Shanling CT90 Premium CD Transport - Black

A Premium Digital Source for Your CD Collection

The Shanling CT90 is a premium top-loading CD transport designed to send a clean and stable digital signal to your choice of external DAC. Its focused design, linear power supply, precision clocking, and wide range of digital outputs make it a strong foundation for a serious speaker or headphone system.

The CT90 is available in Black and Silver. Its compact aluminum chassis, large color display, and top-loading disc mechanism give it a modern appearance without taking up the space of a full-size component.

Important: An External DAC Is Required

The CT90 is a CD transport, not a complete CD player. It does not contain a digital-to-analog converter, analog audio outputs, volume control, or headphone amplifier.

Connect one of its digital outputs to an external DAC or an amplifier with a compatible digital input. Your DAC then converts the digital signal into analog audio for your amplifier or headphones.

Stable Top-Loading CD Mechanism

The top-loading disc system uses a DA11 drive and SAA7824 servo controller. Place the disc directly onto the spindle and secure it with the included CD puck. This design holds the disc firmly while reducing the moving parts found in a tray-loading mechanism.

The CT90 plays standard CDs, recordable CD-R discs, rewritable CD-RW discs, and MQA-CD titles.

Connect to Almost Any High-Quality DAC

Digital outputs include I²S over HDMI, USB Audio, coaxial S/PDIF, and two balanced AES/EBU connections. This wide selection makes the CT90 easy to match with desktop DACs, full-size converters, compatible amplifiers, and digital active speakers.

The FPGA-controlled I²S output provides ten selectable pinout modes. This helps match the different I²S wiring systems used by DAC manufacturers. I²S compatibility should still be checked before purchase because there is no single industry-standard HDMI pinout for I²S audio.

High-Resolution Processing and Upsampling

A dedicated CT7302C processing chip provides All-to-PCM and All-to-DSD conversion for supported outputs. The I²S connection can carry signals up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM or DSD512 to a compatible DAC.

Maximum resolution depends on the source, selected processing mode, output connection, and receiving DAC. The USB Audio output does not use the CT90’s internal upsampling.

Precision Internal and External Clocking

Separate low-phase-noise crystal oscillators support the main digital sample-rate families. Careful clocking helps reduce timing errors, also called jitter, before the signal reaches your DAC.

Advanced systems can connect an external 44.1kHz or 10MHz master clock through the BNC clock input. Selectable 50-ohm and 75-ohm settings help match different clock sources and cables.

35-Watt Linear Power Supply

The CT90 uses a linear power supply with a 35-watt transformer. It is designed to provide stable power while keeping electrical noise away from the disc-reading, clocking, and digital-output circuits.

More Than a CD Transport

Connect a USB drive with up to 2TB of storage to play high-resolution music files. The CT90 supports common formats including FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, APE, AAC, MP3, DSD, DXD, and unencrypted ISO files.

A USB input also allows the CT90 to work as a digital interface for a computer. Bluetooth 5.0 reception supports LDAC, aptX HD, aptX, AAC, and SBC, allowing audio from a phone, tablet, or computer to pass through the CT90 to your external DAC.

The CT90 does not include Wi-Fi, AirPlay, or network-music streaming.

Large Display and Flexible Control

A 4.8-inch color display shows playback and setup information. Control the CT90 with its front-panel buttons and knob, the included remote, or Shanling’s Eddict Player app when playing music from a USB drive.

Is the Shanling CT90 Right for You?

• You own a quality external DAC and want a dedicated CD transport.
• You need I²S, USB Audio, AES/EBU, or coaxial digital output.
• You want to play CDs and high-resolution files from USB storage.
• You value external master-clock support and adjustable I²S pinouts.
• You want Bluetooth reception but do not need Wi-Fi streaming.
• You prefer a compact component available in Black or Silver.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can the CT90 connect directly to an amplifier’s analog input?

No. It has no built-in DAC or analog output. You must connect it to an external DAC or an amplifier with a compatible digital input.

Does it have a headphone output?

No. Headphone listening requires a separate DAC and headphone amplifier or a combined DAC/headphone amplifier.

What discs can it play?

It supports standard CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and MQA-CD discs. It does not play SACDs, DVDs, or Blu-ray discs.

Does it have an optical digital output?

No. Its digital outputs are I²S over HDMI, USB Audio, coaxial S/PDIF, and two AES/EBU connections.

Will I²S work with every DAC?

Not automatically. The CT90 provides ten selectable I²S pinout modes, but you should confirm that one matches your DAC.

Can it play music from a USB drive?

Yes. It supports USB drives up to 2TB and a wide range of PCM and DSD file formats.

Does it stream music over Wi-Fi?

No. The CT90 has Bluetooth reception but does not include Wi-Fi, AirPlay, or network streaming.

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