Zanth
SHAman who knew of Head-Fi ten years prior to its existence
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2001
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This review of the Shanling CD-T100 comes after owning the unit for just over two years. When I first purchased the player I wanted to review it but at the time I felt my words would be rampant with hyperbole. Also at the time there were some varying opinions about the sound and I felt unsure of my ability to describe “good sound” if this player (sounding so good to me) actually was crap as a few early impressions were indicating. Once I had gained a greater exposure to other CD players and in direct comparison to my player, I once again had the urge to write up a review but for some reason I never got around to it.
Just over a year ago, folks started to modify their players and I wanted to jump on the bandwagon. I made the decision not to write a review until after the mods. I wanted to give a comprehensive impression of “before and after.” I had my unit modified on a very small scale by Shanling themselves but knew it would be this summer that I would fully modify my player and finally get the drive to post my impressions.
So what follows is my journey through audio - from my very humble beginnings to what I feel is now a top notch system. I will outline my impressions of my player from stock, to tube rolled, to modified, to modified with NOS tubes to maxedoutblowyourmindsomanymodstherearenearlytooman ytolist.
Again, these are my impressions so take them with a grain of salt. I have listened to more than a few top players by now, including the Linn Sondek CD12 for anyone that cares.
My associated equipment is listed in my profile and my musical tastes run the gamut. I have used my entire musical collection by now with this system. I have 1000+ CD’s, so believe me when I state that I’ve used just about everything but rap and country (and even then, I used a bit of that too).
For those that don’t care about where I am coming from in terms of my ambitions in hi-fi, just skip to the Shanling CD T-100 heading where the actual review of the player begins.
[size=small]History[/size]
My audio journey began when I was but a “pup” back in the late 70’s. My father had a Klipsch speaker setup with some cool Kenwood tuner, a Kenwood 8-track player and some ancient Thorens turntable. It was not a bad little setup for me to get acquainted with the world of music. My dad also had these massive and extremely comfortable headphones with volume controls on the ear cups. I can’t recall who made them or any absolute qualities of the sound except to say they had that echo/chamber effect that I now despise. One might remember my old avatar, that was me at age 1 with those ginormous cans. I do believe the headphones made more of an impression on me than the speakers, even though the speakers clearly sounded superior
Music was played regularly at my house until my second brother came about. After this my folks didn’t seem to have time to listen anymore. My father sold off his aging stereo in the mid-80’s after my youngest brother was born and from then on my dad listened mainly to AM talk radio - CBC primarily though sometimes he would get the urge to listen to music and would switch to CBC Radio 2 FM (Canada’s premier Classical/Jazz station). I asked my father if he ever felt nostalgic or even a bit sad that his stereo had left the house. He didn’t really comment much, replying his interests had changed to photography mainly when I had come about but that he didn’t want to sell off the gear that he had so enjoyed through university. I felt this was a shame and decided to buy my father a Tivoli Model 1 last year for his radio pleasures. I felt that if this is all he is going to listen to and only on a small scale, this was about the best little table top one could get. He really enjoys it and has it on 24/7 while in his wood-working shop.
As I grew up, music was still played, but it was whatever was pumping through the radio, at least up until the time my parents felt I was mature enough to appreciate and take care of a mini-system. My first “ghetto blaster” as they were called then, was a Christmas gift back when I was 8 It was an all silver cassette unit plus am/fm radio flanked by two massive speakers. This style was all the rage in the mid-80’s. My parents also supplied my first cassette, Abba’s Greatest Hits. For future reference, an 8 year old boy does NOT want this to be his first album, nor any album in his collection. Needless to say, I did not inform my friends I owned this, nor did I actually ever listen to this tape. Ironically, I now own Abba – Gold on Redbook and quite enjoy their music. My parents planted the seed I guess.
My dad took it upon himself to record many songs from the radio, expanding my musical tastes. Though he did concentrate on the Top 40 hits of the day, he would try to sneak in some serious classic rock tracks which seemed to have stuck with me more so than the 80’s trite pop that bombarded my drums hours on end. As I aged, my musical tastes expanded but my interest in hi-fi was non-existent. Perhaps this was due for the most part to pure ignorance. I was raised in a small town wherein there is no serious audio shop. At the time, the best one could do was to drive down to Sears and pick out a Sony or Pioneer or Kenwood. I didn’t know what “good sound” was all about, as long as my unit said Sony; I was “cool” and accepted. So it was, in grade 10, I decided to save my money and take the plunge into the world of the compact disc - having used cassettes for 7 years. My parents had enrolled me into Columbia House 2 years earlier and by this time I had a substantial music collection for my age, but I had clearly over-played my albums and the sound was thoroughly degraded. I begged my parents for a CD player and in the end they agreed to let me spend some of my money on a portable unit.
I went out and chose a Sony (of course) portable player. I was fortunate that my latest “boombox” had a line-in and this particular Sony unit had a line-out. It was in fact rare that I used the line-out feature. Instead I would listen incessantly through the stock ear-buds. The funny thing about this now is that back in early high school, if one had larger headphones they were mocked. How the times have changed. Thankfully it seems, now kids are able to just enjoy their music. If it sounds good that is all that matters. Giant full-sized cans or miniscule canal phones, it is up to the user. This is how I should have grown up. Darn peer pressure!
So here I am, 15 years old and beginning my Redbook journey. My first disc was Extreme’s Pornograffitti followed by Michael Jackson’s Dangerous. I must have played these two discs 300 times within the first month of owning the player. I would listen on repeat while studying, then again when I was going to bed. The ear-buds really helped here. More often than not, I would wake up and take the phones from my ears, music still playing. I was in heaven! I could listen on repeat, infinitely, without sound degradation. ‘Good-bye Cassettes! Zanth is all about Redbook now! Long live digital!’
Though I knew then that a certain amount of quality depended on the build of the unit, I was not aware of model numbers or company reliability outside of “cool” brand recognition. If someone had a no-name plastic unit then it had to sound bad right! But if someone had a Sony or even a Panasonic, well then it must sound good! (I know this is a long intro but there is reason to my madness and this last sentence is particularly important).
So it was that I had this particular unit for a few years until I left for university and purchased another mini-system, this time with CD + cassette playback. My collection had grown to just over 100 discs in 3 years and there was no end in site. My interests were solely in the digital domain and for the first time I began to wonder about sound quality outside the Sony world.
My pcdp was dated by ’95, and I most definitely wanted a portable unit in addition to my shelf unit, if only for library study sessions. It was at this time that Panasonic first released their ShockWave Line and my curiosity had peaked. A local electronics store had just been bought out by a national electronics outfit and for the first time my little city had a major player with top consumer gear. (Ironically, this incredible store closed its doors 4 years later once Walmart decided to come in and demolish any and all retail competition, in all market areas. Now that poor little city is once again without anything great.)
I spent a lot of time comparing the sound of my old Sony pcdp to various other Sony units as well as some Panasonics, one Aiwa and a few no-namers (just in case there was diamond in the rough). To my surprise it was the Panasonic Shockwave series that made the biggest impression on me. Though at the time bass-boost was fun, I found the sound was simply more crisp and pure through the Panasonic than any other unit there. So out went Sony! The Panasonic was excellent and with the unprecedented 40 second anti-skip I could, for the first time, jog while enjoying Redbook. This was the final blow to my cassette listening days and this was the very first step into my full-blown interest in audio playback as opposed to music listening.
Two years later I began to heavily research the world of hi-fi headphones. I lived with a roommate, and he and I were very respectful of one-another’s studying schedules. I am a night owl and would go to my morning classes, grab some lunch, hit an afternoon lab and then head home for a good sleep. I would wake up at 10 pm or so and begin to do my homework until dawn. Meanwhile my roommate was an early bird and had a similar class schedule but would settle in by 10:30 or 11 to sleep for the night after having studied since 5 or 6 pm. This meant that while both of us were sleeping during our respectful schedules, the other would be listening to music and studying. Headphones were the only way to fly, and as I have stated earlier, headphone listening seems to be hardwired into my auditory cortex. I came upon an early Headroom opinion regarding the Grado SR-60’s and this coincided with the Good Cans impressions I had recently read. For a portable system, the SR-60’s were it! At that, I ordered them and never looked back. In fact, when doing my research I was introduced to the world of high-end headphones and moreover was introduced to my inevitable true love…the RS-1’s. At a retail price of $700 US (at the time the Canadian dollar was abysmal, this was $1000000000 CAD) I laughed at the prospect of ever owning these headphones. But I dreamed of them – often.
Two years later, I was married, changing cities, with an evolving life and evolving interests. One interest that seemingly remained static was that of music in as much as my collecting was concerned. My spending had, however, increased over the last 4 years - my collection now well over 400, growing at a steady rate with no end in site. At this time my audio gear passion started to heat up. I felt that I was nearing a time in my life where some serious investment in the quality of gear I would use to play back my rather large music collection was in order. I did not foresee a time I would sell and/or replace my CD’s even though the MP3 era was upon us and I was actively participating in it. I began researching and budgeting and negotiating the feasibility of owning a better home-based headphone system and then eventually a quality stand-alone Redbook player.
After our first year of marriage, my wife decided to purchase the RA-1 to be used with my SR-60’s. Though she knew that I felt this would be wasted on the mainly portable phones, she really wanted to buy me something I would enjoy and cherish for our first anniversary as well as perhaps really jump-starting my audiophile journey. So very precious of her! And boy was she right! Three months later I owned the RS-1’s and though I honestly thought it could not get any better, in the back of my mind I knew that my cd player, though a nice durable portable unit, (by this time, the 2nd incarnation of the Shockwave Line) was the bottleneck. Because of my ever growing mp3 collection I began to read up on mp3/cd units. Some were given mildly positive reviews. A Cambridge Audio unit was of particular interest at the time (300e or something like that). It was in the range of $750 CAD and though a bit steep for us at the time, (we were both in grad school) especially after having just spent the money on the RA-1 and RS-1, I thought this would be the unit for me. So I began saving and negotiating with my wife. She was more than positive and since I had taken on a small contract that was supplementary to our regular income it was pretty much my deal and she said I could spend the money however I wanted to. Perfect
A few months later I was finally in a position to purchase the unit, when I was introduced to a very interesting and downright sexy player! The Shanling CD T-100 had first been discovered at this rather cryptic and pretty much unknown Chinese Manufacturer’s Website, and later first appeared in English on the Enjoy The Music’s Primedia 2002 Report. The drool started to flow from more than few audiophiles’ mouth, mine included. This unique tube-based player was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before (at least outside of a 1950’s science fiction movie). Its warm orange tube glow mixing with the bright beams of blue light only added to the beauty of this player. Certainly it was eye-catching and in marked contrast to the endless sea of black boxes, but this was meaningless in the world of audio if the sound was at all lacking. This was the problem we were all faced with at the time. Just how did this unit sound?
DannyB over at Audio Asylum was the first person in the US to take the plunge. At a total price of $1300 with shipping, taxes and duty, this player seemed too good to be true. DannyB is an avid Cary fan, owner of a 306 and I believe at one time a Cary dealer or at minimum close personal friends with Dennis Had. His initial review can be found here.
After reading this overwhelmingly positive review, I was floored. This player was comparing favourably to the vaunted Cary 306 at 1/5 the MSRP and has more features than one typically finds on any single unit. Might I add that DannyB at the time, had NOT rolled the tubes!! Oh if only he had, the review would have been even more positive…but I digress.
The two major drawing cards for me, aside from the looks and the fact the sound was apparently up to snuff, was that it was tube based for Redbook and had a tube based headphone amp. I had never seriously considered tubes, mainly because of the horror stories, full of drama, found on the net. Because I was (and coincidentally still am) a student, I didn’t want to be bothered and moreover burdened with tube malfunctions. I wanted something that just worked, a la the RA-1. But the looks were just so impressive and the sound said to be so darn good and with so many features I just couldn’t pass this up.
