SMSL M500 MKII Review (DAC & HP Amp)

[staticV3]

I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty racist to me. Not sure why anyone should be ashamed for calling that out.

 

[EJ3]

I think it was more the part where Nango said that Chinese need a special certificate and need to be educated by ASR.
That and a history of similar posts.

East Coast Sound, West Coast Sound, American Hi-Fi, German Hi-Fi, British Hi-Fi, etc are descriptors (and there are many more to indicate origin). That has nothing to do with race. Neither is "Chinese need a special certificate and need to be educated by ASR". (although I would say that it is certainly not polite). But if you are using a language that is not your own to sell a products, getting the language used for the target audience correct should be a priority. In business, English is a primary language. When the grammar is not correct, or has miss-spellings, it will be noticed not only by native English speakers but by many worldwide who use English in their normal business relations.

 

[GeekyBastard]

Serifs and sans-serifs on one and the same panel looks more than just strange. They simply don't get the clue. Wondering why they did not also include semi-serifs with only upper or down serifs on the same panel.

@amirm: No more testing of Chinese Hifi without a certificate saying they paid a designer or whatever the right name for such a job description is. ASR needs to teach them in that respect.

Really had enough of your biased attitude towards China and Chinese related topics, judging by your posting history, I think it's already pretty clear that you're somewhat racist towards Chinese people and products.

 

[t$$]

Wow, -140 dB or better for all harmonics. I don't remember having seen as low harmonics here. Is there any DAC in the sampe price range that has achieved this in Amir's testing?

Might make a nice generator for testing...

Topping EX5 has very similar harmonics and overall performance, it gives up 2-3 db XLR output, roughly equal unbalanced output, and slightly better headphone amp than this model for $100 less -- $315 (after 10% coupon) at Amazon. EX5 also has MQA which could be a pro or a con depending on your perspective.

EDIT: This SMSL 500 MKII also has MQA.

 

[LApstrE]

it could be interesting to know if this mk2 has the DPLL function

+1 @amirm Could you please confirm that an option exists in the menus to set a custom DPLL width like the earlier version (SW 1.7) of this product? Thank you.

There is only one set of input of a kind. And sometimes I need 2 of them.

The previous version of MK500 actually had 2 optical inputs, they removed it and used the space in the MKII to place a Bluetooth antenna. Shame though.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Yes, if you have purchased highly recommended DACs from me in the last couple of years, there is no reason to upgrade to this unit. These reviews are aimed at people making new purchases giving them the data to find the best performing ones within their budget. It is not a call to upgrade. This is why I don't upgrade my own everyday system either.

My Dac 8 Pro only delivers a paltry 118db SINAD over 8 channels and drives both my Purifi Eigentact and THX AAA 789. So I'm running mostly obsolete electronics now.

 

[redjr]

Many users would get eargasm when the display shows the three magic letters "DSD" in a large font size. That's why.

No, just technical bona fides gasms.

 

[respice finem]

OK you’re getting called out on this one…

Lumping products (“HiFi”) manufactured in a specific country of origin (“Chinese”) together by designating them “Chinese Hifi” is not racism. Not. At. All.

If I described Benchmark, Vandersteen, Klipsch, etc. together by the short hand “American Hifi”… would that be considered “racism”.

Accusing someone of being racist based off of such an innocuous comment such as this is incendiary, irresponsible, and reprehensible. You should be ashamed.

No politics no cry, in a hi-fi forum, is IMHO the way to go, unless it's humoristic etc.
Many good forums already went down the drain because of all kinds of political extremism / bullying.
My own "policy" (and suggestion) = maybe 1-2 "warning" posts, then simply ignore such posters, because life's too short to bother with such attitudes. Last but not least: Those who fight with the sword...

 

[capslock]

Topping EX5 has very similar harmonics and overall performance, it gives up 2-3 db XLR output, roughly equal unbalanced output, and slightly better headphone amp than this model for $100 less -- $315 (after 10% coupon) at Amazon. EX5 also has MQA which could be a pro or a con depending on your perspective.

EDIT: This SMSL 500 MKII also has MQA.

The EX5 has about 10 dB worse harmonics. The M400, though, comes close and is a tad cheaper than the M500 mkii.

Aside from undeserved licensing fees, why should I worry about MQA. Is it not possible to switch it off?

 

[staticV3]

The EX5 has about 10 dB worse harmonics. The M400, though, comes close and is a tad cheaper than the M500 mkii.

Aside from undeserved licensing fees, why should I worry about MQA. Is it not possible to switch it off?

MQA necessitates a special reconstruction filter. Objectively it is not a good filter. There have been DAC/Amps where that filter was the default not only for MQA content, but also for PCM.

 

[Georgrig]

No politics no cry, in a hi-fi forum, is IMHO the way to go, unless it's humoristic etc.
Many good forums already went down the drain because of all kinds of political extremism / bullying.
My own "policy" (and suggestion) = maybe 1-2 "warning" posts, then simply ignore such posters, because life's too short to bother with such attitudes. Last but not least: Those who fight with the sword...

