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Review 1 of 7
Price Paid:
$600.00 Summary:
NOTE: all prices below are Canadian Dollars
Well, considering the money one would normally pay for this unit ($1100) I was not too impressed - i.e. especially considering what I was comparing it too.
I have a Rotel RCD940xb, which has dual DAC's + 8x oversampling - but this unit is 12 years old - and it is awsome! (foer the money I paid)
Fortunately, I only borrowed the shanling for an in-home trial, but it would have cost $600 (previously enjoyed - 6 mths old).
Now don't get me wrong - it is a very nice unit, however - the Rotel matched it in almost every respect, but the Shanling has a variable output level (volume control)
The Rotel was a tad more detailed, but they were so close I had to look to see what input was selected
One area of concern was the scaping sound the CD transport made when opening & closing - not good for a player of this caliber
The unit has a very nice tone - thanks in part to the Tube output stage - it would probably sound very nice through a solid state amp - I have the Raysonic SP120 tube amp, so most of the benefit of the tube output stage would have been negated by the amp
The music is very detailed with a nice sound stage with deep bass and nice middles and highs
I took a quick look at the new Rotel CD RCD-1072 - and it is a nice unit @ around $700 with lots on innovation for a consumer electronics grade unit
I have since been considering the Rega Apollo - it has excellent reviews for a similar price to the Shanling - it has taken a different approach to CD playback, the transport is secondary, but the electronics extracts large amounts of data (up to 40 meg) from the CD and verifies it for correctness before playing it back through great sounding DAC's - loss-less palyback? - Rega won't admit to this.
This is pretty much how the computer CD devices ensure valuable spreadsheet data does not get corrupted on transfer.
But - my bets are on the Transporter™, the first audiophile network music player.
http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_transporter.html?
Units like these will make the CD Player redundent - i.e. if you have a computer and wireless network. At present they are expensive, but they will come down in price once demand picks up - I hope Rega makes one soon!
Other equipment used
- Raysonic SP120
- Vanden Hul interconnects and speaker cables
- Magnat Ribbon 5 3-way speakers Strengths:
Build quality, looks, sound stage, detail, balanced sound throughout entire frequency range, neutral sound, deep bass Weaknesses:
CD Transport made a scrapping sound
Not enough CD player for the money - compared to the competition around the same price e.g. the Rega Apollo and Rotel RCD-1072 (Less $) Similar Products Used:
Rotel RCD 940BX
Pioneer Elite DV45A
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