I approached my wife and had her look at a picture of this unit. Folks, there really is something to be said about the Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF). Had I shown her another black box, I’m fairly certain she would have been reluctant to shell out extra money for this unit (when all is said and done, it was going to cost at minimum 2.5 times what I had budgeted, hence we would need to use “our” money).
The units were being sold exclusively in China and shipped to various parts of the world. The introductory price was $1100 USD + shipping for a total of about $1400-1550 when all is said and done. This was a hefty sum and for this amount of money it lacked one of the features I wanted – MP3 CDR playback. I decided that if I wanted to get serious about this audiophile gig, I would have to forgo this “feature” and just go for the unit. Best decision I have ever made in this hobby. I was about to take the plunge!
To my horrible dismay, Shanling had just set up a distribution network in the US through Music Hall. Though this did not immediately affect me, it affected more than a few folks who wanted to order directly from Shanling at $1100. Now that Music Hall was importing, Shanling stopped selling direct to Americans and the new “from dealer” cost jacked to $2000. It was after this that the bad reviews started coming in. Everything from downright atrocious build quality to less than stellar sound quality was being expressed by these disgruntled folks who had “listened” to the unit at their local dealers. Secretly I was crushed. I didn’t know what to expect and since there was not a single unit in Canada that I could listen to, I was at a loss. I decided to contact DannyB and discuss these issues with him personally. After many messages back and forth, I came to the conclusion that these poor impressions were coming from disgruntled guys who missed out on the early-bird pricing and were ticked off about the mark-up.
Thankfully I was back on track to buying. I contacted Shanling, ready to wire the money when I received a response indicating that I too now had waited too long (I had been in contact with Shanling by now for 6 months making sure that the 120V version was a go and that shipping to Canada would be fine. I had saved my money and was ready by this point even though I was more than a bit nervous wiring $2k Canadian to some new foreign company who could pretty much refuse to send me my product.) I was told that Canada had a distributor and that I would likely have a dealer nearby sooner than later with a unit I could purchase. Fearing the hike in cost, I decided to wait it out and contact the distributor. Sure enough, a unit was coming my way, in fact it was the first unit in Canada. I scheduled a listening session and after 10 minutes I was sold. The cost was $650 more than I had discussed with my wife and I needed to make sure this was okay with her. I don’t think the dealer was too pleased with this because when I called back a few days later saying I would take the unit I was told the unit was now full retail + taxes. I have no idea if he was having a bad day or not (I was assured by one of his employees that this is not typical of him…whatever, it made a lasting impression) but I was not in a position to pay $3450 CAD for this player. I was put off, depressed and supremely PO’d. I contacted the distributor and we were able to work out something that suited us both and after some wheeling and dealing, I came in under my budget with my new “baby” on its way.
[size=medium]The Shanling CD T-100[/size]
[size=small]Specifications and Design[/size]
Specifications
Output Impedance: Estimated below 300 Ohm RCA for tube amp and headphone, below 150 Ohm CD Audio
Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20kHz
Distortion: <0.002% (1kHz)
Signal/Noise Ratio: 110dB (tube output 102db)
Dynamic Range: 115dB
Crosstalk: <100dB
Output Level: 0~2.2V adjustable
Tube Compliment: four 6N3P, standard Chinese (compatible with 396A & 2C51)
Digital System: four 24 Bit Burr Brown PCM1704 DAC, PDM-200 96kHz HDCD Digital Filter, Crystal CS8420 upsampler for 96kHz upsampling
Transport: Philips CDM-1201 with Philips CD7 II servo circuitry
MSRP: from around $2,000 USD, but readily available between 1200-1600 on Audiogon, £1,650 incl. VAT European side, for us Canadians its $3000 and I have yet to see it priced lower except on demo models which usually go for $2650.
Weight: 12 kilograms Net
Dimensions: 430 X 290 X 65 (LxWxH in mm)
Design and Implementation
The Shanling CD T-100 came triple boxed in high density cardboard boxes fitted snugly in a poly-styrene cut-out; the main unit was vacuum sealed in plastic. I opened up the boxes, first coming across a remote, well constructed though with miniscule buttons (a sore point for a few folks, I am now informed that this remote is no longer supplied and the new one is of the higher end Marantz types), a pair of white gloves for tube handling, a set of 4x 6np3’s, Chinese made, a heavy and well made power cord with hospital grade connectors, and two sets of brass feet: soft rubber ones and then another set of spiked cone feet and a shammy cloth to polish the player. Finally, it came with a user manual that was pretty well completely in Cantonese though with a few English words scattered here and there. It was for all intents and purposes, useless for this Chinese illiterate. They now ship with a complete English version. Again, I was pretty well a guinea pig being the first person outside of the dealer and distributor to own one. One of the “bugs” were worked out, I have read and witnessed consistency across their entire line.
I was thoroughly impressed with the level of detail Shanling applied in their inclusion of accessories. Many higher end CD players come with a very cheap power cable not something this beefy. I nearly forgot, this unit came with two test discs. One was Redbook and then the other HDCD, identical tracks to compare the two features with, because yes, this is an HDCD player as well as an upsampling player.
When people write that pictures do not do credit to this unit or that unit, I often wonder how drastically different the real life unit would look like? Well now I know it can be substantial. After pulling this 25 lbs beast from its protective packaging, my wife and I were met with an absolute work of art. Solidly built, polished chrome met with hints of gold, just enough to indicate something special but limited enough in its use to avoid being gaudy. The front display panel is small enough to be unobtrusive while the on-remote display brightness button permitted me to view the numbers from a good 10 feet back. The remote itself is the true control center of this unit with on-the-fly 24bit/96Hz upsampling, various play modes (repeat all, repeat one, an interesting repeat function where one is able to play continuously between points in a song, say 2:12 minutes and 4:10 minutes by hitting a select button twice) as well a myriad of other typical functions. On unit, one has the customary play/pause/stop/forward/reverse, so losing the remote necessitates the purchase of another if one wants to take advantage of upsampling or the various play modes.
The jacks on the back of the unit are of high enough quality, with my ic’s firmly gripping them. The (from looking at the front of the unit) left series of tubes and transformers power the tube output stage while the right series powers the headphone amp.
The unit’s CD transport is the Philips CDM-1201 and housed in a fairly large machined aluminum block, which also holds the mechanism of the lid. It is manually operated with a built in mechanical clamp. One opens the acrylic top placing the CD in and lowering the top until it sits softly but firmly on the disc with a nice ‘clunk’ sound. Once you see it start spinning you know you have got it right! The acrylic lid can stand up on its own only at the very height of its opening angle. Otherwise it will come crashing down on the disc. I have never experienced this myself, though I had read about it so I have always been extra cautious. As an aside, I held a meet once and one poor guy accidentally let the lid crash on his disc. He looked back to see if anyone noticed. I was in another room where he didn’t happen to see me looking and boy did this guy’s face glow red. Not a big deal nothing broke, all is well with my unit, but man, did he evidently feel bad. This has been a bone of contention with some owners. I am always very careful with my gear and I don’t see it as a big deal. Other’s obviously feel differently.
The playback has a slight delay (1-2 seconds) before the music starts then it is business as usual. Apparently this is a slow start compared to other players on the market and a few folks were put off by this. I can wait 1-2 seconds for the music to start to flow. Again this is not an issue with me.
The design of the outputs has the signal running through the Solid State stage first then buffered by the Tube output stage if one so chooses. The stock opamps used in the SS stage are the dual Burr-Brown OPA-2604’s. Apparently these are pretty solid performers and I never had any complaints. In fact, reading some prelimary reviews one may note that many folks preferred the solid state outputs compared with the tube outputs when using the stock tubes. Either the stock tubes are that bad or the OPA-2604’s did that good of a job. Considering DannyB rated both stages fairly close to the Cary 306’s performance, with the SS stage slightly edging above the tube stage, one can surmise that this player, even with these opamps does an immediately good job.
Another key part rounding out the player is the Philips CD-7 Chip. The CD-7 servo processor’s on-chip circuitry and simple crystal provide the main clock for the CD operation. This implementation is a bit weak when compared to the rest of the player’s design, though weak is relative. It is still very good, just not as good as it could be, as for example if the main clock used the included Cirrus Logic/Crystal CS8420 which is used to upsample the signal from 16/44 to 24/96. One important note is that this chip supplies the digital output of the player. So if the upsampling is engaged this reclocks the signal and is separate from the clock generator for the 16/44. This becomes important for modification as one who may want a new clocking device will be sour if they listen exclusively with upsampling since their new fantangled clock will be bypassed altogether. Thorsten noted this and pointed to the obvious upgrade potential: the addition of a new clock for straight Redbook. I took his advice but more of that later on.
Shanling used two DAC chips in parallel per channel, they are Burr-Brown PCM-1704, true 24-Bit multibit DAC’s. Apparently they are stellar DAC chips at least at the time of production of the unit. Elna Cerafine capacitors are used around the power supply lines of the DAC chips. It seems that parts selection was pretty high for this level of player with Elna, Sanyo and Nichicon capacitors being used throughout.
Another very interesting point are the regulated power supplies and the filtering involved keeping the player as free from noise as possible this I will directly quote from Thorsten:
Quote:
What he said, and good to know
Because I am not an EE, nor really that proficient at describing parts and their modes of operation, I will point one to Thorsten Loesch’s review over at Enjoy the Music from which I just referenced: (http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazin...2/shanling.htm).
This was the first “pro” review to come out and it was very positive. With only a few hints for areas of improvement in design one can compare the grades for this player vs. the Cary 303/200 (and one can quickly come to the conclusion that as a stock player, at $2000 USD MSRP, this player competes nicely with the “big boys.” That is at least in terms of design and implementation.) But how does it sound? When it is all said and done, that is why we are here. As the disgruntled folks declared straight away: “if it is that pretty it can’t possibly sound good let alone great!” We have already examined the initial build quality let’s hit the music.
[size=small]SOUND - Stock Unit[/size]
What I look for in my audio reproduction is an experience that can mimic the original performance as close as possible without emphasizing the limitations of the recorded media. Certainly Redbook is not perfect but then neither is vinyl or SACD or DVD-A. I see no reason why a good player has to reproduce any “digititis” as it is often put. Frankly, I want, if at all possible, to avoid stridency, accentuated “S” sounds, and uncontrollable highs. These are some of the major criticisms for Redbook. I have heard players that avoid this while retaining what most of us want: high levels of resolution, superb dynamics both macro and micro, excellent bass slam (which digital seems particularly proficient at) and great extension in the highs.
My main concerns are those of PRaT and weight to the notes better known as palpability or *SNAP!*. When a drum stick hits the skin or a mallet hits wood or steel, I want to practically feel it hit. I realize this form of weight to the notes is exactly what many want from the visceral experience of speakers; however, headphones are quite capable of reproducing this palpable sound while they omit the full body concussion of say timpani’s getting beaten by a percussionist. I feel an accurate reproduction of this sound is what separates an extremely good player from a decent or poor player. Many players can spew out gobs of detail, more still can extend from top to bottom with a great decree latitude but few can do it all with control while recreating notes that are believable.
When using a portable player or even a low-end stand alone, using my associated gear, immediately I am hit with most of what the disc has to offer in terms of detail. My headphones are resolving enough and my amps powerful enough that I’m not missing boatloads by any means. If I had to put a number on it, I would say I’m hitting 80-85% of what I am able to extract using my Shanling. This speaks well of lower-end gear and I admit, with recent advances in digital playback this is exactly how it should be. That said, like many here, I want to hear 100% or at least as close to that as humanly possible. With the Shanling using the SS outputs I felt I was getting pretty well anything I have heard on my most familiar discs, and I like to verify using Ety’s with their near electronmicroscopic picture of what those nice little pits have to share. The tube output using the stock Chinese tubes was close but there was an added level of obscurity, as if looking through a car window vs. having it rolled down. Point to the SS stage!
