Hello everyone,
This is a review and measurements of the Shanling EC Play portable CD player, transport, DAC and HP Amp.
I bought it for roughly $200, and went for the green version which I find very nice as the color is really light and metallic.
Shanling EC play - Presentation
This one shares a lot of similarities with the Fiio DM13 that I already reviewed: 3.5 se and 4.4mm balanced outputs, SPDIF coax output, including the same DAC (CS43198), and dual SGM8262 headphones amplifiers.
The claimed output power is the same at roughly 180mW (se) at 32ohms, and 700mW (balanced).
The biggest difference is that, if the Shanling has one DAC in lieu of two with the Fiio, it can serve as a DAC too when connected to a computer, where the Fiio only offered to rip a CD to a USB-C compatible storage.
The battery is a 3450mhA vs 3750mhA and Shanling states it will last up to 12 hours (10 hours for the Fiio). Both units offer Bluetooth, but it was an option of the Fiio and only for output. The Shanling offers in/out Bluetooth but drops hi-res format at the output, meaning that it’s been designed for wired listening.
As you might have noticed from the above photo, there is a small but very welcome display that contains a lot of information. There is an interface to select the digital filter, output gain (low/high), brightness, …
The back only shows two UBS-C for power and connection to a computer. It adds the SPDIF coax output but the box does not contain the cable as opposed to the DM 13 (no photo, sorry).
User experience
It is relatively slow to skip multiple tracks, but FFW/REW is usable, as opposed to many multiformat players.
The menu to access options and associated display is very explicit and I like that. It requires to be close to the player, but since it is a portable one, I don’t see an issue.
Shanling claims the EC Play is gapless playback and it is! Unfortunately, it does not apply de-emphasis when requested.
It is totally silent except when going from last to first track, and took a bit more time to start playing the last tracks of my test CD (that goes beyond 60min), when I was skipping tracks to get there.
It powers off when removing the headphones (cool).
I listened to it using my Beyer DT770 (80ohms) and it was more than loud enough for me at volume 80/100 in high gain mode. I had pleasure and did not hear anything problematic but you should not trust my old ears.
I will divide this review in two sections, first as a CD player and second as a DAC & HP Amp.
Shanling EC Play - Measurements
All measurements performed with an E1DA Cosmos ADCiso (grade 0), the Cosmos Scaler (100kohms from unbalanced input) for analog outputs, the Cosmos APU (for high precision SIAND measurements, and a Motu UltraLite Mk5 for digital.
I am now consistent with my specific measurements for CD Players, as I described them in the post “More than we hear”, and as I reported them for the SMSL PL200 review. It's the same for all my CD Player reviews, so you can compare
Almost all measurements below are with the default filter and are the same with the other filters. Unless otherwise noted, I set the volume at -3dB for all measurements because it offers full resistance to my intersample overs tests and does not degrade the performances from an Audio CD.
At 0dBFS, volume set to maximum, I measured:
——
As usual, let’s start with my pseudo 1kHz test tone and that is 999.91Hz @0dBFS without dither, and like I said with volume set to -3dB (ie 3.4Vrms output):
We get very close to 16bits resolution but suffer from harmonic distortion components. These are typical from digital processing such as "level matching". A review of the digital output is likely to confirm the same (see below).
Increasing the volume to maximum does not change anything, there is still the exact same distortion.
Only one channel is shown here because the other one is identical. Note we get the max theoretical SNR (unweighted) despite the presence of that highest level test tone. Too bad there is that unwanted distortion. It is of low level (all below -100dBr) but we’d be happier without.
Let’s try the same at -6dBFS (half output voltage):
Same issue with that distortion, and again very typical from digital processing. It is a repeat of the DM 13 findings, by the way.
