Preamble:
The enjoyment of music playback – there are surely several ways to experience it at home.
May it be with a speaker setup or with headphones, all systems have in common that they need a source where the music is coming from.
Nowadays, the most common source for music is probably an online streaming subscription, so the focus has shifted from physical mediums to something that doesn’t take up much space and is accessible 24/7, and is also more commonly used than music downloads.
I have to admit that I don’t really follow the trend of streaming – I have tried Tidal and Spotify, and also experienced paid music downloads. Nonetheless, I cannot really say that those mediums are for me. I for one don’t really feel the connection to something that is only stored on a hard drive or online cloud and that I cannot hold in my hands. This is also the major reason why CDs are still my main source for music, and this is surely not due to change in the near future even though some small label and independent musicians unfortunately don’t release all of their albums on a physical medium anymore but only make it accessible through download.
While CDs are my main source and I’m using my good old and reliable Pioneer PD-S701 as a CD transport at home for concentrated listening in my home office, it is not always the most practical or convenient way to go to my CD shelf and search the recording I’m looking for. As I am anyway copying all of my CDs to FLAC and the best MP3 format after I’ve listened to them for the first time, in order to copy them on my SSD and digital portable audio players, it would sometimes be practical to access my SSD with a device that is solely dedicated to playing music from this drive.
There are quite a few existing solutions, however I don’t want to connect the source device to a separate screen and also don’t want to use my tablet as a screen or my PC as a source.
This is where dedicated, stationary audio players are getting interesting.
Shinrico, founded 2014 in China, is one manufacturer that makes such dedicated stationary audio players with built-in display (and also headphone amplifiers), ranging from their transport-only D3 to the SHD10 with an additional built-in analogue output stage and headphone amplifier.
What I got my hands on is the SHD5 (http://www.shinrico.net/en/produce_view.asp?id=626), which features analogue RCA and XLR output besides coaxial and optical outputs that I will be using most of the time.
Will it be able to convince me as a standalone desktop player for CDs stored on my SSD? Let’s find out!
Before I go on, I want to thank Ann from Shinrico who arranged a sample of the SHD5 desktop music player to be sent to me for free for the purpose of an honest review and evaluation.
Technical Specifications:
Price: $569 on AliExpress
Inputs: SD card, 2x USB, Ethernet Network
Outputs: Digital: Optical & Coaxial; Analogue: RCA, XLR
Analogue Output Stage: TI PCM1792 DAC chip & OPA1612 Amp Chip
Supported Formats: FLAC, APE, WAV, M4A, AAC, WMA, MP3, ALAC, OGG, TAK, TTA, WV, AIFF, DSD (DSD64, non-DST compression), DFF, DSF, SACD ISO
Supported Bit Rate and Sampling Rate: 32 Bit, 192 kHz
CUE Sheet Support: Yes
Screen: 4.3” LCD
Dimensions: 295 mm x 225 mm x 90 mm (D x W x H)
Delivery Content:
The well-protected cardboard package contains the SHD5, along with a remote control (two AAA batteries need to be purchased separately), an electrical cord and a good SD memory card (SanDisk Ultra 16 GB 80 MBps). A manual is unfortunately not included, however the menus are pretty much self-explanatory so that I personally don’t really miss it aside from getting to know what some of the extra buttons on the remote control are for.
Looks, Feels, Build Quality, Connections:
My first thought after unboxing the SHD5 was that it is really heavy and extremely sturdily built – the desktop audio player that is available in two colours (silver and black) has got a large, matte (non-reflective) screen on its front, along with five brass buttons. It is also nice to see that the front consists of a real panel, which makes it appear more premium than just a rectangular box.
The top plate is screwed to the rest of the chassis using six hexagon socket screws. What I find nice is that there is not a single screw on the sides of the chassis (there is only an SD slot on the right hand side) – instead, they are on the top and bottom that has also got four low-profile bases that are made of brass.
The back features a socket for the electrical cord, XLR and RCA sockets for the analogue output, an optical and coaxial socket as digital outputs, two USB input sockets and last but not least a network socket that I think can be used to control the SHD5 with a network streaming app on a smartphone or tablet when it is connected to a network router.
The SHD5 isn’t particularly cheap, so I want premium build quality with it – and it really delivers in this regard, as it has got a pretty crisp, non-reflective screen with good contrast and colours, combined with a really heavy and well-built chassis.
Buttons, Features, Remote Control:
The front features five buttons that can all be used to control the playback and to navigate through the menus. However, using the included remote control is more convenient, as it also offers more features.
The remote control – well, it can be used to fully control the SHD5, however it has also got many buttons that seem to be utterly unnecessary, as apparently it also looks like a TV remote.
So the buttons below the volume and playback control buttons don’t work at all, which is also true for the coloured buttons and many of the “F” buttons. Some of those “F” buttons however serve a purpose – with F7 and F8 for example, it is easily possible to quickly scroll through many folders and tracks. F10 will get you back from the playing screen to the title list of the currently playing album.