Even though I was very impressed with the level of detail of this player as compared with my other cd players, I felt the immediate improvement was in the world of palpable notes. Each note as described above resounded with force! I could imagine the molecules in the air gyrating at immense speeds colliding with great force whereas with my pcdp’s and my low-end standalone, it was as if someone were politely requesting each molecule to move and perhaps nudge their neighbour just enough to pass the info along. Think of the experience as drinking a cup of mild black tea vs. a triple espresso. Sure both will provide flavour, a hot drink, wetting the throat and perhaps stimulating that sleepy brain early in the morn but only one will have you shaking by noon. When I drink caffeine I better be nigh convulsing or it just ain’t worth the effort That is how I want my music, if I can’t imagine the notes reproduced with the near force they originally achieved then frankly, I’m ready to move on. This of course is coming from a reference system. I can get down and dirty with an AM radio if I have to but when building a hi-fi outfit, it’s either there or not. With the Shanling it was there but not as much as I would have liked. Initially I didn’t really know that it was not as good as it could be, that is, the SS stage had more weight, where as the Chinese tubes provided a warmer plumper and in the end, a softer sound to the notes. It was pleasant but it was not doing the job. I didn’t really need to worry though as I was warned ahead of time that this would likely happen using the stocks. When I ordered my player I had also ordered a NIB matched quad of the Western Electric 396a’s. These are a direct drop-in for the 6np3’s and are highly regarded. The tubes were sold to me at a nice introductory price of $90 Canadian for the set, they now sell for about $90 USD a pair.
Dropping the WE’s in, I immediately heard a change in the resolution of the tube stage as well as a tightening of the bass with added depth and extension, but as I’m sure you can already predict, the notes regained the palpability and weight the SS provided and the stocks short changed.
With the WE’s I felt there was no point in reverting to the stocks and from that point on I have never put them back in. Why bother? So in reading the remainder of my impressions, note that in each incarnation of my player, I have only ever used the WE’s or another NOS tube. My favourite of the NOS is coming up shortly.
In terms of bass extension I felt the WE’s and the SS stage were pretty well equal with the SS stage, having a slightly firmer sound but the tube stage providing a more realistic tone to the bass, a tad warmer especially moving on up through the midrange. The sweetness of the tube was apparent but it did not sound as if there was a decrease in transparency here only that the notes seemed to jump out more, with a more realistic sound than the SS was able to provide. Moving on up the scale the tube stage quickly left the SS stage in the dust. Where the SS stage had a tendency to be a bit too forward and a bit harsh in the high frequencies, the tube stage had a marked decrease on poor discs and none to speak of on the good ones. At this point in the game I honestly felt I had struck gold and would never need to modify my setup. How little did I know…
I had been keeping up with the online impressions and as more folks purchased the unit, more and more positive comments were populating the audio boards. No longer just a beauty model, this player, from a fairly unknown Chinese company was flooring people around the globe. With so many wonderful features, great sound and looks to defy all previous designs, this player was a winner. But could it sound even better?
I was using Cardas Neutral Reference IC’s initially and I felt this was a very linear, transparent sound (using the Melos and the HP-1’s), yet as I kept reading the impressions, many people were indicating that the CD T-100 was very finicky with IC’s and that a great synergy could be found after listening to a wide range of cables. After reading Jude’s glowing review of the NR’s and after having compared them to some Totem Sinew’s as well as Kimber PJB’s I felt the NR’s were wonderful, a bit pricey but worth it. Being an obsessive-compulsive and never really happy (the grass is always greener syndrome) I started to research cables post reading the initial remarks regarding cables. I settled on a pair of gold plated tri-alloy (gold/silver/copper mix) cables from W Enterprises NW (their source is Audio Metallurgy) which I managed to pick up from an auction on Audiogon. The retail on the 1m pair I managed to snag for $400 USD is something astronomical like $1600 USD. Whatever… Anyhow, when I plugged them in and let them burn in, I was astounded by the difference in resolution, control in the highs for both the SS and the tube stage and particularly the clean and DEEP controlled bass. All this from an IC change? The NR’s in my system had been obscuring a lot of detail that I never knew existed. It was a cleaner sound to be sure. At this point I can compare the difference to the window, the rolled down window and now the rolled down window up North where the air is clean and smog free. So these were the keepers. I stopped here in my IC hunt. I had not enjoyed really high-grade copper nor pure silver so this tri-alloy was doing the trick. I suppose I could try out some palladium or pure gold, but I’m feeling pretty confident at this point and after the mods this summer, I’m a bit burnt out from my audio spending. There is always next summer!
At this point I knew there was only one other avenue to pursue with the player, that of the power cord. At this point in my journey I was just getting exposed to this PC mayhem and I was one of the people who truly felt that a pc could not possibly make a difference. However, being who I am, I kept on reading and enjoying the heated debates. This went on for about 4 months until such time as a certain Chris Johnson from Parts Connexion (and Sonic Frontiers fame) and a gentleman by the name of Walter Liedermann (better known as Underwood Wally) began to offer a modification package (known as the Level 1 mods now, since they have begun offering the new Level +1 mods). I was definitely intrigued but also doubtful that a few part changes inside could make a difference at all. After chatting it up with our main man carlo, he pretty well, in under 5 minutes, set me straight on how parts can make an incredible difference. This was about the same time carlo had begun his now infamous Melos maestrobation modifications. Since I had just picked up a Melos myself, I thought I would try my luck at this modification and see what it could do. If carlo could make magic, then perhaps Chris or someone else, could do the same for my player.
So my amp comes back, a night and day difference, as if God Himself stepped down from Heaven and proclaimed “this is good.” Well now, how interesting! But wouldn’t you know it, those mods from Parts Connexion are worth more than I paid for my player! I just couldn’t justify it at the time and so I waited.
In the meantime, being a resident addict here at Head-fi, the PC bug had left a fine welt and so I felt that a good place to start would be the PC instead of a serious mod. I called up Chris Johnson to get his opinion and he said the stock cord is actually staggeringly good and it would take a lot to better it. Chris would know, besides modifying the players, he also owns the CD T-100 and now the CD T-200 as his main sources. He obviously likes their sound
I got lucky again with the Audiogon auctions and wound up with a W Enterprises NW power cord, same type of wire as my IC’s but lower gauge and more strands etc. I figured I may as well stick with the same type of cables throughout for consistency. Well this worked! Without sounding too hyperbolic, the difference in bass weight was dramatic enough for me to call my wife over and have her take a listen. I used a passage from a Prodigy track that gets obscured with systems that tend to provide the 1 note BOOOM! With the stock power cord I was able to hear all the notes but with the new pc I was hit in the face by them. So was my wife. It was shocking and terrific at the same time. At this point I became a true convert to the tweakers camp. Cables do make a difference, each item has its role, and it’s an absolutely enjoyable journey to find out what that role is.
Once again I felt as if I could not possibly do better. I started to have doubts about these so called mods, but in the back of my mind I wondered, especially given what I had read from Thorsten. A few weeks later, I happened to receive an email from Shanling asking if I would be a guinea pig for a few modifications to the T100. I said sure why not! (I had remained in close contact with Shanling since receiving my player, providing them with updates on how I enjoyed the sound, rolling the tubes, swapping cables etc., I’m sure I bored them but I guess they did read them!) And off my player went, back to the mother land. The entire endeavour took less than 6 days round trip, DHL Express is incredible, delivering the player to an from Shenzeng in a total of 4 days, with 1 day in the shop and 1 day in Hong Kong for customs. The changes were a few resistor swaps, a value change and a new transport, to the newer Philips model. The resistor changes were supposed to help with the 120V’s found in North America while the new transport was a gift for going through the hassle. Upon its much anticipated return, I lit the baby up and let it run for 24 hours before giving a listen. Honestly, I could not really tell any difference between what it sounded like before and this new version. I believe though, that all current CD T100’s (a and c) have these new values and the new transport. I could be wrong about that.
More modding companies began to offer similar packages to that of Chris Johnson and I began to heavily research the significance of mods. After hearing no difference from my mods, I was doubting once again. I instead concentrated on hunting down different tubes to try out.
[size=small]SOUND - Stock Unit with NOS[/size]
I came across some GE JAN 5670W’s on Ebay. I was warned to stay far away from the non-JAN GE’s and so I have actually never tried them. I believe they go for about $10/dozen, so perhaps they are as bad as stated. The JAN’s offered a very euphonic sound as compared with the WE’s, a bit of detail was obscured, and the highs were rolled while the bottom of the bottom end dropped off and merged with the upper bass as a softer plumper sound. This very warm sound is SOOO nice late at night and very nice with the RS-1’s, curbing the sometimes strident highs of this model. In fact, back in December, for the most recent Ottawa Meet, all impressions of my unit were using this tube. It seemed that more than a few folks enjoyed my system even though I was using my most inaccurate NOS tubes. Not the last word in transparency, not the last word in weight, linearity or extension but boy did this sound sweet. I still pop them in from time to time when I want to ease into the music and drift away.
My next tube was the Tungsol 2c51 black plates. This tube was in between the GE’s and the WE’s for sound. Not quite as transparent but certainly more refined and firmer in the bottom end than the GE’s. If I couldn’t afford the WE’s and I wanted something less euphonic than the GE’s the Tungsol’s would be it.
The last tube of the bunch that I have owned and has remained my main tube is the Bendix Redbank 6385. Perhaps this company deserves a thread of its own but for now, I will point everyone to a cool link over at Vacuum Tube Valley – http://www.vacuumtube.com/issue5.htm.
The gist of the link is that there are rare tubes and then there are Bendix Redbanks. Most tube diggers have never even heard of this company, why? Likely because the tubes are just that rare. These tubes are the summit of all the NOS research in the field of vacuum tubes. They were the answer to the European/Russian efforts during the cold war to manufacture robust tubes. These tubes are insanely overbuilt, sound incredible and are so darn rare that the reviews are even rarer. I was fortunate enough to track down the variants of the 6n3p and the 6385 was among them. Of course, trying to find any 6385’s was difficult. The article in Vacuum Tube Valley wet my lips and so I was off trying to track them down. Tube World has them at $125 USD each. Quite a sum of money for a small triode. Those prices rank up there with the Telefunken ECC802S and the 803s, Amperex PQ 7316 etc but so very well worth it and pretty well the only spot in the world that has any available.
How do they sound? Well, after having them in for an hour, I seriously doubted the need to upgrade my player. Truly, I thought I had hit the peak of perfection. Details, I mean buckets of details compared to the stock tubes or even the WE’s. The bass, heck ALL the notes had a new weight and strength to them. The sound was not warm at all, but not frosty cold either, not analytical but certainly it was tending to that side of the linearity scale. The sound was fast, notes were extended beyond what I had heard before and best of all this was very transparent. It was as if I maintained the benefits of the tube stage without sacrificing the ss stage strengths. This is how I kept my player for half a year. I was lucky enough to pick up another pair at a price half that of Tube World, but that was the last pair I could find from this dealer.
Tube World had advertised only 2 pairs left and I mentioned this tube to Wmcmanus. He went ahead and bought them for his T100 and T200 as well as some NOS Northern Electric Cryo’s 396a’s. I had not tried those up to that point but was convinced that I had the better tube. Just to be sure, I went ahead and bought a pair of the NE’s and found to my ears the Bendix were by far the better tube, even though they were priced comparatively. The NE’s are also hard to find and Tube World is pretty well the only spot who has them (not even sure if they have any NE’s in stock).
