[Sugano-san]

Has anyone ever tried the headphone out of the above player? Apperently it is driven by a pair of double triodes (à la EMP). Eager to hear your views.

Would $1,400 be an OK price for a new one (plus shipping and stuff)?

 

[Sugano-san]

The 200 does not decode HDCD, right?!? The 100 does.

 

[Len]

The 200c is a SACD player and I don't believe it decodes HDCD. It uses two pairs of 6N3P; I believe one pair is for output signal buffering (which is what lends the cdp its tubey reproduction) and the other pair is headphone output tubes. I haven't heard how good it sounds as a headamp/cdp package, but it is certainly intriguing.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Jochen, I have both the T100 and T200 and (of course, since I bought them) find them to be an exceptional value as players. The T200, new in box, for $1,400 would be an absolute steal IMO, so much so that I'd be tempted to buy a second one for another system I'm putting together.

I can confirm that the T100 does decode HDCD but the T200 does not. Why, I'm not sure, but that's just the way it is.

The headphone out on these players is what you're most interested in and I can tell you that you would be in for a real shock! The great thing is that you can tube roll it just like any other tube based headphone amp, and with a pair of NOS Northern Electric 396A tubes, it really comes to life! There was a time when I thought about selling off all of my headphone amps and just use these players for my head amp needs. But maybe this was just the initial shock that the headphone outs sounded so nice and smooth. In truth, I've only briefly compared the head out (i.e., direct to headphones) to the tube out going to different headamps to headphones. But from my brief listening sessions, I found the direct head out to be on par with the likes of the RKV, Sugden Headmaster, and micro ZOTL. These were my immediate impressions and I didn't do any serious comparisons, plus a lot of time has passed by since I tried this. I could spend some more time with it if you would like (it would kind of be fun actually). Any particular headamp "flavor" that you're interested in? I've still got the above amps, plus the Stealth and Maestro ZR (I'm thinking tube amps would make the more natural comparison).

The only drawback is that I found was that the volume attenuation was a bit ticklish. For some reason, I couldn't get it just exactly right. You can only control the headphone volume with the remote, and it's a digital thing ranging from 1 to 100. For some reason when it stepped up to the higher levels that I sometimes listen at, it began to sound strained. I'll try it again this weekend and report back.

 

[jjcha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wmcmanus I could spend some more time with it if you would like (it would kind of be fun actually). Any particular headamp "flavor" that you're interested in? I've still got the above amps, plus the Stealth and Maestro ZR (I'm thinking tube amps would make the more natural comparison).

It would be awesome to hear some comparisons of the Shanling's headphone output compared to the Stealth and Maestro. I'm somewhat familiar with the Stealth, and, given the price differences and goals, would not expect the Shanling's built in headphone stage to match it. I am curious whether the Shanling is (a) is pretty damn good, and only a relatively small step down from the Stealth or (b) is pretty good, but clearly outclassed by the Stealth in your opinion. Or whatever else you may find.

Also, headphone-wise, I'm curious regarding performance with Senn HD600/650's and Sony R-10's./CD3k's.

Best regards,

-Jason

 

[Sugano-san]

Thanks very much for your reply, Wayne! Please don't sacrifice your precious time for such comparisons. The Maestro obviously plays in a very different league than the T200's headphone out, and I am not really interested in the Stealth anyway.

The most intriguing bit about your reply is a possible comparison against the RKV, which puts out sth. between 2 and 3 W of OTL tube power, and your remark that the T200's headphone out is actually comparable to that of the RKV was a little surprising. I heard that the Headmasters sonic sig. is very different from that of the RKV, and I am not familiar at all with the Micro Zotl.

Thanks again for the info!

P.S.: My silver RKV is currently undergoing major modifications, and I'll keep you guys updated about the progress, but I doubt that I will be able to report very much before 2005.

 

[Zanth]

I have commented in the past on the T100 sound (the same headphone circuit).

The sound is very nice though the power issue is what will get most as Wayne outlined. To drive low impedance phones, there is no problem at all, great sound for Grados (though HP-1000's need a bit more current). The tube rolling is a lot of fun and honestly, for those looking for a good player that has a lot of modification potential AND one won't have to fork out tons for an amp immediately...yeah...seriously can't go wrong here.


I suppose the reason for not including HDCD is that it would require yet another chip, another clock etc. With the SACD in there along with Redbook, it seems to me they figured, those who wanted a lot of top quality sound would just buy the SACD's anyway.