I am just not to keen on the creator himself. His problematic behaviour has been extensively documented.
But I hope you still find a lot of joy in this wonderful handcrafted gear!
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I regularly fail to post pictures here before diving into a review, not because I’m overly eager to get to listening to the product or anything reasonable like that, but because the chains that bind me to the measurement desk typically get in the way of good camera angles.
Because of that, it’s just an image of the box… But review soon.
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Incoming…
I’ve been searching for a CD transport for some time, but what I really want - a CDT with I2S that will play back the DSD layer of a SACD - is prohibitively expensive. I’ve toyed with the idea of buying a blu-ray player and an interface, but that solution seems janky and does not fill me with joy, so I decided some time ago to just sit tight until what I want comes to market. But when Shanling came out with its new CDT I decided it does everything I want except play SACDs and I can live with that for now. I am agnostic on the sonic performance of CDs vs hi-res streaming, but I have hundreds of CDs from the 90s/00s, MANY of which cannot be found on streaming platforms, and I’m tired of wishing I had a way to listen to them. 
See also:
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Can I ask what your thought process was in choosing a CD player vs ripping the CDs to lossless files?
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Good question. After decades of building bleeding edge gaming desktop PCs, I have switched to laptop given the current power of compact hardware. My alienware laptop has no CD drive and although the cost of a usb-c CD drive is far less than a CDT, I decided I just don’t want to deal with the hassle, nor be tethered to my laptop for all music playback. I sort of like the idea of having the option to play music from a source that isn’t my laptop. The Shanling also has network, USB, & bluetooth connectivity, which expands my options and could come in handy in a pinch (i.e. when I’m working on my work laptop at my desk and booting up my personal laptop as a music source isn’t possible/convenient).
Also, the idea of trying to rip ALL of the music I want to files/playlists is daunting. I have at least 100 commercially released DJ compilations that cannot be streamed, not to mention several hundred personally burned music/file disks that would take forever to go through. The simplicity of picking a disc and putting it in the machine just appeals.
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I think this is one of the best things you’ve done for yourself in this hobby. I also think you’ll no longer be agnostic when it comes to CDs verses streaming. Re explore that cd collection of yours. I can’t wait to hear what you think. 
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Congrats!
I think there is/was something special about the era when we pick a CD, put it in the slot (and occasionally deal w/ the reading problems), and just listen to the whole disc from track to track. And have the physical booklet to look at. Something got lost in this streaming era where we skip around and not earmark the beginning and end of an album by getting off our asses and changing discs…
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I think there was something about the era where we just bought a record, stuck it on the turntable, and let the stylus take that tonearm from outside to inside - possibly with a click or pop - all the way through.
And we had album covers. And sometimes booklets that were pretty big. Pop-ups like in Jethro Tull’s Stand Up album, or 3D pictures like on the Stone’s Their Satanic Majesties’ Request, or even Funkadelic’s Mothership Connection.
Something lost in the CD era with tiny discs, no getting off our asses and flipping them over for a side B, and little remnants of album covers.
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Zach from ZMF sent me a huuuuge box…
of pads and cables…
and a Bokeh
and wait, there’s more…
voila. all the newest closed-backs are here!
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It looks like Zach loves you best.
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Yeah, for sure. Maybe Zach will adopt me? 
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He reached out and asked if I wanted to demo/review anything and I said I hadn’t done the closed backs yet. I was expecting him to send one of them, but he shipped it all instead. Haha.
Now I’m overwhelmed with this project
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This!! 
I love the convenience of being able to purchase (for download) one part of an album if the other parts duplicate another holding in my library, or an album that is no longer available in CD format, but it’s rare that you can also download the booklet that came with the original CD format. I miss the information those booklets provided. Even if you are able to download a digital version of the booklet, it’s much less convenient to read it on a tablet or computer while listening compared to holding the booklet in hand.
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Yes! Your own collection on site give you much more flexibility for listening.
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I’m always willing to help out a friend
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Yeah, there’s definitely something to the “realness” of physical media. But I also love the streaming age, because it allows me to explore any avenue of music I want without spending $15 per album. Then I can pick the ones I love and buy the physical media. And the “niche” of people who still find value in physical media is once again growing, no doubt.
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I love the tactility of physical media.
I still enjoy vinyl replay, overall, the most as a result.
But even the single-drawer CD-player world (starting with a Meridian 508.20 transport) was more, directly, engaging.
At the same time, having 1,000,000+ local tracks, plus, effectively, the entire historical music catalog (between TIDAL, Qobuz, Apple Music and Amazon Music HD, and a couple of buy-only vendors) just a click away … WITHOUT the need to physically store things is VERY compelling.
Maybe it’s an “age” thing … but I want less “STUFF” … without giving up ACCESS.
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That is a nice point, but level with me for a second. Does your true reference level setup involve actual CDs for listening?
I gotta ask cause for me when the listening source is that of a cd player/transport it crushes streaming. I’m not talking digital downloads. That is different, but streaming? To my ears it is not even close. Lol I know people might throw tomatoes 
at me now. 
Not sure that’s it.
Streaming is just a different experience.
To me vinyl and to a lesser extend CD had a ritual that’s missing in streaming and as a result it was something I tended to dedicate time to.
Streaming I just put on and while I still listen to entire albums when I stream rather than using playlists, I listen a lot more, but for most of it I am less engaged.
At some level it’s the cost of convenience and ubiquity.
It’s also one of the reasons going back to Vinyl with headphones doesn’t work for me, headphones are also a convenience thing (to me), and mixing it with the ritual of physical media just doesn’t work for me.
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I agree. Streaming has allowed me to go deep down musical rabbit holes I had no access to as recently as 15 years ago, namely jazz. I’ve always loved jazz, but I didn’t really know where to start, and I wasn’t about to explore by spending $15 per CD just to explore and figure out what I liked. But streaming has put, more or less, the entirety of music history just a click away, and enabled me to explore every nook and cranny of jazz to find exactly what resonates with me.
And with that, I’ve identified about 700 albums that I love and acquired those on 12" vinyl. Streaming is no substitute for my vinyl collection - something about holding a piece of art history in your hand and the ceremony of playing it just cannot be replicated. But without the modern convenience of streaming I would not have gotten here with this particular passion.
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