SOUNDSTAGE, SMOOTH SOUND AND LOOKS

NONE

FANTASTIC SOUND!!! The sound is very analog like without edge but full of details. Listening to this player is absolute luxury. It brings magic to my CDs. Diana Krall, Nora Jones, and Michael Buble seem to be in my listening room. The bass is tight, midrange is sweet and open and the highs are intoxicating. What can I say I love the player!!!!

Customer Service

OUTSTANDING

Similar Products Used:

MUSICAL FIDELITY, CARY, KRELL, WADIA, NAD, ROTEL, LINN

Tube Output Stage Cost vs. Comperables Cool Remote

The name is not very confidence inspiring. It's not an established brand with a pedigree.

I listened to a lot of players over a year period, and found some great ones. I would rank the Shanling in the top 3 for sound, and #1 for asthetics. The picture on this site doesn't do it justice at all. Also, the new version has silver legs, which is vast improvement over the hip-hop two-tone look. The beautiful heavy chunk of aluminum remote is nice, but it's the only one Shanling makes, so you have buttons for other devices besides the player. It has two sets of outputs, tube output, and solid state output. The solid state output stage is extremely clean, with a bottomless noise floor. However, it's the tube output stage that you'll buy it for, and use the most. The sound is warm, airy and musical. Instruments have very distinct shapes and sizes in the sound stage, and it puts a lot of air between them. The internal DA is 4x Burr Brown 24/192's, and the stock tubes are chinese made 6N3's. You get a big upgrade by swapping out the stock tubes for a pair of Western Electric 396A. The right pair of tubes drive the headphone amp, and the left pair drive your pre-amp. It also has a digital volume control (attenuates on the D/A chip), so you can hot rod an amp or pair of mono blocks if you like. There are four power supplies, so each stage is well isolated. The transport is a fast, and vibrationless. Overall, I am rating 5/5.

Similar Products Used:

The BAT D5-SE CD Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista SACD