Shanling Audio

CD-T300 3D Acoustics Omega Drive CD Player (GBP 3999.00)

Where to begin? I confess to being a cynical soul regarding manufacturer's "styling exercises". I tend to the "form follows function" school, simple, elegant, and timeless styling where you can see that design features are the way they are to enable a product to work properly, and to make them ergonomic, with perhaps just a tiny bit of extra uneccessary embellishment. For this reason, I despise certain products which are wackily styled, maybe following a certain design trend which happens to be momentarily fashionable, perhaps apeing a period from the past (deco, for example), and which after a year or two of ownership you get utterly sick of the sight of. Now that I've got that off my chest, I admit to liking the looks of the Omega Drive. In fact, more than just liking it, but wishing I, as a humble Small Businessman could actually afford one for myself! Ah well, at least I get to play with these things even if they're not actually mine.

But, when you look more closely at the Omega Drive, it does actually almost subscribe to "form follows function" making my liking it less of a surprise, quite a logical design, whilst still managing to look futuristic and unworldly, like something the Klingons might choose to play their optical disks on. You also get an equally futuristic looking stand (not pictured) to rest the lid on when you're changing CD. And, this stand lights up when the lid comes near it. My God, I'm supposed to hate gimmicks like this, but I love it!! You get another unit too, not quite so futuristic looking this time, but nice nonetheless, the outboard power supply, with built in voltmeter/ ammeter on the front panel.

So what's it like? In a nutshell, truly excellent. The build quality makes me weep that we can't make products of this solidity and finish here in Britain. Well, we can, but at a cost that would be astronomical and totally unrealistic. And, sonically, this player sees Shanling enter new territory, the area reserved for very expensive U.S. and Japanese gear (not forgetting our own Musical Fidelity, too!). Quite simply, sound is superb. Don't take my word, check out Hi-fi News (September 05) for confirmation. A brief rundown of the internals reveals a Philips CDM-4 swing-arm mechanism, something you won't get in the future, and possibly the best CD mech made. No less than eight Burr Brown PCM1704K DACs are used, and, in the UK version, four Siemens 7308 NOS double triodes in the audio stage. You can tell I got all that from the importer's info sheet, can't you!

Which brings me on neatly to why the UK version of this player (the 3D Acoustics part of the name) is better than even the standard worldwide version. The UK importer, together with Shanling themselves, have tweeked this player with even better selected audiophile parts, both in the power supply and the signal path itself, finishng with the aforementioned Siemens NOS tubes (replacing Sovteks, I believe, in the standard version).

The thing I find sad is this is a severely limited edition player (300 worldwide, only a small number of these for the UK). You even get to name a personalised serial number for your machine. I believe the 300 limit derives from the Philips mech, of which no more are available. It's good for instant sales, but sad 'cos this is such a desirable player which I would like to still be selling next year. Still, there will be a few lucky people who get their orders in quickly. And, I mean quickly!

CD-T100 3D Acoustics CD Player (GBP 1650.00)

Please note - current units are two tone silver, not silver/gold

Shanling Audio may be a relatively new name on the Britsh hi-fi scene, but the product is remarkably mature both constructionally and sonically. The actual build quality is as good as it looks in the pictures. The main chassis is stainless steel, and just about the only non metal components on the entire player are the Perspex CD lid, and the window for the display! None of this would be important if the end result looked like a pig's ear (apologies to our porcine friends) - the CDT-100 looks, and feels, like a Million Dollars (approx 600,000 Pounds Sterling to you and me). Even that wouldn't really matter in the overall scheme of things if the Shanling sounded like, well, a normal mid-market CD player, say. But it sounds brilliant for it's price - you could pay a lot, lot, more and get absolutely no sonic benefit for doing so.

Anyway - the nitty gritty. You get a Philips 1201 mech in a custom suspended aluminium housing. You get a Crystal CS8420 sample rate converter, for the 24bit/96k upsample option. You get a Pacific Microsonics PMD-200 HDCD decoder chip, you get four Burr Brown 1704 converters, in parallel configuration, you get a choice of valve or normal output stages, and you get an integral valve powered headphone amp. My god, what else do you want? Oh, there's the free HDCD disc, and the lovely metal clad remote control with gold buttons (hmm - haven't I seen something similar before?)

Sound quality is open, with a natural warmth, but definitely not mushy, and bags of inner detail. This is one very accomplished player, and one we know we'll have difficulty supplying because of the very limited allocation. So by all means come for a demo (phone first, please), just don't expect to walk out with one straight away. Even bribery won't help.

CD-T80 3D Acoustics CD Player (GBP 650.00)

Sorry about the small pic; I had to nick it from the importer's website (not everybody believes in monster pics!) due to pressure of time. It doesn't do justice to the build quality of this player, which although being Shanling's "entry level" player is finished up to virtually the same standard as their pricier units. And, like their other players, it offers superb sound for the money. This should be the player of choice for anyone looking to buy at anywhere near the price. Features full aluminium chassis and transport housing, built in switchable upsampler (96k - 24 bit), Burr Brown DAC, two dual triodes in the output stage, and a digital output control. Availability is a touch limited, so there may be a small wait for new orders.