[size=small]SOUND with Modifications[/size]
[size=small]North Audio Mods[/size]
I have read many times that upgrading parts is pretty useless and that one should just buy a better player or different player. I admit to substantial ignorance in EE and so I felt I should really research this before plunking down money on a bunch of parts. I have mentioned how the mods to my Melos by carlo provided a substantial increase in the amps capabilities. So much so that I have yet heard an amp that I prefer with my HP-1000’s and thankfully this has kept my spending at bay. No Single Power or Samuel’s amps have hit my way yet for these cans, so I can’t say if they don’t somehow surpass my Melos but from critically reviewing the posts of the meet impressions, I come to the conclusion that it is a flavour deal and not a bigger/better scenario. Thus I will wait and am content, but I digress…lets get back to parts upgrading, a local dealer has in one of his setups, a Shanling CD T-100 (this guy could own any high-end player and has likely owned or had in his shop, all of the top tier). He had his modified by a local fellow who is quite the electrical genius. He dabbles in audio just a bit
and so this dealer took it upon himself to procure some serious mods to the Shanling. These are mostly hardware based, not parts upgrades. I was told that the player reached a profound level and that this would take me as close to vinyl with a Redbook player as I could ever hope for. The mods were not ludicrously expensive by any means; the cost was mostly labour but…the mods destroy the warranty. I didn’t like that aspect and held off for quite a long time, in fact until this past June. I researched over at http://www.diyaudi.com, here in the diy forums and contacted various EE’s and Audio engineers asking their opinions. The overall consensus came back that power was usually the locus for the most dramatic improvements and that parts should be a secondary consideration. I finally took the plunge and sent it off and here is what was done:
First the input and power to the headphone amp has been disconnected. The reason is that by decreasing the load on the rest of the system, the included psu should be able to provide more than enough juice, maximizing headroom just by disconnecting this rarely used feature. Don’t get me wrong, as I have already written, the headphone amp is good, really really good, and with the right tubes the sound is quite euphonic and with enough power to drive quite a few phones but in the end, being a red blooded Head-fier, I strive for perfection and an internal amp is not going to cut it, not ever. So off with its headphone amp! This feature is completely reversible just in case I ever wanted it back or wanted to sell my player with this feature activated.
The next part was the inclusion of Hovland coupling caps at the input and at the output of the tube amp. This replaced the mid-grade caps. Hovlands were tested against the top tier of caps including Black Gates and it was decided that at this critical spot, Hovlands did the job best. The cathode load resistors have been replaced with different value units for a decrease in the tube current and much higher voltage into the resistor leaving the tube more room to breathe.
The input loading and output loading are all revised. The input of the tube amp is now directly connected to the solid state output via one Hovland cap instead of the previous three low grade caps and one resistor.
For the solid state side, the output loading of 1k2 has been removed and a 100k is used instead. The two poor quality electrolytic output caps are still in there but they are now completely bypassed in all cases. The result here is no caps affecting the sound from the ss! An incredible implementation and a novel idea for the modifications, as far as I know North Audio is the only pro-shop doing this type of mod.
The results were astonishing. I had had my doubts but immediately the notes had more snap to them, the player seemed a lot faster while continually providing more weight to the notes as it burned in. I was told that after 10 hours there could be a decrease in sound quality as the Hovlands burned in but that at 24 hours or so things should have settled down. Indeed this was the case. On the second day of listening, I found that player became overly analytical, the highs were piercing and the sound was moving away from what I had loved about the player in the first place. I was feeling disappointed, not believing that the Hovlands could be the culprits for this entirely. I waited to figure it out and sure enough, as the Hovlands burned in, the highs were tamed somewhat and the sound warmed up but honestly, not as much as I would have liked. I felt the player was performing at quite an elevated level in terms of power and control but it was as if too much power was coursing through the circuits or and I believe this was the case…the lower grade parts were simply not capable of handling these modifications. I decided it was time to turn my eye towards Chris Johnson at Parts Connexion and ask his opinion.
[size=small]Parts Connexion Mods[/size]
My goal was to max out the player with the money I had budgeted. I had not intended to upgrade all the parts I did end up replacing, primarily because I wanted only a clock upgrade and perhaps a change in opamps. North Audio was dead set against parts upgrades and felt that the clock upgrade was unnecessary. The mods he had implemented were perfect to his ears and he was not going to mess around with this other stuff, “voodoo,” lurking on the net. I was disappointed as I was willing to pay for his services and he had originally agreed to install the clock and opamps a year earlier, but in the end it didn’t work out. No loss, I just had Chris do it
Chris Johnson is best known as the past CEO and chief engineer of Sonic Frontiers. SFI gear is world renowned, with incredible sound, build quality and power. I believe msjjr has a nearly all SFI setup or did at one point. SFI has had numerous products in the Class A section of Stereophile’s Recommended Components lists and the SFI gear often had Headroom amp circuits incorporated into their preamps because SFI didn’t want to mess around with the headphone amp sections, recognizing that it is NOT secondary nor should it ever be an afterthought. Kudos to them for their passion for sound!
Chris is now the CEO of Parts Connexion, a parts and modification outfit in Ontario Canada who will in the near future, be releasing a new line of audio gear. I can only imagine how it will sound.
My goals were to implement the clock and opamps and max out the rest, surpassing even the Empirical Audio modifications which are said to take on a Meitner. One can debate whether this is true or not, I don’t know, I have not heard a Meitner, but dang did I want to go for it!
So what was done?
Brains: LC Audio xO3 Clock and proprietary PSU
Power Supply: 9 Ultra-fast, soft recovery Hexfred (International Rectifier) and Fred (Vishay-Telefunken) diodes
2 Black Gate electrolytic capacitors
4 Auricap Metallized polypropylene "bypass" capacitors
Vacuum Tube Output Stage: 18 Audio Note Tantalum 0.5- & 1-watt resistors in the signal path
WBT NeXt Gen solid silver RCA jacks
Solid-State (Direct) Stage: 14 Japanese Riken Ohm 0.5-watt signal path Carbon resistors with gold-plated leads
4 Burr-Brown State Art OPA627 op amp boards to replace the stock 2604 dual opamps
WBT NeXt Gen gold plated copper RCA jacks
Miscellaneous: 4 ft. DH Labs 99.99% pure, long-grain silver, 23 awg solid-core, Teflon "air matrix" dielectric output wire
2 sheets of Soundcoat damps internal chassis
TRT silver-content Wonder Solder used throughout
The results were something beyond the scope of the Level +1 mods (I decided against the Bybees, a) because I have read that there is no audible difference and b) Kevin Gilmore says they can explode
)
Some believe parts upgrades to nothing. To their wallets I say “the audio gods are with thee!” and to their ears I say “may the audio gods fair thee well!”
The immediate difference was an omission of the overly analytical nature from the North Audio mods while not only maintaining the level of clarity and resolution but actually increasing it! It is definitely impossible to declare what part did what, be it the new clock decreasing jitter, or the black gates working their magic, or the better opamps warming up the sound. Whatever the case I don’t much care, the sound is beyond what I should need but now will always want. This proves that parts really do benefit the sound and even tough North Audio’s unique mod did elevate my player, the stock parts were simply not manufactured to handle the increase in power. The new parts though handle it with ease and bring the player up to the upper echelons of Redbook playback. I am actually now wondering if the player surpasses the Grados I use and perhaps need to revisit the Sony R10’s and perhaps acquaint myself with some Stax Omega II’s. I consistently read that these phones demand the best. If so, I feel I have approached it as close as possible and should be able to hear what they have to offer. If I still prefer my HP-1000’s then I know they are the end for me until I hit speakers or some new phone arrives (like the Qualia).
The Black Gates are notorious for taking about 100 hours to burn in, so I left my player run for a week or so while I was away at school and upon my return I sat mesmerized for hours listening to disc after disc, never wanting to sleep (even though I had not slept at this point for nearly 3 days). Perhaps my lack of sleep was playing tricks on me, so after a fine 14 hour rest, I returned to the system and listened again, straight for 4 hours, loving every minute, discovering new layers in the music that I didn’t even know existed. Not necessarily new sounds, but new interactions of those sounds to form movements which were simply absent before. The system increased in musicality, focus, palpability, PRaT, range, love and glory! Okay, I’m letting this run away from me, but you can imagine where I am coming from here.
The player had surpassed my expectations making me second guess the rest of my system. I didn’t doubt my Melos (though I am in the process of working on a power supply mod with carlo and Kevin Gilmore, as my power supply was not modded previously) but I wondered about my HP-1000’s as I mentioned and my cables. I have ordered some new ic’s and a pc to determine if I have what I need now that so many changes have taken place, from one synergy to another I say, it must be retained!
A striking improvement was the solid state through my RA-1 to my RS-1’s. No longer was there even a hint of stridency, the sound was as smooth and warm as the tube section used to be. The sound is pure and very appealing. I find myself turning to this system much more lately, where for awhile it had sat idle, begging to be used.
The tube section is still supreme, not syrupy warm, not overly smooth, but solid, spectacular and dynamic. The Redbanks are the magic in this last stage, not the Hovlands or the silver vs. the gold platted copper jacks, it is all about the tubes and I thank the Tube gods for their magic.
I was never a fan of the upsampling and now I never use it. The new clock seems to do what it needs to do to reduce the last bit of digital nasties that come from even the worst discs. Though because of the increased resolution and transparency, the actual noise of a disc comes through more clearly, the upper registers are never piercing, always inviting even with the RS-1’s!
The bass is proud and authoritative demanding respect, controlling the depth of the music, never slowing the sound down with over-emphasis yet never leaving the upper ranges to fend for themselves having the sound come through as thin.
Drum hits SMACK! with a lively and faithful sound, while the plucks of strings resonate through, exposing all sorts of midrange goodness.
There are not enough adjectives to describe the joy I experience when I listen now. My appreciation for music has also increased, because I am hearing into the music more than I have ever been able to, in a word – heaven. Heaven is where I am.
[size=small]Conclusion[/size]
The Shanling is a beautiful piece of audio ware. It is fabricated to high standards, appeals to the heart and mind of the gear lover while touching the soul of the music lover. Art lovers are not left to fend for themselves as the exterior of the Shanling anticipates both rants and raves, exactly what art should strive to achieve.
The early remarks about Chinese made gear are now moot in my mind and though may apply to some gear, this would be typical of any country where some manufacturers take the time and energy to design and build top quality products while others choose to go for a lower end market. Shanling is not one of the latter. My views are to never ever dismiss a product because it is made in a second or third world country or even a first world country where audio gear is not prominent. There may be a diamond in the rough, as can be attested to with this unit.
I should never have waited to post my initial impressions. It would have been more fun to perhaps journey with me as I discovered what this player could do with each level of modifications. I was fortunate enough to compare my modded unit with an unmodded unit at each stage which really helped pinpoint the differences between the two.
If I have learned anything in my audio journey it is to trust my ears. North Audio believes that their mods are the be all and end all. I didn’t think so, though they recommend using the GE JAN 5670W’s. Perhaps this is to compensate for the overly analytical nature of the sound after their mods are implemented. The tubes then correct and decrease the transparency of the unit, warming it up making it sound good but certainly not as good as it could. Not with Bendix Redbanks in there, nor the other suped up parts that can be installed.
Parts Connexion also believes that their mods take the player as far as it can go. Not so, not when rewiring is possible. My bunch of mods surpass the frontiers of each of the modding companies, merging some subtracting others and leaving them all in the dust.
As a stock unit the Shanling succeeds in many areas and fails in none. Its full capacity is realized through modification which must be carefully chosen. Modifying a cheaper unit to equal or surpass pricy counterparts is in my opinion the easy way to audio nirvana. Not only can one tweak the sound to nearly exactly (or exactly) what they want, but they do so by saving their wallets. In fact, after modification, many players likely surpass the big boys, if only because the parts inside are actually now better than the pricey beasts.
That said, a lesser modern player will bring one 70-80% of the way there, the extras are what we audiophiles pine after. A stock audiophile-grade player can get one 85-90% of the way there but that last covetted 10% lies in the domain of the best or the stock + mods. With regards to the Shanling the parts will only bring it up a few notches, while reconfiguring the insides will do more for the unit, but together there is a transformation so great as to have me question the need or desire to approach vinyl. Surely if vinyl is better than this then I am simply not worthy.
