Shinrico D3S Review. An Awesome Alternative To The PC.

Founded in 2014 in Guangzhou, China, Shinrico is a company focused on digital electronic products in the field of high-tech enterprises. Today I’ll be looking at the Shinrico D3S Digital Turntable (transport). The Shinrico D3S can be found on AliExpress for around $619 at the time of review.

This unit was sent to me for the purpose of this review. I’m not affiliated with the company in any way and all opinions and observations are my own, based on my experience with the product.

Shinrico website: http://www.shinrico.net/en/index.asp

Shinrico D3S product page: http://www.shinrico.net/en/produce_view.asp?id=629

Features

1. Support formats: Support FLAC, APE, WAV, M4A, AAC, WMA, MP3, ALAC, OGG, TAK, TTA, WV, AIFF, DSD (DSD64, non-DST compression), DFF, DSF, SACD ISO format. It supports up to 32bit 192kHz sampling rate.

2. Support CUE files.

3. Language support Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English.

4. Support 32bit 192k digital output, with digital coaxial and digital optical output, it can be used as a digital turntable, connect the decoding device.

5. Audio data memory interface, supports FAT32 NTFS file system, support SD card, U disk, USB removable disk.

6. Support automatic scanning SD card music, it can classify album and artist.

7. 4.3-inch LCD screen to display the playback information and job status.

8. Support ID3 information, music cover art display.

Packaging and accessories

The D3S came in an unassuming brown box. Inside we found the D3S player, securely packed in soft white foam, a power cable, remote control and an 8GB SD card (containing the user manual).

Build and design

Build-wise the D3S is simple but elegant in its appearance. It comes in black or silver colours and I obviously have the silver/white version. The case is made from very solid feeling aluminium that doesn’t bend or move when pressure is applied. The underside has 4 plastic feet attached which raise the unit slightly off the surface. The surface feels nice and smooth and there are no sharp edges to be found.

Machine size: 225 x 90 x 240 mm (W x H x D)

On the front panel (from left to right) is the Power button, underneath which are an LED power indicator and IR receiver. Next to that is a lovely 4.3-inch LCD screen and on the right side is a cluster of 4 buttons which are (clockwise from top-left):

Menu / return
Play / pause / confirm
Previous track or shuttle back
Next track or shuttle forward.

On the right side of the box, towards the front is an SD card slot
At the back panel are (from left to right):

2 x USB ports
Network port
Coaxial out (top)
Optical out (bottom)
AES digital out
IIS PCM audio data out
AC in (220V) and power switch (top)
AC DC select switch and DC in (9V)

Remote control function

OFF: Shut down, the remote control can not start the machine
F12: In the “Playing” screen, press the F12 key, delete the current track from “My Favorite” list
F11: In the “Playing” screen, press the F11 key, the current track added to the “My Favorite” list
F10: In the “Playing” screen, press F10, return to the position where the song list
F9: Browse file list of songs, Press F9 , delete the song file function(except read-only files)
F8: Browse file list of songs, press F8, the song list page forward function.
F7: browse files song list, press F7, the song list page backward function.
F1-F6/1-9: No function

Using the D3S (with Firmware v0.25)

Operation of the D3S is a simple affair. To turn on the unit simply press the power button for 2 seconds and the same to power off. Upon startup, we first see the Shinrico logo and then we’re greeted with a welcome screen. Boot time is about 25-30 seconds. Now let’s take a look at the menu settings.

1. “Main Menu”

Playing
music list
Play Settings
System Settings

3. “Play setting” interface

Play mode
Memory playing
Seamless playback
Update music database
directory player
DSD settings

2. “Play List” screen

All Tracks
folder
Album
Artists
my Favourite

4. “System Settings” screen

system information
Reset settings
language settings
backlight brightness
backlight time
IR Settings

*It’s worthy to note that “Update music database” only works when using a SD card. According to the manufacturer, the reason for this is that it’s common for users to have 1-2 terabytes of files on USB devices (external hard drives etc) and automatic updating of the database is too slow.

The 4.3-inch LCD screen is crisp and clear with rich color. It stays completely cool to the touch even after hours of use (as does the unit itself). Navigation is simple using the remote or the buttons on the face of the unit and the UI is snappy and intuitive with no apparent input lag. Album art is supported and covers look vivid and clear with track and file information shown next to it on the right.

The D3S supports a large variety of file formats so you should be able to play almost anything on the device. There’s no internal storage so you’ll need to use an SD card, USB flash drive or external hard drive to hold your music library. There’s also no on-board converter so you’ll need a DAC in order to get sound from the unit. During testing I used the optical and coaxial outputs, feeding to the Arcam irDAC-II or Micca OriGen+ and from there to earphones, headphones or amplifier.

Suggestions for improvement

There’s just one problem I found with the D3S but hopefully, it will be fixed in a future firmware upgrade. When seamless/gapless playback is enabled music would stutter badly at the end and beginning of tracks. Fortunately, upon disabling seamless playback the stuttering disappeared completely. Shinrico assures me that the engineers are working on a solution.

* On further testing it seems that this is no longer an issue. Note that this is using the same firmware version and the same micro SD cards that were used during the review. I can only assume it must have been caused by another component that was nearby at the time or somehow it just sorted itself out. As a result, I have adjusted the review score slightly.

For improvement, I would like to see an option to manually update the music database for USB drives as in its current state the D3S only supports this feature with SD cards. I’m not sure if boot time could be improved but that would also be a welcome change. The final thing I’d like to see changed is the white text (on the silver unit only) as it’s very hard to see against the silver/white case and I think black would have been the better choice here.

Shinrico D3S Conclusion

I’ve really enjoyed my time with the Shinrico D3S. It does what it’s supposed to do and does it well. It’s aesthetically appealing, well built and looks professional. The LCD screen is really nice and gives you all the information you need with good colour and clear text. It supports a large number of file formats and the casing stays completely cool at all times, as does the screen. There is a decent amount of output options that should meet your needs and the remote is a very handy addition.

Should you get one? Well, that depends. If you don’t like computers then this would be a good alternative. It’s also handy to keep next to your HiFi system and has a smaller footprint than most laptops. Computers often run into problems or have background electrical noise or you might just want to free up resources so you can utilize your computer for gaming or other tasks. You could think of it as a CD player but one that can potentially hold hundreds of albums via an external drive or NAS server. If that sounds useful to you then I can definitely recommend the Shinrico D3S.