----
I usually have a look at any potential PS related leakage, and you saw it before, there are none even if I zoom with a punishing 512k FFT length:
This is a very good trace. Note some low level sides bands around the fundamental (800Hz, 900Hz) at below -120dBr. It is impossible to hear since they are masked by the energy of the fundamental but it was the same with the Fiio DM 13 and I suppose it comes from the Cirrus DAC.
----
Let's talk about the various filters. There are five of them (0 to 4): Fast Roll-Off/Slow Roll-Off/Low-latency Fast/Low-latency Slow/NOS.
The default one is filter 3 (Low Latency Fast). As you can see on the wideband analysis, they don’t differ too much except the NOS that you need to avoid because 1) it attenuates the signal way before 20kHz and 2) let a large quantity of aliases be created above 20kHz.
That said, you can see the influence of the DAC’s noise shaper that creates increasing noise above 25kHz (that’s where it rejects the quantization noise of the delta sigma modulator). And let’s have a different look at it this time from unbalanced output but with the same standard 999.91Hz single test tone at 0dBFS:
Same performances from 20Hz to 20kHz, and you can see the noise rejected by the modulator.
----
This time I do not forget to add the bandwidth view with all filters:
To the exception of the useless NOS filter, they are all flat with -0.4 to -0.5dB at 20kHz.
With this linear view, you can better appreciate how soon the NOS filter starts attenuating the signal with already -1dB at 12kHz. At least you might hear a difference with that one, such as dull sound / lacking reverbs.
Back to my recommended and preferred filter (0), let me show you how it behaves with dual tones (18kHz & 20kHz) from the standard AES IMD test:
The attenuation is very good, and again only the noise shaper of the DAC comes it way, else we’d get more than -100dBr attenuation.
----
Ok, enough with the oversampling filters, and let's have a look at the multitone test that a lot of you like very much (me too):
Very nice but not as nice as the master SMSL PL200MKII. There is here a little more distortion corresponding to what we saw before which reduces the real resolution by roughly 10dB. And like @pma just demonstrated, it will be very difficult to hear a difference.
----
Oh yes, the jitter test:
This is an overlay of the original digital file (red) and the results of the Sanling. No visible jitter but the noise floor is higher than the best in class on that test.
----
Started with the Teac VRDS-20 review, and on your request + support to get it done (more here), I'm adding now an "intersample-overs" test which intends to identify the behavior of the digital filtering and DAC when it come to process near clipping signals. Because of the oversampling, there might be interpolated data that go above 0dBFS and would saturate (clip) the DAC and therefore the output. And this effect shows through distorsion (THD+N measurement up to 96kHz):
*limited by the noise of the delta sigma modulator
With the volume set to 0dB, the oversampling interpolator has 1dB headroom. Decreasing the volume to -3dB provides full resistance to ISO. This is to appreciate, since many CD Masters are recorded too hot. The actual distortion is lower, but since the noise is included up to 90kHz in this test, the results are limited by the quantization noise generated by the delta sigma modulator.
----
Let's continue with the good old 3DC measurement that Stereophile was often using as a proof of low noise DAC. It is from an undithered 997Hz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the smallest symmetrical sign magnitude digital signal:
The trace is good on noise perspective but the signal is disrupted, asymmetric because not at the right amplitude. That means linearity is lost. This is not good but I’m not surprised as that correlates with the previous digital modification I suspected. This is with the volume set at -3dB but it is the exact same deviation if I set the volume at its maximum:
This is again an indication of heavy and weak digital processing.
Other measurements (not shown) and all the below at vol -3dB:
The Dynamic range is very good even at -3dB Volume.
Crosstalk was impossible to measure, below -140dBr at all frequencies.
Pitch error is higher than usual at -50ppm, but again better than with the Fosi Merak. An external DAC with low phase noise clock will correct that.
----
I like to run a THD (no noise) vs Frequency sweep at -12dBFS as it shows how the conversion has evolved over time. I am currently using the beta version of REW and I discovered that this sweep gives better and more reliable results than before. I overlaid the results with Fosi Merak and the SMSL PL200 MKII previously mentioned:
There is a constant -90dBr distortion, entirely coming from the digital processing, I think (drop at 7kHz because 3rd harmonic is at 21kHz and so not accounted for since the BW stops at 20kHz for that measurement).
