[naka9]

When you have time, perhaps you can also explore the other possibilities that the ET-3 offers. Whilst I have a huge CD collection, which the ET-3 presents to me in a whole new way via my Holo Spring 3 KTE via the I2S connection, I am also enjoying the versatility of the ET-3.

Good to know
what was your previous CD transport with the Holo dac?
It is great to know one more CD collector, as I am exclusively all in when it comes to the format… for the past 34 years

 

[Kiats]

Good to know
what was your previous CD transport with the Holo dac?
It is great to know one more CD collector, as I am exclusively all in when it comes to the format… for the past 34 years

I will confess that the ET-3 is what has me back on my CD collection again. I had digitized my music collection over the years. So it must have been more than 10 years since I have listened to the CDs themselves.

A lot of my CDs were accumulated during my early work life when I was a university professor and I had a big office. I picked up a lot of CDs of the Tallis Scholars and other medieval choral music when I did my postgrad work in University College London in 1990. A lot of my mandopop and Cantopop CDs were from the time when I was an international lawyer and used to be in Shanghai and Hong Kong often. And then Taipei as well.

The digitization was very much a function of the travel that I do and so a lot of listening was on the road, in airport lounges and on flights. Of course, then streaming became more prevalent.

 

[Private]

Do you own 6000? Even I was thinking of getting 7000 vs ET3.
Want to know did I make a good choice

The Audiolab 7000CDT is the same CD transport as 6000CDT except, a color screen and a tray mechanism which replaced the much maligned slot loader of the 6000.

As this is subjective I am going to say that this is just my opinion but there is no doubt that ET3 sounds different then the 6000, which inherently does make it sound better then the 7000. The 9000? I do not know, as I did not try the 9000CDT out yet but that's double the price of the ET3 and has a useless big screen that doesn't even display CD text. Talking about a missed opportunity.

ET3 gives you more options then any of these, feature and hardware wise. They are all limited (not unusual to have these two) with co-ax and optical, which is fine but the 9000 should at least have additional options. On the ET3 you various outputs and USB CD output, which again sounds different than the other outputs on it. So a lot of choices for sound. In my current "lounge" set up I don't have a I2S DAC, but the ET3 can oversample up to DSD512/PCM 768kHz 32 bit. This can provide another 'flavor' in sonic pot feeding your DAC. I currently oversample via AES/EBU but I adore the 44.1kHz output into my dac as well, and that's what I used to compare to the Audiolabs.

ET3 has streaming options etc, you can prolly know that. It's basically a streamer. I wish it had ethernet port, but again I am not using it as streamer, strictly as CD transport.

Audiolab sounds a smidge flat and less 3D then ET3. It's still a great sounding player. I prefer the 6000 over CXC CD, AXC35 and other players in the range, however I prefer the ET3 over all of those.
Another disappointing factor was Audiolabs wasn't interested in helping out with electric issues that are on both of the 6000CDT, I have. It's not an isolated case, pun intended, as I have talked to other users with exactly the same issue and experience.

@amrutmhatre90 ET3 is a great choice over the 7000 in my opinion.

 

[Private]

Good to know
what was your previous CD transport with the Holo dac?
It is great to know one more CD collector, as I am exclusively all in when it comes to the format… for the past 34 years

38 years, collection in the thousands. never stopped getting CD's since my dad brought the first home in the mid 80s.

 

[Private]

When you have time, perhaps you can also explore the other possibilities that the ET-3 offers. Whilst I have a huge CD collection, which the ET-3 presents to me in a whole new way via my Holo Spring 3 KTE via the I2S connection, I am also enjoying the versatility of the ET-3.

I am looking to purchase a DAC with I2S, so I have added the Holo Spring 3 KTE to the listen to list. I love, love the sound of the chord dac I currently use in the 'lounge'. So it has to draw me in which some of the other i2S DACs have not done.

 

[naka9]

I will confess that the ET-3 is what has me back on my CD collection again. I had digitized my music collection over the years. So it must have been more than 10 years since I have listened to the CDs themselves.

A lot of my CDs were accumulated during my early work life when I was a university professor and I had a big office. I picked up a lot of CDs of the Tallis Scholars and other medieval choral music when I did my postgrad work in University College London in 1990. A lot of my mandopop and Cantopop CDs were from the time when I was an international lawyer and used to be in Shanghai and Hong Kong often. And then Taipei as well.

The digitization was very much a function of the travel that I do and so a lot of listening was on the road, in airport lounges and on flights. Of course, then streaming became more prevalent.

Yes, the availability of titles (from every genre and nationality) and the portability is second to none. I also picked some CDs on my travels and it was always a joy to peruse secondhand music stores.
Although I have a broad taste in music, my main obsession is with Jazz, but also look for Blues, 60-70’s rock (including Hard and Prog), and Oriental music. Love Indian and Pakistani music…
Now, with also several thousands of CDs I am creating new shelf space in my dedicated music room, and study another way to organize them… and what a pleasure it is

Hopefully there will be more new CD transports and players in the near future, but Shanling is certainly become a very important player. The new SCD1.3 is very interesting and well equipped although I don’t warm to the looks of it, especially the drawer above the display, very near the top. It looks somewhat mid-fi, almost lifestyle type of gadget…
Imagine if Shanling using the same components and developed a (full size) top loadng CD/SACD player/transport…

 

[Kiats]

Yes, the availability of titles (from every genre and nationality) and the portability is second to none. I also picked some CDs on my travels and it was always a joy to peruse secondhand music stores.
Although I have a broad taste in music, my main obsession is with Jazz, but also look for Blues, 60-70’s rock (including Hard and Prog), and Oriental music. Love Indian and Pakistani music…
Now, with also several thousands of CDs I am creating new shelf space in my dedicated music room, and study another way to organize them… and what a pleasure it is

Hopefully there will be more new CD transports and players in the near future, but Shanling is certainly become a very important player. The new SCD1.3 is very interesting and well equipped although I don’t warm to the looks of it, especially the drawer above the display, very near the top. It looks somewhat mid-fi, almost lifestyle type of gadget…
Imagine if Shanling using the same components and developed a (full size) top loadng CD/SACD player/transport…

Nice! Yes, a lot of the really interesting stuff never make it to the streaming apps. Sadly.