Look, they multiply..

 

[Sengin]

I've been looking to combine my M300 and SP200 into a single unit -this is so close to what I'm looking for! The performance looks amazing but I need those SP200 front-panel switches - they are so satisfying to use. One for on/off, one for gain, and one for output selection would be the dream.

 

[t$$]

The EX5 has about 10 dB worse harmonics. The M400, though, comes close and is a tad cheaper than the M500 mkii.

I must not be reading the charts correctly, because I see the EX5 having "nearly 22 bits" of resolution in multitone with the MKII having "20 to 22.5" bits of resolution. This should translate into 6 or less db difference and the charts eyeball closer than that to me. What am I missing?

EDIT: Maybe it's that if you go full volume on the M500 you should get bit better performance since the chart was prepared at vol=96 on the SMSL and vol=100 on the Topping?

 

[The Capstan]

Thanks Amir.
as always interesting review.
I own the original M500 since more than two years right now used as balanced DAC info my main sistem. Occasionally I use to listen to my Sundara and I think does a good job also as HP amp.
I would have appreciated a more punctual reference to original M500 so to highlight the actual improvements.
Sinad has passed from a respectable 117dB to 121dB. In itself 4dB is huge at these levels but we are in the space of inaudible difference of normal ears.
The improvemen I appreciate most is in the HP amplifier, where I see the engineers of SMSL have worked effect to improve the performances and power, especially with high impedance headphones.
As for the comment about volume level not properly displayed, I totally agree. I wrote a specific comment to supper for complaining for this and the result shows that SMSL is a company that does not listen to customers’ feedback.

Bottom line: should I consider switching to MK2? Certainly not, the jump in spec does not justify IMHO the improvement. And - guess what - what stops me most is the super ugly background shown in the display plus the font they have choosen. Sorry guys, I am Italian and… style matters more than SINAD!

Have a nice new year’s eve!

 

[The Capstan]

Thanks Amir.
as always interesting review. Hope this is not a golden sample, being provided by the company itself.
I own the original M500 since more than two years right now used as balanced DAC into my main sistem. Occasionally I use to listen to my Sundara and I think does a good job also as HP amp.
In the light of this, I would have appreciated a more punctual reference to original M500 so to highlight the actual improvements.
Sinad has passed from a respectable 117dB to 121dB. In itself 4dB is huge at these levels but we are in the space of inaudible difference for normal ears.
The improvement I appreciate most is in the HP amplifier section, where I see the engineers of SMSL have worked effectively to improve the performances and power, especially with high impedance headphones.
As for the comment about volume level not properly displayed, I totally agree. I wrote a specific comment to SMSL support for complaining for this and the result shows that SMSL is a company that does not listen to customers’ feedback.

Bottom line: should I consider switching to MK2? Certainly not, the jump in spec does not justify IMHO the improvement. And - guess what - what stops me most is, again in my opinion, the super ugly background shown in the display plus the font they have choosen. Sorry guys, I am Italian and… style matters more than SINAD!

Have a nice new year’s eve!

 

[Chromatischism]

Very nice unit, but it's going to have tough competition in the Topping EX5 which is cheaper and fits better into a shelf:

 

[PoorishDecision]

Cool they're some nice measurements. i own a su-8 v2 will there be any audible difference between it and one of these newer dacs? I think it sounds pretty good personally but I'm curious about upgrading.

 

[xaviescacs]

A few minutes and some generous use of the ol' noodle and we have some idea what a better UI would be for any of these products.

Yes and no. It may seem easy when someone else does the job, but doing it it's not that easy. I'm not a professional designer and my "draws" contain many inaccuracies and mistakes, etc. However, I've worked with real designers in many user interface projects as product manager and project manager, so I'm educated enough in the field to evaluate if a design is more solid, robust or more general so to speak. In summary, I'm not a designer but I know more or less how it works, meaning that I'm ready to justify/defend my designs .

 

[ShiZo]

If you still can easily check can you do crosstalk?

 

[The Capstan]

Yes and no. It may seem easy when someone else does the job, but doing it it's not that easy. I'm not a professional designer and my "draws" contain many inaccuracies and mistakes, etc. However, I've worked with real designers in many user interface projects as product manager and project manager, so I'm educated enough in the field to evaluate if a design is more solid, robust or more general so to speak. In summary, I'm not a designer but I know more or less how it works, meaning that I'm ready to justify/defend my designs .

well… I have worked on some coding projects of my own and I have put a great deal of effort in UI and navigation ease. So including an option for better volume level display, even with some graphics to help for looking at long distance (e.g. a circle element a la “Volumio style”) should be something achievable IMHO.
Fact is, they are more focused more on pure performances than user experiencel, as BT antenna positioning clearly shows…
Also the decision to keep the tiny and no so comfortable knob is debatable…