Is Audio46 going to get this?
Introducing Shanling EC Mini - Transportable CD Player & DAP
- Thread starter Shanling
- Start date
I spoke with Toni about your mini. He said they were reviewing the idea of getting it. I am a regular customer there. I indicated I was interested in your product, and it would not be a bad idea to promote it to him. I would buy it from him.
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I've just received my EC Mini via AliExpress. It arrived with the latest 2.0 firmware already preloaded on it. While the specs are fairly clear on this, everyone should be aware that this is a fairly substantial device - think of it more like a desktop CD player that can be used off batteries than a portable DiscMan-type device.
On the plus side, it drives my HE6se V2s to an adequate volume even off the unbalanced 3.5mm output, so it's got plenty of power as a headphone DAC/amp.
Unfortunately it's a poor CD player in terms of basic functionality. The first major issue is that playback is not gapless even with "gapless" turned on in the playback settings. Be prepared for 2-3 seconds of silence between tracks. This might not bother you, but the vast majority of my music is either classical or mixed/continuous electronic music and in both cases the gap between tracks can be a dealbreaker.
Track navigation and rewind/fast-forward is also somewhat odd. When fast-forwarding, playback continues at the normal pace from the current position while the time advances. Once you let go of the fast-forward button, playback seeks to that position immediately. You don't get the short blips of playback that you'd normally get on a CD player while fast-forwarding or rewinding. Also, neither rewind nor fast-forward proceeds past a track boundary. Once you hit the beginning or the end of a track, the time counter stops. If you've been fast-forwarding, when you let go playback will advance to the next track.
Bringing up the list of tracks on the CD by swiping from right to left reveals a list of file names of the form Track01.WAV, Track02.WAV, etc. You can tap on one of these to seek to that track. The list of file names indicates to me that this isn't a true CD player but in effect a 1x CD ripper. I'll have to see how it copes with scratched CDs; a true CD player should skip or garble but not "get stuck" re-reading damaged sectors. Also, when skipping tracks or when playback advances to the next track, the time display will often jump to something like 0:03 seconds and then jump back to 0:00 seconds, which is at least a visual oddity and might be an artifact of whatever buffering it's doing.
All in all, I can't recommend this device. A true CD player should at the very least play gaplessly. I figured that Shanling's experience with making other CD players meant that this would do so, but unfortunately it doesn't seem like it.
On the plus side, it drives my HE6se V2s to an adequate volume even off the unbalanced 3.5mm output, so it's got plenty of power as a headphone DAC/amp.
Unfortunately it's a poor CD player in terms of basic functionality. The first major issue is that playback is not gapless even with "gapless" turned on in the playback settings. Be prepared for 2-3 seconds of silence between tracks. This might not bother you, but the vast majority of my music is either classical or mixed/continuous electronic music and in both cases the gap between tracks can be a dealbreaker.
Track navigation and rewind/fast-forward is also somewhat odd. When fast-forwarding, playback continues at the normal pace from the current position while the time advances. Once you let go of the fast-forward button, playback seeks to that position immediately. You don't get the short blips of playback that you'd normally get on a CD player while fast-forwarding or rewinding. Also, neither rewind nor fast-forward proceeds past a track boundary. Once you hit the beginning or the end of a track, the time counter stops. If you've been fast-forwarding, when you let go playback will advance to the next track.
Bringing up the list of tracks on the CD by swiping from right to left reveals a list of file names of the form Track01.WAV, Track02.WAV, etc. You can tap on one of these to seek to that track. The list of file names indicates to me that this isn't a true CD player but in effect a 1x CD ripper. I'll have to see how it copes with scratched CDs; a true CD player should skip or garble but not "get stuck" re-reading damaged sectors. Also, when skipping tracks or when playback advances to the next track, the time display will often jump to something like 0:03 seconds and then jump back to 0:00 seconds, which is at least a visual oddity and might be an artifact of whatever buffering it's doing.
All in all, I can't recommend this device. A true CD player should at the very least play gaplessly. I figured that Shanling's experience with making other CD players meant that this would do so, but unfortunately it doesn't seem like it.
Scubadevils
Headphoneus Supremus
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Ugh, disappointing to read when mine is in transit. I’m a big fan of Shanling products so far, I was really looking forward to this!
What other device would get your recommendation? Cd player with similar or better features.
Don't have a recommendation, sorry. The issues I'm describing are in comparison to true native/dedicated RBCD players and transports; I have both an Onkyo DX-C390 changer (used as transport) and C-7030 player and both of them play gaplessly without issues. Neither of them is particularly portable though! There are some other portable CD players that have been announced recently but I haven't tried them so I can't comment on whether they might have the same issues.
comradem4rx
New Head-Fier
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Might seem a silly question but I just took delivery of my EC mini and I can't work out how to use it as a USB transport... Is there a setting I need to change? Thanks
ECMini will recognize connected DAC automatically, it should show message "audio connected" when you connect DAC.
Make sure in Playback setting - USB Audio you are set to either fixed or variable volume, depending on your DAC.
Inju
100+ Head-Fier
Can you use this cd player as a CD Ripper then? Have you tried to rip with it, as this could double up as a ripping device. I'm curios if this also works as a ripper for Astel & Kern daps as well such as an SR35. Additionally can you rip to the SD card? The gap less doesn't matter to me much, plus if you can rip to the built in SD card slot, then that would be really cool and you would get gapless at that point.
I am not getting any signal via Analog Out on my mini, is there a setting to enable it? It plays fine via headphones.
I am shopping at Linsoul and they do not have your Mini as of now. They do have the 80. Is that cd player considered as good or better than the mini. I have a huge cd collection and am seriously interested. Would appreciate any response, especially from Shanling.
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Inju
100+ Head-Fier
I just ordered it. Will do a review once I receive it. Very interested in the USB digital output to DACS.
No CD ripping feature on our CD players.
Swipe down on the screen to view the quick-access menu. First item there is switch between headphone out and rear out.
Talking purely about sound, I like CD80 more if running it through RCA port to bigger amp or speaker setup. For headphones, especially if you can run them balanced, ECMini is better
The overall package of features and even the design are vastly different between these two, so that should guide you to which one you need.
I will check with Linsoul on why ECMini isn't listed online.
I bought the CD80 but I will use headphones with it. If the sound difference isn't significant I can live with that.
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