Yes. I like what Shanling is doing, ie. marry their traditional OEM experience in hifi components and their more recent experiences to make CD transports for the modern age. Let’s see where this current journey takes them.

 

[epo001]

Have this on order but am put off by the limited remote control. At the least I would want a numeric keypad to specify a track by number.

Is this even possible? If so, is it possible to specify the remote code so that a universal remote could be used? I have also seen a 3rd party remote which emulates a Shanling RC3L remote which does have a numeric keypad, would this work?

 

[Private]

Here is a simple one using the Shanling font. I made some with smokey backgrounds and CD as the background but I don't want to majorly overstep and offend the designers.

@Shanling is ET3 capable of short animated backgrounds? What about CD-Text?

 

[Private]

Have this on order but am put off by the limited remote control. At the least I would want a numeric keypad to specify a track by number.

Is this even possible? If so, is it possible to specify the remote code so that a universal remote could be used? I have also seen a 3rd party remote which emulates a Shanling RC3L remote which does have a numeric keypad, would this work?

@Shanling If it's possible with a 20 year old remote, maybe we can figure it out via the app, or software?



Numeric Keypad Song Selection

I trimmed the video for length and only went up to song 3. Programmed up to song 10. Did not put too much thought to have to go past that.

Wouldn't really mind if it took longer for example to hit song 8, or 4 or whatever as long as that option would be available.

 

[zolkis]

I am curious as well to how you perceive the sounds from 9000 vs ET3. ET3 vs 6000 was more 3D, defined, relaxed, liquid, a bit more substantial. Depending on the output used as well there is a fair difference between the USB and the rest. 6000 is no slouch, and I prefer it over many current marantz, Cambridge Audio and Rotel transports (in price range).

Subscribed. The CDT-9000 is better, but the same house sound as the 6000, so based on the description the ET3 might actually sound more preferable to many people, including me, than the 9000 (which certainly has its own merits, too).

 

[jjll849]

I have Audiolab, Technics and Rotel CDs, they sound all on the cool and flat side regardless using internal DACs or external ones. The ET3 house sound is definitely more organic and 3D like. Not only for playing CDs, streaming from Roon to ET3 via 44Khz upper limit Airplay I, the ET3 up samples the music to 192Khz and it sounds fantastic. I discontinued my Tidal’s expensive grade subscription and used only Tidal CD level streaming now, and let ET3 to upsample it to 192kHz PCM before feeding to the R2R R26 DAC. Downstream are a pair of PS Audio BHK hybrid preamp and Accuphase Class A power amplifier.

 

[Private]

I have Audiolab, Technics and Rotel CDs, they sound all on the cool and flat side regardless using internal DACs or external ones. The ET3 house sound is definitely more organic and 3D like. Not only for playing CDs, streaming from Roon to ET3 via 44Khz upper limit Airplay I, the ET3 up samples the music to 192Khz and it sounds fantastic. I discontinued my Tidal’s expensive grade subscription and used only Tidal CD level streaming now, and let ET3 to upsample it to 192kHz PCM before feeding to the R2R R26 DAC. Downstream are a pair of PS Audio BHK hybrid preamp and Accuphase Class A power amplifier.

I use the Eversolo DMP-A6 as a streamer which can output into my dac via USB up to DSD512 Native. It has upsampling up to 192kHz as well but now I definitely curious as how does the ET3 sounds as streamer.

There are two methods of WiFi set up in the advanced manual, one with sync link ... which one should I set up if I want to try streaming airplay from iOS device?

 

[zolkis]

I have Audiolab, Technics and Rotel CDs, they sound all on the cool and flat side regardless using internal DACs or external ones. The ET3 house sound is definitely more organic and 3D like.

I am sampling CD transports and players time to time, now the ET3 got shortlisted. I was looking at the ProJect RS2T, and the likely coming DS3T (but being a slot-loader, has a disadvantage). But I am not sure how much the difference would be between the RS2T and ET3 (or eventually the likes of Marantz CD50n or CD30n or Cyrus CDt or CEC TL5). Used as a transport, sound-wise there is little comparative / consistent information, I have to listen myself.

I still prefer good vintage transports/players and compare everything against them (e.g. CDM-4.26 swing-arm is excellent, as certain old Pioneers, such as the Japanese PD8070 updated with modern parts and PSU). Still nothing beats those, but some devices do come close, vintage and new, including some streamers / file servers, but to my ears, CD players are still unmatched at CD resolution.

 

[Private]

Here is a thought, during CD playback , the ET3 screen is occupied with the CD data, the Power Button can be pressed for Menu, Turn Off but the dial doesn't do anything during CD playback.
Would it be possible to have a fast-dial of tracks via the power-button when CD is in play? @Shanling

The power button requires a substantial press to pull up a menu, so spinning the dial should not accidentally trigger the menu, and it would be a breeze to dial in a track.

Anyone else think this is a good idea?