SMSL DO100 Review (Stereo DAC)

[Wolven]

Sigh. I'm about to give up. The original DAC vastly outperforms 16 bit audio.
And the main reason you'll likely not notice the difference is because your speakers and headphones have a much poorer SINAD number than the DAC.

In any case, this reviewed DAC is cheap, so if you sell the DX3 pro and update to this it likely will not do harm to you financially. Your choice.

Thanks for the advice, you are right on both counts.

 

[Ported]

Of course the numbers are 'incredibly good' because the entire top of the audible spectrum is chopped off, along with its harmonics.

Default filter 1 is circa -12dB down @ 20kHz according to your AP plots... Not sure when that became remotely HiFi. Like, not ever. Certainly not in the digital era, or the open reel era, or even the cassette era.

Filter 3 is clearly the one you should be using for tests.

The last D/A converter you reviewed had the best filter response you've ever measured (the Chord) and yet this thing is getting top marks with arguably one of the worst default filters I've ever seen. Go figure. Where is the consistency?


Hardly. The default filter response (you used for testing) is poor and you know it.

I sent a su-9 back for similar reasons.. I am 65 and can hear zilch above 12k . 2 of the filters on the su9 produced a noticeable fall in HF response to me?? It also rendered an intensity of detail in the high mids (2-4k) which did not seem balanced with the rest of the spectrum.
I settled on the adi-2 path which has a similar set of filters to the su9 but none of them show any difference to me (as I would expect).

Also an interesting thing you can try on the adi is turning off all the distortion reducing tricks on the ESS. This pushes it up to near 0.1% . I can't hear any difference here too!

Essentially these 2 dacs measure similar but impimentation to my ears is clearly different.. somehow not picked up in measurement tests (as yet?).

 

[capslock]

Now is there an affordable multichannel product (6 channels min) on the market with USB in and similar performance? Since ESS have 8 channel versions of most of their DACs, it should be in the realm of possible. 3-4 stereo DACs would do the job, too.

 

[wwenze]

I sent a su-9 back for similar reasons.. I am 65 and can hear zilch above 12k . 2 of the filters on the su9 produced a noticeable fall in HF response to me?? It also rendered an intensity of detail in the high mids (2-4k) which did not seem balanced with the rest of the spectrum.
I settled on the adi-2 path which has a similar set of filters to the su9 but none of them show any difference to me (as I would expect).

Also an interesting thing you can try on the adi is turning off all the distortion reducing tricks on the ESS. This pushes it up to near 0.1% . I can't hear any difference here too!

Essentially these 2 dacs measure similar but impimentation to my ears is clearly different.. somehow not picked up in measurement tests (as yet?).

It was a good day for science when a woman who could smell parkinson's proved it in front of scientists and lead to advancements towards the disease.

Her Incredible Sense Of Smell Is Helping Scientists Find New Ways To Diagnose Disease

Years before he got diagnosed with Parkinson's, Joy Milne noticed her husband's characteristic scent had changed. The discovery that she could smell his illness has opened up a new field of research.

www.npr.org

Majority of legends, however, choose to stay legendary instead of offering themselves to help advance science.

 

[PeteL]

Here is the filter for the M4 and the M2. This obviously doesn't make sense.

Disclaimer: my speculations, not necessarily correct.

@bennetng may have earned the title of "resident" ADC expert, I don't know, many of us have specialties and expertise, but in all case we don't reach "obvious" conclusions based on speculations. @amirm is the "resident" measurment expert. I would let him dig into this and comment if there is reasons to believe he measures filters erroneously. Claims like that deserve verifications, if for some reasons the windows resampler is involved in the final results then why some would perform this way and others not, then how would it work. @amirm does know how his analyser behave, I don't see how he could measure window and not the DAC but he is the one that should answer this if there are irregularities and incorrectness.

 

[respice finem]

314€? I see a price of 349€. I was in doubt and opted for the Dx3Pro+, smaller, cheaper and even a bit more powerful headphone amp.

Yes, today, but I bought it on 28. March. The DX3Pro+ was no option, because I wanted XLR outputs.

 

[PeteL]

Now is there an affordable multichannel product (6 channels min) on the market with USB in and similar performance? Since ESS have 8 channel versions of most of their DACs, it should be in the realm of possible. 3-4 stereo DACs would do the job, too.