----
As I did with the Sony CDP-597, I add a "max DAC resolution" measurement test. It is performed from a 999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither (from Audacity). I restrict the THD+N span to 20Hz - 6kHz in REW not to account for the noise of the shape dither beyond 6kHz. I take the calculated ENOB and simply add 2bits to it (due to the -12dB attenuation, as 1bits=6dB). The potential maximum, when calculated from the digital WAV file, is 18.7bits under this test. A "transparent" DAC should achieve 18.7bits, ie 100% in this test.
Here are the results compared to others:
Due to the constant digital distortion (at -90dBr) that we saw from the THD vs Frequency test at -12dBFS, the result is limited to 17bits, which is decent but could have been way better.
Shanling EC Play - Testing the drive
What would be good measurements if the drive would not properly read a slightly scratched CD, or one that was created at the limits of the norm? The below tests reply to these questions.
The drive was able to consistently continue playing, and without generating typical digital clicks, with dropouts of up to 2.4mm. The interpolation effect remained hidden to my hears when it kicked-off. Then the other measurements show a little degradation as the conditions for testing become more stringent. The above are still very good results.
Shanling EC Play - Digital output (Coax)
I said many times there’s digital processing over the original 16bits PCM data. Time has come to verify that claim.
I had many issues to get my Motu interface to properly lock to the signal from the EC play. So I just had to give up. I suppose there is an incompatibility in the way the signal is presented in the SPDIF frames. But if my Professional Motu interface is sensitive to that, a consumer grade ones less so.
I therefore reverted to indirectly test the digital output feeding the SMSL DO400 DAC, and measuring at its outputs.
Here we go with the 999.91Hz test tone at 0dBFS:
We get the exact same distortion from the digital output and this certainly do not come from the DO400.
Good news is that when presented with a signal probe to generate intersample overs, the EC Play does not add any unwanted distortion as the below test shows:
This sine at 5512.50Hz, with a phase shift of 67.5°, generates an overshoot of +0.69dB and so if the signal would create an over in the EC Play whatever processing before being sent via the SPDIF, it would show some sort of saturation/increase noise/distorsion. But it’s not the case here (to my surprise, I must admit). And note that the volume control has no influence on the digital output.
Last and not least, I often repeat the 3DC test and guess what:
Yes, same as I found from the analog output. So there is digital processing, most probably a significant digital attenuation of the signal, by default, that creates unwanted distortion and lack of linearity with 16bits PCM. This is too bad for a CD player and without spoiling you, too bad for a DAC that can do better, see next message.
Partial conclusion as a CD Player
I can basically copy/paste what I wrote at the time about the Fiio DM13.
It is too bad to see such digital processing and degradation of the signal. I’m not sure about the root cause (digital volume control?), but someone should be working on it.
I can't say these flaws can be heard and if they remained hidden to my ears, you can’t trust me on that one. I think some high precision modern CD masters with latest noise shaping technics could reveal the limited resolution and lack of linearity at very low levels (to be proven, but not by me
).
Next message will address the review and measurement of the Shanling EC Play as a DAC and HP Amp.
This is a review and measurements of the Shanling EC Play portable CD player, transport, DAC and HP Amp.
I bought it for roughly $200, and went for the green version which I find very nice as the color is really light and metallic.
Shanling EC play - Presentation
This one shares a lot of similarities with the Fiio DM13 that I already reviewed: 3.5 se and 4.4mm balanced outputs, SPDIF coax output, including the same DAC (CS43198), and dual SGM8262 headphones amplifiers.
The claimed output power is the same at roughly 180mW (se) at 32ohms, and 700mW (balanced).
