SMSL DA9 - Wait and see, or solid buy?

[ShinMolina]

the problem is not intermittent, the speakers are not out of phase. but the sound is not balanced, and the voices are conspicuously recessed into the soundstage even without a subwoofer

But, did you get to solve it one time? I thought you said so some post above. If not, I apologize for the misunderstanding.

 

[mario_rouge]

no I was wrong, as I said I am not an expert, when I reversed the polarity I did not unplug the subwoofer so I did not realize that the bass of the my elac were completely zeroed. maybe my amplifier has a problem. sorry for my incompetence ...

 

[UnderPar]

Pulled the trigger on this amp. Purchsed it yesterday from Shenzhenaudio. Twas their last day with 10% discount on almost all items. Now the waiting starts. So eager to test it

 

[ShinMolina]

no I was wrong, as I said I am not an expert, when I reversed the polarity I did not unplug the subwoofer so I did not realize that the bass of the my elac were completely zeroed. maybe my amplifier has a problem. sorry for my incompetence ...

Do not worry, we are here to help. It seems like there is a problem with your unit most probably. It should be plug and play, but in your case it isn't.

If you have another amplifier available you could A/B them to be sure. There should be slight differences if both devices are competent, if there are great ones as you have stated there is a problem with one of them.

 

[mario_rouge]

Do not worry, we are here to help. It seems like there is a problem with your unit most probably. It should be plug and play, but in your case it isn't.

If you have another amplifier available you could A/B them to be sure. There should be slight differences if both devices are competent, if there are great ones as you have stated there is a problem with one of them.

Maybay i have to work with the peq

 

[AudioArchitech]

Has anyone tried the new Aiyima A08 and Aiyima T6 Pro (w/ GE or other tubes) combo ? Thinking on going this route.

 

[MarkWinston]

Maybay i have to work with the peq

From my experience and my experience alone, change a new unit with the seller. The weirdest things can happen caused by the shit qc. If you get a good unit, it will sound alright. If you get a bad unit, like my case, it will sound off no matter what you do unless you know what to fix inside which I HIGHLY do not recommend especially if its a new unit. You do not spend 250 bucks and play technician just after a few days of purchase.

Not having enough bass and recessed mids sound pretty similiar to what I experienced with my faulty unit, hence why I reported it sounding thin. Of course its worthwhile checking every part of your system to see what could be causing this problem but for my case I know I couldnt have messed up anywhere and the amp is the only thing to blame.

Check polarity, flip wires on one speaker then both speakers. Try other speakers. If problem persists, change it. No peq is going to solve this.

 

[SOUNDSONIC]

Has anyone tried the new Aiyima A08 and Aiyima T6 Pro (w/ GE or other tubes) combo ? Thinking on going this route.

The AO8 is an upgrade of the AO7. Same TPA3255 chip. You may search here in ASR the review of the latter by Amirm.

Please do not respond as this thread is for the DA9 or anything related to it. Thanks.

 

[jokan]

More on the SMSL A0200 in comparison to the DA-9. After the new thermal paste semi-cured, it will never dry hard, I measured the DC offset and it is ridiculously low. 0.4mV low.
I used two multimeters to confirm the results and it matches closely with the measurements from my old DA-9. The DA-9 was not as low, but very close.

That being said, I sold my DA-9 today, Amazon sells it new for 27,999 yen. I was able to have the same shop that just bought my old DA-8s pay me 10,000 yen. So more than 1/3 the price. I'm glad that somebody else will have the chance to own both of my previous amplifiers. They served me well and I'm sure they will do the same for the new owners. I also brought with me about 2 dozen old shirts and they paid me a very, very small amount for the shirts which I don't mind at all since they are used and old, just didn't look old or worn out. Somebody now has a whole wardrobe of Burberry and Penguin, Volcom dress shirts and a few Hugo Black label shirts.

I consider the DA-9 and the A0200 to be almost the same but I will only post on the A0200 thread from now on since I don't own a DA-9. I'm no longer part of the club.

Infineon/Merus made an excellent chipset. I'm hoping that we'll get the same sized case with double the parts and double the power in the future. That would really be cool. Sell it for $500 and I think that it take off. They'd need to make a new chip though. It's at its limits with the DA-9/A0200.

Have fun guys, and happy listening. Find me over at the A0200 thread!

 

[SOUNDSONIC]

Maybay i have to work with the peq

@MarkWinston is right. If you still have the chance to return the unit then do so.

