Bits are bits and they should all sound the same - until they don't. Then we are left with a big "Hmmm." Just as people tell you that the quality of your streamer is at least as important as the quality of your DAC, (or at least should be on a commensurate price level), I think we can surmise that the quality of a device reading the data from a CD, and then passing that information to a DAC can be important as well. The Philips drive used in the Shanling seems to be a good one.
I have a "decent" Denon CD player I picked up two years ago as a hedge against CD players "going away" and I'm happy with it, but I'd be interested in giving a dedicated transport a try. The words "audiophile" and "fool" shouldn't be close in definition. I can't believe so many people could be fooled.
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/
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@creativepart dumb question to ask, but here in 2024, it can't be taken for granted: Does the Shanling ET-3 CD transport play gaplessly? (i.e. no inserted 2 or 3 second pauses between tracks when there shouldn't be, such as on Dark Side of the Moon, other prog rock CDs, classical, jazz and such). Thanks! |
I obviously does with my CDs, To be sure, I pulled out DSOM and it sounds great on the ET-3. No pauses inserted. I haven't attempted to use the device as a streamer so I can only go by what others have said and as I recall they said it was gapless in all but one network format. I paid little to no attention to this, as I doubt I'd ever use this as a streamer. I bought this for it's CD playback and multitude of output choices exclusively. |
You put the CD on and listen to the 11 songs - as in listen to the entire CD. Just like LPs, you listen to the whole thing. OR, you push the FF button 11 times if you must listen to just one song on a CD. To answer the universal remote question someone who cared about that feature enough to test out a "universal" remote would have to try it.
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