AOSHIDA SMSL C200 Review (DAC & Amp)

[amirm]

@amirm the 4.4mm Pentaconn is just for convenience ? (so not balanced)

Shoot. I thought it was 3.5 mm so didn't measure it. Will do that and report back.

 

[amirm]

What is Aoshida? Another brand?

As noted, they are normally a seller of audio products. In this case however, this model is made exclusively for them and hence the reason I put their name in the review header.

 

[tktran303]

I think its wonderful that this dacs seems to be so good , for such a low price. I havent bought one though, because they still have lossy blutooth inputs which is something I dont understand - I would want a good implementation of AirPlay instead.

If such a unit below 150 dollar came out on the market with electrical digital outputs I would buy one. But the digital preamp quality have to be better than a Yamaha wxc50 .
It would be a very neat digital solution with Apple lossless , together with 83xx monitors from Genelec.

Dude just get yourself a second hand Apple TV, form the 2nd generation they support AirPlay and they had optical output, for the past decade they then have HDMI so just get a HDMI> SPDIF extractor/converter and hook it to your existing system.

If you don’t want to be tied to AirPlay, another option is this- what I got:

FiiO BTA 30 Pro

BT in/out- so I can listen to movies at night with headphones, or my spouse can play music via AAC from her phone through my gigantic beer-fridge sized sound system.

 

[Tangband]

Dude just get yourself an Apple TV and HDMI-> SPDIF converter and hook it to your existing system.

This is what I got:

FiiO BTA 30 Pro

BT in/out- so I can listen to movies at night with headphones, or my spouse can play music via AAC from her phone through my gigantic beer-fridge sized sound system.

Thanks for your suggestion.

Apple TV does samplerate conversion for everything to 48 kHz , its unacceptable and make the sound worse from Apple lossless ( I have tried it ) . BT is also an inferior protocol thats really not hifi.

I want something that sounds better than my Yamaha wxc50 , that can do airplay with volumeregulation in digital domain and digital outputs . At first I thought the topping M50 would be a good choice, but apparently this streamer dont have a digital volume regulation.

My Yamaha wxc50 can do everything a need, with volume regulation for the electrical digital output, but the sound is not the very best one can get, apparently the sample rate conversion to 48 kHz for the preamp is not sota.

My reference gear is my Mac laptop and a good DDC that can do this in a good way, I want something similar in a smaller, neater case with good sound quality. Maybe there is no such a thing on the market?

 

[tktran303]

Thanks for your suggestion.

Apple TV does samplerate conversion for everything to 48 kHz , its unacceptable and make the sound worse from Apple lossless ( I have tried it ) . BT is also an inferior protocol thats really not hifi.

I want something that sounds better than my Yamaha wxc50 , that can do airplay with volumeregulation in digital domain and digital outputs . At first I thought the topping M50 would be a good choice, but apparently this streamer dont have a digital volume regulation.

My reference gear is my Mac laptop and a good DDC that can do this in a good way, I want something similar in a smaller, neater case with good sound quality. Maybe there is no such a thing on the market?

There is. It’s called WISA but it’s not widely adopted yet.

Be congnizant that you maybe having lossy compression anxiety; I can tell you now that Spotify Free on KEF Blade 1 Meta sounds much better than Apple Lossless or FLAC or WAV on KEF LSX…

 

[fordiebianco]

Another affordable, excellent unit. Many thanks for the test, @amirm. Off to bed with you!

 

[Palladium]

For that price I would blindly buy it and immediately rule out other Topping options I've in mind, plus it would be a big step forward bringing the best performance to even more people, but I think it's unrealistic to expect that yet (unless SMSL wanted to break the market).

For $229 this is a Topping killer, let alone $129.

 

[the_brunx]

Would be great if you would take a photo with the top off, so we can make sense of the real version you measured incase the internals are silently changed in future and the measurements can’t be replicated. lately I have seen this happen often with many companies.

 

[amirm]

Would be great if you would take a photo with the top off, so we can make sense of the real version you measured incase the internals are silently changed in future and the measurements can’t be replicated. lately I have seen this happen often with many companies.

I need explicit permission to do this kind of thing.

 

[iamsms]

How is the channel balance? Or is it digital hence, no need to test?

 

[Merkurio]

You have the full unboxing and explanation of the features with this mexican publituber (you can enable subs):

 

[JSmith]

you can enable subs

One need to use auto-translate... that went well;

JSmith

 

[Merkurio]

One need to use auto-translate... that went well;

View attachment 227142


JSmith

As a spanish native speaker, I can't praise him in spanish neither.

 

[natna]

Very tempting new device!

@amirm didn't you measure SINAD for optical and coaxial?
Pitty.

Anyway, since this is an exclusive model for a Far East store, it's gonna be too pricey to get it directly to EU. So I don't think the known French vendor is going to stock it. And Customs are furious nowadays...
And if a malfunction occurs, assuming they have a good after sales and guarantee, all this shipment back n' forth, it's not going to go well, Customswise and timewise.

 

[Music1969]

@amirm the 4.4mm Pentaconn is just for convenience ? (so not balanced)

Good question. Hard to tell from below but they don't differentiate between 6.3mm and 4.4mm

 

[thin bLue]

multi tone 22 bit? wow!

 

[amirm]

How is the channel balance? Or is it digital hence, no need to test?

Correct.

 

[Music1969]

Looks like they've gotten THX 888 amp performance (like in my SMSL SP400) but without THX fee required

This is something significant

And bad news for THX

 

[holbob]

Looks like they've gotten THX 888 amp performance (like in my SMSL SP400) but without THX fee required

This is something significant

And bad news for THX

The amp you speak of is currently HALF PRICE at monoprice UK. Probably the same offer worldwide. £184. What a bargain!

Monolith THX AAA Balanced Headphone Amplifier | THX AAA 887 Technology

The THX® Achromatic Audio Amplifier (THX AAA™) ensures the ultimate no compromise headphone audio experience by delivering the world's highest fidelity audio with infinitesimally low levels of noise and distortion. Use three different gain settings for optimal listening with sensitive IEMs and...

www.monoprice.uk

 

[Music1969]

The amp you speak of is currently HALF PRICE at monoprice UK. Probably the same offer worldwide. £184. What a bargain!

Monolith THX AAA Balanced Headphone Amplifier | THX AAA 887 Technology

The THX® Achromatic Audio Amplifier (THX AAA™) ensures the ultimate no compromise headphone audio experience by delivering the world's highest fidelity audio with infinitesimally low levels of noise and distortion. Use three different gain settings for optimal listening with sensitive IEMs and...

www.monoprice.uk

That's not the amp I mentioned. Anyway, this C200 achieves THX 888 performance

SMSL SP400 based on THX-AAA-888 (not 887)

SMSL SP400 Review (headphone amp)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL SP400 balanced THX headphone amplifier. It was kindly sent to me by one of their dealers, shenzhenaudio. It costs US $630 from them. The SP400 makes an attempt at luxury with glossy plexiglass top and digital display: As you see, there...

www.audiosciencereview.com