Shanling ET-3 CD Transport Review - Golden Schlong Worthy

Thank you as I was advised to keep working on the pre-amp by my dealer. This is what I did last night to resolve the problems I had with it.

First, I reversed the fuse and voices sound natural and full now. Hartman/Coltrane sounded anemic compared to the EAR 864, now just as big and baritonal.

Second, I removed the Herbie's vibration damping rings
This resulted in a less smeared sound, tighter actually, the opposite of what I expected.

Third, I removed the Amperex and Mullard (both early 60s NOS), replaced with the original 912 tubes
While voices sounded smoother, the overall dynamics and color suffered a lot.

Fourth, I replaced the gold pin original Mullard with a Valvo labeled Mullard
This changed the darker, hooded sound into a more open, neutral sound combined with the Amperex

I found slightly a residual hoodedness in the mids on CD at this point. All I settled on is increasing the VR9's bass crossover by 2 steps up/higher to eliminate most if not all of it. It appeared to enhance the few LPs I tried as well.

I find the 912 to be superior to the 864 in dynamics/slam, extended frequency response and resolution. However, the 864 as altered by my tube selection results in a very tonally dense and appealing sound on LP and CD. (Acme fuse, black ladder large D getter Sylvania 12AX7 & RCA cleartop 12AU7 in line stage, rear phono tube grey plate small O getter Sylvania 12AX7).

I anticipate when I have adequate funding, to replace the EAR 912 with a Lampizator Poseidan pre-amp/DAC and my various amps with the Westminster Labs REI Class A sliding bias amps. I heard this combo with my speakers and it represents the most I can achieve with my favorite speakers (that I was lucky to purchase used). Who knows, the ET3 may still be a part of that system (especially if it is as good as my almost purchase of the Jay's Audio CDT 3 Mk3). I will get an outboard connection box for the phono-preamps (VPI TNT VI/SME IV for LP, VPI 19-4 for 78s) and 3 other equipment sources (Alesis Masterlink, Nakamichi ZX-7 cassette, Technics 1500 R2R). I still listen to 78s, with 7,000 of them and need the cassette & R2R decks for mastering old recordings.

 

BIG D has been reincarnated!!

 

FIFY

 

Maybe I should stop posting on this site. Apparently, there are some not nice people here with rude comments.

 

The forum's generally a place where people who have ascended to the upper echelons of hi-fi heaven (con)descend to interact with mere mortals with much more limited budgets*, but for whatever it's worth it has been interesting seeing people try and correlate your experiences with gear with others' whose preferences and experiences are better-known.

This is far and away a level of gear I'm not likely to try, let alone own, in this lifetime or next so it's all academic really, but intriguing nonetheless. There are folks with hearing and listening skills (very different things) more fine-tuned than mine who may be able to better pick up on minutiae, but personally I don't feel confident I'd catch the same. I'm mainly wondering about how each respective component influences differences in staging and dynamics. Do any of the components named so far mess with absolute polarity? I've had experience with much less expensive headamps that've presented as having a hole-in-the-middle, wonder what sort of parallels there are with those higher-tier toys.

Definitely curious as to how close the Shanling gets to that Jay's CDT-3 given it's a bit more affordable.


*this is hyperbole with tongue firmly in cheek, but hopefully I needn't have pointed that out.

 

I found the best use for ET3 is using it as a streamer using mconnect and separate network DLNA server or Qobuz/Tidal. For my use case (Emm Labs) the USB output produced the best sound - it's solid, full sounding, slightly warm with good dynamics and weight. The CD transport is okay TBH, and inferior (sounds more digital to me and high frequency not resolving as well) to ripped and played back through mconnect. If you are connecting USB, you should also put some USB clock regerator and put a galvanic isolator at the output of the USB.

Thumb drive is generally a bad idea - introducing additional noise into the circuit.

I sold my Emm Labs NS1 at a great loss because ET3 was just as good as NS1 with Emm Labs dac IMO (perhaps even a bit better).

 

You should absolutely continue posting. Pics of your media would be great. Still curious about how you organize those 50k.

 

I fully agree. I have a family, multiple businesses (mostly passive but with 23 commercial properties that I manage), I'm 68 in excellent health (no meds, just half dozen vitamin&supplements) and have gone through various audio systems. From 25 to 45, I had four electrostat speaker systems (Acoustat X for 8 months-my late wife said they look like coffins, Acoustat 2+2, Martin Logan Monolith IIIs & reQuests). 25 years ago my wife said she hated the MLs as beamy, head in a vise, lacking dynamic range and bass, bright sounding. I replaced them with Legacy Focus in the listening room and Signature IIIs in the living room (I should have tossed the Focus long ago-Sig IIIs are superior). I am not an audiophile junky as I keep my equipment for decades. My wife heard the VS Ultra 11s at a show 7 years ago and for the only time, got emotional hearing an audiophile system ($1+ million).
I just got the opportunity at 68 to purchase my new speaker.

