SMSL A300 My Subjective-ish review

[dudewithcans]

The default noise from the amp is quite high indeed.

IF my unit wasnt faulty (and i srsly hope for smsl it was) its not quite high (like in: "yeah, its a bit high..."), it is way to high (like: "far from anything acceptable").
but im not going to judge on that one, b/c i didnt test a different unit.

Hope you tried to dim the screen to the lowest setting, that makes it much cleaner.

i did, just for the sake of checking the feature out, didnt know it would make any difference in noise... it didnt.

I do agree the noise floor above say '60' on the dial in unacceptable.

60... ok. for me it made no difference, i had the noise regardless the output.

whatever, im a bit disappointed by the performance of this smsl device, i had a sh-8 once, and i have to say it was very good (disregarding the power output from the HPA, which was to low for my headphones).

like i said, i COULD probably try a hypex NC122MP based poweramp, but i personally find it a bit too expensive and i essentially need a (at least passive) preamp for volume control aswell so that adds up...

maybe i get my ass off the chair this year and try the audiophonics mpa-s125nc and the "pre-03" active preamp or a passive one...

 

[grogi.giant]

One curious thing I'm wondering when using the RCA input by this amp. The A300 uses a digital pot for volume control, right?
So input signals have to be converted to digital and then back again to analog. For me the amp only makes sense for some one who primarily uses the USB or BT as input.

You can have a digitally controlled circuit that processes analogue signal.

 

[dthomasturner]

I use this amp with JBL A170 towers in my bedroom system. It definitely works well with them. It does have a bit of noise at idle, but it is not perceptable at low listening levels 50-65 decibels. It is a very good sounding amplifier for the 165$ I paid for it. Not sure I could fault them for that given the rich feature set that is included. At least on my unit, the noise stays at the same level, regardles of volume setting and I have to put my ear less than 12" from the tweeter to hear it.

 

[dudewithcans]

At least on my unit, the noise stays at the same level, regardles of volume setting and I have to put my ear less than 12" from the tweeter to hear it.

so YOU have no noise from your mid/bass drivers and only hissing from the tweeter?

 

[dthomasturner]

so YOU have no noise from your mid/bass drivers and only hissing from the tweeter?

Yes, that is correct. I can't percieve any hiss coming from the mid/bass drivers. If there is noise coming from there, it is inaudible, to me at least. There is also a slightly different quality to the hiss going from left to right channel. it is more prominent on the right channel. And like I said, it does not increase with any change in the volume in standby.

 

[dudewithcans]

thank you. maybe i will give another unit a try.

 

[jhnpennington]

I'm getting one of these delivered today. The 2 RCA inputs will be taken up by my streamer and turntable. I would like to connect a CD transport via the USB input? I'm not sure if it's possible or how I'd go about it.

 

[Zek]

The 2 RCA inputs will be taken up by my streamer and turntable.

Does your turntable have a line preamp in it?

I would like to connect a CD transport via the USB input?

What is that CD transport with USB output?

 

[jhnpennington]

Does your turntable have a line preamp in it?

What is that CD transport with USB output?

The turntable is going through an external phono stage. I can't find a transport that has USB out. Is there a converter available that doesn't damage sound quality?

 

[Zek]

USB input on the A-300 uses a bluetooth chip for conversion and as far as I remember it was said here that it is of worse quality than the line input.

 

[Bleib]

USB input on the A-300 uses a bluetooth chip for conversion and as far as I remember it was said here that it is of worse quality than the line input.

yeah, it's mediocre

 

[dudewithcans]

i tested a different a300 unit today.
the noise from the mid/bass i had with the last unit is not present, it only has slight humming from the mid/bass drivers until volume setting 40 or so...
from 40 to 50 the humming increases, from 50 to 60 (max) the humming gets alot louder - but that seems normal... turn your poti on your classAB amp to max and you will also get higher static noise compared to lets say 12oclock.

i guess the other a300 unit i had before was faulty indeed.

but the static noise hissing from the tweeter (!) ist still there, and ALOT louder then my c325.
FOR ME on MY SPEAKERS its to loud/present, so unfortunately this unit is going return aswell.
the display brightness setting made zero difference btw.

anyway, sound quality whise i think its a good classD amp, and if you f.e. have speakers with lower efficiency (letz say around 86dB) or have no problem with the hissing from the tweeter, and dont want to deafen yourself with extreme SPL, i recommend to give this amp a try.