Since selling my Shanling SCD-T200C, I have missed having a high-performance CD player. The Yaqin SD-32A caught my eye and I especially found the fact that it used 6SN7s particularly fascinating. But I found there to be a dearth of reviews on it.
Has anyone auditioned or own of these? Any comments? I have one on its way to me and plan to write a review.
Has anyone auditioned or own of these? Any comments? I have one on its way to me and plan to write a review.
I somehow have a problem with most of the chinese gear...
They obviously spend most of the effort in the case and the stylish
looks... but I'm afraid the innards will be quite standard and the
6SN7's are being used to make the whole deal sound syrupy and "tube-like".
Hope your review will come out better!
They obviously spend most of the effort in the case and the stylish
looks... but I'm afraid the innards will be quite standard and the
6SN7's are being used to make the whole deal sound syrupy and "tube-like".
Hope your review will come out better!
Review
Well, its review time, My SD-32A showed up today. I did some tube rolling, listening and have formed some opinions which I share with you.
The box arrived in nice shape from the Canadian Yaqin dealer who sells on eBay. The unit was nicely double boxed, wrapped in a plastic bag and weighed in at 25 pounds 5.6 oz. A nice looking futuristic feeling unit, see photo above. It gave the impression of being solid and well built. At least externally The octal sockets for the two 6SN7s are porcelain. The remote is a hefty chunk of metal which could make a formidable projectile to be used on guests who don't appreciate your music choices.
The rest of my system consists of a modified Ming-Da Meixing MC67-HA preamp with all Sylvania 7308 signal path tubes, Clearview CXR-22 active crossover, a custom built (by me) KT88-based stereo power amp which uses CV-1932 preamps, JAN-CHS 6SN7 phase splitters and Gold Lion KT88s. Oh yes, and my 1KW 15" subwoofer
So let's try this thing out. Remember I sold my ultra modified Shanling SCD-T200C and bought this player to replace it.
I like mostly New Age and the music that I use for reference comparisons is "Andalu" by Chris Spheeris, "Falling through Time" by 2002 and "Almost a Whisper" by Yani. Also select tracks from Exchange, Lesiem, and others.
My first impression is that the mids were lacking. There were plenty of highs but mids and therefore the framework of the music was missing. The Chinese 6N8Ps got pulled and I headed for my tube cellar. I emerged with a set of '44 JAN-CHS Sylvania 6SN7s, a set of '45 USN VT124 Sylvania 6SN7GTs and a set of '47 triangle plate Sylvania 6SN7GTBs.
I tried the '44s first. What an improvement. All of the music was there but there was a bit of 'tizzieness". So I tried the '45s. They sounded the same. Concern crept into my heart and I thought to myself "I wonder if this player could use a nice set of Rusian Teflon coupling caps?"
But when I dropped in the '47s, my fears were laid to rest. At last the full spectrum of music was there. The spectral distribution was finally there along with the pace, rithym and punch that I had enjoyed with the Shanling. Not to say that a tweak here or there wouldn't be warranted...
But the bottom line is that at $500 this player is giveaway priced. You cannot go wrong at 3 times the price. Four times may be pushing it. But in my opinion, this player is one hell of a buy. Bravo!
Well, its review time, My SD-32A showed up today. I did some tube rolling, listening and have formed some opinions which I share with you.
The box arrived in nice shape from the Canadian Yaqin dealer who sells on eBay. The unit was nicely double boxed, wrapped in a plastic bag and weighed in at 25 pounds 5.6 oz. A nice looking futuristic feeling unit, see photo above. It gave the impression of being solid and well built. At least externally The octal sockets for the two 6SN7s are porcelain. The remote is a hefty chunk of metal which could make a formidable projectile to be used on guests who don't appreciate your music choices.
The rest of my system consists of a modified Ming-Da Meixing MC67-HA preamp with all Sylvania 7308 signal path tubes, Clearview CXR-22 active crossover, a custom built (by me) KT88-based stereo power amp which uses CV-1932 preamps, JAN-CHS 6SN7 phase splitters and Gold Lion KT88s. Oh yes, and my 1KW 15" subwoofer
So let's try this thing out. Remember I sold my ultra modified Shanling SCD-T200C and bought this player to replace it.
I like mostly New Age and the music that I use for reference comparisons is "Andalu" by Chris Spheeris, "Falling through Time" by 2002 and "Almost a Whisper" by Yani. Also select tracks from Exchange, Lesiem, and others.
My first impression is that the mids were lacking. There were plenty of highs but mids and therefore the framework of the music was missing. The Chinese 6N8Ps got pulled and I headed for my tube cellar. I emerged with a set of '44 JAN-CHS Sylvania 6SN7s, a set of '45 USN VT124 Sylvania 6SN7GTs and a set of '47 triangle plate Sylvania 6SN7GTBs.
I tried the '44s first. What an improvement. All of the music was there but there was a bit of 'tizzieness". So I tried the '45s. They sounded the same. Concern crept into my heart and I thought to myself "I wonder if this player could use a nice set of Rusian Teflon coupling caps?"
But when I dropped in the '47s, my fears were laid to rest. At last the full spectrum of music was there. The spectral distribution was finally there along with the pace, rithym and punch that I had enjoyed with the Shanling. Not to say that a tweak here or there wouldn't be warranted...
But the bottom line is that at $500 this player is giveaway priced. You cannot go wrong at 3 times the price. Four times may be pushing it. But in my opinion, this player is one hell of a buy. Bravo!