As the problem that I solved with the EAR 912, it was the Topping DAC. It has inverted phase (not polarity) and the internal setting solved the problem. Someone mentioned an inversion problem and they were correct. No more hole in the middle, everything is up front and mostly out of the box.

As to ordinary folks, my living room system is amazing if not high resolution. By accident, the 20X20X10 room has 2 1/2 walls covered in 1" max thickness tufted padded walls, another open the foyer and the other side with four french doors. Not looking ideal but with the Signature IIIs, every seat in that room is fantastic and the dispersion is 100% in that room. I have a $5K system in there with my cable manufacturing friend's non-ultra linear/now voltage regulated Dynaco ST70, his mini-pre-amp with all subminiature tubes and voltage regulated, his Grover Huffman cabling, Synergistic Research Black and Red duplex outlets and a Kyocera 410 (recapped) CD player. I will be trying the ET3 and Topping D70s in there tomorrow. This is an affordable system. Older, high quality speakers are available and can provide immense pleasurable listening. The Sig IIIs have a rear firing ambience tweeter and 3-10" quick and deep woofers per side. Super efficient 94-6db 4 ohms/3.2 min. Even smaller and cheaper Classics are similar (I paid $1600 for the Sig IIIs in 2005). It takes time to select a great sounding system, whether relatively inexpensive or not. As to analog, I've had a higher end system for decades because of my LP collection. The CD collection grew only after 2006 when I purchased an EAR Acute/Arcam 73 model which at least gave me analog sound, great for voice and instruments but lacking in dynamic range and frequency extremes. I was happy after 14 years to sell it for $2200.

I apologize for the errors in the earlier posts. Between the new speakers, pre-amp, DAC and transport, that's a lot of changes for me in four months. I make mistakes, don't we all? I am selling much of my older gear as I never intend to use it again. I am not a hoarder. Some mention not having sufficient room in their abode. I have the room now but felt cramped in my prior home of 3,500' (with my collection of LPs and CDs in the 25'X23'X11'6" listening room). One Boltz wall unit makes storage of 1,000-1,500 CDs relatively and compact. I have Can-Am CD storage and built-in wall record storage in my adjacent storage room now. What a pleasure that is! (but still overflowing with CD racks there).
My longest owned equipment is my SME IV which was rewired and closed foam injected into the arm by Brooks Berdan back in 1989. A fabulous tonearm and I don't play with the VTA, it just sounds good once set for 120-180 gram LPs. As I mentioned, I am not an audiophile hobbyist but an active listener as well as amateur recording engineer/archivist. My $5K living room system would be the sonic envy of most posters, it is so immensely enjoyable for everything my wife's heavy metal to a simple voice or guitar. When I purchased my home, I made an agreement that I would custom build my listening room and keep the living room as free of equipment as possible-but the sound is great for guests, dining, etc. heard in about 1,600' of living space. I did the same thing in the former home of 28 years, no sonic interference between living quarters and music room despite proximity. I was a contractor and commercial real estate appraiser for 33 years and know how to superbuild a structure (no earthquake damage in 1994, just a bottle of vinegar fell off the shelf). You can see on Audiogon how I constructed my current listening room.

 

Hello evryone


Newbie here had been using the et3 for a month for playing cds only really happy with it.

Appreciate if anyone could guide me on spotify installation for the et3. I saw the spotify link in the et3 remote app.but cant login.

Question: Can the et3 run spotify locally and controlled by the app?

Thanks
Sazali

 

There is no direct implementation for Spotify on ET3.

You can play Spotify on your phone and use ET3 in its Bluetooth Receiver mode. It will connect to your phone the same way as a Bluetooth speaker would.

 

Are there future plans to have direct implementation of any music streaming services?

 

If your phone supports LDAC wireless you will get the full resolution of Spotify using the ET3 Bluetooth receiver. My Samsung Note 20 connects to the ET3 via LDAC and sounds excellent even when using Qobuz app. Hard to tell the difference between that and Mconnect at least for me.

 

Not on the ET3.

 

Excellent thankasthe ldac bluetooth connection to ET3 works of my Samsung A54

 

Also to share changing the spotify settings as follows really works a treat

https://www.lejonklou.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6130