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??
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@pindac and? Another post unrelated to the thread subject. Why don't you explain to us the difference between AM and FM.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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?
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How long did your Shanling ET3 transport break-in take?
I don't feel qualified to respond to this. I don't pay much attention to break in times. I just listen to music. I can't say with any authority that it sounds better now than the day I got it. And, when I got it I had a Chord Hugo TT2 and during the first month I switched to the Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE. So, I'm not sure where the sound changed and why. When I tried USB output I did not like it. I also tried Toslink and that was better. But when I went to I2S with a $5 hdmi cable I felt it sounded best.
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I wish my auditory neurons were cardboard like Jason's. Would have saved me a lot of money. My system is highly resolving and can make grown men cry. I have used multiple CD transports and though the differences are not always huge, none of the sounded the same. Kinda like giving a pitmaster a rack of ri s and a backyard grill hack one. When done, they should taste the same cause they were both racks of ribs.
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jaymark
I wish my auditory neurons were cardboard like Jason's. Would have saved me a lot of money.
Probably Jason and you hear very similarly on a physiological level, but he enjoys not hearing a difference. That may be due solely to confirmation bias, something of which he's aware but misunderstands. Meanwhile, he enjoys trying to shame those who do detect differences. It's what he does.
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@cleeds
+1
On point as usual.
Charles
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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.
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I am once again thinking to buy a ET3. Any current 411 would be appreciated
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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.
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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.
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I use my ET-3 plugged in via I2S into my Holo Audio Spring3 KTE DAC using a run of the mill HDMI cable. It sounds great. I like the I2S sound quality over using USB. I even like S/PDIF over the USB output.
I've never had any skipping nor any CDs that would not play.
The ET-3 doesn't read or play any DSD disks, but will upsample PCM or output DSD via I2S. With USB you cannot upsample at all.
It does recognize and play MQA disks, if that matter to you. I bought one just to see and it plays at 88.2mhz.
For the price it has a lot of features. The main plus is the top loading mechanism in my book. I have never streamed with it.
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A good CD transport should load fast and be very mechanically silent. I had an old Sony ES CD player years ago that I used as a transport. It would only play redbook CDs, and it loaded faster, switched tracks faster, and ran more silently than any multi-disc reading transport I've had since.
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@alexberger
Thanks your 411 is very helpful. I may still get one if the price is right. FYI my digital connection is coax and my Audio Alchemy DDP -1 + PS 5 dac/pre is old. it still sounds amazing
@creative Thank you too. Bummer that it doesn’t read DSD I have a lot of them. So it's no longer on my radar
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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!
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I was talking about USB output not inputs from USB sticks/drives. I have no idea of it's capabilities other than playing CDs.
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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.
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So, please clear it up for me does the ET3 play DSD via coax outs?
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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.
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If ET-3 plays CD and upsamples it do PCM you can use I2S or Coaxial outputs.
However, S/PDIF outputs only support up to 24/192.
I emailed Shanling Tech Support about upsampling via the USB output of the transport and they responded that it was a hardware limitation of the USB components built into the Transport.
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