Pictures can be found over at http://www.shanling.com/CD-T100.htm, at the request of folks here I will host a few of my own.
Just over a year ago, folks started to modify their players and I wanted to jump on the bandwagon. I made the decision not to write a review until after the mods. I wanted to give a comprehensive impression of “before and after.” I had my unit modified on a very small scale by Shanling themselves but knew it would be this summer that I would fully modify my player and finally get the drive to post my impressions.
So what follows is my journey through audio - from my very humble beginnings to what I feel is now a top notch system. I will outline my impressions of my player from stock, to tube rolled, to modified, to modified with NOS tubes to maxedoutblowyourmindsomanymodstherearenearlytooman ytolist.
Again, these are my impressions so take them with a grain of salt. I have listened to more than a few top players by now, including the Linn Sondek CD12 for anyone that cares.
My associated equipment is listed in my profile and my musical tastes run the gamut. I have used my entire musical collection by now with this system. I have 1000+ CD’s, so believe me when I state that I’ve used just about everything but rap and country (and even then, I used a bit of that too).
For those that don’t care about where I am coming from in terms of my ambitions in hi-fi, just skip to the Shanling CD T-100 heading where the actual review of the player begins.
[size=small]History[/size]
My audio journey began when I was but a “pup” back in the late 70’s. My father had a Klipsch speaker setup with some cool Kenwood tuner, a Kenwood 8-track player and some ancient Thorens turntable. It was not a bad little setup for me to get acquainted with the world of music. My dad also had these massive and extremely comfortable headphones with volume controls on the ear cups. I can’t recall who made them or any absolute qualities of the sound except to say they had that echo/chamber effect that I now despise. One might remember my old avatar, that was me at age 1 with those ginormous cans. I do believe the headphones made more of an impression on me than the speakers, even though the speakers clearly sounded superior
Music was played regularly at my house until my second brother came about. After this my folks didn’t seem to have time to listen anymore. My father sold off his aging stereo in the mid-80’s after my youngest brother was born and from then on my dad listened mainly to AM talk radio - CBC primarily though sometimes he would get the urge to listen to music and would switch to CBC Radio 2 FM (Canada’s premier Classical/Jazz station). I asked my father if he ever felt nostalgic or even a bit sad that his stereo had left the house. He didn’t really comment much, replying his interests had changed to photography mainly when I had come about but that he didn’t want to sell off the gear that he had so enjoyed through university. I felt this was a shame and decided to buy my father a Tivoli Model 1 last year for his radio pleasures. I felt that if this is all he is going to listen to and only on a small scale, this was about the best little table top one could get. He really enjoys it and has it on 24/7 while in his wood-working shop.
As I grew up, music was still played, but it was whatever was pumping through the radio, at least up until the time my parents felt I was mature enough to appreciate and take care of a mini-system. My first “ghetto blaster” as they were called then, was a Christmas gift back when I was 8 It was an all silver cassette unit plus am/fm radio flanked by two massive speakers. This style was all the rage in the mid-80’s. My parents also supplied my first cassette, Abba’s Greatest Hits. For future reference, an 8 year old boy does NOT want this to be his first album, nor any album in his collection. Needless to say, I did not inform my friends I owned this, nor did I actually ever listen to this tape. Ironically, I now own Abba – Gold on Redbook and quite enjoy their music. My parents planted the seed I guess.
My dad took it upon himself to record many songs from the radio, expanding my musical tastes. Though he did concentrate on the Top 40 hits of the day, he would try to sneak in some serious classic rock tracks which seemed to have stuck with me more so than the 80’s trite pop that bombarded my drums hours on end. As I aged, my musical tastes expanded but my interest in hi-fi was non-existent. Perhaps this was due for the most part to pure ignorance. I was raised in a small town wherein there is no serious audio shop. At the time, the best one could do was to drive down to Sears and pick out a Sony or Pioneer or Kenwood. I didn’t know what “good sound” was all about, as long as my unit said Sony; I was “cool” and accepted. So it was, in grade 10, I decided to save my money and take the plunge into the world of the compact disc - having used cassettes for 7 years. My parents had enrolled me into Columbia House 2 years earlier and by this time I had a substantial music collection for my age, but I had clearly over-played my albums and the sound was thoroughly degraded. I begged my parents for a CD player and in the end they agreed to let me spend some of my money on a portable unit.
I went out and chose a Sony (of course) portable player. I was fortunate that my latest “boombox” had a line-in and this particular Sony unit had a line-out. It was in fact rare that I used the line-out feature. Instead I would listen incessantly through the stock ear-buds. The funny thing about this now is that back in early high school, if one had larger headphones they were mocked. How the times have changed. Thankfully it seems, now kids are able to just enjoy their music. If it sounds good that is all that matters. Giant full-sized cans or miniscule canal phones, it is up to the user. This is how I should have grown up. Darn peer pressure!
So here I am, 15 years old and beginning my Redbook journey. My first disc was Extreme’s Pornograffitti followed by Michael Jackson’s Dangerous. I must have played these two discs 300 times within the first month of owning the player. I would listen on repeat while studying, then again when I was going to bed. The ear-buds really helped here. More often than not, I would wake up and take the phones from my ears, music still playing. I was in heaven! I could listen on repeat, infinitely, without sound degradation. ‘Good-bye Cassettes! Zanth is all about Redbook now! Long live digital!’
Though I knew then that a certain amount of quality depended on the build of the unit, I was not aware of model numbers or company reliability outside of “cool” brand recognition. If someone had a no-name plastic unit then it had to sound bad right! But if someone had a Sony or even a Panasonic, well then it must sound good! (I know this is a long intro but there is reason to my madness and this last sentence is particularly important).
So it was that I had this particular unit for a few years until I left for university and purchased another mini-system, this time with CD + cassette playback. My collection had grown to just over 100 discs in 3 years and there was no end in site. My interests were solely in the digital domain and for the first time I began to wonder about sound quality outside the Sony world.
My pcdp was dated by ’95, and I most definitely wanted a portable unit in addition to my shelf unit, if only for library study sessions. It was at this time that Panasonic first released their ShockWave Line and my curiosity had peaked. A local electronics store had just been bought out by a national electronics outfit and for the first time my little city had a major player with top consumer gear. (Ironically, this incredible store closed its doors 4 years later once Walmart decided to come in and demolish any and all retail competition, in all market areas. Now that poor little city is once again without anything great.)
I spent a lot of time comparing the sound of my old Sony pcdp to various other Sony units as well as some Panasonics, one Aiwa and a few no-namers (just in case there was diamond in the rough). To my surprise it was the Panasonic Shockwave series that made the biggest impression on me. Though at the time bass-boost was fun, I found the sound was simply more crisp and pure through the Panasonic than any other unit there. So out went Sony! The Panasonic was excellent and with the unprecedented 40 second anti-skip I could, for the first time, jog while enjoying Redbook. This was the final blow to my cassette listening days and this was the very first step into my full-blown interest in audio playback as opposed to music listening.
Two years later I began to heavily research the world of hi-fi headphones. I lived with a roommate, and he and I were very respectful of one-another’s studying schedules. I am a night owl and would go to my morning classes, grab some lunch, hit an afternoon lab and then head home for a good sleep. I would wake up at 10 pm or so and begin to do my homework until dawn. Meanwhile my roommate was an early bird and had a similar class schedule but would settle in by 10:30 or 11 to sleep for the night after having studied since 5 or 6 pm. This meant that while both of us were sleeping during our respectful schedules, the other would be listening to music and studying. Headphones were the only way to fly, and as I have stated earlier, headphone listening seems to be hardwired into my auditory cortex. I came upon an early Headroom opinion regarding the Grado SR-60’s and this coincided with the Good Cans impressions I had recently read. For a portable system, the SR-60’s were it! At that, I ordered them and never looked back. In fact, when doing my research I was introduced to the world of high-end headphones and moreover was introduced to my inevitable true love…the RS-1’s. At a retail price of $700 US (at the time the Canadian dollar was abysmal, this was $1000000000 CAD) I laughed at the prospect of ever owning these headphones. But I dreamed of them – often.
Two years later, I was married, changing cities, with an evolving life and evolving interests. One interest that seemingly remained static was that of music in as much as my collecting was concerned. My spending had, however, increased over the last 4 years - my collection now well over 400, growing at a steady rate with no end in site. At this time my audio gear passion started to heat up. I felt that I was nearing a time in my life where some serious investment in the quality of gear I would use to play back my rather large music collection was in order. I did not foresee a time I would sell and/or replace my CD’s even though the MP3 era was upon us and I was actively participating in it. I began researching and budgeting and negotiating the feasibility of owning a better home-based headphone system and then eventually a quality stand-alone Redbook player.
After our first year of marriage, my wife decided to purchase the RA-1 to be used with my SR-60’s. Though she knew that I felt this would be wasted on the mainly portable phones, she really wanted to buy me something I would enjoy and cherish for our first anniversary as well as perhaps really jump-starting my audiophile journey. So very precious of her! And boy was she right! Three months later I owned the RS-1’s and though I honestly thought it could not get any better, in the back of my mind I knew that my cd player, though a nice durable portable unit, (by this time, the 2nd incarnation of the Shockwave Line) was the bottleneck. Because of my ever growing mp3 collection I began to read up on mp3/cd units. Some were given mildly positive reviews. A Cambridge Audio unit was of particular interest at the time (300e or something like that). It was in the range of $750 CAD and though a bit steep for us at the time, (we were both in grad school) especially after having just spent the money on the RA-1 and RS-1, I thought this would be the unit for me. So I began saving and negotiating with my wife. She was more than positive and since I had taken on a small contract that was supplementary to our regular income it was pretty much my deal and she said I could spend the money however I wanted to. Perfect
A few months later I was finally in a position to purchase the unit, when I was introduced to a very interesting and downright sexy player! The Shanling CD T-100 had first been discovered at this rather cryptic and pretty much unknown Chinese Manufacturer’s Website, and later first appeared in English on the Enjoy The Music’s Primedia 2002 Report. The drool started to flow from more than few audiophiles’ mouth, mine included. This unique tube-based player was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before (at least outside of a 1950’s science fiction movie). Its warm orange tube glow mixing with the bright beams of blue light only added to the beauty of this player. Certainly it was eye-catching and in marked contrast to the endless sea of black boxes, but this was meaningless in the world of audio if the sound was at all lacking. This was the problem we were all faced with at the time. Just how did this unit sound?
DannyB over at Audio Asylum was the first person in the US to take the plunge. At a total price of $1300 with shipping, taxes and duty, this player seemed too good to be true. DannyB is an avid Cary fan, owner of a 306 and I believe at one time a Cary dealer or at minimum close personal friends with Dennis Had. His initial review can be found here.
After reading this overwhelmingly positive review, I was floored. This player was comparing favourably to the vaunted Cary 306 at 1/5 the MSRP and has more features than one typically finds on any single unit. Might I add that DannyB at the time, had NOT rolled the tubes!! Oh if only he had, the review would have been even more positive…but I digress.
The two major drawing cards for me, aside from the looks and the fact the sound was apparently up to snuff, was that it was tube based for Redbook and had a tube based headphone amp. I had never seriously considered tubes, mainly because of the horror stories, full of drama, found on the net. Because I was (and coincidentally still am) a student, I didn’t want to be bothered and moreover burdened with tube malfunctions. I wanted something that just worked, a la the RA-1. But the looks were just so impressive and the sound said to be so darn good and with so many features I just couldn’t pass this up.
I approached my wife and had her look at a picture of this unit. Folks, there really is something to be said about the Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF). Had I shown her another black box, I’m fairly certain she would have been reluctant to shell out extra money for this unit (when all is said and done, it was going to cost at minimum 2.5 times what I had budgeted, hence we would need to use “our” money).
