Newsgroup: it.hobby.hi-fi
Titolo: In Inglese:Prima review del piccolo shanling sacd

.  Shanling SCD-S200 
ByHiFiChoice
Shanling spectacularly burst onto the hi-fi scene at the Las Vegas CES
show in January with one of the most outrageous looking CD players to
hit the affordable market for some time. A top-loader with blazing
valves inside shiny cages, it was impossible to miss. Since then this
gung-ho company has produced disc players of most persuasions, with
another spectacular valve player (the SCD-T200) for SACD, two more
conventional CD players, a DVD player and this - its entry level SACD
spinner. Oh, and some tube power amps for good measure.
Given that China is the earth's electronics factory these days, with
up to 90 per cent of affordable AV components made there, its
surprising that it has taken so long for an indigenous brand to make
an impression on the Western world. 
The SCD-S200 is a heavyweight component housed in machined aluminium
and bearing a strong physical similarity to Sony's SCD-XA333ES, albeit
in a more conventional colour. The biggest difference between the two
is that the Shanling eschews the contemporary vogue for multichannel
and is a stereo-only player like Sony's discontinued '555ES. The fit
and finish, though high, is not quite up to Japanese standards and the
push buttons are unusual but nicely made and easy enough to use. The
remote is also aluminium, an extrusion with end caps that is a lot
fancier than you usually find at the price, but it is a system remote
for the Shanling range, and thus has a number of redundant buttons. 
The display is quite deeply set and is unconventional in style so
identifying tracks is not so easy, but if the player manages to read
the disc, you know things are looking up. We experienced not a little
difficulty getting the SCD-S200 to read some of our SACDs,
specifically those with both multi and two-channel tracks. It
regularly spent some time 'READING' a disc only to come up with the
error message 'UN READ'. I found that with perseverance, and opening
and closing the drawer (not a remote option), it was usually possible
to get a result but there were several discs, such as Dark Side Of The
Moon, which it couldn't crack. I reported this to Shanling 
and its reply effectively blamed the chip supplier, Sony, for the
problem. It went on to say that in two to three months it should have
obtained new software that will let the player read any disc without
trouble.
If you look at the specs on the SCD-S200 you can see that the
transport mechanism and DSD decoder are Sony components and it's the
latter, described as 'top grade', which is said to require a software
upgrade. I wonder if this problem exists with the Shanling valve SACD
player, the SCD-T200, which features the R version of the same
decoder? The DAC here is a PCM1738 SACD model from Burr-Brown and the
output stage a regular solid state affair - there are no vacuum tubes
burning inside this box.
Outputs consist of the bare minimum analogue and digital RCA phono
sockets, the latter restricted to a CD-quality bitstream. The digital
DSD link found on the latest Sony SACD player and matching amplifier
(XA/TA-DA9000ES) is not surprisingly absent in this instance, and
given Shanling's taste for the purist approach, not likely to be an
option in future.
SOUND QUALITY
Once you realise that you have to press 'play' once to close the
drawer and again to initiate actual disc play the resulting sound is
gratifying, with the live Whole Lotta Love on Zeppelin's How The West
Was Won CD delivering much of its phenomenal energy and grunt, if not
quite all the scale that more expensive players reveal. The Shanling's
interpretation of the 23rd Psalm reading on the Red Rose Music SACD
sampler had a lot in common with the Sony SCD-XA333ES. In fact, the
two are tonally quite similar until you play some interesting bass
notes such as the kick drum on Eleanor McEvoy's Yola. With this the
Sony sounded positively dry compared to the lovely round, deep thump
from the Shanling. We put the same track on the Eikos CD player to see
which version was the best match and it certainly wasn't the Sony.
Another critical performance factor where the Shanling scores is
timing. It is distinctly above par in this respect and will have you
subconsciously nodding away to the beat on anything vaguely rhythmic -
EST's jazz grooves are a good example which the Shanling insists you
thoroughly enjoy. It also delves into the lower levels, pulling out
Esbjorn's strange Jarrett-esque 'singing' while he tickles the ivories
so effectively. This CD also revealed some fulsome bass and even
suggested a degree of excess, but it has to be said that this is by
the high (read expensive) standard set by the Eikos.
Imaging is good but about par for the price - a little more contained
than is desirable but by no means compressed. Indeed, the track Stan
from Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP fills out nicely as the rain comes
down, but it is Dido's voice that stands out as the transistor radio
compression effect is gradually reduced. You can hear right into the
mix to remarkable effect. With another CD, from the Bobby Hughes
Combination, the SCD-S200 emphasised percussion over the bass and
delivered another compulsive Latin tinged groove from the Scandinavian
musicians.
Moving back to the SACD challenge with McCoy Tyner's Land Of Giants,
the player's strong timing made its mark by reproducing the vibes with
considerably greater naturalness and shimmer than most. In fact it
thoroughly changes the sound of the instrument from 'not my cup of
tea' to 'really quite nice'. I won't be investing in the Bobby
Hutcherson back catalogue just yet but my aversion to the instrument
is dwindling. With SACD discs the Shanling turns in a fuller and
richer performance than both the Eikos (with CD) and the Sony '333ES
(be it CD or SACD). You'd have to put it up against something more up
to date from the SACD camp, such as the Marantz SA-17S1, to find its
peer - it's doubtful that any of the sub-£2K universal players would
outperform it in two-channel. 
The Shanling SCD-S200 represents great value for money in many
respects. It's a good CD player, as good as most at the price, and as
a dedicated two-channel SACD player it's peerless for the money. One
can forgive most of its idiosyncrasies save the disc reading issue,
but when that's sorted out (as promised) this looks like a pretty good
bet. Assuming, that is, that multichannel isn't likely to be a
requirement for you in the foreseeable future. 
I'm told by the music merchants at Vivante that SACD discs are
outselling DVD-Audio by a significant margin, which would suggest that
this, if any, is likely to be the high-end disc format of the future.
If you want to hear what that future sounds like, in a few month's
time this could be a tempting way to find out.
Jason Kennedy 
 
Ciao
    berry
http://www.soundberry.com
Sito e forum dedicato alla vera hifi low cost.

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