It has got all of the features that can also be found on the SHD5 itself, however also offers some additional features such as a quick access to the home menu (“HOME”) or last folder/playing screen (“MENU”), which I think is really handy.
Aside from the unnecessary buttons, it is a good remote control.
Operation, User Interface:
The boot-up procedure takes rather long and feels laggy, however as it is no portable audio player but a stationary device, it is okay.
After the player is booted up, one will be in the main menu which consists of five sub-menus/screens.
The Player Settings let you select the play mode, activate gapless playback (that by the way works perfectly through the analogue and digital output) or update the music library (that only works for files from the SD card).
The System settings will also let you choose from three brightness settings (although five are shown), and set the backlight time.
The Music List menu will show you all of the tracks that are on the SD card and also create a database for them, that, as mentioned previously, only works for the SD card – so if you are, like me, connecting an external hard drive to the SHD5, be sure to have a good folder structure for the folder view (lucky for me I do have a good folder structure, so this is no negative aspect for me at all). Multiple sub-folders are supported without any problems.
The playing screen, so I have to say, is extremely nice and shows all of the information I want and consider to be important.
In the status bar, the track counter for the current folder/album is shown, with a volume indicator in the upper right corner that controls the volume for the analogue output, so a pre-amplifier isn’t stringently necessary if one chooses to use the SHD5’s analogue output.
The album cover is displayed on the left side and is reasonably crisp and detailed although the player doesn’t have the resolution of a modern smartphone’s screen.
The title information, album information, artist information and sampling rate are shown next to it, along with what track will be played next.
Below is a progress bar that shows the track length and how much time has already passed.
I have to say that I am really happy with the SHD5’s user interface – it is logically constructed and features a very good playing screen that displays all of the important information in a well-structured manner. On top, the operation is very fluent, responsive and without any lags.
There is only one very little thing that could be improved UI-wise: some of the translation in the settings is incorrect.
I expected a probably buggy and slow UI, however nothing like that was the case, except for the boot-up and shut-down that feel a bit slow – I can confidently say that Shinrico got the user interface right and implemented a playing screen that I think is ideal.
Sound:
As seen in the technical specifications I collected at the beginning of the review, the SHD5 supports a plethora of formats and even SACD ISOs.
RCA Output:
Here I mainly used my speaker rigs consisting of the Swans M1 and Cyburgs Needle speakers powered by some Pro-Ject mono-block amplifiers and my custom digitally controlled analogue volume control, as well as my headphone rig consisting of the Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII or a self-built headphone amplifier and various headphones and in-ears (mainly the Sennheiser HD 800, Audeze LCD-X, HiFiMan HE-400, UERM, Noble SAVANNA, Fischer Amps FA-3E and Pai Audio MR3).
Frequency Response:
The SHD5 does exactly what it is supposed to – it outputs a perfectly flat frequency response:
The other parameters don’t show any flaws either and exceed my sound card’s measurement range that tops out at -110 dB.
Transparency, Precision, Soundstage:
Let’s keep it short – the SHD5 does nothing unexceptional or unexpected here and sounds neutral, transparent and clean. The signal doesn’t tend to any side (it is neither warm nor bright) and the soundstage is circular with normal depth and width as well. Transparency is impeccable, too, but a bit below my Chord Mojo, however no night-and-day difference.
For speakers as well as an external headphone amplifier, the analogue output section does everything right.
Digital Outputs (Optical, Coaxial):
Here I mainly used my headphone rig as specified above, however the Chord Mojo was mainly used as DAC, driving the full-sized headphones directly and the in-ears in a stack with the Leckerton. I also used the HiFime optical SABRE DAC together with the Leckerton.
For my speaker rig, I mainly used the HiFime optical SABRE DAC together with the rig mentioned before.
Frequency Response:
The frequency response and measurements will depend on the used DAC. Using the Leckerton for the measurement, the signal remains perfectly flat:
This was to be expected and demonstrates that the SHD5 doesn’t add any equalisation to the digital outputs.
Transparency, Precision, Soundstage:
The sound one is getting will surely depend on the DAC one is using – the SHD5 doesn’t add any flavour or whatsoever to the digital signal output.
Conclusion:
The Shinrico SHD5 offers a good amount of interfaces to connect external storage media to it, feels very sturdy, heavy and premium, and has also got a great build quality and a non-reflective screen.
Its analogue section as well as its digital section output an impeccably transparent, neutral and clean sound and gapless playback also works perfectly.
The user interface is well-structured and has only got small translation errors in the settings that can be probably resolved through a firmware update. The navigation and operation are quick and the menus don’t feel slow but very fluent and without any delay after pushing the navigation buttons.
What is also really nice is the playing screen that features all of the information one needs and is well-structured, too.
Hands down, the SHD5 definitely fulfilled my expectations and even exceeded them – it is a great stand-alone desktop music player.
The only negative things that I could find are that the remote control features some unnecessary buttons, that the boot-up and shutdown feel a bit slow, and that the internal database is only built for the SD card, however if you have got a good folder structure on your external hard drives, you won’t need it anyway.
Compared to the many areas where the SHD5 shines, these are only very minor quirks that I can easily live with.