The units were being sold exclusively in China and shipped to various parts of the world. The introductory price was $1100 USD + shipping for a total of about $1400-1550 when all is said and done. This was a hefty sum and for this amount of money it lacked one of the features I wanted – MP3 CDR playback. I decided that if I wanted to get serious about this audiophile gig, I would have to forgo this “feature” and just go for the unit. Best decision I have ever made in this hobby. I was about to take the plunge!
To my horrible dismay, Shanling had just set up a distribution network in the US through Music Hall. Though this did not immediately affect me, it affected more than a few folks who wanted to order directly from Shanling at $1100. Now that Music Hall was importing, Shanling stopped selling direct to Americans and the new “from dealer” cost jacked to $2000. It was after this that the bad reviews started coming in. Everything from downright atrocious build quality to less than stellar sound quality was being expressed by these disgruntled folks who had “listened” to the unit at their local dealers. Secretly I was crushed. I didn’t know what to expect and since there was not a single unit in Canada that I could listen to, I was at a loss. I decided to contact DannyB and discuss these issues with him personally. After many messages back and forth, I came to the conclusion that these poor impressions were coming from disgruntled guys who missed out on the early-bird pricing and were ticked off about the mark-up.
Thankfully I was back on track to buying. I contacted Shanling, ready to wire the money when I received a response indicating that I too now had waited too long (I had been in contact with Shanling by now for 6 months making sure that the 120V version was a go and that shipping to Canada would be fine. I had saved my money and was ready by this point even though I was more than a bit nervous wiring $2k Canadian to some new foreign company who could pretty much refuse to send me my product.) I was told that Canada had a distributor and that I would likely have a dealer nearby sooner than later with a unit I could purchase. Fearing the hike in cost, I decided to wait it out and contact the distributor. Sure enough, a unit was coming my way, in fact it was the first unit in Canada. I scheduled a listening session and after 10 minutes I was sold. The cost was $650 more than I had discussed with my wife and I needed to make sure this was okay with her. I don’t think the dealer was too pleased with this because when I called back a few days later saying I would take the unit I was told the unit was now full retail + taxes. I have no idea if he was having a bad day or not (I was assured by one of his employees that this is not typical of him…whatever, it made a lasting impression) but I was not in a position to pay $3450 CAD for this player. I was put off, depressed and supremely PO’d. I contacted the distributor and we were able to work out something that suited us both and after some wheeling and dealing, I came in under my budget with my new “baby” on its way.
[size=medium]The Shanling CD T-100[/size]
[size=small]Specifications and Design[/size]
Specifications
Output Impedance: Estimated below 300 Ohm RCA for tube amp and headphone, below 150 Ohm CD Audio
Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20kHz
Distortion: <0.002% (1kHz)
Signal/Noise Ratio: 110dB (tube output 102db)
Dynamic Range: 115dB
Crosstalk: <100dB
Output Level: 0~2.2V adjustable
Tube Compliment: four 6N3P, standard Chinese (compatible with 396A & 2C51)
Digital System: four 24 Bit Burr Brown PCM1704 DAC, PDM-200 96kHz HDCD Digital Filter, Crystal CS8420 upsampler for 96kHz upsampling
Transport: Philips CDM-1201 with Philips CD7 II servo circuitry
MSRP: from around $2,000 USD, but readily available between 1200-1600 on Audiogon, £1,650 incl. VAT European side, for us Canadians its $3000 and I have yet to see it priced lower except on demo models which usually go for $2650.
Weight: 12 kilograms Net
Dimensions: 430 X 290 X 65 (LxWxH in mm)
Design and Implementation
The Shanling CD T-100 came triple boxed in high density cardboard boxes fitted snugly in a poly-styrene cut-out; the main unit was vacuum sealed in plastic. I opened up the boxes, first coming across a remote, well constructed though with miniscule buttons (a sore point for a few folks, I am now informed that this remote is no longer supplied and the new one is of the higher end Marantz types), a pair of white gloves for tube handling, a set of 4x 6np3’s, Chinese made, a heavy and well made power cord with hospital grade connectors, and two sets of brass feet: soft rubber ones and then another set of spiked cone feet and a shammy cloth to polish the player. Finally, it came with a user manual that was pretty well completely in Cantonese though with a few English words scattered here and there. It was for all intents and purposes, useless for this Chinese illiterate. They now ship with a complete English version. Again, I was pretty well a guinea pig being the first person outside of the dealer and distributor to own one. One of the “bugs” were worked out, I have read and witnessed consistency across their entire line.
I was thoroughly impressed with the level of detail Shanling applied in their inclusion of accessories. Many higher end CD players come with a very cheap power cable not something this beefy. I nearly forgot, this unit came with two test discs. One was Redbook and then the other HDCD, identical tracks to compare the two features with, because yes, this is an HDCD player as well as an upsampling player.
When people write that pictures do not do credit to this unit or that unit, I often wonder how drastically different the real life unit would look like? Well now I know it can be substantial. After pulling this 25 lbs beast from its protective packaging, my wife and I were met with an absolute work of art. Solidly built, polished chrome met with hints of gold, just enough to indicate something special but limited enough in its use to avoid being gaudy. The front display panel is small enough to be unobtrusive while the on-remote display brightness button permitted me to view the numbers from a good 10 feet back. The remote itself is the true control center of this unit with on-the-fly 24bit/96Hz upsampling, various play modes (repeat all, repeat one, an interesting repeat function where one is able to play continuously between points in a song, say 2:12 minutes and 4:10 minutes by hitting a select button twice) as well a myriad of other typical functions. On unit, one has the customary play/pause/stop/forward/reverse, so losing the remote necessitates the purchase of another if one wants to take advantage of upsampling or the various play modes.
The jacks on the back of the unit are of high enough quality, with my ic’s firmly gripping them. The (from looking at the front of the unit) left series of tubes and transformers power the tube output stage while the right series powers the headphone amp.
The unit’s CD transport is the Philips CDM-1201 and housed in a fairly large machined aluminum block, which also holds the mechanism of the lid. It is manually operated with a built in mechanical clamp. One opens the acrylic top placing the CD in and lowering the top until it sits softly but firmly on the disc with a nice ‘clunk’ sound. Once you see it start spinning you know you have got it right! The acrylic lid can stand up on its own only at the very height of its opening angle. Otherwise it will come crashing down on the disc. I have never experienced this myself, though I had read about it so I have always been extra cautious. As an aside, I held a meet once and one poor guy accidentally let the lid crash on his disc. He looked back to see if anyone noticed. I was in another room where he didn’t happen to see me looking and boy did this guy’s face glow red. Not a big deal nothing broke, all is well with my unit, but man, did he evidently feel bad. This has been a bone of contention with some owners. I am always very careful with my gear and I don’t see it as a big deal. Other’s obviously feel differently.
The playback has a slight delay (1-2 seconds) before the music starts then it is business as usual. Apparently this is a slow start compared to other players on the market and a few folks were put off by this. I can wait 1-2 seconds for the music to start to flow. Again this is not an issue with me.
The design of the outputs has the signal running through the Solid State stage first then buffered by the Tube output stage if one so chooses. The stock opamps used in the SS stage are the dual Burr-Brown OPA-2604’s. Apparently these are pretty solid performers and I never had any complaints. In fact, reading some prelimary reviews one may note that many folks preferred the solid state outputs compared with the tube outputs when using the stock tubes. Either the stock tubes are that bad or the OPA-2604’s did that good of a job. Considering DannyB rated both stages fairly close to the Cary 306’s performance, with the SS stage slightly edging above the tube stage, one can surmise that this player, even with these opamps does an immediately good job.
Another key part rounding out the player is the Philips CD-7 Chip. The CD-7 servo processor’s on-chip circuitry and simple crystal provide the main clock for the CD operation. This implementation is a bit weak when compared to the rest of the player’s design, though weak is relative. It is still very good, just not as good as it could be, as for example if the main clock used the included Cirrus Logic/Crystal CS8420 which is used to upsample the signal from 16/44 to 24/96. One important note is that this chip supplies the digital output of the player. So if the upsampling is engaged this reclocks the signal and is separate from the clock generator for the 16/44. This becomes important for modification as one who may want a new clocking device will be sour if they listen exclusively with upsampling since their new fantangled clock will be bypassed altogether. Thorsten noted this and pointed to the obvious upgrade potential: the addition of a new clock for straight Redbook. I took his advice but more of that later on.
Shanling used two DAC chips in parallel per channel, they are Burr-Brown PCM-1704, true 24-Bit multibit DAC’s. Apparently they are stellar DAC chips at least at the time of production of the unit. Elna Cerafine capacitors are used around the power supply lines of the DAC chips. It seems that parts selection was pretty high for this level of player with Elna, Sanyo and Nichicon capacitors being used throughout.
Another very interesting point are the regulated power supplies and the filtering involved keeping the player as free from noise as possible this I will directly quote from Thorsten:
Quote:
| “The regulated supplies are separated in the supplies for the left and right channel DAC chips and the analogue stages. There is added filtering between rectifiers and the regulators for the DAC chips. The rest of the digital section is supplied from the other mains transformer and overall five different regulators feed the transport section (motors, etc), the servo processor, the upsampler, the digital filter and the display, respectively. Many film type bypass capacitors are used and further LC decoupling is used between the regulated supplies and each individual IC pin. This kind of approach to power supply implementation makes sure to minimize the coupling of noise between circuit sections and is indeed very solid engineering.” |
What he said, and good to know
Because I am not an EE, nor really that proficient at describing parts and their modes of operation, I will point one to Thorsten Loesch’s review over at Enjoy the Music from which I just referenced: (http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazin...2/shanling.htm).
This was the first “pro” review to come out and it was very positive. With only a few hints for areas of improvement in design one can compare the grades for this player vs. the Cary 303/200 (and one can quickly come to the conclusion that as a stock player, at $2000 USD MSRP, this player competes nicely with the “big boys.” That is at least in terms of design and implementation.) But how does it sound? When it is all said and done, that is why we are here. As the disgruntled folks declared straight away: “if it is that pretty it can’t possibly sound good let alone great!” We have already examined the initial build quality let’s hit the music.
[size=small]SOUND - Stock Unit[/size]
What I look for in my audio reproduction is an experience that can mimic the original performance as close as possible without emphasizing the limitations of the recorded media. Certainly Redbook is not perfect but then neither is vinyl or SACD or DVD-A. I see no reason why a good player has to reproduce any “digititis” as it is often put. Frankly, I want, if at all possible, to avoid stridency, accentuated “S” sounds, and uncontrollable highs. These are some of the major criticisms for Redbook. I have heard players that avoid this while retaining what most of us want: high levels of resolution, superb dynamics both macro and micro, excellent bass slam (which digital seems particularly proficient at) and great extension in the highs.
My main concerns are those of PRaT and weight to the notes better known as palpability or *SNAP!*. When a drum stick hits the skin or a mallet hits wood or steel, I want to practically feel it hit. I realize this form of weight to the notes is exactly what many want from the visceral experience of speakers; however, headphones are quite capable of reproducing this palpable sound while they omit the full body concussion of say timpani’s getting beaten by a percussionist. I feel an accurate reproduction of this sound is what separates an extremely good player from a decent or poor player. Many players can spew out gobs of detail, more still can extend from top to bottom with a great decree latitude but few can do it all with control while recreating notes that are believable.
When using a portable player or even a low-end stand alone, using my associated gear, immediately I am hit with most of what the disc has to offer in terms of detail. My headphones are resolving enough and my amps powerful enough that I’m not missing boatloads by any means. If I had to put a number on it, I would say I’m hitting 80-85% of what I am able to extract using my Shanling. This speaks well of lower-end gear and I admit, with recent advances in digital playback this is exactly how it should be. That said, like many here, I want to hear 100% or at least as close to that as humanly possible. With the Shanling using the SS outputs I felt I was getting pretty well anything I have heard on my most familiar discs, and I like to verify using Ety’s with their near electronmicroscopic picture of what those nice little pits have to share. The tube output using the stock Chinese tubes was close but there was an added level of obscurity, as if looking through a car window vs. having it rolled down. Point to the SS stage!
Even though I was very impressed with the level of detail of this player as compared with my other cd players, I felt the immediate improvement was in the world of palpable notes. Each note as described above resounded with force! I could imagine the molecules in the air gyrating at immense speeds colliding with great force whereas with my pcdp’s and my low-end standalone, it was as if someone were politely requesting each molecule to move and perhaps nudge their neighbour just enough to pass the info along. Think of the experience as drinking a cup of mild black tea vs. a triple espresso. Sure both will provide flavour, a hot drink, wetting the throat and perhaps stimulating that sleepy brain early in the morn but only one will have you shaking by noon. When I drink caffeine I better be nigh convulsing or it just ain’t worth the effort That is how I want my music, if I can’t imagine the notes reproduced with the near force they originally achieved then frankly, I’m ready to move on. This of course is coming from a reference system. I can get down and dirty with an AM radio if I have to but when building a hi-fi outfit, it’s either there or not. With the Shanling it was there but not as much as I would have liked. Initially I didn’t really know that it was not as good as it could be, that is, the SS stage had more weight, where as the Chinese tubes provided a warmer plumper and in the end, a softer sound to the notes. It was pleasant but it was not doing the job. I didn’t really need to worry though as I was warned ahead of time that this would likely happen using the stocks. When I ordered my player I had also ordered a NIB matched quad of the Western Electric 396a’s. These are a direct drop-in for the 6np3’s and are highly regarded. The tubes were sold to me at a nice introductory price of $90 Canadian for the set, they now sell for about $90 USD a pair.
Dropping the WE’s in, I immediately heard a change in the resolution of the tube stage as well as a tightening of the bass with added depth and extension, but as I’m sure you can already predict, the notes regained the palpability and weight the SS provided and the stocks short changed.
With the WE’s I felt there was no point in reverting to the stocks and from that point on I have never put them back in. Why bother? So in reading the remainder of my impressions, note that in each incarnation of my player, I have only ever used the WE’s or another NOS tube. My favourite of the NOS is coming up shortly.
In terms of bass extension I felt the WE’s and the SS stage were pretty well equal with the SS stage, having a slightly firmer sound but the tube stage providing a more realistic tone to the bass, a tad warmer especially moving on up through the midrange. The sweetness of the tube was apparent but it did not sound as if there was a decrease in transparency here only that the notes seemed to jump out more, with a more realistic sound than the SS was able to provide. Moving on up the scale the tube stage quickly left the SS stage in the dust. Where the SS stage had a tendency to be a bit too forward and a bit harsh in the high frequencies, the tube stage had a marked decrease on poor discs and none to speak of on the good ones. At this point in the game I honestly felt I had struck gold and would never need to modify my setup. How little did I know…
I had been keeping up with the online impressions and as more folks purchased the unit, more and more positive comments were populating the audio boards. No longer just a beauty model, this player, from a fairly unknown Chinese company was flooring people around the globe. With so many wonderful features, great sound and looks to defy all previous designs, this player was a winner. But could it sound even better?
I was using Cardas Neutral Reference IC’s initially and I felt this was a very linear, transparent sound (using the Melos and the HP-1’s), yet as I kept reading the impressions, many people were indicating that the CD T-100 was very finicky with IC’s and that a great synergy could be found after listening to a wide range of cables. After reading Jude’s glowing review of the NR’s and after having compared them to some Totem Sinew’s as well as Kimber PJB’s I felt the NR’s were wonderful, a bit pricey but worth it. Being an obsessive-compulsive and never really happy (the grass is always greener syndrome) I started to research cables post reading the initial remarks regarding cables. I settled on a pair of gold plated tri-alloy (gold/silver/copper mix) cables from W Enterprises NW (their source is Audio Metallurgy) which I managed to pick up from an auction on Audiogon. The retail on the 1m pair I managed to snag for $400 USD is something astronomical like $1600 USD. Whatever… Anyhow, when I plugged them in and let them burn in, I was astounded by the difference in resolution, control in the highs for both the SS and the tube stage and particularly the clean and DEEP controlled bass. All this from an IC change? The NR’s in my system had been obscuring a lot of detail that I never knew existed. It was a cleaner sound to be sure. At this point I can compare the difference to the window, the rolled down window and now the rolled down window up North where the air is clean and smog free. So these were the keepers. I stopped here in my IC hunt. I had not enjoyed really high-grade copper nor pure silver so this tri-alloy was doing the trick. I suppose I could try out some palladium or pure gold, but I’m feeling pretty confident at this point and after the mods this summer, I’m a bit burnt out from my audio spending. There is always next summer!
At this point I knew there was only one other avenue to pursue with the player, that of the power cord. At this point in my journey I was just getting exposed to this PC mayhem and I was one of the people who truly felt that a pc could not possibly make a difference. However, being who I am, I kept on reading and enjoying the heated debates. This went on for about 4 months until such time as a certain Chris Johnson from Parts Connexion (and Sonic Frontiers fame) and a gentleman by the name of Walter Liedermann (better known as Underwood Wally) began to offer a modification package (known as the Level 1 mods now, since they have begun offering the new Level +1 mods). I was definitely intrigued but also doubtful that a few part changes inside could make a difference at all. After chatting it up with our main man carlo, he pretty well, in under 5 minutes, set me straight on how parts can make an incredible difference. This was about the same time carlo had begun his now infamous Melos maestrobation modifications. Since I had just picked up a Melos myself, I thought I would try my luck at this modification and see what it could do. If carlo could make magic, then perhaps Chris or someone else, could do the same for my player.
So my amp comes back, a night and day difference, as if God Himself stepped down from Heaven and proclaimed “this is good.” Well now, how interesting! But wouldn’t you know it, those mods from Parts Connexion are worth more than I paid for my player! I just couldn’t justify it at the time and so I waited.
In the meantime, being a resident addict here at Head-fi, the PC bug had left a fine welt and so I felt that a good place to start would be the PC instead of a serious mod. I called up Chris Johnson to get his opinion and he said the stock cord is actually staggeringly good and it would take a lot to better it. Chris would know, besides modifying the players, he also owns the CD T-100 and now the CD T-200 as his main sources. He obviously likes their sound
I got lucky again with the Audiogon auctions and wound up with a W Enterprises NW power cord, same type of wire as my IC’s but lower gauge and more strands etc. I figured I may as well stick with the same type of cables throughout for consistency. Well this worked! Without sounding too hyperbolic, the difference in bass weight was dramatic enough for me to call my wife over and have her take a listen. I used a passage from a Prodigy track that gets obscured with systems that tend to provide the 1 note BOOOM! With the stock power cord I was able to hear all the notes but with the new pc I was hit in the face by them. So was my wife. It was shocking and terrific at the same time. At this point I became a true convert to the tweakers camp. Cables do make a difference, each item has its role, and it’s an absolutely enjoyable journey to find out what that role is.
Once again I felt as if I could not possibly do better. I started to have doubts about these so called mods, but in the back of my mind I wondered, especially given what I had read from Thorsten. A few weeks later, I happened to receive an email from Shanling asking if I would be a guinea pig for a few modifications to the T100. I said sure why not! (I had remained in close contact with Shanling since receiving my player, providing them with updates on how I enjoyed the sound, rolling the tubes, swapping cables etc., I’m sure I bored them but I guess they did read them!) And off my player went, back to the mother land. The entire endeavour took less than 6 days round trip, DHL Express is incredible, delivering the player to an from Shenzeng in a total of 4 days, with 1 day in the shop and 1 day in Hong Kong for customs. The changes were a few resistor swaps, a value change and a new transport, to the newer Philips model. The resistor changes were supposed to help with the 120V’s found in North America while the new transport was a gift for going through the hassle. Upon its much anticipated return, I lit the baby up and let it run for 24 hours before giving a listen. Honestly, I could not really tell any difference between what it sounded like before and this new version. I believe though, that all current CD T100’s (a and c) have these new values and the new transport. I could be wrong about that.
More modding companies began to offer similar packages to that of Chris Johnson and I began to heavily research the significance of mods. After hearing no difference from my mods, I was doubting once again. I instead concentrated on hunting down different tubes to try out.
[size=small]SOUND - Stock Unit with NOS[/size]
I came across some GE JAN 5670W’s on Ebay. I was warned to stay far away from the non-JAN GE’s and so I have actually never tried them. I believe they go for about $10/dozen, so perhaps they are as bad as stated. The JAN’s offered a very euphonic sound as compared with the WE’s, a bit of detail was obscured, and the highs were rolled while the bottom of the bottom end dropped off and merged with the upper bass as a softer plumper sound. This very warm sound is SOOO nice late at night and very nice with the RS-1’s, curbing the sometimes strident highs of this model. In fact, back in December, for the most recent Ottawa Meet, all impressions of my unit were using this tube. It seemed that more than a few folks enjoyed my system even though I was using my most inaccurate NOS tubes. Not the last word in transparency, not the last word in weight, linearity or extension but boy did this sound sweet. I still pop them in from time to time when I want to ease into the music and drift away.
My next tube was the Tungsol 2c51 black plates. This tube was in between the GE’s and the WE’s for sound. Not quite as transparent but certainly more refined and firmer in the bottom end than the GE’s. If I couldn’t afford the WE’s and I wanted something less euphonic than the GE’s the Tungsol’s would be it.
The last tube of the bunch that I have owned and has remained my main tube is the Bendix Redbank 6385. Perhaps this company deserves a thread of its own but for now, I will point everyone to a cool link over at Vacuum Tube Valley – http://www.vacuumtube.com/issue5.htm.
The gist of the link is that there are rare tubes and then there are Bendix Redbanks. Most tube diggers have never even heard of this company, why? Likely because the tubes are just that rare. These tubes are the summit of all the NOS research in the field of vacuum tubes. They were the answer to the European/Russian efforts during the cold war to manufacture robust tubes. These tubes are insanely overbuilt, sound incredible and are so darn rare that the reviews are even rarer. I was fortunate enough to track down the variants of the 6n3p and the 6385 was among them. Of course, trying to find any 6385’s was difficult. The article in Vacuum Tube Valley wet my lips and so I was off trying to track them down. Tube World has them at $125 USD each. Quite a sum of money for a small triode. Those prices rank up there with the Telefunken ECC802S and the 803s, Amperex PQ 7316 etc but so very well worth it and pretty well the only spot in the world that has any available.
How do they sound? Well, after having them in for an hour, I seriously doubted the need to upgrade my player. Truly, I thought I had hit the peak of perfection. Details, I mean buckets of details compared to the stock tubes or even the WE’s. The bass, heck ALL the notes had a new weight and strength to them. The sound was not warm at all, but not frosty cold either, not analytical but certainly it was tending to that side of the linearity scale. The sound was fast, notes were extended beyond what I had heard before and best of all this was very transparent. It was as if I maintained the benefits of the tube stage without sacrificing the ss stage strengths. This is how I kept my player for half a year. I was lucky enough to pick up another pair at a price half that of Tube World, but that was the last pair I could find from this dealer.
Tube World had advertised only 2 pairs left and I mentioned this tube to Wmcmanus. He went ahead and bought them for his T100 and T200 as well as some NOS Northern Electric Cryo’s 396a’s. I had not tried those up to that point but was convinced that I had the better tube. Just to be sure, I went ahead and bought a pair of the NE’s and found to my ears the Bendix were by far the better tube, even though they were priced comparatively. The NE’s are also hard to find and Tube World is pretty well the only spot who has them (not even sure if they have any NE’s in stock).
