shanling

High-end CD player or UFO sighting?

If you're a company that makes equipment for a medium facing extinction, it's probably not a bad idea to keep trying something different with your wares. One way is unusual designs--and in that category, Shanling excels.

The Chinese company specializes in CD players that have unique looks, specs, and characteristics, as evidenced by its tube- amplifying "MC-30 Music Center" and other models. Its latest offering is no exception: The CD-T300 Pro has four amplification valves, two remote controls, and gold-plated tube legs. But the most striking thing about it is the way it looks.

Boasting what … Read more

High-end headphone mania hits New York

On Sunday, I went to a meet organized by Head-Fi, a national headphone club.

The vibe at the Bayside, New York, event was relaxed as I sampled the mind-expanding sounds of Grado, Sennheiser, AKG, and Stax headphones, driven by awesome headphone amplifiers, some of which were commercial products. Some were one-offs, built by their proud owners.

A few of the amps were portables, and the standout was the superslim MiniBox D ($79) from Head-Direct. This little thing pumps up the power of iPods with amazing gusto, and while listening to Head-Direct's Yuin PK2 earbuds ($79), the sound was remarkably … Read more

Long live the series of tubes

Maybe Ted Stevens was onto something--tubes are alive and well, Internet or not. How else can we explain the popularity of tubed gadgets such as the "Nano Head"? And they're not restricted to Lilliputian dimensions either.

The latest comes from China-based Shanling in the form of the "MC-30 Music Center," which Audio Junkies describes as "hi-fi CD player, tuner, iPod dock and tube power amplifier all in one." The price is $995, but that's a bargain compared with Shanling's $3,000 CD player. Both are available at various sites on the … Read more

It may not look like it, but it plays CDs

We're convinced that some people deliberately buy certain home entertainment equipment simply because it looks impossibly complicated. That way, they can pretend to be experts even if they have no idea how it works.

This Shanling CD player falls squarely under that category. Even though it uses the latest drive and decoding chip from Sony, as described by Chip Chick, it doesn't need to look as if only an engineer could work it.

Then again, if you're spending $3,000 for a CD player, it should probably look like something only a studio professional would use. But … Read more