Shanling EC Mini Transportable CD Player Review

I was hoping to get through my backlog of gear reviews before the end of the US Thanksgiving Holiday. With this teaser, I guess we can say that I partially kept that promise. I will follow up on measurements for this and other gear during the coming week. The EC Mini is a transportable CD Player! Yes, CD Player. On the cusp of 2024. Are CDs making a comeback like vinyl? Maybe, who knows? I know there are more than a few readers who still use their spinners.

What I can say so far is that the EC Mini is sooo fricking cool!

Shanling EC Mini and ETA Mini C Headphone

I have not yet had the time to test all features of the EC Mini. The EC mini has a number of outputs. On the front panel are a 1/8" phono jack for headphones and a 4.4mm TRRS jack for balanced connectors. The back has RCA lineouts and a USB output to feed DACs (coaxial, optical, and AES digital are non-existent). There is a little switch for vehicle mode which I assume activates a buffer in case the laser loses tracking for bumps.

There are buttons on the front of the EC Mini for power, play, stop, eject, forward, back, and volume. The display on the top of the unit has iconography for repeat, back, play/pause, forward. To my delight, these icons are not decorative, they are functional - the display is touch sensitive! Shanling after all did make it tempting for me to press them!

The 1/8" phono output didn't quite do justice to the 300-ohms Sennheisers. The sound into these harder-to-drive headphones was too midrange emphasized, somewhat boring, and lacking oomph. The 4.44mm balanced output fared much better, bringing back more energy and bass, however, I still didn't think this was an ideal combination. The 150-ohm Drop HD58X did absolutely fine from the 4.44mm.

The headphones in my stable which I felt worked fantastically? Elex, Grado RS1X, and ETA Mini C. The Mini C on a the wrong setup can sound lean. Not so there, the EC Mini gave the Mini C a nice bass boost with full bodied mids. I would be curious how the Mini C would sound from the balanced outputs.

Considering the headphones I mentioned above, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that EC Mini has a darkish laid-back sound signature similar to that of the M6 portable I reviewed a while back. There's a little twist though. The delivery is very much like the Shanling's TOTL ET-3 CD transport, which I described as "stately, tight, articulate, just slightly over-damped (as opposed to zippy), black, spacious without being overly diffuse, and very liquid."

No, the EC Mini isn't quite an ET-3. I did try using it was a transport using the USB feeding the MIB->Mjolnir system. I'd say the EC Mini doesn't quite have the focus, articulation, microdetail, and expansiveness of the ET-3; however, the ET-3 DNA CDT DNA is definitely there.

• Thoughts on use: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...sportable-cd-player-review.13977/#post-420191

To be continued...

 

Had to slow down because low light / blurry.

The EC Mini comes with a nice carry case and two strips. The larger shoulder strap is used here.

 

More thoughts (use):

• Despite the vehicle mode switch in the back, it really isn't suitable for skateboard riding per above. In a car it will work, but the unit really doesn't like to be at weird angles and me hitting bumps. So the photo above with me using the EC Mini on the skateboard, that's just for kicks. I keep my word on silly stuff.
• The unit is really quite substantial in weight. It's best thought of as transportable, not portable. I assume maybe it's the battery or general construction with Shanling with regards to their CD transports.
• Depending upon the disc, there can be more or less noise. Some discs rumble, others swoosh. Generally an issue if using open headphones listening low volumes with the unit close. With semi-open like ZMF Atrium headphones, I could not hear any noise.
• The EC Mini plays back CD-Rs, even scratched up ones. I have a bunch (like well over a hundred) of scratched up CD-Rs that have been around forever in dubious condition. The EC Mini didn't have any issues.
• Gapless is supported. Some CD Players today don't support gapless, the Emotiva ERC-4 for example did not support gapless. Gapless is important for people who listen to classical. Less so for popular music. (UPDATE: not totally sure, I thought I heard some short stutters, wasn't totally paying attention at first)
• A lot of the menus are accessed via swipes in the small window. While basic functions such as play, forward, and back work well, the display isn't very responsive to swipes up or down. The touchscreen is just a bit too small for a good user experience.
• Fast forward or fast rewind don't really work like how they do like on the vintage CD players. Basically the timestamp on the display jumps while the current track plays normally. After the button is released, the EC Mini simply jumps to the timestamp position when the button was released. Fortunately, the seek time is fast, within a second.
• Need to set USB output to fixed output (defaults on variable output) in the menus,
• The USB output works. I was able to feed the Yggdrasil MIB and Magni Unity Unison DAC no problems. This is actually a good sounding combo.

