⌈ SHANLING is a brand owned by SHENZHEN SHANLING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT, a joint venture specializing in research and development, manufacturing, marketing, and sales of audio products. The company was founded in 1988 and launched its first product, a stereo amplifier, the same year. Its main office is located in Shenzhen, and its factory is located in Dongguang. ⌋

The Chinese company SHANLING offers an extremely wide range of audio devices. From digital-to-analog converters that are also headphone amplifiers, both portable and desktop variants, to audio file players – as above – to headphones and devices for wireless music playback via Bluetooth. It's a really large catalog.

And in it, Compact Disc players are becoming the most important item, as I see it. Until recently, they were a dying and marginalized minority in this manufacturer's range. It seems that this was a reflection of market trends that excluded permanent media in favor of, first, files purchased in online stores, and then streaming; the latter is currently the undisputed winner in terms of the volume of songs and, less frequently, albums listened to.

However, this is also changing. The return to physical music carriers is a fact, which I tried to show with the example of new CD and SACD players and transports presented at the High End Show 2025 in Munich; more → HERE. This is not a departure from streaming, but rather a complement to it with something more tangible, yet still belonging to digital culture. Such trends cannot be overlooked, and companies from China are particularly sensitive to them. So, after many years, the return to the most important technology for which Shanling was known, Compact Disc players, is completely natural.

▌ MCD1.3

THE PLAYER WE ARE TALKING ABOUT is a complex, modern device that can serve as the center of a complex audio system. It is a CD player, MQA-CD player, audio file player (local), Bluetooth DAC for hi-res files, headphone amplifier, and preamplifier. All this functionality is completed with a large color touchscreen display and a special control app.

THE PLAYER WE ARE TALKING ABOUT is a complex, modern device that can serve as the center of a complex audio system. It is a CD player, MQA-CD player, audio file player (local), Bluetooth DAC for hi-res files, headphone amplifier, and preamplifier. All this functionality is completed with a large color touchscreen display and a special control app.

Anyway, it's not really a CD player, but an MQA-CD player, similar to the PL200 model from another Chinese company, S.M.S.L, which we tested some time ago; more → HERE. This means that in addition to Red Book Compact Discs, it will also unpack files from MQA-CDs up to 32 bits, 384 kHz. The codec's operation is indicated by a large logo on the display and an LED – green for MQA files and blue for MQA Master files; more → HERE.

Another important feature of the device is the ability to receive digital signals via Bluetooth. The appropriate logo on the top of the device indicates that this is the hi-res version. The receiver supports the 5.0 standard and popular audio codecs such as LDAC, aptX HD, aptX, and AAC. This means that files can be transferred directly from smartphones, tablets, or laptops. The Shanling CD player features separate Wi-Fi module for this purpose and supports file transfer from NAS storage as well as DLNA and AirPlay technologies. This allows for easy streaming of audio files from devices on your home network.

The device has a volume knob that works both with the headphone amplifier and when the player output is set to adjustable mode; then you can connect either a power amplifier or active speakers to it. The menu allows you to change a wide range of settings, from digital filters to output voltage and other parameters such as pin configuration in the I2S digital output. All the information can be read on the 5.1-inch display, which also shows file parameters, cover art, descriptions, etc. The only thing I missed, even very much, was CD-Text. With a display like this, this technology would finally shine.

TECHNOLOGY • All this is possible thanks to the use of a digital platform called Ingenic X2000. Ingenic Semiconductor (Chinese: 君正集成电电路股股份有有限公司) is a Chinese semiconductor company that designs its own microprocessor chips. The software was developed by Shanling itself and is called MTouch. According to the manufacturer, it “features a simple, intuitive interface that provides quick access to individual functions and responds more precisely to touch,” which is true.

