• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Did I make the right choice with the SMSL C200?

antidive916

New Member
Joined
May 8, 2024
Messages
1
Likes
0
Having spent some time going through the reviews and test measurement for various DACs, I finally chose the SMSL C200. My requirements are balanced TRS line outs to drive my Kali LP6 2nd Wave and at least one headphone output (Sennheiser HD 560S) . The DAC is connected to my PC.

The C200 presents two audio devices that I can use, 'USB DAC ASIO' and 'SMSL USB DAC' device. The only issue I have is that the output is much louder when using with programs like Ableton, Rekordbox. Other apps and the OS (Windows 11) which do not support ASIO, have to use the 'SMSL USB DAC' device.

I have to turn down the gain on the ASIO apps to somehow ensure I do not need to mess with the volume knob every time I'm switching between apps.

Is there some other obvious solution that I'm missing?

Would some other device have a much more consistent output level on both the ASIO and non ASIO interfaces?
 
I have two of them, and output is the same on both driver or native. Check in the driver control panel and see if the volume level in there is reduced on the output tab. That would explain it. The balanced is going to be about 4db louder than RCA out. The other is when you switch between line out and headphone out, there's separate volume for each. There's a memory and it goes to the last volume set for each output when you switch.
 
I have two of them, and output is the same on both driver or native. Check in the driver control panel and see if the volume level in there is reduced on the output tab. That would explain it. The balanced is going to be about 4db louder than RCA out. The other is when you switch between line out and headphone out, there's separate volume for each. There's a memory and it goes to the last volume set for each output when you switch.
What kind of latencies are possible with the SMSL C200 drivers for Windows, via WASAPI and ASIO?

What's the minimum buffer size you can set, in ASIO for example @ 48k?

Do the ASIO drivers report the accurate outbound latency, including the converter latency? This one is more of an academic question, if there is no record or input ability into the device.

I wonder are there any of these Hifi DAC's which have digital inputs that can be routed to the USB?
 
Back
Top Bottom