The biggest difference is that, if the Shanling has one DAC in lieu of two with the Fiio, it can serve as a DAC too when connected to a computer, where the Fiio only offered to rip a CD to a USB-C compatible storage.
The battery is a 3450mhA vs 3750mhA and Shanling states it will last up to 12 hours (10 hours for the Fiio). Both units offer Bluetooth, but it was an option of the Fiio and only for output. The Shanling offers in/out Bluetooth but drops hi-res format at the output, meaning that it’s been designed for wired listening.
As you might have noticed from the above photo, there is a small but very welcome display that contains a lot of information. There is an interface to select the digital filter, output gain (low/high), brightness, …
The back only shows two UBS-C for power and connection to a computer. It adds the SPDIF coax output but the box does not contain the cable as opposed to the DM 13 (no photo, sorry).
User experience
It is relatively slow to skip multiple tracks, but FFW/REW is usable, as opposed to many multiformat players.
The menu to access options and associated display is very explicit and I like that. It requires to be close to the player, but since it is a portable one, I don’t see an issue.
Shanling claims the EC Play is gapless playback and it is! Unfortunately, it does not apply de-emphasis when requested.
It is totally silent except when going from last to first track, and took a bit more time to start playing the last tracks of my test CD (that goes beyond 60min), when I was skipping tracks to get there.
It powers off when removing the headphones (cool).
I listened to it using my Beyer DT770 (80ohms) and it was more than loud enough for me at volume 80/100 in high gain mode. I had pleasure and did not hear anything problematic but you should not trust my old ears.
I will divide this review in two sections, first as a CD player and second as a DAC & HP Amp.
Shanling EC Play - Measurements
All measurements performed with an E1DA Cosmos ADCiso (grade 0), the Cosmos Scaler (100kohms from unbalanced input) for analog outputs, the Cosmos APU (for high precision SIAND measurements, and a Motu UltraLite Mk5 for digital.
I am now consistent with my specific measurements for CD Players, as I described them in the post “More than we hear”, and as I reported them for the SMSL PL200 review. It's the same for all my CD Player reviews, so you can compare
Almost all measurements below are with the default filter and are the same with the other filters. Unless otherwise noted, I set the volume at -3dB for all measurements because it offers full resistance to my intersample overs tests and does not degrade the performances from an Audio CD.
At 0dBFS, volume set to maximum, I measured:
- From balanced headphones in high gain: 4.789Vrms from Left and 4.782Vrms from right channels, meaning channel imbalance of 0.01dB.
- From balanced headphones in low gain: 2.400Vrms from Left and 2.397Vrms from right channels, meaning channel imbalance of 0.01dB.
- Single ended outputs were exactly half of that, with same 0.01dB channel imbalance.
——
As usual, let’s start with my pseudo 1kHz test tone and that is 999.91Hz @0dBFS without dither, and like I said with volume set to -3dB (ie 3.4Vrms output):
We get very close to 16bits resolution but suffer from harmonic distortion components. These are typical from digital processing such as "level matching". A review of the digital output is likely to confirm the same (see below).
Increasing the volume to maximum does not change anything, there is still the exact same distortion.
Only one channel is shown here because the other one is identical. Note we get the max theoretical SNR (unweighted) despite the presence of that highest level test tone. Too bad there is that unwanted distortion. It is of low level (all below -100dBr) but we’d be happier without.
Let’s try the same at -6dBFS (half output voltage):
Same issue with that distortion, and again very typical from digital processing. It is a repeat of the DM 13 findings, by the way.
----
I usually have a look at any potential PS related leakage, and you saw it before, there are none even if I zoom with a punishing 512k FFT length:
This is a very good trace. Note some low level sides bands around the fundamental (800Hz, 900Hz) at below -120dBr. It is impossible to hear since they are masked by the energy of the fundamental but it was the same with the Fiio DM 13 and I suppose it comes from the Cirrus DAC.