The MCD1.3 is based on the flagship AK4499EX DAC chip from Japanese company AKM, together with a matching Delta-Sigma modulator AK4191EQ, a combination known from the top-of-the-line Shanling M9 Plus portable audio player. This allows conversion of PCM signals to 32-bit/768 kHz and DSD to 512x. The analog section uses very good MUSES8920 integrated circuits. The headphone amplifier, on the other hand, works with the TPA6120 chip, which, according to the manufacturer, “has been optimized for full-size audiophile headphones and guarantees powerful yet controlled and smooth sound.”

The MCD1.3 offers digital coaxial and optical S/PDIF inputs, I2S (HDMI), coaxial and optical outputs, and analog RCA and XLR outputs. A 6.35 mm headphone output is also available on the front panel. Let’s add to this very good components, including Nichicon, ELNA Silmic, Sanying, Panasonic and Wurth Elektronik, elements that appeal to audiophiles such as wooden components to minimize vibration, and you will find that this device is full of surprises and made like the high-end products of Western companies used to be. For a fraction of their price. Welcome to the 21st century and the growing dominance of China!

▌ SOUND

HOW WE LISTENED • The Shanling EC Smart is described by the manufacturer as a “desktop CD player,” i.e., a Compact Disc player designed to be placed on a table, cabinet, or – as the name suggests – a desk. It is intended to be a kind of use-whereever-needed device.

And so it was tested, primarily with wired and wireless headphones: Lime Ears Pneuma, test → HERE, and Final ZE8000 Jibun Dummy Head, test → HERE. At this stage, Shanling was compared to the S.M.S.L CD200 CD player, which I listen to while writing tests.

I conducted a separate test in the reference system, with the signal sent via the line output. The volume was set to maximum (‘99’), which gives an output voltage of 2.4 Vrms, only slightly higher than the CD standard of 2 V. The signal was transmitted via a mini-jack → 2 x RCA C-Jack cable from The Chord Company to the Ayon Audio Spheris III preamplifier and then to the Soulution 710 power amplifier. The reference point was the Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition SACD player. Power to the Shanling was supplied from a mains-powered switching power supply.

» ALBUMS USED IN THE TEST ⸜ a selection

⸜ BREAKOUT, Blues, Polskie Nagrania MUZA/Warner Music Poland | Polskie Nagrania 50541 9 78085 3 1, SACD/CD ⸜ 1971/2023.
⸜ ART BLAKEY QUARTET, A Jazz Message, Impulse!/Universal Music Company (Japan) UCCI-9043, “Best50. No. 43”, CD ⸜ 1963/2001.
⸜ U2, Achtung Baby, Baierle Records | Sound-Pol SPB CD 006, CD ⸜ 1991.
⸜ DIANA KRALL, This Dream Of You, Verve Records UCCV-1181, SHM-CD ⸜ 2020.
⸜ THE BEATLES, Abbey Road, Apple Records | EMI Records/Toshiba EMI TOCP-71013, SHM-CD ⸜ 1969/2009.

⸜ JOHN COLTRANE , Blue Train, Blue Note, FLAC 24/192 ⸜ 1958/2012.
⸜ LED ZEPPELIN, Led Zeppelin (I), Atlantic/Warner Music 8122796439, „Super Deluxe Box Set”, FLAC 24/96 ⸜1961/2014.
⸜ ALEXIS COLE, A Kiss in The Dark, Chesky Records, Master Files WAV 24/192 ⸜ 2014.
⸜ PRIYA DARSHINI, Periphery, Chesky Records JD450, Master Files WAV 24/192 ⸜ 2020.
⸜ DEAD CAN DANCE, Anastasis, [PIAS] Entertainment Group PIASR311CDX, „Special Edition Hardbound Box Set”, CD+USB drive 24/44,1 WAV ⸜ 2012.

⸜ VARIOUS, Jazz Hi-Res CD Sampler. Rock & Pops, Universal Music LLC UCCU-40217/8, CD + MQA-CD ⸜ 2018.
⸜ VARIOUS, 2L - the MQA experience, 2L-MQA-CD-2021 ⸜ 2021.

