Shanling CD300

...throwing the towel is the only escape...

but wait a minute. Excuse me, I have to show you one more. The last one - I promise !!!




Pleasae pay special attention to the tube protection frames. How sophisticated.
The sandwich construction is VERY similar to that of Revox Exception I must admit. But nothing compares to the glowing legs ....



This extreme design has interesting DAC - BB1794 and very good transport - the CD PRO-2 or whatever.

BACK TO SHANLING CD300

Inside we find 2 things: one huge PCB that fills the entire floor plan, and the mechanism.
First - the mechanism - is a very cheap Philips VAM1202/12, all made of plastic etc. I heard that these are made by counterfeit producers in Asia. Actually, this one has VAM name but no Philips logo. So let's call it VAM Equivalent.
Not that it is bad - no - it plays well every CD that I tried and access quickly etc. I simply say it as it is - it is a simple mechanism.
The fact that there is no drawer mechanism means that we never have to worry about any mechanics. It should work forever. But it is NOTHING comparable to Shanling T200 killer SACD spinner.

The mechanism has a proprietary Shanling-made control board. This is a good sign.
Also the remote is a nice one, similar to the better Marantz models like the one from CD-17.




The laser assembly has a linear drive and does not do SACD's. It requires a puck to work. Loose it and you are in deep you know what.
Operation is nice, easy and intuitive. Not close to Revox 426 but nevertheless nice.
If I had to choose between this player and MHZS - I would surely choose this one even if the price is higher by 200 USD or something.





The PCB is a beauty to look at. It has high end everything: layout, two separate transformers (by the way - one is marked DIGITAL which is misleading. It is just a normal transformer but it just feeds the digital part of the circuit.) The transformers are encapsulated in iron cans which is nice (screening).

There are many power supply regulators on separate heat sinks. All is really Gucci here.

The most important is the DAC - Burr Brown 1794 top of the line. I don't know any other players that use it (except 5 times more costly Shanling CDT150) but the experienced KandK (RAKK) people swear by it's superiority.

www.kandkaudio.com/digitalaudio.html

www.raleighaudio.com/RAKK_dac_articles.htm

Need I say more ?

Back to the Chinese player - the DACs are organized in a funny way.
Despite the fact that the DACs are stereo, they are used one per channel. The digital inputs - left and right are fed to both chips as mono. Two left signals to left chip, and two right signals to right chip. So we get from each DAC two identical outputs - two right clones and two left clones.
On top of that, both chips are digitally balanced with positive and negative outputs. So in fact we get four outputs PER CHANNEL: R-, R+, R-, R+ and for left channel the same.

From this point the horror starts. I can't believe my eyes: the designer (who knew no better) decided to copy the recommended output stage from Burr-Brown DAC catalogue. (Just the evaluation PCB) He feeds the 2V dac signal from DAC to op-amps, making it much louder, then he reduces it by resistors back to 2V. Then he goes to second op-amp, then to resistors again. Then he goes to THIRD op-amp and reduces by resistors again. After 3 opamps in a row (per phase per channel and per clone, he uses something like 24 op-amps in total.
After this, two phases go straight to XLR outputs. Two other clone signals - go to ..... tube. A triode configured to be first half - voltage amplifier, then to resistors to go down to 2 V and then to second half of triode - cathode follower buffer. All in all it must be the shittiest output stage I have ever seen.
And the idiot calls the player TUBE PLAYER. Hey mister, have your head examined ! Stop smoking opium and think again.

THE SOUND:
This crap sounds just as expected - like a dynamite loaded gun, with monstrous bass and nothing else. All the opamps killed all the nuances, all the music, it is a boombox.
And think about it - all the opamps are premium burrbrowns, they all  require super good power, with stabilization, filtering, regulation, etc. So much effort to make a shit. If all they needed was really ONE op amp and capacitor to go out.

So what I did: I eliminated the whole ill conceived section and I removed all op-amps. I cut the feedback loop of the first op-amp to avoid signal escape via R/C.
I put in the first opamp base a resistor of 100 Ohms between legs 2 (Current out) and 3 (ground). The resistor's wires just fit perfectly into the bases. This becomes the I/U converter needed for current output DACs.
I took the wire from leg 2 of first opamp to the tube grid. No grid resistor (250K) is necessary in this scenario. The I/U resistor grounds the grid.
Since the tubes in the player were plain wrong, I added new tubes and all associated lampizator supply elements. I decided to expose the tubes through the vents. It looks as all was designed in this way. NOW THIS IS A TUBED PLAYER REALLY !!!
I took the signal to RCA's provided, via a 10 uF MKP capacitor

THE NEW SOUND of Shanling CD300:

Shanling number two - with OCTAL tubes

When a friend asked me, what I can recommend to beat his Linn Genki at a reasonable cost up to 2000 USD - without hesitation I recommended him CD300.  At  below 1000 Bucks it is a steal and a great player, if not one of the best currently made. The guy is a  no compromise audiophile and a perfectionist. Shanling can be just for him.


To make it different from my first Shanling, I decided to go for octal tube sockets, so my friend could test tens of different Sylvanias, RCA's, Kenrads and Western Electric tubes from NOS supplies USA.





This is a fully lampized octal socket - ceramic with gold plated pins.
Cathode resistors are 200 Ohms and input grid to ground - 100 Ohms (remember - BB 1794 is a current output DAC.)






This is a set of two power supplies (CRC) glued together - forming a complete lampizator supply: 12 V and 160 V DC unregulated.









two output caps from anode supply - the big lytic cans  220 uF / 200 V -  are bypassed with 1 uF MKP.









This is my choice of output caps - paper in oil metallized aluminium - made in Poland. Size 500 nF is kind of on the smallish side but adequate.









27 mm is the drill bit diameter for octal tubes.










Sockets installed

















I chose 6SL7 with stronger amplification than 6SN7 and cheaper to get.








Tube player ???? Hey mister - MY VERSION is a tube player !!!!!!!!!!!!!!








So much for their TUBE PLAYER   Hahahahahahahahahaha.

All this can be removed and recycled in other projects. Actually - nice opamps !




NOW this is a tubed player.














Output cap installed.








Power supply installed on the RIGHT FRONT corner (far from DAC)










Last view on the oryginal output stage to which we willl wave goodbye in a minute ...
In the white circle is the section of the DAC that we will use, all the rest will be un-used. Only lampizator will play straight from DAC legs.








Some other chips  .....








AC stealing point for our transformer (after switch).







The wonderful CD300 in full glory !!!