Shanling CDT-100 Great or Bad ?

You're talking in absolutes, asking if it's "great" or "bad". That's quite a range!
Actually the Shanling is more middle of the road. But hey, it's pretty, and that's all some people care about. It looks good and impresses people who haven't heard the really good stuff.

And what would be the good stuff?

I suppose since a lot of what I read about the Shanling often refers to the Parts Connection modded unit that perhaps your middle of the road comment(needing some help to reach higher) might be right on.....

I'm rather familiar with the Shanling's sound (not modified), and find that it's a solid buy. Like most solid buys, you'd have to spend significantly more to justify spending more. It doesn't do anything annoying, which is good, and it's easy to listen to. It's emotionally involving and resolving enough to give you chills. I'd say, therefore, it's a great player, unless you only want to own very expensive, no-compromise players...then it would certainly be a compromise.

It's hard to say why so many newer products end up on the used market; but I don't think it always correlates with an absolute sense of the product's sound.

Good luck

I like mine... convinced me SACD was not for me.. I and I really wanted to like SACD....

I heard the CDT-100 a couple of weeks ago, and I was quite impressed.

It was playing through a set of equipment with which I'm not familiar, but which has the reputation of being really top-flight: a Rowland amp (the 302, I think), a new Aesthetix Calypso line state, and Piega C10 LTDs. I'm sure the room contributed a lot - it is custom designed and built at a cost into the low six figures - but even if the other stuff is outlandishly good, the Shanling was still driving it and certainly wasn't degrading the sound.

The unit in question is stock, with no mods. The only thing I can compare it to is an SME 10 / Graham 2.2 / Rhea heard playing in the same setup (I just realized I don't know what cartridge he's using). I'm generally an analog fan, and I was surprised at how close the Shanling was to some pretty good analog in that environment. The big difference was that the analog extracted noticably more of the hall ambience on some classical recordings.

An anecdote on the Shanling. On one CD that my daughter knew but I didn't, there is a bell tolling in the distance. In the *far* distance. In the reproduced image, that bell is SO far in the distance, that I thought it was the bell from the church about a quarter of a mile away, rather than on the recording! Now THAT is a deep image!!!