Replacement for SMSL M500 for Topping A90

[Jaci]

Hello to all,

I got a used Topping A90 in very good condition at a very good price to replace my SMSL SP200, which I never got off the ground with the Hifiman Arya.

The problem is that I have now connected the A90 to an SMSL M500 DAC via XLR and the result is also sobering, although according to the relevant opinions in the discussion forums this should not be the case. It's mainly about the volume, which only gets really loud in the last third of the volume control on the high gain setting of the A90.

Same problem, but now worse than with the SP200.

I have now read that it may be due to incorrect impedance matching of DAC and amplifier - would that be correct?

If so, which DAC replecement could be used to avoid this problem? Do you have any tips?
As I still want to use balanced with XLR, I've been looking at the new SMSL DO100 PRO and D200 PRO - especially as these are supposed to output 5V, which should also be an advantage for the A90.

The budget would be in the max. 400€ range - do you have any suggestions? Many thanks in advance for your help.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Hello to all,

I got a used Topping A90 in very good condition at a very good price to replace my SMSL SP200, which I never got off the ground with the Hifiman Arya.

The problem is that I have now connected the A90 to an SMSL M500 DAC via XLR and the result is also sobering, although according to the relevant opinions in the discussion forums this should not be the case. It's mainly about the volume, which only gets really loud in the last third of the volume control on the high gain setting of the A90.

Same problem, but now worse than with the SP200.

I have now read that it may be due to incorrect impedance matching of DAC and amplifier - would that be correct?

If so, which DAC replecement could be used to avoid this problem? Do you have any tips?
As I still want to use balanced with XLR, I've been looking at the new SMSL DO100 PRO and D200 PRO - especially as these are supposed to output 5V, which should also be an advantage for the A90.

The budget would be in the max. 400€ range - do you have any suggestions? Many thanks in advance for your help.

Welcome to ASR.

Surprisingly, the volume control position is not important! This question occurs frequently on ASR. Here's a post I made a while ago explaining this.

Denon x3600 w/ Aragon 4004 amp

The addition of the air gun 4004 really pumped up the infinity kappa 8's.. But, I am having to go to 75+ on volume to achieve the big sound, surprisingly... CCould it be the impedance setting on Denon AVR? I've read where you always leave it at 8 ohms impedance no matter what.. Thoughts ...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[Dunring]

Is it an original M500 because the first revision has I think 6.8 volts output as a DAC and was fixed to lower it later. On the screen you can bring up the hardware and firmware version. If it's that, then just a matter of dialing back the volume to avoid clipping.

 

[Jaci]

Thank you for the welcome and your reply .

Yes, I am indeed aware of what you are talking about.

I may have worded that a bit unfortunate, but what I mean is that the volume output of the a90 is not enough and is still bearable even at the maximum position without my ears starting to bleed - the position of the potentiometer with my desired volume starts at 70% (and as you say it is logarythmic, so it doesn't change anymore after that noticeably).

I miss the often mentioned "headroom" to have reserves in the volume, depending on which song comes on.
I did not have this problem with my previous amplifiers (Tube Based) or headphones (Ananda, DT1990 Pro) and I could not turn the amplifier up to max (and that with the low gain settings).

 

[Jaci]

Is it an original M500 because the first revision has I think 6.8 volts output as a DAC and was fixed to lower it later. On the screen you can bring up the hardware and firmware version. If it's that, then just a matter of dialing back the volume to avoid clipping.

Many thanks to you too
Yes, as far as I remember that was the first version of the M500 (without MK suffix).
I'll check right away which revision is specified. But it would be possible to check the output voltage with an oscilloscope, right?

 

[Dunring]

Here's the original version review and the thread shows which HW and SW versions show on the display to tell which version you have:

SMSL M500 DAC and HP Amp Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL M500 Balanced DAC and integrated headphone amplifier. It was kindly sent to me by the company although a number of members had offered the same. The M500 costs US $399 on Amazon including free shipping. The M500 takes on the form of...

www.audiosciencereview.com

You can see it has 6.8 volts output as a DAC if it's the first revision, enough to clip most amplifiers in high gain mode easily. Go to the about screen off the menu, I forget if it displays it when starting up too. Just try dialing back the volume to 75 percent as a quick way to listen for clipping, that should tell you.

 

[Jaci]

I have checked the Revision and it says HW:1.3, SW1.7. As I understand, this would be the latest version of this unit.

I also have tried the volume @75, but it is far away from clipping.