----
Let's talk about the various filters. There are five of them (0 to 4): Fast Roll-Off/Slow Roll-Off/Low-latency Fast/Low-latency Slow/NOS.
The default one is filter 3 (Low Latency Fast). As you can see on the wideband analysis, they don’t differ too much except the NOS that you need to avoid because 1) it attenuates the signal way before 20kHz and 2) let a large quantity of aliases be created above 20kHz.
That said, you can see the influence of the DAC’s noise shaper that creates increasing noise above 25kHz (that’s where it rejects the quantization noise of the delta sigma modulator). And let’s have a different look at it this time from unbalanced output but with the same standard 999.91Hz single test tone at 0dBFS:
Same performances from 20Hz to 20kHz, and you can see the noise rejected by the modulator.
----
This time I do not forget to add the bandwidth view with all filters:
To the exception of the useless NOS filter, they are all flat with -0.4 to -0.5dB at 20kHz.
With this linear view, you can better appreciate how soon the NOS filter starts attenuating the signal with already -1dB at 12kHz. At least you might hear a difference with that one, such as dull sound / lacking reverbs.
Back to my recommended and preferred filter (0), let me show you how it behaves with dual tones (18kHz & 20kHz) from the standard AES IMD test:
The attenuation is very good, and again only the noise shaper of the DAC comes it way, else we’d get more than -100dBr attenuation.
----
Ok, enough with the oversampling filters, and let's have a look at the multitone test that a lot of you like very much (me too):
Very nice but not as nice as the master SMSL PL200MKII. There is here a little more distortion corresponding to what we saw before which reduces the real resolution by roughly 10dB. And like @pma just demonstrated, it will be very difficult to hear a difference.
----
Oh yes, the jitter test:
This is an overlay of the original digital file (red) and the results of the Sanling. No visible jitter but the noise floor is higher than the best in class on that test.
----
Started with the Teac VRDS-20 review, and on your request + support to get it done (more here), I'm adding now an "intersample-overs" test which intends to identify the behavior of the digital filtering and DAC when it come to process near clipping signals. Because of the oversampling, there might be interpolated data that go above 0dBFS and would saturate (clip) the DAC and therefore the output. And this effect shows through distorsion (THD+N measurement up to 96kHz):
| Intersample-overs tests Bandwidth of the THD+N measurements is 20Hz - 96kHz | 5512.5 Hz sine, Peak = +0.69dBFS | 7350 Hz sine, Peak = +1.25dBFS | 11025 Hz sine, Peak = +3.0dBFS |
| Teac VRDS-20 | -30.7dB | -26.6dB | -17.6dB |
| Yamaha CD-1 | -84.6dB | -84.9dB | -78.1dB |
| Denon DCD-900NE | -34.2dB | -27.1dB | -19.1dB |
| Denon DCD-SA1 | -33.6dB | -27.6dB | -18.3dB |
| Onkyo C-733 | -88.3dB | -40.4dB | -21.2dB |
| Denon DCD-3560 | -30.2dB | -24.7dB | -17.4dB |
| Myryad Z210 | -70.6dB (noise dominated) | -71.1dB (noise dominated) | -29.4dB (H3 dominated) |
| Sony CDP-X333ES | -30.5dB | -24.8dB | -16.3dB |
| BARCO-EMT 982 | -32.7dB | -24.5dB | -16.3dB |
| TASCAM CD-200 | -73.5dB | -36.3dB | -19.7dB |
| Sony CDP-597 | -30.4dB | -24.7dB | -16.5dB |
| SMSL PL100 | -53.1dB | -31dB | -19.1dB |
| OPPO BDP-95 | -39dB | -28.8dB | -19.2dB |
| OPPO BDP-95 (vol -2dB) | -95dB | -97.5dB | -32.7dB |
| SMSL PL200 (vol -1dB) | -94.8dB | -97dB | -58.7dB |
| SMSL PL200 MKII (vol -2.5dB) | -95.2dB | -95.2dB | -95.2dB |
| Shanling EC Play | -51.8dB* | -23.8dB | -19.3dB |
| Shanling EC Play (vol -3dB) | -51.8dB* | -55.8dB* | -55.9dB* |
With the volume set to 0dB, the oversampling interpolator has 1dB headroom. Decreasing the volume to -3dB provides full resistance to ISO. This is to appreciate, since many CD Masters are recorded too hot. The actual distortion is lower, but since the noise is included up to 90kHz in this test, the results are limited by the quantization noise generated by the delta sigma modulator.
