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Review and Measurements of SMSL M100 DAC

scooter

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At first the connection was USB direct to my PC. This brought on severe hiss/distortion
Does it happen every time you connect it directly to the PC USB port?

Has anybody else experienced the same?
 

Tidaliser

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Has anybody else experienced the same?

I ended up buying an M100 seeing as no one was answering my questions. I had a odd sound output when I first connected it to my Andriod phone, very badly distorted high volume audio. I messed with the UAPP settings and that seemed to solve it. I've only connected to Windows once (win 10) and it worked perfectly, that was without any of the M100 drivers installed.

If anyone was wondering about the M100, it does auto power on and also it remembers the last input used, so it can be put out of sight and it'll just work when it's powered up.

I almost sent my M100 back to Amazon because it had a really low output volume, again if anyone is interested how I solved this - in UAPP there's a setting called "Hardware volume", this was set low, increasing it solved the volume problem, now I'm 100% happy with the M100, sounds great to me !!!
 
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Deleted member 9685

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I purchased SMSL M100 from an aliexpress seller at about 70 USD which included shipping. When both channels of M100 are at 0dB, the right channel produces a lot of clipping while the left doesn't. It seems like channel imbalance. I confirmed that my amplifier and RCA cables don't have a problem.

Did I receive a defective unit?
 
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Deleted member 9685

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Sounds like it is broken. Swap the channels to make sure the problem moves with it to confirm it is the DAC.

I duplicated a mono track into a stereo track in an audio editor and played it over and over. Both channels got the same audio data.

If I swapped RCA cables on my amplifier and M100 DAC, the same issue would occur.
Thus, there is no problem with RCA cables.

If I swapped RCA cables on my amplifier only, the left speaker would emit crackles.
Therefore, there is no problem with my amplifier.
 
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Ruci

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I ended up buying an M100 seeing as no one was answering my questions. I had a odd sound output when I first connected it to my Andriod phone, very badly distorted high volume audio. I messed with the UAPP settings and that seemed to solve it. I've only connected to Windows once (win 10) and it worked perfectly, that was without any of the M100 drivers installed.

If anyone was wondering about the M100, it does auto power on and also it remembers the last input used, so it can be put out of sight and it'll just work when it's powered up.

I almost sent my M100 back to Amazon because it had a really low output volume, again if anyone is interested how I solved this - in UAPP there's a setting called "Hardware volume", this was set low, increasing it solved the volume problem, now I'm 100% happy with the M100, sounds great to me !!!

Hi Tidaliser,

You mentioned m100 has auto on, strange that it is not stated anywhere :/. Is that only for the selected channel or does it cycle through them all and check?
 

Rabidrat50

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Ah. I actually have those in for review too. :) Had not looked in the boxes yet....
I will be waiting eagerly for the SMSL SP100 reviews, I have a Sap II Pro and I’m looking for a DAC so either the M100 or the Topping D30. I couldn’t find the SMSL SP100 on Amazon U.K. otherwise I’m sure I’d have been tempted to purchase it instead of the Sap II pro. Though I have heard a lot of people say my Sennheiser HD660S headphones don't sound great with valve headphone amps. (I have no way to test them first unfortunately)
also many thanks for all the brilliant reviews
 

ferni19

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Hello, I have a NX4 Topping and I like this SMSL M100 is it better than topping? or is there no improvement buying it if I already have the topping? greetings and thanks!!!!!! @amirm
 
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Tidaliser

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Sorry Ruci I didn't see your post but I suspect I'm a little too late for a reply, for anyone else interested my M100 powered up on the same input as what it was powered down on but I only had USB connected so what would happen if you had other connections I'm not sure, I'd guess it'll just power up on the last used input - but that's a guess.

@ferni19 I have a topping D50 and M100, both have roughly the same specs in terms of 32 bit 768Khz, I prefer the sound from my topping, I've not A/B them - there probably isn't much in it in terms of an audible difference, I'd suspect if there was a difference the D50 would come out on top, nothing sounds bad on the D50. Not sure how the NX4 compares I'm sure @amirm will be able to say, topping gear is quality in general, I'd be surprised if the M100 gave you any noticeable sound quality improvements. Although the M100 is normally sold at a reasonable price and is more suited to desktop / PC use, so that might be worth something, as in, keep your NX4 for mobile use and M100 planted on your desktop.

As I've been advised on here and has been proved to be correct from my own experience the best sound quality improvements is likely to come from changing your headphones, unless you already have top notch cans. If you go headphone hunting be prepared to go a little insane, reading 100 reviews on the same headphone 50% say it's the best headphone in the universe and 50% will say it sounds like listening to music with your head rammed down a toilet :) I've read so many reviews and still ended up sending headphones back to Amazon from being dissatisfied with the sound quality - or lack of.
 

peanuts

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there is now an mk2 version.

"SMSL M100 MKII(New verison)
1. The front panel is the same as the M100, and a PSE logo is added to the rear panel
2. MKII is added to the carton
3. The internal PCB board is completely different
4. The MKII upgraded version adopts the second-generation XMOS solution XCore200XU208 + the SABRE9018Q2C design of American ESS Company
The features of ESS’s SABRE9018Q2C chip are as follows:
SABRE9018Q2C is the original model of ESS, which is highly recognized in the HiFi audio market, and many products are widely used. It is suitable for use in smart product projects such as Blu-ray players, preamplifiers, professional AV receivers, etc. Its main performance characteristics are as follows:
121dB dynamic range (DNR)
-115dB THD+N
(DNR of up to 121dB and THD+N of –115dB, a performance level that will satisfy the most demanding audio enthusiasts)
5. Performance and indicators are greatly improved, THD is as low as 0.0003%, compared to 0.0008% in the old version..."
 
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So, now that we have MK II versions of the M100, and M300 and Sanskrit 10, is there any audible reason to step up to the M300?? I'm in the market for a USB driven DAC with just RCA outs. Thanks in advance
 

scooter

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I'm using this DAC for a while now and when in WASAPI exclusive mode it resamples audio tracks to 32 bit. In its control panel there are two options to choose sampling rate but both of them are 32 bits:rolleyes:
Is there any chance that it is degrading quality?
 

Steamrolly

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@amirm any chance of a Review of the EES Sabre based M100 Mk2? Thank you.
Ditto, it doesn't appear that the M100 Mk2 is getting much attention, probably overshadowed by the Sanskrit 10th Mk2 but a review and comparison would be interesting none the less. I guess the challenge is that SMSL (or someone else) would need to send Amir the product...

This is what I have found but nothing technical SMSL M100 MKII Review | Headfonics Audio Reviews .
 
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Deleted member 58865

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It seems SMSL M100 is out of stock or discontinued. Is there any similarly priced USB DAC that performs as well as SMSL M100?
 

Jimster480

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It seems SMSL M100 is out of stock or discontinued. Is there any similarly priced USB DAC that performs as well as SMSL M100?
This is the problem with so many SMSL products; they just get discontinued so quickly..
 
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