 

[jokan]

I just found out and confirmed from multiple sources that the SMSL A0200 does NOT in fact have AptX. It does have better sound, it does have longer transmission distance.

I have no idea where I got the wrong information.

I still think the DA-9 is a top contender and am therefore a fan of the amplifier.
The A0200 has one major fault, when you select bluetooth in the input menu, it is spelled correctly, once the screen goes back to the default screen it reads bluetoot!
A minor but somehow major mistake. I don't use it as I've said so I don't mind, but if they could rush a repair and send me a fixed unit, I'd take it anyday. Otherwise I am happy with what I have.
And as I've said, the DA-9 is a more than adequate amplifier, it punches way above its class and if you factor cost? There isn't much that can come close.

 

[ShinMolina]

I just found out and confirmed from multiple sources that the SMSL A0200 does NOT in fact have AptX. It does have better sound, it does have longer transmission distance.

I have no idea where I got the wrong information.

I still think the DA-9 is a top contender and am therefore a fan of the amplifier.
The A0200 has one major fault, when you select bluetooth in the input menu, it is spelled correctly, once the screen goes back to the default screen it reads bluetoot!
A minor but somehow major mistake. I don't use it as I've said so I don't mind, but if they could rush a repair and send me a fixed unit, I'd take it anyday. Otherwise I am happy with what I have.
And as I've said, the DA-9 is a more than adequate amplifier, it punches way above its class and if you factor cost? There isn't much that can come close.

I also thought I saw APTX support for the AO200, but I also don't remember where I saw it. The bluetooth part of the AO200 is completely different from the DA-9 when looking at the pictures you've taken from both units.

For what I've heard, the spelling issue was swiftly fixed, many people noted it and SMSL admitted the mistake and solved it for the newer units. I haven't heard anything about a firmware update that could fix the issue for the first units. I will be interesting to ask SMSL if it could be possible via the USB port of the AO200 as many of us have speculated.

 

[UnderPar]

Is there a way where we could know that the amp was from the third batch?

 

[eldegal]

hi, i'm planning to upgrade my bookshelf speaker amp from a generic breezeaudio tpa3116d2 to DA9. Does it a worth product to buy ?

 

[jokan]

I also thought I saw APTX support for the AO200, but I also don't remember where I saw it. The bluetooth part of the AO200 is completely different from the DA-9 when looking at the pictures you've taken from both units.

For what I've heard, the spelling issue was swiftly fixed, many people noted it and SMSL admitted the mistake and solved it for the newer units. I haven't heard anything about a firmware update that could fix the issue for the first units. I will be interesting to ask SMSL if it could be possible via the USB port of the AO200 as many of us have speculated.

aoshida's product page, no mention of AptX:
https://aoshida-audio.com/products/smsl-ao200

Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/AO200-Amplif...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

clearly states "Don't support".

I think that the confusion may have arisen from products like the new model SU-8. I know that it DOES in fact have Apt-X HD.

Feel free to contact Aoshida about the possibility of firmware updates via USB. I can almost certainly assure you that it cannot. It would require a separate type of USB logic board to do so. It's not listed under Aoshida's Driver download page, that's for sure. Considering I literally ordered mine 25th, August, I am not sure that they ever did update their firmware. Toku also asked me if he I know if they ever did update the screen to read correctly when the screen is showing either balanced, unbalanced, Bluetoot, or DAC.

I've been offered by Aoshida Japan to return ship it to China at their cost, and have them "rush" out a repaired unit. And offered me a 5% discount or refund. To me, it's a function that is a bonus and not a necessity. Besides, i have the screen set to turn off in 5 seconds! I literally won't be paying attention to the misspelling. I get the firm understanding and belief that Aoshida Japan at the very least is very much customer friendly. I've had now 4 email correspondence with them initiated by them when they checked that all went fine with my order. "Did you get your amplifier undamaged and on time?" Was the first message they sent me. I will needless to say be buying from Aoshida again if they offer a product that I want. It helps that the person is most certainly a Japanese human, and not a bot. His language skills are that of a native Japanese speaker and you can always tell when it's a bot. The characters that Japanese use though similar to Mandarin/Chinese are not the same. So it's easy to spot when the "human" on the other end is a bot. Especially if they say "Fever amplifier"! lol.