----
Let's continue with the good old 3DC measurement that Stereophile was often using as a proof of low noise DAC. It is from an undithered 997Hz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the smallest symmetrical sign magnitude digital signal:
The trace is good on noise perspective but the signal is disrupted, asymmetric because not at the right amplitude. That means linearity is lost. This is not good but I’m not surprised as that correlates with the previous digital modification I suspected. This is with the volume set at -3dB but it is the exact same deviation if I set the volume at its maximum:
This is again an indication of heavy and weak digital processing.
Other measurements (not shown) and all the below at vol -3dB:
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Analog" (18kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -88.1dB
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Digital" (17'987Hz & 19'997Hz 1:1) : -91.5dB
- IMD AES-17 MD (41Hz & 7993Hz 4:1): -101.2dB
- IMD DIN (250Hz & 8kHz 4:1) : -87.5dB
- IMD CCIF (19kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -91.3B
- IMD SMPTE (60Hz & 17kHz 1:4) : -88.4dB
- IMD TDFD Bass (41Hz & 89Hz 1:1) : -106.6dB
- Dynamic Range : 97dB (without dither @-60dBFS)
- Crosstalk: below -140dBr (1kHz)
- Pitch Error (GPSDO corrected) : 19'995.99Hz (19'997Hz requested) ie -50.51ppm
- Gapless playback : Yes
The Dynamic range is very good even at -3dB Volume.
Crosstalk was impossible to measure, below -140dBr at all frequencies.
Pitch error is higher than usual at -50ppm, but again better than with the Fosi Merak. An external DAC with low phase noise clock will correct that.
----
I like to run a THD (no noise) vs Frequency sweep at -12dBFS as it shows how the conversion has evolved over time. I am currently using the beta version of REW and I discovered that this sweep gives better and more reliable results than before. I overlaid the results with Fosi Merak and the SMSL PL200 MKII previously mentioned:
There is a constant -90dBr distortion, entirely coming from the digital processing, I think (drop at 7kHz because 3rd harmonic is at 21kHz and so not accounted for since the BW stops at 20kHz for that measurement).
----
As I did with the Sony CDP-597, I add a "max DAC resolution" measurement test. It is performed from a 999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither (from Audacity). I restrict the THD+N span to 20Hz - 6kHz in REW not to account for the noise of the shape dither beyond 6kHz. I take the calculated ENOB and simply add 2bits to it (due to the -12dB attenuation, as 1bits=6dB). The potential maximum, when calculated from the digital WAV file, is 18.7bits under this test. A "transparent" DAC should achieve 18.7bits, ie 100% in this test.