[size=small]SOUND with Modifications[/size]
[size=small]North Audio Mods[/size]
I have read many times that upgrading parts is pretty useless and that one should just buy a better player or different player. I admit to substantial ignorance in EE and so I felt I should really research this before plunking down money on a bunch of parts. I have mentioned how the mods to my Melos by carlo provided a substantial increase in the amps capabilities. So much so that I have yet heard an amp that I prefer with my HP-1000’s and thankfully this has kept my spending at bay. No Single Power or Samuel’s amps have hit my way yet for these cans, so I can’t say if they don’t somehow surpass my Melos but from critically reviewing the posts of the meet impressions, I come to the conclusion that it is a flavour deal and not a bigger/better scenario. Thus I will wait and am content, but I digress…lets get back to parts upgrading, a local dealer has in one of his setups, a Shanling CD T-100 (this guy could own any high-end player and has likely owned or had in his shop, all of the top tier). He had his modified by a local fellow who is quite the electrical genius. He dabbles in audio just a bit
First the input and power to the headphone amp has been disconnected. The reason is that by decreasing the load on the rest of the system, the included psu should be able to provide more than enough juice, maximizing headroom just by disconnecting this rarely used feature. Don’t get me wrong, as I have already written, the headphone amp is good, really really good, and with the right tubes the sound is quite euphonic and with enough power to drive quite a few phones but in the end, being a red blooded Head-fier, I strive for perfection and an internal amp is not going to cut it, not ever. So off with its headphone amp! This feature is completely reversible just in case I ever wanted it back or wanted to sell my player with this feature activated.
The next part was the inclusion of Hovland coupling caps at the input and at the output of the tube amp. This replaced the mid-grade caps. Hovlands were tested against the top tier of caps including Black Gates and it was decided that at this critical spot, Hovlands did the job best. The cathode load resistors have been replaced with different value units for a decrease in the tube current and much higher voltage into the resistor leaving the tube more room to breathe.
The input loading and output loading are all revised. The input of the tube amp is now directly connected to the solid state output via one Hovland cap instead of the previous three low grade caps and one resistor.
For the solid state side, the output loading of 1k2 has been removed and a 100k is used instead. The two poor quality electrolytic output caps are still in there but they are now completely bypassed in all cases. The result here is no caps affecting the sound from the ss! An incredible implementation and a novel idea for the modifications, as far as I know North Audio is the only pro-shop doing this type of mod.
The results were astonishing. I had had my doubts but immediately the notes had more snap to them, the player seemed a lot faster while continually providing more weight to the notes as it burned in. I was told that after 10 hours there could be a decrease in sound quality as the Hovlands burned in but that at 24 hours or so things should have settled down. Indeed this was the case. On the second day of listening, I found that player became overly analytical, the highs were piercing and the sound was moving away from what I had loved about the player in the first place. I was feeling disappointed, not believing that the Hovlands could be the culprits for this entirely. I waited to figure it out and sure enough, as the Hovlands burned in, the highs were tamed somewhat and the sound warmed up but honestly, not as much as I would have liked. I felt the player was performing at quite an elevated level in terms of power and control but it was as if too much power was coursing through the circuits or and I believe this was the case…the lower grade parts were simply not capable of handling these modifications. I decided it was time to turn my eye towards Chris Johnson at Parts Connexion and ask his opinion.
[size=small]Parts Connexion Mods[/size]
My goal was to max out the player with the money I had budgeted. I had not intended to upgrade all the parts I did end up replacing, primarily because I wanted only a clock upgrade and perhaps a change in opamps. North Audio was dead set against parts upgrades and felt that the clock upgrade was unnecessary. The mods he had implemented were perfect to his ears and he was not going to mess around with this other stuff, “voodoo,” lurking on the net. I was disappointed as I was willing to pay for his services and he had originally agreed to install the clock and opamps a year earlier, but in the end it didn’t work out. No loss, I just had Chris do it
Chris Johnson is best known as the past CEO and chief engineer of Sonic Frontiers. SFI gear is world renowned, with incredible sound, build quality and power. I believe msjjr has a nearly all SFI setup or did at one point. SFI has had numerous products in the Class A section of Stereophile’s Recommended Components lists and the SFI gear often had Headroom amp circuits incorporated into their preamps because SFI didn’t want to mess around with the headphone amp sections, recognizing that it is NOT secondary nor should it ever be an afterthought. Kudos to them for their passion for sound!
Chris is now the CEO of Parts Connexion, a parts and modification outfit in Ontario Canada who will in the near future, be releasing a new line of audio gear. I can only imagine how it will sound.
My goals were to implement the clock and opamps and max out the rest, surpassing even the Empirical Audio modifications which are said to take on a Meitner. One can debate whether this is true or not, I don’t know, I have not heard a Meitner, but dang did I want to go for it!
So what was done?
Brains: LC Audio xO3 Clock and proprietary PSU
Power Supply: 9 Ultra-fast, soft recovery Hexfred (International Rectifier) and Fred (Vishay-Telefunken) diodes
2 Black Gate electrolytic capacitors
4 Auricap Metallized polypropylene "bypass" capacitors
Vacuum Tube Output Stage: 18 Audio Note Tantalum 0.5- & 1-watt resistors in the signal path
WBT NeXt Gen solid silver RCA jacks
Solid-State (Direct) Stage: 14 Japanese Riken Ohm 0.5-watt signal path Carbon resistors with gold-plated leads
4 Burr-Brown State Art OPA627 op amp boards to replace the stock 2604 dual opamps
WBT NeXt Gen gold plated copper RCA jacks
Miscellaneous: 4 ft. DH Labs 99.99% pure, long-grain silver, 23 awg solid-core, Teflon "air matrix" dielectric output wire
2 sheets of Soundcoat damps internal chassis
TRT silver-content Wonder Solder used throughout
The results were something beyond the scope of the Level +1 mods (I decided against the Bybees, a) because I have read that there is no audible difference and b) Kevin Gilmore says they can explode
Some believe parts upgrades to nothing. To their wallets I say “the audio gods are with thee!” and to their ears I say “may the audio gods fair thee well!”
The immediate difference was an omission of the overly analytical nature from the North Audio mods while not only maintaining the level of clarity and resolution but actually increasing it! It is definitely impossible to declare what part did what, be it the new clock decreasing jitter, or the black gates working their magic, or the better opamps warming up the sound. Whatever the case I don’t much care, the sound is beyond what I should need but now will always want. This proves that parts really do benefit the sound and even tough North Audio’s unique mod did elevate my player, the stock parts were simply not manufactured to handle the increase in power. The new parts though handle it with ease and bring the player up to the upper echelons of Redbook playback. I am actually now wondering if the player surpasses the Grados I use and perhaps need to revisit the Sony R10’s and perhaps acquaint myself with some Stax Omega II’s. I consistently read that these phones demand the best. If so, I feel I have approached it as close as possible and should be able to hear what they have to offer. If I still prefer my HP-1000’s then I know they are the end for me until I hit speakers or some new phone arrives (like the Qualia).
The Black Gates are notorious for taking about 100 hours to burn in, so I left my player run for a week or so while I was away at school and upon my return I sat mesmerized for hours listening to disc after disc, never wanting to sleep (even though I had not slept at this point for nearly 3 days). Perhaps my lack of sleep was playing tricks on me, so after a fine 14 hour rest, I returned to the system and listened again, straight for 4 hours, loving every minute, discovering new layers in the music that I didn’t even know existed. Not necessarily new sounds, but new interactions of those sounds to form movements which were simply absent before. The system increased in musicality, focus, palpability, PRaT, range, love and glory! Okay, I’m letting this run away from me, but you can imagine where I am coming from here.
The player had surpassed my expectations making me second guess the rest of my system. I didn’t doubt my Melos (though I am in the process of working on a power supply mod with carlo and Kevin Gilmore, as my power supply was not modded previously) but I wondered about my HP-1000’s as I mentioned and my cables. I have ordered some new ic’s and a pc to determine if I have what I need now that so many changes have taken place, from one synergy to another I say, it must be retained!
A striking improvement was the solid state through my RA-1 to my RS-1’s. No longer was there even a hint of stridency, the sound was as smooth and warm as the tube section used to be. The sound is pure and very appealing. I find myself turning to this system much more lately, where for awhile it had sat idle, begging to be used.
The tube section is still supreme, not syrupy warm, not overly smooth, but solid, spectacular and dynamic. The Redbanks are the magic in this last stage, not the Hovlands or the silver vs. the gold platted copper jacks, it is all about the tubes and I thank the Tube gods for their magic.
I was never a fan of the upsampling and now I never use it. The new clock seems to do what it needs to do to reduce the last bit of digital nasties that come from even the worst discs. Though because of the increased resolution and transparency, the actual noise of a disc comes through more clearly, the upper registers are never piercing, always inviting even with the RS-1’s!
The bass is proud and authoritative demanding respect, controlling the depth of the music, never slowing the sound down with over-emphasis yet never leaving the upper ranges to fend for themselves having the sound come through as thin.
Drum hits SMACK! with a lively and faithful sound, while the plucks of strings resonate through, exposing all sorts of midrange goodness.
There are not enough adjectives to describe the joy I experience when I listen now. My appreciation for music has also increased, because I am hearing into the music more than I have ever been able to, in a word – heaven. Heaven is where I am.
[size=small]Conclusion[/size]
The Shanling is a beautiful piece of audio ware. It is fabricated to high standards, appeals to the heart and mind of the gear lover while touching the soul of the music lover. Art lovers are not left to fend for themselves as the exterior of the Shanling anticipates both rants and raves, exactly what art should strive to achieve.
The early remarks about Chinese made gear are now moot in my mind and though may apply to some gear, this would be typical of any country where some manufacturers take the time and energy to design and build top quality products while others choose to go for a lower end market. Shanling is not one of the latter. My views are to never ever dismiss a product because it is made in a second or third world country or even a first world country where audio gear is not prominent. There may be a diamond in the rough, as can be attested to with this unit.
I should never have waited to post my initial impressions. It would have been more fun to perhaps journey with me as I discovered what this player could do with each level of modifications. I was fortunate enough to compare my modded unit with an unmodded unit at each stage which really helped pinpoint the differences between the two.
If I have learned anything in my audio journey it is to trust my ears. North Audio believes that their mods are the be all and end all. I didn’t think so, though they recommend using the GE JAN 5670W’s. Perhaps this is to compensate for the overly analytical nature of the sound after their mods are implemented. The tubes then correct and decrease the transparency of the unit, warming it up making it sound good but certainly not as good as it could. Not with Bendix Redbanks in there, nor the other suped up parts that can be installed.
Parts Connexion also believes that their mods take the player as far as it can go. Not so, not when rewiring is possible. My bunch of mods surpass the frontiers of each of the modding companies, merging some subtracting others and leaving them all in the dust.
As a stock unit the Shanling succeeds in many areas and fails in none. Its full capacity is realized through modification which must be carefully chosen. Modifying a cheaper unit to equal or surpass pricy counterparts is in my opinion the easy way to audio nirvana. Not only can one tweak the sound to nearly exactly (or exactly) what they want, but they do so by saving their wallets. In fact, after modification, many players likely surpass the big boys, if only because the parts inside are actually now better than the pricey beasts.
That said, a lesser modern player will bring one 70-80% of the way there, the extras are what we audiophiles pine after. A stock audiophile-grade player can get one 85-90% of the way there but that last covetted 10% lies in the domain of the best or the stock + mods. With regards to the Shanling the parts will only bring it up a few notches, while reconfiguring the insides will do more for the unit, but together there is a transformation so great as to have me question the need or desire to approach vinyl. Surely if vinyl is better than this then I am simply not worthy.
Pictures can be found over at http://www.shanling.com/CD-T100.htm, at the request of folks here I will host a few of my own.
