening to the MQA CD now. It lights up a green MQA logo on the front of the CD transport and the display says it’s 88.2/24 resolution. My Hugo TT2 DAC doesn’t do MQA but doesn’t need to in this case. It see the CD as 88.2 and displays a light yellow color to indicate this.

It sounds quite good. Is that due to the MQA? Or is it just a nice sounding CD? I’ll have to compare it with my Qobuz version of the music soon. But right now, I’m wondering - if CDs had always had a way to output 88.2/24 instead of 44.1/16 would we have moved away from them so quickly in the end??

@pindac and? Another post unrelated to the thread subject. Why don't you explain to us the difference between AM and FM.

Thread Police 😭 upset and whinging these types are. 

CD Sales have already been broached upon in this thread with no Thread Police intervention 👍👍👍.

"Get a Life." 

I'm still enjoying the Shanling ET-3 BUT... I'm a bit disappointed in the USB output options. In S/PDIF coax or optical you can use the transport's upsampling to 192hz. Withe I2S you can upsample to 768hz or even DSD512. But with USB upsampling is not available at all.

I contacted Shanling and they quickly got back to me and said it was a hardware limitation and that it would not be "fixed" in firmware later, because it can't be.

Now, that's not a deal killer. I got it to play CDs at 441.hz. But I do like the upsampling as it adds a bit of air and softness to sometimes harsh sounding CDs.

But be aware, if you're planning on using the USB output, upsampling is off the table.

Circling back on this topic of the Shanling ET-3 Transport. I changed DACs this weekend from the Chord Hugo TT2 to the Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE. This provides more input choices for the ET-3 AND more upsampling options, as well.

Using the I2S output on the Shanling to the Spring 3 I'm finding the sound quality raised across the board.

I'm using DSD512 right now and find it's working really well.

Having a network streamer with only a USB output and a DAC with USB and S/PDIF inputs didn't give me a lot of choices. The Spring three gives me Coax, BNC AES-EBU, I2S and USB inputs.

I2S is the first input I've tried with the Shanling and it's a winner.

By the way, the Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE is a great DAC and I'm finding it a suitable upgrade to the Chord Hugo TT2.

OP, +1. Most people will likely miss the fact that their dac might not have I square Buss input and therefore miss out on the Shanling's magic

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.

Well, two-days is not much time to get anything comprehensive but the Spring 3 is a great sounding DAC, so far.

I too had a Qutest for 4 or so years. I really liked it. But I wanted to move up to the next level. There were 4 or 5 choices that appealed to me, and my two finalists were the Spring 3 and the Hugo TT2. I had not personally heard either DAC.

I chose the Chord because of my affinity for the Qutest. And, it was a good choice. It expanded on the Chord house sound with a higher resolving DAC. I've had it about a year. I felt I could not go wrong with the Hugo TT2 and I was correct.

But as systems evolve you try different things and find different strengths and weaknesses. I purchased an Audiowise SRC-DX USB to Dual S/PDIF converter and used it with my Hugo TT2. What I found was that I liked the S/DIF input better than the USB input on the Chord. But using a "converter" bothered me. I preferred the sound with the converter but I don't like using a USB powered box to convert USB to S/PDIF.

I looked at changing my SoTM network streamer to get outputs other than the lone USB output on the SMS200 Ultra Neo. But after reading more and more comments from Spring 3 owners about how great it was turned my attention to that DAC and it's very broad input options.

OK, how's it sound? It's not a shocking R2R sound all that different from the Chord FPGA sound, but it is a bit less aggressive? It is clean, clear and precise very detailed and the edges of clicks, drums, piano keys are more etched.  It handles reverb decay much more naturally. These are not huge changes. If you love your Qutest you'll love the Spring 3, as well.