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.