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I bought a ShengYa CD player  (S10, can be seen at www.nysound.com) for my second system (Creek amp with Mirage speakers).  I put it in my main system (Jeff Rowland amp driving VMPS RM40s, all silver cables from www.signalcable.com).  I used silver cables from Signal Cable as ICs.  I burnt two CDs of the same songs (Blues Traveler, Johnny Cash, Dire Straights, The Call, Chet Atkins, Keb Mo, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle).  I compared the ShengYa with my Pioneer Elite 38A DVD/CD player as transport and my Proceed AVP as DAC (and preamp).  I switched between the ShengYa and PE/AVP combo many, miny times.  I even listened to certain portions of the same song (such as a song with piano) over and over and over.  I burnt in the ShengYa (and my new VMPS speakers) by playing a special burn-in song from a Stereophile CD.  I burnt them in for at least 30 hours using the burn-in song and a bunch of other hours just listening priot to comparison.  I did put a better cord on the ShengYa -- I used a cord that came with my Bryston 9B, 5-channel amp (used for CC and surrounds in HT).

The verdict:  I can't tell the difference between the ShengYa and the PE/AVP combo.  Perhaps this is because they use similar DACs:  the AVP uses  Burr Brown 1702 20-bit Multibit DACs while the ShengYa uses  Burr-Brown Core Slice PCM1732, 24 Bit DACs.  Whatever the reason, I can't tell the difference in music between the two.  Sometimes I thought the PE/AVP was a tiny bit better than the ShengYa; other times I thought the ShengYa was a tiny bit better than the PE/AVP.  Because they are indistinquishable, I'm going to put the ShengYa in my second system (which is good, as I've been spending way too much money on my system!).  

Next up is an Ack Dack.  Because the ShengYa is so close to the PE/AVP combo, I might use it to compare a PE (as transport) and the Ack Dack with the ShengYa.  I'll report on this later.

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Oh yeah, the CDs also had Stevie Ray Vaughn.  Additionally, I made copies of Bonnie Raitt and Big Head Todd and The Monsters for comparison purposes.  I was intending on comparing the original with the copy.  However, the copy was much, much lower in volume than the original.  So, when I switched between the original and the copy, I had to adjust the volume too much.  Also, the original seemed to be better than the copy, even when the volume was the same.  That could just be my imagination, though.  

Anyway, I think the ShengYa is a great deal, when you consider that I paid $1,200 for the Pioneer Elite (2,000 MSRP) and about $2,500 (used; retail was $5,000 I think) for the AVP and $424 for the ShengYa.  And, since the ShengYa is relatively inexpensive, you could do stuff like change the capacitors and change the tube and end up with something pretty darn good.  I would do this, in fact (and may in the future), but right now I need a player for my second system and I've got to stop the bleeding caused my sound systems, so the ShengYa is going to be relegated to my second system for the time being.

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I stuck the ShengYa in my second system, which uses a Creek 4240 integrated amp, Linn biamp cables, Linn interconnects, and Mirage speakers.  I have the system in a corner of my upstairs (downstairs is where all the HT/stereo is).  The Creek/Mirage system is the system I used throughout college.  Perhaps because I haven't heard the system in while or because the ShengYa is that good, the system sounds fantastic for a small system.  It has pretty good bass (probably benefiting from the corner position) and sounds great overall.  Much better than I would've thought (it even makes me wonder if I've been spending money in the right place!).  If you're on a budget, a used Creek amp is a worthwhile purchase, as is the ShengYa.  

I forgot to mention a few negatives of the ShengYa:  the remote doesn't turn on or off the ShengYa (which isn't bad for my second system, as the Creek 4240 has no remote); the ShengYa can be slow sometimes when selecting a track of the CD; when playing in random mode, the SY will sometimes play the start of the next track on the CD before jumping to the next randomly selected song.  Even my Pioneer Elite does the latter sometimes, so that's not too bad.