Shanling EC Mini Transportable CD Player Review

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by purr1n, Nov 26, 2023.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I was hoping to get through my backlog of gear reviews before the end of the US Thanksgiving Holiday. With this teaser, I guess we can say that I partially kept that promise. I will follow up on measurements for this and other gear during the coming week. The EC Mini is a transportable CD Player! Yes, CD Player. On the cusp of 2024. Are CDs making a comeback like vinyl? Maybe, who knows? I know there are more than a few readers who still use their spinners.

    What I can say so far is that the EC Mini is sooo fricking cool!
    EC Mini.jpg
    Shanling EC Mini and ETA Mini C Headphone

    I have not yet had the time to test all features of the EC Mini. The EC mini has a number of outputs. On the front panel are a 1/8" phono jack for headphones and a 4.4mm TRRS jack for balanced connectors. The back has RCA lineouts and a USB output to feed DACs (coaxial, optical, and AES digital are non-existent). There is a little switch for vehicle mode which I assume activates a buffer in case the laser loses tracking for bumps.

    There are buttons on the front of the EC Mini for power, play, stop, eject, forward, back, and volume. The display on the top of the unit has iconography for repeat, back, play/pause, forward. To my delight, these icons are not decorative, they are functional - the display is touch sensitive! Shanling after all did make it tempting for me to press them!

    The 1/8" phono output didn't quite do justice to the 300-ohms Sennheisers. The sound into these harder-to-drive headphones was too midrange emphasized, somewhat boring, and lacking oomph. The 4.44mm balanced output fared much better, bringing back more energy and bass, however, I still didn't think this was an ideal combination. The 150-ohm Drop HD58X did absolutely fine from the 4.44mm.

    The headphones in my stable which I felt worked fantastically? Elex, Grado RS1X, and ETA Mini C. The Mini C on a the wrong setup can sound lean. Not so there, the EC Mini gave the Mini C a nice bass boost with full bodied mids. I would be curious how the Mini C would sound from the balanced outputs.

    Considering the headphones I mentioned above, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that EC Mini has a darkish laid-back sound signature similar to that of the M6 portable I reviewed a while back. There's a little twist though. The delivery is very much like the Shanling's TOTL ET-3 CD transport, which I described as "stately, tight, articulate, just slightly over-damped (as opposed to zippy), black, spacious without being overly diffuse, and very liquid."

    No, the EC Mini isn't quite an ET-3. I did try using it was a transport using the USB feeding the MIB->Mjolnir system. I'd say the EC Mini doesn't quite have the focus, articulation, microdetail, and expansiveness of the ET-3; however, the ET-3 DNA CDT DNA is definitely there.

    To be continued...
     
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    Last edited: Nov 29, 2023
  2. Kernel Kurtz

    Kernel Kurtz Friend

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    I remember replacing my cassette Walkman with a Discman for use at work way back in the day and thought that was such an improvement. With SD cards and cellular internet they both seem kind of quaint now but I have to say this is a really cool looking device I'd consider buying just for the retro vibe.
     
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  3. Bina

    Bina MOT - Shanling

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    Ehm, I'm still waiting...
     
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  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    IMG_8275.jpg
    Had to slow down because low light / blurry.

    The EC Mini comes with a nice carry case and two strips. The larger shoulder strap is used here.
    IMG_1531L.jpg
     