Shanling EC Mini -> Schiit Magni Unison USB. My daughter asked for a CD Player. Guess what she's getting for X-mas.


The display menu options are kind of a PIA to deal with, but it's serviceable. Note USB from EC Mini to Unison USB DAC.

 

I listened through Mozart's Requiem from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and upon first pass didn't notice anything, but I was also multitasking and not paying full attention. Using FF, I checked and there appeared to be a very slight gap. Entirely possible I just missed these because the Requiem is broken down into specific movements.

I will check it further out later. It's kind of pain as you know because the FF/RW isn't the most usable. I got other stuff to do right now.

 

Yikes. I was twiddling with the FF/RW, and the UI just rebooted and then froze. Depressed the power button for 2-3 seconds. Nothing. Don't know if there is a way for hard shutdown or if I need to wait it out for the battery to drain. Grrrr.

 

I'm dumb. Didn't RTFM.

 

Following measurements using test CD. Remember this is supposed to be a CD Player!

Shanling EC Mini
RCA outputs
0dbFS (full scale 1kHz)

A little bit more of the third harmonic, but I didn't hear any harshness. More on subjective impressions later.

RCA outputs
-90dbFS (tripping last LSB of 16-bits 1kHz)


Very clean on the spectrum analyzer. Great stairstep shape for tripping that last LSB. (Remember, this is 16-bit CD, not 24-bit)

11.050kHz

Some small sidebands playing back a CD.

Subjective Impressions:

With respect to the EC Mini's RCA outputs, I was pleasantly surprised. I'd say it's on par with the Modi+ (maybe even slightly better / preferable) and quite a bit better than the built-in Unison on the Magni Unity. The built-in Unison DAC was a touch warmer and touch more gritty. The EC Mini's RCA output was another level more involving and expressive. Better microdynamics, better plankton, a touch smoother, a touch less thick. I found myself lost in the CDs that I was playing back for some time using the onboard DAC (to Piety/Unity) of the EC Mini. Yeah, a cheap system based on this as a source has got that hard to put down quality.

There's a pair of ESS ES9219 DACs. I never would have thought in a million years this was an ESS part. I guess we would have to add Shanling to the list of "ESS whisperers". If I had to guess, I would almost guess that is was a tamed Wolfson because of its smoothless and expressiveness, like this (https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...mma-2-dac-or-how-nwavguy-fooled-us-all.10173/), except a lot more resolving!

 

1/8" output measurements here. This from playing test tones from a CD.

Shanling EC Mini
1/8" headphone output
300-ohm load
0dBu output (volume adjusted)


Shanling EC Mini
1/8" headphone output
300-ohm load
-10dBu output (volume adjusted)


Shanling EC Mini
1/8" headphone output
300-ohm load
-20dBu output (volume adjusted)


The 0dBu signal looks good. As we reduce the output level, there's a bit of grass at certain harmonics. I don't know if we can arrive at anything - the grass is more than 100db below the stimulus tone. Finally, note no AC hum. The EC Mini is battery powered. There's a small AC spike with some harmonics while the USB charging cable is connected.

Subjective Impressions:

The 1/8" is slightly on the soft side with higher Z Sennheisers, less so with sensitivity lower Z headphones like ETA Mini C or Grado headphones. Overall sound is dark / smooth as explained in post #5.

The 4.4mm balanced output is better sounding, more energetic, less sleepy, particularly with the Sennheisers. Still, the best application for the EC Mini is with efficient / sensitive headphones and IEMs. I didn't have any issues with noise using the CFA Ara from the 1/8" jack. Likewise no noise with with Grado or ETA headphones. The volume up/down button increases volume in 0.5db discrete steps.