When the Compact Disc was released to the public in 1982, it seemed unimaginable that music encoded on a disc could one day be transmitted wirelessly, as we experience today. It seemed equally unimaginable that it could be stored on a server thousands of miles away and played back nearly instantaneously in the home, as now happens with streaming services. This was a time when physical media not only dominated the market, but was the only option for high-fidelity playback.
Even though physical discs are no longer necessary—given that consumers now have access to enormous libraries of albums and individual tracks at CD resolution and higher through streaming—the format has persisted. This is likely due to a dedicated group of people around the globe who remain attracted to physical media and enjoy owning their music. Since the launch of the CD, hundreds of billions of discs have been sold, and although sales continue to decline, tens of millions of CDs are still sold worldwide each year. I just visited a local record store and saw newly released CDs alongside their vinyl counterparts. Vinyl is another thing that most people thought would go by the wayside.
To me, the continued availability of CDs is nothing short of a technological miracle. One would assume that a digital format developed over 40 years ago would be obsolete by now, as almost everything digital back then now is, or even be completely unusable. Does anyone today have a drive that can read a 5.25″ floppy disk? How about an 8″ one? Could you find a connection cable for one of these drives, or hook one up in a modern computer?
Furthermore, SACD and DVD-Audio—the next-generation high-resolution formats—attempted to supplant the CD in a turn-of-the-millennium format war. Neither format emerged victorious, leaving the CD, which was already well past its best-before date, as the ultimate winner. Surprising, to say the least.
With that in mind, there is still a strong case for CD transports, and the Shanling ET3 is one of the best, most feature-rich, and most practical options I have encountered. It retails for $799 in the United States.
What a CD transport is (and isn’t)
A CD transport is not a full-fledged CD player, as it lacks a built-in digital-to-analog converter (DAC). Instead, it reads the disc and sends a datastream through a digital output. This signal is then routed via an appropriate digital cable to a DAC, which may be a standalone unit or integrated into a preamplifier, integrated amplifier, or some other device. Because it serves this one main function, the ET3 can be—and is—compact, with its all-metal case measuring 2.25″H × 7.25″W × 9.5″D. It’s also fairly light, at just six pounds.
The ET3 features a front-mounted knob used to power the unit on or off (by pressing it) and navigate menu selections on the small, round screen (by turning it). It also has four small footers that slightly increase its height. The top panel includes buttons for playback functions such as start, stop, and track skipping. There’s also one for source selection, since the ET3 does more than just spin CDs. Naturally, a remote control is included.
Design and build
The ET3 employs a top-loading transport, which I prefer. Transports that employ a motorized tray or slot-loading mechanism are prone to mechanical failure. Loading a disc into the ET3 requires lifting the acrylic-and-aluminum lid and placing the disc onto the spindle. The drive is specified as a Philips SAA7824, while the laser is a Sanyo HD850. It is unusual to see a drive and laser sourced from different suppliers—or at least specified as being different—but Shanling obviously deemed it important to mention these details.
The ET3 supports CD, CD-R, and CD-RW disc formats. It also supports the MQA CD format, which holds little appeal to me, as I was skeptical of MQA music files from the start, and even more skeptical of MQA CDs when they were later introduced. The format seemed to reduce resolution rather than enhance it, contrary to claims. However, for those who appreciate MQA CDs, the ET3 offers that playback capability—and, as you’ll read below, MQA support for file-based playback.
Connectivity and features
Despite its compact size, the ET3 is packed with features, many of which extend beyond a traditional CD transport’s main function. Most I found useful, but there’s one in particular I’m still not sure about.
On the useful side, most disc transports only offer coaxial and optical S/PDIF outputs via RCA and TosLink connectors. The ET3 includes those, but also adds AES/EBU, I2S, and USB digital outputs via, respectively, XLR, HDMI, and USB 2.0 Type-A connectors. While these outputs are not unique, they are rare at this price point—especially USB, which could be incredibly useful to some, given the prevalence of USB DACs. Shanling recommends using I2S for “the highest level of sound quality,” but this requires a DAC with an I2S input via HDMI. I tested the ET3 using coaxial and USB connections to a Simaudio Moon 791 streaming preamplifier, both of which functioned well and whose sonic character—or really, lack thereof—I comment on more below.