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    Last edited: Nov 28, 2023
  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    More thoughts (use):
    • Despite the vehicle mode switch in the back, it really isn't suitable for skateboard riding per above. In a car it will work, but the unit really doesn't like to be at weird angles and me hitting bumps. So the photo above with me using the EC Mini on the skateboard, that's just for kicks. I keep my word on silly stuff.
    • The unit is really quite substantial in weight. It's best thought of as transportable, not portable. I assume maybe it's the battery or general construction with Shanling with regards to their CD transports.
    • Depending upon the disc, there can be more or less noise. Some discs rumble, others swoosh. Generally an issue if using open headphones listening low volumes with the unit close. With semi-open like ZMF Atrium headphones, I could not hear any noise.
    • The EC Mini plays back CD-Rs, even scratched up ones. I have a bunch (like well over a hundred) of scratched up CD-Rs that have been around forever in dubious condition. The EC Mini didn't have any issues.
    • Gapless is supported. Some CD Players today don't support gapless, the Emotiva ERC-4 for example did not support gapless. Gapless is important for people who listen to classical. Less so for popular music. (UPDATE: not totally sure, I thought I heard some short stutters, wasn't totally paying attention at first)
    • A lot of the menus are accessed via swipes in the small window. While basic functions such as play, forward, and back work well, the display isn't very responsive to swipes up or down. The touchscreen is just a bit too small for a good user experience.
    • Fast forward or fast rewind don't really work like how they do like on the vintage CD players. Basically the timestamp on the display jumps while the current track plays normally. After the button is released, the EC Mini simply jumps to the timestamp position when the button was released. Fortunately, the seek time is fast, within a second.
    • Need to set USB output to fixed output (defaults on variable output) in the menus,
    • The USB output works. I was able to feed the Yggdrasil MIB and Magni Unity Unison DAC no problems. This is actually a good sounding combo.
    IMG_1533.jpg
    Shanling EC Mini -> Schiit Magni Unison USB. My daughter asked for a CD Player. Guess what she's getting for X-mas.

    IMG_1535.jpg
    The display menu options are kind of a PIA to deal with, but it's serviceable. Note USB from EC Mini to Unison USB DAC.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2023
  6. darmok

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    I haven't put the latest firmware on mine, but the firmware it came with is definitely not gapless. There are short gaps between tracks. The issue isn't even gapless so much as the fact that it doesn't obey the TOC at all, meaning that pre-gaps aren't respected either. In my mind that makes this less of a CD player and more of a broken real-time CD ripper. If they've fixed this I'll pull it back out of the box and put the latest firmware on it, because it's the thing that kept me from using it.
     
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I listened through Mozart's Requiem from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and upon first pass didn't notice anything, but I was also multitasking and not paying full attention. Using FF, I checked and there appeared to be a very slight gap. Entirely possible I just missed these because the Requiem is broken down into specific movements.

    I will check it further out later. It's kind of pain as you know because the FF/RW isn't the most usable. I got other stuff to do right now.
     
  8. darmok

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    Another symptom of it not really being a RBCD player. CDs are just one long audio stream with pointers into it from the TOC. FF/RW past a track boundary should just keep going until the end/beginning of the CD, but that's not how the EC Mini behaves.

    After dealing with all this I remembered that I bought a Shanling M0 Pro a while ago and could not get it to play gaplessly to Bluetooth headphones. They claimed that gapless playback was impossible over Bluetooth. Fool me twice I guess.
     
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Yikes. I was twiddling with the FF/RW, and the UI just rebooted and then froze. Depressed the power button for 2-3 seconds. Nothing. Don't know if there is a way for hard shutdown or if I need to wait it out for the battery to drain. Grrrr.
     
  10. Bina

    Bina MOT - Shanling

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    upload_2023-11-29_11-30-22.png

    There is Reset Button on the back
     
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  11. purr1n

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    I'm dumb. Didn't RTFM.
     
  12. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    Very interesting device I'd like to audition. Moondrop has a $199 option with their DiscDream. Plays gaplessly, has a fixed analog line out, but it has no digital out or BT.

    UPDATE: they can't get parts to assemble this model right now.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2023
  13. darmok

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    I’ve been concerned about running into the same problem with the Discdream. Does it play like a standard RBCD player, e.g. no gap when there’s no gap on the CD and a gap of the correct length when there is one (and playback of any audio in the gap if present)?
     
  14. Brause

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    I have not detected any problems with the Discdream in that respect. Listened to a lot of live stuff and classical and it played just fine.

    Really bad, in comparison, is the Danish Tangent CDII. No gapless play and so much jitter on its optical output that it causes dropouts in some DACs.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2023
  15. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Following measurements using test CD. Remember this is supposed to be a CD Player!

    Shanling EC Mini
    RCA outputs
    0dbFS (full scale 1kHz) upload_2023-12-1_11-56-15.png

    A little bit more of the third harmonic, but I didn't hear any harshness. More on subjective impressions later.