Off topic from the DA-9, but probably useful for DA-9 owners to know. Mine has settled to 0.4mv and 0.5mV DC offset. 2 different measurement tools, both using 4mm banana plugs for sockets so full and proper contact is maintained. It actually goes 0.xxx i accuracy on one device and 0.xx on my other multimeter. I just rounded up. The sound of the A0200 is in my personal opinion slightly better than the DA-9 probably attributable to the location of the PSU internally. Having it away from the LED display driver which on my unit was making a faint high pitched, constant pitched noise regardless of screen brightness, move back 2-3 feet and it's was completely inaudible. I suspect the incredibly small difference in sound that I can hear and notice is a result of a slightly lower noise floor. Again, it's all speculation until some 2nd or 3rd party takes measurements but I've been around long enough and have a very well trained ear for such things. The overall sound is the same. Exactly the same as you would assume from the parts being the same. The only explanation is the difference in component layout, a more centrally mounted componentry, looks very close to mirrorimaged but is not dual-mono as it uses the same, singular psu. At this insanely low price point. I think it's difficult to dislike either amplifier.

Enjoy your electronics and speakers. Ensure that you are getting the most out of every item in your audio chain. And always keep things as simple as possible before adding more components into the mix. It's far too easy to confuse yourself when you add more and more equipment and hear a difference, it might not be a better difference until you start redoing things just to confirm what you've been listening to.

 

[ShinMolina]

hi, i'm planning to upgrade my bookshelf speaker amp from a generic breezeaudio tpa3116d2 to DA9. Does it a worth product to buy ?

I think it is a worthy upgrade. In my case, I upgraded from a BRZHIFI TPA3255A to the DA-9. Maybe the sound is a little richer, I haven't noticed any major sound improvements, the difference may be greater when coming from the TPA3116.

What I can say is that the remote, the input selection system and the power headroom of this amplifier are great. Since I haven't had any of the issues covered of this thread, I highly recommend it.

 

[Poultrygeist]

I'm wondering if the DA-9 will be reviewed on ASR. I've enjoyed mine but after swapping back and forth with the Volt+D ( TPA3118 dual mono ) I'm thinking the SQ is better with the +D. The Volt+D did receive a very positive review here. An advantage of the DA-9 is the fact it will drive less efficient speakers but it costs twice as much as the Volt+D.

 

[eldegal]

tks guys . After digging more in this thread , i think i'll invest more to AO200. Seems like it has more quality of life improvements (exclude the sound quality) than DA9 .
But i wish smsl ditching out the display, i prefer the classic led indicator more than that

 

[jokan]

A forewarning to those of us who have the RME ADI-2 DAC fs.
The remote signals for SMSL and RME follow some of the same signals.
It's majorly annoying if using your remote. I suggest you cover the one you use least! My case, the RME eye is covered by tape when I need to use the remote!

@eldegal, I think both amplifiers have their strong points. I will not be drawn into which is better though I did sell my DA-9 with no regrets. Plus it is nearly the exact same size as my RME DAC. The aesthetics matches very closely to the RME with the A0200. That was the main reason why I changed over. The sound quality differences requires a combination of well trained ears, cabling and a whole host of other things and it's barely noticeable. I would go as far as say they sound 99.5% identical!

Whatever your choice, there is a A0200 page that I contribute to:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/s-m-s-l-da-9-vs-ao200.25130/

There is really no right or wrong when it comes to enjoyment other than poor matching of equipment. Say a 70's era speaker is not likely to sound quite right with a modern class-D amplifier for a multitude of reasons. One of them being damping factor. Class-D amps typically have several times the damping factor, the ability to control speaker cone movement, and also the ability for the amplifier to absorb the reverse current generated when the cone moves inward, rather than forward.

We all have plenty to learn. I may have nearly 30 years of professional experience in the Hi-Fi industry as well have many contacts in the industry that know me by name and face, but I have much to learn. Technology is moving faster than I am. It's a great hobby and it's super nice that some companies such as SMSL even with their shortcomings are offering products that we couldn't have dreamed of even 10 years ago.

The key thing is to enjoy and optimise what you already have. That is my single strongest advise to anybody who is relatively new to the hobby.
Anybody who says or claims that they have all the answers do not. Just look at doctors. They ask you why you came in today. They need feedback from the patient before they can give you advice. It maybe a poor analogy, but we are dealing with human hearing and we use electrical measurements to confirm things and do the opposite thing when things don't quite add up.

Enjoy and absorb as much as you can from sources that have not just good standing but tend not to embellish things. Or those who are clearly sponsored or paid to give positive reviews. They're usually easy to spot.

Have fun and buy more music!

 

[mario_rouge]

the da9 has a built-in low pass filter. do you know what frequencies it cuts?