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Shanling CDT-100.........ANY GOOD??

An amazing looking player, I'll admit that. But it seems that the market just got swamped with these things from the far East, with a few used ones for sale already. So I figured these things look great......sound bad. Then an old Audiogon friend let me know that he was selling his heavily modified Anthem CD1 player (same player I have) for one of these things. I've been happy with my Anthem, but now my curiosity is peaked. I would like to hear from people who have actually compared the Shanling to other players.
Thanks guys
dudeaudio
dudeaudio
ljgj
955 posts
 
I bought one and also the Western Electric tube upgrade. The tubes made the difference in its stand alone tube format. It is cool looking and it was what made me buy it. I also own an Electrocompaniet EMC I without the upsample upgrade. The Shanling easily competes with it for a pure musical sound. They both however cannot easily compete with my Kora Hermes DAC . The Kora makes both units sound another level or should I say a few levels better when each is used as a transport with the Kora. They are even in sound when used as a transport. The Shanling is hard to beat with its looks and versatile features. It can be used without a preamp - has a tubed headphone outlet and glows really cool looking and goes quite well with my Mcintosh blue meters in the dark. It has HDCD and defeatable upsampling. For its price you will be satisfied especially with tube upgrade to the Western Electric. If you like its look than improve things even more with the reasonably priced Kora DAC. Check out more threads on it via the thread search mode.
sean
6,231 posts
 
Nice feedback Ljgj. While i've read comments about this player, nobody really gave a point of reference as to what they were comparing it to. The fact that you did and then gave even more info about it was a nice change of pace. Sean
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tobias
1,534 posts
 
I like mine.

I have to say mea culpa, in my 'Gon review I didn't compare my Shanling to any other player directly. The other players I knew best were the Linn Genki and my previous setup, a Cambridge Audio DiscMagic and IsoMagic with an optical clock-locking cable and a Wireworld Gold Starlight III IC. That cost a bit less than the Shanling, while the Genki was about the same. The Shanling beat them both quite handily on a number of points, including timbres and artifacts.

I also know the Linn Ikemi a little, and it's a lovely player with a quite different sound from the Shanling's. More laid back. The Ikemi had been my dream machine but I am so happy with my Shanling now that I don't much feel like getting into the comparison. Going from ancient memory, the NOS tube upgrade puts the Shanling into the Ikemi's general territory regarding soundstage, and timbres are perhaps a bit better.
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