I think for affordability you may have to go to music creation audio interface. 8 Channels DACS are rare but I think there is one or two reviewed in these page. Maybe not SOTA performance but a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 is 8 channels, sounds great and is 499$. Can't beat that.

 

[pickyAudiophile]

Does Aoshida Audio have extra toll costs to Sweden? Anyone ordered?

No. aoshida, linsoul, hifi-express, shenzhenaudio, among numerous others import to EU by third parties (which are essentially warehouses) first. - Mostly located in Netherlands, Germany or Belgium. From there they distribute the goods all over EU to end users. ...So you will receive it as EU originating shipment then - customs cleared, tax paid, VAT (moms) paid.

 

[Bleib]

No. aoshida, linsoul, hifi-express, shenzhenaudio, among numerous others import to EU by third parties (which are essentially warehouses) first. - Mostly located in Netherlands, Germany or Belgium. From there they distribute the goods all over EU to end users. ...So you will receive it as EU originating shipment then - customs cleared, tax paid, VAT (moms) paid.

Great, thanks. The DAC is ordered

 

[PyramidElectric]

No. aoshida, linsoul, hifi-express, shenzhenaudio, among numerous others import to EU by third parties (which are essentially warehouses) first. - Mostly located in Netherlands, Germany or Belgium. From there they distribute the goods all over EU to end users. ...So you will receive it as EU originating shipment then - customs cleared, tax paid, VAT (moms) paid.

Not my experience with Aoshida. They shipped mine straight from China to the UK via FedEx, and there were no extra charges. Re the coil whine whilst 'off' thing, I saw someone asking re if this was a 230v issue... UK is 230v and my unit has absolutely no coil whine.

 

[staticV3]

It would be pretty strange if SMSL made a product which has coil whine on 230V, but is fine on 120V, considering that China uses 230V.

 

[Balle Clorin]

Mostly right about what you're saying but to take it a litlle extreme I got a snap from the torture that's called 'Virta 1' by Pan Sonic (Katodivaihe is the name of the album).The spikes you see at the upper end is perceived by me as a sharp blow (I'm 50,it's a miracle I still sense it ).

View attachment 208281

When does that peak occur?

 

[poxymoron]

Appreciate the link. Does anyone else struggle to follow Z Reviews, well, reviews? Ishay okenspay ordway oftenyay oundssay ikelay alphabetyay oupsay ? Yet upon a second listen with Playback Speed @ half speed, well diggety-do, I "hoedoe hoedoo hoodoo" understand, sort of. "Hoe. It's a hoe, OK?" Huh?

I always watch hifi reviews on youtube at 2x speed - even @amirm . I get to watch more of them on my 1+ hour train commute. I enjoy Zeos but he's far easier to listen to at 2x speed.

 

[Veri]

It would be pretty strange if SMSL made a product which has coil whine on 230V, but is fine on 120V, considering that China uses 230V.

Maybe 220/230V transo is just more prone to coil whine in the first place.

 

[Svperstar]

Nice. I am still running my Topping D30. Kinda wanna pick this up just for fun.

 

[manisandher]

Here is the filter for the M4 and the M2. This obviously doesn't make sense.

If @amirm doesn't have time to check this, I have both the M2 and UltraLite-mk5 here and can measure their filters (outputting white noise into RME ADI-2).

 

[sarumbear]

I won't get a bluetooth device until it supports some sort of lossless audio.

Bluetooth cannot guarantee lossless audio.

 

[respice finem]

Bluetooth cannot guarantee lossless audio.

Not today, it is announced however: https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/qualcomm-s3-s4-snapdragon-sound-lossless-audio-bt-le/
That said, IDK why BT and not wi-fi, maybe because wi-fi is not proprietary?

 

[sarumbear]

Not today, it is announced however: https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/qualcomm-s3-s4-snapdragon-sound-lossless-audio-bt-le/
That said, IDK why BT and not wi-fi, maybe because wi-fi is not proprietary?

Lossless BT codec switches to lossy without you knowing depending on the signal strength. It means there’s no guarantee that you are listening lossless at any one time. It’s how the standard is defined.

 

[respice finem]

So it's like video streaming "up to" UHD and such. Not really tempting. Thanks for the warning, I'll keep my headphones wired then.