AOSHIDA SMSL C200 Review (DAC & Amp)

[SiW]

I have them too and weirdly they are working better than edition xs with c200

I changed to a Fiio K7 as it had a proper balanced output. Power my Monoprice planars fine on low gain and mid position volume.

 

[twm2718]

I use my C200 connected to a S/PDIF output on a Debian 11 system. I heard a crack sound every time the audio stream was opened. In my case this could be corrected by disabling power saving in the snd_hda_intel module, as described here

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture/Troubleshooting - ArchWiki

wiki.archlinux.org

Now it works flawlessly.

 

[Misguided]

Hi. I’m thinking about buying one of these but one of my main uses will be for my Xbox Series X. I would be running a 3.5mm out from the controller to the C200. Anyone know how I would do this, is a 3.5mm to Coaxial going to cause any problems?

Thanks

 

[staticV3]

Hi. I’m thinking about buying one of these but one of my main uses will be for my Xbox Series X. I would be running a 3.5mm out from the controller to the C200. Anyone know how I would do this, is a 3.5mm to Coaxial going to cause any problems?

Thanks

You can't run 3.5mm into the C200, because 3.5mm is analog and the C200 has only digital inputs.
3.5mm to coax won't work either, because the C200's Coax port is for digital SPDIF signals and cannot do anything with the 3.5mm analog signal.

You have to connect the C200 to your Series X via USB.

 

[Misguided]

Unfortunately you can’t get sound out from the Series X USB so that’s that. I don’t want to use an optical splitter as that affects the free sync (refresh rate matching from my monitor).

Thanks anyway.

 

[staticV3]

Unfortunately you can’t get sound out from the Series X USB so that’s that.

The Series X can output audio via USB a long as the USB DAC has a UAC1 Compatibility mode.
The C200 has a UAC1 compatibility mode, so you should be able to plug it in via USB.

 

[Misguided]

The Series X can output audio via USB a long as the USB DAC has a UAC1 Compatibility mode.
The C200 has a UAC1 compatibility mode, so you should be able to plug it in via USB.
View attachment 278831

Thanks I’ll have a look into this, would need it to work alongside a mic plugged into the controller. I’m very surprised it works via USB as hardly anything does with the Xbox part from an Astro a40 mixamp. it’s an issue I’ve been trying to resolve for a while.

 

[Misguided]

I’ve been doing some googling and I don’t think it does. Microsoft say any USB Dac needs to be licensed by them also a couple of retailers state an audio splitter to optical out is needed to use it with the series x. I would be more than happy to be wrong though so if anyone has or can test it I would be very keen to hear otherwise.

 

[Veterano76]

Hello everyone, this is my first post on ASR.

I have a question for you: I have an old AV receiver (Onkyo TX-SR508) connected to two yamaha NS-F51 speakers.
I would like to add the ability to listen music in LDAC Bluetooth and improve the sound quality. Do you think this SMSL C200 could help me? I would also connect the C200 to the pc via usb and to use my headphones.
I look forward to your help. Thank you very much and I congratulate you for the rich forum.

I apologize for my bad English.

Thank you very much for all.

 

[Misguided]

Hello everyone, this is my first post on ASR.

I have a question for you: I have an old AV receiver (Onkyo TX-SR508) connected to two yamaha NS-F51 speakers.
I would like to add the ability to listen music in LDAC Bluetooth and improve the sound quality. Do you think this SMSL C200 could help me? I would also connect the C200 to the pc via usb and to use my headphones.
I look forward to your help. Thank you very much and I congratulate you for the rich forum.

I apologize for my bad English.

Thank you very much for all.

Hi. I’m no expert but I believe it would be fine for this.

 

[Veterano76]

Hi. I’m no expert but I believe it would be fine for this.

Thank you very much for your reply,

I think I will proceed with the purchase. On amazon I can have a 20% discount for a final price of 175 euros.

 

[fuzzy_logic]

I’ve been doing some googling and I don’t think it does. Microsoft say any USB Dac needs to be licensed by them also a couple of retailers state an audio splitter to optical out is needed to use it with the series x. I would be more than happy to be wrong though so if anyone has or can test it I would be very keen to hear otherwise.

An HDMI audio extractor with coax/optical output would be the best solution i think?