»«

The first impression after turning on the tested player is that nothing is missing. The second impression, which forms immediately afterwards, complements the first: it sound cool. Recalling the sound of many, often astronomically expensive, CD or SACD players from several years ago, listening to how the Chinese player rendered ˻ 2 ˺ Kiedy byłem małym chłopcem from Blues by BREAKOUT, with a wide panorama, great depth of soundstage, and then, in ˻ 3 ˺ Oni zaraz przyjdą tu, how well Nalepa's guitar was saturated, placed by the sound engineers in the left channel, I can't believe that such idiotic moves could have been made back then.

One could argue that we get such good sound because the Shanling MCD1.3 is not a cheap device. But this is only true for people outside the industry. Anyone involved in audiophile audio, which is by definition a “premium” industry, will know that five thousand zlotys is just the entry point into good sound. And here, the entry’s level is excellent. The sound of the device is incredibly mature and well-organized. There is good dynamics, but above all, wonderful colors.

The latter are set so that the midrange is the most important part of the band, but it’s supplemented with a good bass. The bass guitar on this album is usually quite ‘thin’, but Damian Lipiński, in his remaster for the SACD release, has done it justice. Finally! – one might say. And yet it is not the case that every player automatically recognizes this and follows the mastering engineer's intention. Interestingly, this is exactly how the IC Smart model from the same company, my latest purchase, sounded. The MCD1.3 goes even further.

It tends towards tonal balance, but one that is familiar from good recordings, from most turntables, from the better file players. It's not that the player immediately overwhelms us with warmth and density. But after a while, we come to the conclusion that everything in it must be in the right place, or even more than “in the right place” – spot on. Because when listening to the 1963 ART BLAKEY QUARTET’s A Jazz Message, when McCoy Tyner starts playing the piano in the left channel, in ˻ 1 ˺ Cafe, followed shortly by the leader's drums, slightly to the left, and after a while Sonny Stitt's saxophone joins in on the right channel, Shanling ”embraces" and structures it all.

And I'm thinking of something like “purposefulness.” It's not a scattered or chaotic device. It doesn't overdo the focus, because there's no hint of sharpening or hardening of the sound. But there is something in the way the rhythm is delivered, in the “showmanship” of the tracks, that makes them interesting, makes us wait for what comes next. For the same reason, we quickly stop worrying about whether a given album will ‘sound well’ or “not.” Because the device has an extraordinary ability to bring out the best from silver discs.

One could say that Breakout’s album, wonderfully remastered by Damian, and Blakey, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, could “boost” what the player does with its sheer “goodness.” But in a very similar way, it is a mature approach – to repeat myself – and simply good, that the albums, which are not focused on sound in the same way as the ones in question, sound so good.

That's what happened when I listened to, for example, the U2 album titled Achtung Baby. Recorded at Hansa Studios, where David Bowie and Depeche Mode recorded their “Berlin” albums, it starts with the fantastic ˻ 1 ˺ ZOO Station. It's easy to ruin it, because the first sounds of the guitar, drums and Bono's vocals are heavily distorted, intentionally altered almost beyond recognition. It's easy to exaggerate it, but Shanling didn't.

Flood, who recorded the album, had produced another top album the year before, Depeche Mode's Violator, demonstrated remarkable selectivity in this apparent chaos and deluge of sound. With Shanling, it is beautifully clear. And I played this album in an unusual version, released by the Polish label Sound-Pol. The disc was pressed in Germany, as there were no pressing plants in Poland at the time, and it offers warm sound. But the tested player did not exaggerate this, it did not muddy everything.

The bass was a little round, lacking a clear attack, but this was partly due to the recording and only slightly to the device itself. Shanling tends to go towards fullness and warmth, towards weight and density. That's why DIANA KRALL's vocals in the song ˻ 1 ˺ But Beautiful from the album This Dream of You had almost as much volume and took up almost as much space as when it was played using the Ayon player. And the tone was very similar too.