The ET3 also features a rear-mounted antenna for Bluetooth reception (the unit supports the LDAC HQ, LDAC Standard, AAC, and SBC codecs) and Wi-Fi connectivity. Another USB 2.0 Type-A port on the rear allows for attaching a storage device, which can then be accessed via the onscreen menu or, according to Shanling’s documentation (I confess that I haven’t yet gone headfirst into the Wi-Fi feature), via a web browser when connected to Wi-Fi—users can navigate through the storage device, transfer files to or from it, use the ET3 as a DLNA or AirPlay receiver, and even employ it as a network-attached storage (NAS) server. Additionally, the ET3 is compatible with Shanling’s Eddict Player app (available for Android and iOS) for remote control of these features.
While I cannot yet determine whether the ET3 functions ideally as a full-fledged music server, it does support local file playback exceedingly well. It handles .iso, .dsf, and .dff DSD files up to DSD256 and all the main PCM file formats up to 32-bit/384kHz. It can also act as an MQA Core Decoder or MQA Full Decoder. Gapless playback is included as an option for USB, though I can’t yet figure out why it’s even an option to turn it on or off, since it should be on all the time—it’s a crucial feature, as its absence would introduce unwanted gaps between songs on continuous albums like Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
The questionable feature: sample-rate converter
One feature I am still uncertain about is the built-in sample-rate converter (SRC), which can upsample PCM and DSD files, as well as CDs, all the way up to 768kHz PCM or DSD512. Yes, that means you can even switch from PCM to DSD and vice versa on the fly. However, for maximum upsampling, the I2S output must be used, and the connected DAC must support these rates. The other connections have lower maximum sampling rates—these are outlined in the manual—with the exception of USB, which uses a separate signal path and is unaffected by the SRC.
This sounds impressive, but despite trying various PCM and DSD upsampling settings while playing several CDs through the ET3 coaxially connected to the Moon 791, I could not discern any audible differences. This may be because the 791 has its own upsampling capability, which may make upsampling by the source component redundant, but I don’t know for sure. Ultimately, I left this feature on Bypass to preserve the CDs’ native 16-bit/44.1kHz output, though I encourage users to try it in case it does have an effect with their DAC. After all, it costs nothing to experiment.
Performance and usability
CD playback has been my primary application for the ET3. Disc loading times were reasonably fast—neither the fastest nor the slowest I have encountered. Track skipping was also quick and reliable. Most importantly, the ET3 consistently performed as expected: I inserted a disc, track information appeared, and playback began seamlessly. And yes, I did play The Wall to see if CD playback was gapless—and it was. If it wasn’t, I couldn’t recommend the ET3, just like I couldn’t recommend any other device that doesn’t support gapless playback.
As mentioned, I tested both coaxial and USB connections to the 791, but I found no audible difference between them. This could be due to the 791’s excellent jitter rejection on all its inputs, which prevents source-induced timing errors from affecting sound quality. All that really matters is that the bits get into the DAC, which they will with any well-designed transport. Because of this, I will not comment on the ET3’s sound quality at all. When paired with a well-designed DAC like the 791, all properly engineered CD transports should sound identical, so it’s pointless to say one sounds better than another, at least in my use case. However, with a less capably engineered DAC, sonic differences might emerge. I certainly wouldn’t discount that.
Final thoughts
For me, the ET3 excels at its primary function as a CD transport. It is stylish, well-built, and reliable, and it would be a good value if it only spun discs and spat out the bits. In fact, one of our writers, Killain Jones, recently asked me to recommend a well-priced transport, so I steered him toward the ET3. He bought one and is happy with it just for playing discs, as I think most audiophiles would be.
The additional features—though not essential for everyone—are a welcome bonus, especially the ability to connect a storage device and play back files from it. While I still consider the CD’s continued relevance to be something of a miracle some 43 years after its introduction, the future of music playback lies in digital files. But with its versatile functionality, the ET3 bridges the gap between these playback methods, making it a worthwhile investment for CD enthusiasts living in the past but with an eye to the future.
. . . Doug Schneider
das@soundstage.com