 

[SlamTaz]

Thank you very much for your reply,

I think I will proceed with the purchase. On amazon I can have a 20% discount for a final price of 175 euros.

hold on, you want to use the ldac bluetooth functionality of the c200? this is for digital inputs only, i.e. you your music source like cellphone/tablet will send digital music to the c200 via bluetooth (ldac) and you listen to music, either by connecting wired speakers or wired headphones.

based on how you plan to use it, it appears that your music source will be your pc and connect that to the c200 via usb digital input, which also works fine, but you can not use a bluetooth headphone to listen. you will have to use a wired headphone. in this scenario, the bluetooth functionality of the c200 can not used.

 

[staticV3]

@SlamTaz I read Vererano's post as him having two use cases:
1. Phone/Tablet -> LDAC -> C200 -> AVR -> Speakers
2. PC -> USB -> C200 -> Headphones

 

[SergeiF]

Have a nice day English is not my native language
I recently purchased this magical piece of equipment to complement my sennheiser hd560s headphones. I will connect and use according to this scheme PC -> USB -> C200 -> Headphones.

I am just taking my first steps in the world of sound, what settings should I choose for the C 200? Do I need to change something in Windows settings? Need setting xmos usb dac driver control panel, ASIO ?

My eyes are running in different directions from different functions, I will be grateful if you answer my questions

 

[Veterano76]

@SlamTaz I read Vererano's post as him having two use cases:
1. Phone/Tablet -> LDAC -> C200 -> AVR -> Speakers
2. PC -> USB -> C200 -> Headphones

That's exactly how I'm going to use the c200. The yamaha ns-f51 are connected to an AVR to which I connect the c200 to which I connect my smartphone in LDAC which is compatible with LDAC. And Then the other way would be to connect it to the PC through the USB port or I could connect the optical output of my sound card and go into the optical input of the C200 and use the 6.3mm headphone output for my wired headset.

The question is... in the case of using 1. Phone/Tablet -> LDAC -> C200 -> AVR -> Speakers, will my AVR improve the sound quality?

Another questione is... Can I use the C200's TRS output and plug into my AVR's RCA input? If yes, which cable should I use?

Thanks a lot for your contribution

 

[JediMa]

Have a nice day English is not my native language
I recently purchased this magical piece of equipment to complement my sennheiser hd560s headphones. I will connect and use according to this scheme PC -> USB -> C200 -> Headphones.

I am just taking my first steps in the world of sound, what settings should I choose for the C 200? Do I need to change something in Windows settings? Need setting xmos usb dac driver control panel, ASIO ?

My eyes are running in different directions from different functions, I will be grateful if you answer my questions

It should be fine like this, I would set windows volume to 98% and play with smsl volume for the need.

 

[Misguided]

An HDMI audio extractor with coax/optical output would be the best solution i think?

Thanks. I don't want to use an audio extractor as it messes up the frame rate matching on my monitor. Since posting I've bought the SMSL HO100 which was on sale at Amazon for £104. I'm going to use the analogue in on that and then later down the line add a balanced dac. I'll use my Topping NX4 DSD as a dac until then.

 

[dr.raul]

Talking about audio extractors, this is not referring to the C200 but maybe you could have an answer anyway.
I am using this adapter/extractor to take the audio via USB from my PC and then, through two Fiio D3 DACs, it goes via toslink to my class D amplifier or via coaxial to my tube amplifier.
Do you think this extractor could degrade the sound? I think that if it takes out a digital signal it should't alter it, but I'm not an expert. It says it has a DAC chip inside, but if the signal goes out only via digital outputs (toslink/coaxial) what a DAC chip would do here? Thanks
https://www.deshide.com/product-details.html?pid=377481&_t=1669770341

 

[Tano]

Hi guys. I recently got the SMSL C200 to replace my beloved RME ADI 2 DAC FS. I wasn't using it enough cause I use portables mostly and a Soundblaster XG6 on my gaming/media setup.

I wanted something cheap to use from time to time with a Final D8000 Pro LE and Edifier 1855db active speakers. Let me tell you that I think I've made the right decission. The RME is amazing and I might miss the PEQ and loudness settings which I really loved, but soundwise Id say that they are pretty much the same.
Both are transparent sounding devices and the AMP is more than enough to drive my headphones.

I have one question. I am going to use PEACE equalizer to EQ the Finals D8K LE. Since obviously I cannot use the direct mode (ASIO) to have the EQ, what are you recommendations for music listening. 24 bits and change the frequency to match the album? That's what I usually do with my XG6.

Thanks in advance.