I just purchased one of these CD players and am quite pleased with the build quality. Typical Chinese junk it's not. Fit and finish is better in person than in the internet pictures which is a rarity for this type of equipment. What looks like metal is. Very substantial build with all metal cabinetry and thick solid aluminum plate. No plastic other than the transport. Ugliest tube shields ever made but they are easily removable and quite unnecessary. Nice interior component layout paying ample attention to shielding through the use of multiple chassis. Decent circuit boards, not those awful cheap red boards found in most Chinese equipment. Transformer is about 1/3 of the size of the case it's in, but most of the Chinese components I've seen seem to be like this. Not sure if I like the blue LED's, but my 17yr old daughter does (matter of taste I guess). I will not comment on the sonics at this time. All I will say is it has a lovely wide and deep soundstage with excellent separation of instruments and plenty of detail, bass is deep but somewhat tubby. HDCD function works perfectly as well. Oh almost forgot, I shoved a pair of Ken Rad staggered plate VT231's in it just for grins.
Yaqin SD32A repair
Hi Alexander
I had exactly the same problem with my CD player 'skipping', but the repair is surprisingly easy.
The problem is that there is a malformed tooth on the plastic White Cog that is fitted to the top of the CD motor. Simply open it up, motor the CD tray out, and you will see a White Cog which is the largest one in there. Get a magnifying glass and check the teeth. You will find one with a malformed 'web' with some excess 'flashing' filling the gap. Simply remove (carefully) with a scalpal. Job done! No more skipping!
Took me ages to figure it out! Lol!
Hi Alexander
I had exactly the same problem with my CD player 'skipping', but the repair is surprisingly easy.
The problem is that there is a malformed tooth on the plastic White Cog that is fitted to the top of the CD motor. Simply open it up, motor the CD tray out, and you will see a White Cog which is the largest one in there. Get a magnifying glass and check the teeth. You will find one with a malformed 'web' with some excess 'flashing' filling the gap. Simply remove (carefully) with a scalpal. Job done! No more skipping!
Took me ages to figure it out! Lol!
Transport
Sorry, meant to say 'open it from the top, not the bottom like you have in the thumbnail image, although you can see the cog I am talking about between the two PCB's in that pic'
the 'peak' of one of the teeth might be left a bit 'stumpy' but that is OK. Carefully move the laser across it's track after to make sure there are no 'tight spots' left, and it moves smoothly.
Shouldn't have to fettle equipment like this nowadays.....
Sorry, meant to say 'open it from the top, not the bottom like you have in the thumbnail image, although you can see the cog I am talking about between the two PCB's in that pic'
the 'peak' of one of the teeth might be left a bit 'stumpy' but that is OK. Carefully move the laser across it's track after to make sure there are no 'tight spots' left, and it moves smoothly.
Shouldn't have to fettle equipment like this nowadays.....
This looks suspiciously similar to the mechanism in my Shigaclone with a few differences here and there.. I'm wondering it if is a Sanyo mechanism.. If that is the case it is cheap as dirt, and surprisingly a great deal better than you might expect.. (Related mechanisms are used in the 47 Labs Shigaraki, and Flatfish, and CEC used some of these components in various versions of the belt drive TLO series - for whatever reason it performs amazingly well. It's also quite reliable in my experience.) It is only interchangeable with other mechanisms of the same family which differ only in small details. I would take a look and see if the white gear has an issue.
I have a bunch of these mechanisms and they are very tweakable - see the Shigaclone thread for ideas..
No idea whose chip set is being used, but this unit may have the makings of a very tweakable unit.
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I have owned a yaqin cd32a for a while. Now that I will be trying a passive attenuator, what do the 6sn7 tubes do? Are they amplifying, or are they buffering? Btw, it's a tight fit, but the meixing mingda pairs are very good here.First tubes I like better than nos. The difference is more subtle here than as a driver in an amp, hence the curiosity .
Its almost 6 years later and my SD-32A is still going strong. i just wish it had a headphone jack. i recently got a Little Dot Mark III to take care of that function.
The transport has never skipped on me or acted up in any way. Still, has anyone found a better drop-in unit which is higher quality?
Thanks,
The transport has never skipped on me or acted up in any way. Still, has anyone found a better drop-in unit which is higher quality?
Thanks,
I've never heard of SDHC, did you mean HDCD? HDCD was an encoding scheme used with conventional CD technology to provide up to 20 bits of resolution with appropriate decoding. Not in any way related to SACD, different (DVD type) disk, encryption and DSD audio as compare to PCM for conventional and HDCD.
I don't believe these players supported SACD, but no longer remember much about them.
I don't believe these players supported SACD, but no longer remember much about them.
Ah yeah, I've never heard of HDCD before. That's what they do apparently. I like SACD and DVDA, and I'm guessing this CD player can't do either.
Then again, all my Sony players keep dying and stop reading the SACD layer of hybrid discs, so maybe I won't be that much worse off. Stupid Sony...
Charles.
Then again, all my Sony players keep dying and stop reading the SACD layer of hybrid discs, so maybe I won't be that much worse off. Stupid Sony...
Charles.
I have the same unit.. I really like it, especially since I rolled in a set of NOS matched Sylvania 6SN7GTB. One word AMAZING. now for your question on the transport I just ordered two
Specifications
- Package
Material
Plastic
- Model Number
Item Type
Speaker Accessories Kits
- Brand Name
Origin
Mainland China
Got it on AliExpress.. Hope this helps