    RCA outputs
    -90dbFS (tripping last LSB of 16-bits 1kHz)
    upload_2023-12-1_12-0-10.png
    upload_2023-12-1_12-1-53.png
    Very clean on the spectrum analyzer. Great stairstep shape for tripping that last LSB. (Remember, this is 16-bit CD, not 24-bit)

    11.050kHz
    upload_2023-12-1_12-4-56.png
    Some small sidebands playing back a CD.

    Subjective Impressions:

    With respect to the EC Mini's RCA outputs, I was pleasantly surprised. I'd say it's on par with the Modi+ (maybe even slightly better / preferable) and quite a bit better than the built-in Unison on the Magni Unity. The built-in Unison DAC was a touch warmer and touch more gritty. The EC Mini's RCA output was another level more involving and expressive. Better microdynamics, better plankton, a touch smoother, a touch less thick. I found myself lost in the CDs that I was playing back for some time using the onboard DAC (to Piety/Unity) of the EC Mini. Yeah, a cheap system based on this as a source has got that hard to put down quality.

    There's a pair of ESS ES9219 DACs. I never would have thought in a million years this was an ESS part. I guess we would have to add Shanling to the list of "ESS whisperers". If I had to guess, I would almost guess that is was a tamed Wolfson because of its smoothless and expressiveness, like this (https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...mma-2-dac-or-how-nwavguy-fooled-us-all.10173/), except a lot more resolving!
     
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    Last edited: Dec 1, 2023
  16. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    1/8" output measurements here. This from playing test tones from a CD.

    Shanling EC Mini
    1/8" headphone output
    300-ohm load
    0dBu output (volume adjusted)
    upload_2023-12-1_14-28-45.png

    Shanling EC Mini
    1/8" headphone output
    300-ohm load
    -10dBu output (volume adjusted)
    upload_2023-12-1_14-30-3.png

    Shanling EC Mini
    1/8" headphone output
    300-ohm load
    -20dBu output (volume adjusted)
    upload_2023-12-1_14-32-51.png

    The 0dBu signal looks good. As we reduce the output level, there's a bit of grass at certain harmonics. I don't know if we can arrive at anything - the grass is more than 100db below the stimulus tone. Finally, note no AC hum. The EC Mini is battery powered. There's a small AC spike with some harmonics while the USB charging cable is connected.

    Subjective Impressions:

    The 1/8" is slightly on the soft side with higher Z Sennheisers, less so with sensitivity lower Z headphones like ETA Mini C or Grado headphones. Overall sound is dark / smooth as explained in post #5.

    The 4.4mm balanced output is better sounding, more energetic, less sleepy, particularly with the Sennheisers. Still, the best application for the EC Mini is with efficient / sensitive headphones and IEMs. I didn't have any issues with noise using the CFA Ara from the 1/8" jack. Likewise no noise with with Grado or ETA headphones. The volume up/down button increases volume in 0.5db discrete steps.
     
  17. Psysword

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    Hi there. Just found this on Google. I've just bought the ec mini on a whim and I'm using it purely as a CD transport into my Chord Mojo2. Fabulous results with great almost reference class CD quality. The onboard DAC is obviously inferior but as a portable device quite acceptable. The gapless playback on my v2 update is still accompanied with an audible skip along with a second's delay. But for the price and USB transport, I'd say quite a steal. Grab it if you want to hook it to a hi-fi system.
     
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  18. Degru

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    I feel like the visual appeal isn't really there for me. If I'm spending $$$ on a CD transport, it's gotta have a nice window.

    I've kinda been drooling over the SMSL PL200 ever since I saw it... the lid, the weight to hold the CD down, the crisp front display, the piano-key controls with actual nice switches underneath them...

    For how much I actually play CDs though, my $30 early 2000s Discman with optical out works just fine. I can make it play with the lid open if I want to, and that's enough for me :)
     
  19. Psysword

    Psysword New

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    Yes, I've just bought a slew of CDs to justify my purchase. Which came first? The chicken or the egg? I was about to buy a vinyl player but then came to my senses and invested in the CD album art way out to quench my physical media ownership itch.

     
  20. Psysword

    Psysword New

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    And the USB transport into a reference class DAC is mind-blowing in everyway in my hi fi set up.

     

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