The MCD1.3 is not as resolving or dynamic as the reference player, that much is clear. However, everything in its sound is so well-balanced that – I don't know if I should even say this – I didn't particularly miss it. In a direct comparison, it is clear that you have to pay more for better sound, often much more. But in this case, it is not that the sound is worse in a way that would justify the price difference. Yes, it is that good.

FILES • And then there are audio files. As we mentioned, the “M” in the device symbol indicates its multimedia capabilities. And listening to music from files confirms this, as files playback is equivalent to CD playback. The sound is slightly softer than with CDs, not as internally controlled, but still incredibly captivating. Warm, with a low tone and a wide panorama. ˻ 1 ˺ Come Together by THE BEATLES from the Abbey Road in the 2009 remaster sounded expansive, big and emotional.

Not that the device withdrew the treble – that wasn't the case with CDs or files. Even the noise from the opening track, of the John Coltrane’s Blue Train, was clear, because it's quite loud. The saxophone had a clear attack, and the percussion cymbals were very nice and resonant. But we know that this is rather warm sound, that the bass is slightly boosted in its mid section, which gave Paul Chambers' double bass an advantage, making it clearer than what I heard on the SACD.

HEADPHONES • The attention to detail in the design of each section of the player directly benefits the headphone amplifier. It uses the same transport and DAC as the line outputs, and also features a discrete R-2R attenuator, found in expensive solutions, usually in preamplifiers.

This approach offers really good results. The sound of the Shanling, whether with Lime Ears Pneuma headphones, Fosi Audio i5, or finally Senhheiser HD 800, was very even, mature and confident. Confident in the sense that regardless of the album, it was comfortable to listen to. Interestingly, this was not achieved by softening the attack or warming the sound; this is not that type of amplifier. The comfort I am talking about came from the sound being slightly distanced from the listener, so it was never aggressive.

It was clear and dynamic when needed, almost tangible when the microphones were close to the instruments. But that “almost” is important, because we are talking about a powerful but not saturated sound. But always attentive, alert, full of understanding for music. This is a really cool feature of this device, and I would have to consider an external amplifier costing at least as much as the entire player for it to make sense to me.

BLUETOOTH • Bluetooth is an additional feature in devices of this type. It is handy when you just want to listen to something in the background, but it is still an extra feature. When listened to with my Samsung A52 smartphone, the Shanling played music sensibly, without any glitches, although with much less saturation than with CDs or locally played files. There was also less bass saturation, and the treble had a “rough” character. However, it was not an unpleasant sound. So if we treat this as an extra feature, it will be a nice addition to the capabilities of the tested device.

▌ Summary

SHANLING IS A PLAYER that gives you pleasure with its performance – both with physical media and files. Let me remind you that it was a complete surprise that this device plays all available files, including DSD256! And it was with these files that I got an incredibly smooth, fluid sound with amazing dynamics. Without even realizing it, I reached for the MQA-CDs. Oh, how powerful and dynamic the piano sounded in ˻ 1 ˺ Carol of The Bells from the Stille Grender released by 2L, and how well the choir was presented!

Because the Shanling MCD1.3 player is an excellent device. It performs the way I like and the way I think music should sound. It is internally focused and rich in tone. It does not overdo the warming of the sound, yet we perceive it as if it were based on a lower midrange. In reality, both the high frequencies and the bass are strong and active. But they have a soft character, so they do not attack us, remaining slightly in the shadow of the midrange.

The files sound less detailed, even those with the highest parameters, but they still sound great for the money. And it's worth buying MQA-CDs because Shanling will play them better than regular CDs. Bravo! Well deserved ˻ RED FINGERPRINT ˺.

▌ Design

THE SHANLING MCD1.3 PLAYER is a combination of modern electronics, precision metalwork, and solutions that only small manufacturers can offer. The hi-tech look comes from the chassis, built from aluminum profiles with sandblasting finish. Black and silver versions are available. The device stands on four plastic feet, which can be easily replaced with some specialized anti-vibration feet.