Here are the results compared to others:
| CD Player model or DAC | Calculated ENOB (999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither, THD+N span = 20Hz - 6kHz) | Percentage of max resolution achieved (higher is better) |
| SMSL PL200 MKII | 18.7bits | 100% |
| SMSL PL200 | 18.7bits | 100% |
| OPPO BDP-95 | 18.7bits | 100% |
| SMSL PS-200 (from CD player) | 18.6bits | 99.47% |
| Denon DCD-900NE | 18.5bits | 98.93% |
| Onkyo C-733 | 18bits | 96.26% |
| SMSL PL150 | 18bits | 96.26% |
| SMSL PL100 | 17.9bits | 95.72% |
| Sony CDP-597 | 17.5bits | 93.58% |
| Onkyo DX-7355 | 17.3bits | 92.51% |
| Denon DCD-3560 | 17.2bits | 91.98% |
| Shanling EC Play | 17bits | 90.9% |
| Yamaha CD-S303 | 16.8bits | 89.84% |
| Revox B-226S | 16.8bits | 89.94% |
| Accuphase DP-70 | 16.6bits | 88.77% |
| Sony CDP-337ESD | 16.6bits | 88.77% |
| Marantz CD-73 | 14.9bits | 79.68% |
Due to the constant digital distortion (at -90dBr) that we saw from the THD vs Frequency test at -12dBFS, the result is limited to 17bits, which is decent but could have been way better.
Shanling EC Play - Testing the drive
What would be good measurements if the drive would not properly read a slightly scratched CD, or one that was created at the limits of the norm? The below tests reply to these questions.
| Test type | Technical test | Results |
| Variation of linear cutting velocity | From 1.20m/s to 1.40m/s | Pass |
| Variation of track pitch | From 1.5µm to 1.7µm | Pass |
| Combined variations of track pitch and velocity | From 1.20m/s & 1.5µm to 1.40m/s & 1.7µm | Pass |
| HF detection (asymmetry pitch/flat ratio) | Variation from 2% to 18% | Pass |
| Dropouts resistance | From 0.05mm (0.038ms) to 4mm (3.080ms) | Up to 2.4mm. |
| Combined dropouts and smallest pitch | From 1.5µm & 1mm to 1.5µm & 2.4mm | Up to 2mm |
| Successive dropouts | From 2x0.1mm to 2x3mm | Up to 1.4mm |
The drive was able to consistently continue playing, and without generating typical digital clicks, with dropouts of up to 2.4mm. The interpolation effect remained hidden to my hears when it kicked-off. Then the other measurements show a little degradation as the conditions for testing become more stringent. The above are still very good results.
Shanling EC Play - Digital output (Coax)
I said many times there’s digital processing over the original 16bits PCM data. Time has come to verify that claim.
I had many issues to get my Motu interface to properly lock to the signal from the EC play. So I just had to give up. I suppose there is an incompatibility in the way the signal is presented in the SPDIF frames. But if my Professional Motu interface is sensitive to that, a consumer grade ones less so.
I therefore reverted to indirectly test the digital output feeding the SMSL DO400 DAC, and measuring at its outputs.
Here we go with the 999.91Hz test tone at 0dBFS:
We get the exact same distortion from the digital output and this certainly do not come from the DO400.
Good news is that when presented with a signal probe to generate intersample overs, the EC Play does not add any unwanted distortion as the below test shows:
This sine at 5512.50Hz, with a phase shift of 67.5°, generates an overshoot of +0.69dB and so if the signal would create an over in the EC Play whatever processing before being sent via the SPDIF, it would show some sort of saturation/increase noise/distorsion. But it’s not the case here (to my surprise, I must admit). And note that the volume control has no influence on the digital output.
Last and not least, I often repeat the 3DC test and guess what:
Yes, same as I found from the analog output. So there is digital processing, most probably a significant digital attenuation of the signal, by default, that creates unwanted distortion and lack of linearity with 16bits PCM. This is too bad for a CD player and without spoiling you, too bad for a DAC that can do better, see next message.
Partial conclusion as a CD Player
I can basically copy/paste what I wrote at the time about the Fiio DM13.
It is too bad to see such digital processing and degradation of the signal. I’m not sure about the root cause (digital volume control?), but someone should be working on it.
I can't say these flaws can be heard and if they remained hidden to my ears, you can’t trust me on that one. I think some high precision modern CD masters with latest noise shaping technics could reveal the limited resolution and lack of linearity at very low levels (to be proven, but not by me
).Next message will address the review and measurement of the Shanling EC Play as a DAC and HP Amp.
Last edited:
