S.M.S.L PO100 AK - Measurements / Round 2 (DAC)

[Wild 7]

Seems all PO100Pro and PO100AK has been disappeared in Amazon.

eBay only carries PO100Pro, no PO100AK

 

[Toku]

Seems all PO100Pro and PO100AK has been disappeared in Amazon.

eBay only carries PO100Pro, no PO100AK

I think the newly released B2 is probably the successor model to the PO100 AK. However, I am concerned that the DAC chip is CS43131.
There is no good information on any of the SMSL products that use the CS43131 chip.

SMSL B2 USB/Bluetooth Audio Receiver Converter CS43131 Bluetooth 5.1 USB DAC Optical/Coaxial/RCA

SMSL B2 USB/Bluetooth Audio Receiver Converter CS43131 Bluetooth 5.1 USB DAC Optical/Coaxial/RCA

aoshida-audio.com

 

[klirren_65]

Hello !
Where can I find drivers for windows 8 /32 ?
Annonced to be compatible from W7, I can't find nothing except drrivers for W10, actually 5.58
Thanks for any help

v5.12 is the last one supporting Win7-32bit

 

[RMMBR]

What makes me suspicious is just the fact that it is not a review of a product purchased directly from a store, but of a product sent from the company that could very well have its components modified. And the vast majority of people will not do tests or write a review that will prompt the company to send a product to replace the "defective" product (really?). And in the end, companies that value quality control, which certainly has a cost, end up being harmed.

 

[VintageFlanker]

What makes me suspicious is just the fact that it is not a review of a product purchased directly from a store, but of a product sent from the company

As many, many of products reviewed here. If you're not OK with that, you could also buy and dropship the products you wanna see measured to ASR testers. This hypothesis of cherry picking is decently covered in this review by way...

And the vast majority of people will not do tests or write a review that will prompt the company to send a product to replace the "defective" product (really?)

Really.

 

[alexanderino]

The AKM DACs compared to ESS are total rubbish!

I wouldn't have ever imagined that a so acclaimed brand, used in so many expensive and high-end products, could be so bad.
…
the ESS DACs are by far more advanced than AKM and there's no justifiable reason why is that for me.

I don't think it's the AKM DAC that's at fault, but MQA which mandates a slow roll-off filter. To quote @VintageFlanker and @SMSL-Mandy:

The PO100 AK uses Slow Roll-Off filter from its AK4493 chip, and it doesn't allow choosing another one... Which is very unfortunate when you have such an aggressive highs roll-off, running regular 44.1kHz sample rate.
…
Beware: Manufacturer's explanations for this could drive some of you mad...

The next item to note is that we are using one of the Slow Roll-Off filters in the AK4493S due to MQA certification.

This, combined with the fact that filters cannot be selected in the PO100 AK (as well as the SU-1, which I suspect exhibits the same issue at 44100 and 48000 fs), means that the way to override this and restore a flat frequency response is to resample to 88200 fs or higher.

 

[Crashtest33]

Can I quickly confirm that if you have a source with an Async USB output, and a good DAC with a USB input, this product is of no use?

 

[Dumdum]

Can I quickly confirm that if you have a source with an Async USB output, and a good DAC with a USB input, this product is of no use?

Correct, zero point in adding a digital conversion

 

[VintageFlanker]

Can I quickly confirm that if you have a source with an Async USB output, and a good DAC with a USB input, this product is of no use?

Confirmed.

 

[Saponetto]

Maybe in 2026 the PO100 AK is to be considered as a piece of junk, but I enjoyed a lot this little D2D-DAC device.

Recently I became aware of a problem related on its use as a DAC.
Every source bitrate change, e.g. changing tracks with different bitrates, generates a solid "thump" on the analog output, mainly detectable on the left channel.

Tried to supply it using a powered USB hub, tried to update its drivers and keep these in "always on" mode, of course tried also to downgrade these in order to highlight any possibile driver incompatibility with the OS (W11 Enterprise, 24H2) without success.

When used at fixed bitrate the device is working very well as it should do but I am curious and I'd like to understand if it is an actual malfunction or simply something that I was not aware in past.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Maybe in 2026 the PO100 AK is to be considered as a piece of junk

Hum ? Far from it.

 

[Saponetto]

Hum ? Far from it.

I know very well, being it still in service at my rig!
That's why I'm looking at how to get it back in shape.

*edit*

this little devices is the classic jack of all trades, ready to sound up everything, or good to patch on the back of any headphone amplifier, and unfortunately I did not see anything good enough to fully replace it...

 

[Toku]

I used the PO100 AK for two consecutive years. I was satisfied with both its functionality and sound quality, but it occasionally had a problem where the RCA audio output would stop working, and recently the RCA output finally died completely. The OPT/COAX functions are working fine, but I think there is a quality issue.

However, my PO100 AK never produced any popping noise during any switching.
(For DAC testing, I will use test files that randomly combine PCM 44.1kHz~768kHz 16/24/32bit and DSD64~DSD512.)