All controls on the front panel are made of aluminum and therefore sturdy. The sockets on the rear panel also look solid, at least the analog ones. They look like Neutrik products, but they are their Chinese equivalents. However, they are gold-plated, screw-on, and look really good. The digital RCA inputs and outputs are not gold-plated (only the ground is gold-plated).

INSIDE • The electronic circuitry is divided between several printed circuit boards. At the bottom there is a large board with a headphone amplifier circuit, DSP, power supply and D/A output circuits. A smaller board with a D/A converter chip is connected to it via multi-pin connectors, and digital inputs and outputs are located on a separate board.

The VTH-M161C transport mechanism is manufactured by a Chinese company and is based on Sanyo DA11 optics and a Philips SAA7824 decoder. Shanling uses this set in its EC series CD players, but it can also be found in players from other companies, such as Vincent. In the tested model, the transport is mounted to a rigid aluminum frame screwed to the bottom of the housing.

The D/A section is based on very good chips from the Japanese company AKM, the flagship AK4499EX DAC chip together with the AK4191EQ Delta-Sigma modulator. Texas Instruments OPA1611A integrated circuits are used in the I/U conversion in a differential configuration – the entire audio signal path is balanced. This section is followed by a volume attenuator. But not just any volume control, but a discrete one. It is based on precise SMD resistors controlled by switching circuits. The analog section also features excellent MUSES8920 integrated circuits.

The digital inputs use their own board. The USB input features the XMOS XU316 chip. The other inputs and outputs utilize additional specialized chips, but they have been covered with a ferrite board or wooden boards. This is one of the elements that brings this product closer to ultra-purist, “tuned” DIY devices. Ferrite plates are designed to suppress high-frequency interference and are often found in high-end equipment. But wooden vibration “dampers” are the domain of audiophiles – here they are found on integrated circuits, capacitors, and transformers.

The passive components are also top-notch, including ceramic and electrolytic capacitors. The latter include Nichicon Gold Line, Elna Silmic II, Rubycon, and Sanyo OC-CON, to name just the most well-known ones. And the power supply is extremely sophisticated. It consists of a shielded transformer and multiple power supplies with fast, low-noise Zener diodes. I would also like to add that the signal to the headphone output is carried by a specialized cable that looks as if it was purchased from a company specializing in this type of product, and the headphone output is gold-plated.

If I saw this type of solutions in a player costing 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 PLN, I would say it was money well spent. But for 5,000? – That's just not enough... ●

▌ Technical specifications (according to the manufacturer)

» General
Platform: Ingenic X2000
Display: 5.1-inch, 854 x 358, touch-screen, LG
DAC chip: AKM AK4499EX + AK4191EQ
USB chip: XMOS XU316
Supported PCM (USB): up to 32 bits, 768 kHz
Supported DSD (USB): up to DSD512
Bluetooth: 5.0, receiver
Supported Bluetooth codecs: LDAC, aptX HD, aptX, AAC, SBC
Power consumption: 20 W
Dimensions (W x H x D): 280 x 280 x 96 mm
Weight: 5.7 kg
» Analog outputs
Voltage: 2.5 Vrms – RCA | 5 Vrms – XLR
Frequency range: 20 Hz - 40 kHz (+/- 0.1 dB)
THD+N: 0.0005%
Dynamics: 119 dB – RCA | 122 dB – XLR
SNR: 119 dB

» Headphone output
Output: 1100 mW ⸜ 32 Ω | 153 mW ⸜ 300 Ω
Frequency range: 20 Hz - 40 kHz (+/- 0.1 dB)
THD+N: 0.0005%
Dynamics: 122 dB
SNR: 122 dB
Output impedance: 4,7 Ω

»«

THIS TEST HAS BEEN DESIGNED ACCORDING TO THE GUIDELINES adopted by the Association of International Audiophile Publications, an international audio press association concerned with ethical and professional standards in our industry, of which HIGH FIDELITY is a founding member. More about the association and its constituent titles → HERE.

→ www.AIAP-online.org