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CDs Aren’t Dead: Inside Shanling’s ET3 Transport

By Joe Finn

It’s reasonable to ask, “Why should I purchase a CD transport, when so much music is readily available for streaming?” Literally billions of CD’s have been purchased, and CD’s still sell! An estimated 33 million CD’s were sold in the USA in 2024. With a disc, there’s no debate about who owns the music: you do. A streaming service does not.  

Shanling’s ET3 looks like a CD player, but it is a pure digital CD transport. It can output a pure data signal into a separate high-end Digital Audio Converter (DAC) to give you great sound. A CD player has a DAC built in; a CD transport like the ET3 does not. It has back panel digital connections to send a data-stream, but no analog audio outs. 

Priced at $899, ET3 is very popular, a bargain for someone wanting the best sound from their CD collection. ET3 has excellent build quality, with a solid feel to it. The body is CNC machined aluminum, to minimize resonances and audible distortion. 

Why no DAC?  A transport like ET3 is for someone who already has a high-quality separate DAC, like Chord’s Qutest, or in your premium streamer or preamp. If you have one, you don’t need a DAC built into a CD player, and few CD player DAC’s can match the quality of a good separate DAC. What you need is the CD data stream. 

One caveat: Shanling ET3 does not play SACD’s, which may be a deal breaker for you. But many consumers who own CDs have not embraced SACD, and don’t need that. If you want both CD and SACD playback, you might look at Shanling’s ONIX Zenith XST 20. One benefit of having no DAC or analog outputs: ET3’s half-width chassis is compact, and fits easily on your desk – a bonus. 

ET3 also features an internal up-sampling engine. Up-sampling enables getting the digital filter further away from the upper limit of audibility, improving your sound. If you want a high-resolution way to hear more depth and realism from your CD’s, ET3 may be just what you are looking for.  

Let’s talk sound. We connected Shanling’s ET3 to the DAC in our McIntosh C 12000 preamp, in a system also featuring McIntosh mono-block amplifiers and the fabulous Sonus faber Aida tower speakers. The music sounded great without up-sampling. With up-sampling, it sounded even better, specifically with fuller, richer bass. A second benefit was that imaging seemed more open and lifelike.

On Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage, the song Gypsy surprised us with how good the channel separation sounded. Instruments that took front and center had previously seemed somewhat recessed sounding. On Cantate Domino’s Christmas Song, the main vocalist soared, and when the rest of the choir joined in, they seemed to surround us – even though we were listening in two-channel mode. Talk about life-like imaging! 
 
On the Portugese song Essa Moça Tá Diferente (feat. Wilson Simoninha) from the band Bossacucanova, the opening bongos sounded so realistic.  The song’s powerful bass line was just right, and the rest of the instruments seemed suspended in space. Sonically, ET3 punches above its weight. 

ET3 is a top-loading player, which in some ways is better than a drawer or tray. Some CD players with a sliding tray feel flimsy, and may become unreliable over time. This has no sliding mechanism The glass and aluminum lid has a nice puck and weight, to keep the disc stable and minimize vibrations, a nice sonic benefit of top loading. 

You get a nice remote control, to skip to the next track from your couch, and there is also a companion app for your phone. There are 5 control buttons on top of the unit: source, stop, play / pause, track skip back and track skip forward. The front mounted knob is the power on/off, which also lets you navigate menu selections when you turn it. 

The CD drive is a Philips SAA 7824 and the laser mechanism is the high-quality Sanyo HD 850. The ET3 plays CDs, CDR’s, CDRW and MQA-CD. The back panel is host to USB, USB audio, and I2S output connections. Some premium DAC’s support I2S, which many audiophiles prefer. The USB Audio output supports up to 32 bit, 768K and up to DSD 512. On the ISquared S output, 32 bit, 768K and DSD 512 is supported. On the coax, optical, and AES / EBU connections, you get resolution up to 24 bit / 192k. 

We love that ET3 supports your digital files you may have on a USB drive.  So ET3 is both a CD drive, and a hub for your other digital content. It supports Bluetooth 5.0, so your friends can bring music, and not have to get on your WiFi network. Bluetooth does sound better than it used to, and has better range, too. It even has limited streaming functions, but we recommend getting a separate streamer that is more flexible. 

If you have lots of compact discs, and maybe even a digital library on a USB drive, Shanling’s ET3 Digital CD Transport might be just what you want. You’ll need a good quality DAC, but many serious music listeners already have a high-quality DAC. It’s compact, with very solid build quality, and sounds excellent, even when compared to more costly solutions. To find out more, visit skybygramophone.com, and thank you for spending time with us.