SMSL D-6 DAC Review

[phoenixdogfan]

For $169, a balanced dac with inaudible levels of noise and distortion, and a remote. This and a cheap PC (Mele Quieter 3 anyone?) running Roon or JRivier/Foobar2000, gives a state of the art front end for chump change. Add Dirac for a splurge.

And let's be clear about this. There is nothing that a $14000 glorified gumball machine aided by a $5000 gumbally upsampler is able to do that would be an upgrade to signal coming out of the TRS outputs of this unit. So save yourself $18,831 and buy a nearly new Toyota Corolla, or landscape your yard and put in a patio or something.

Or, buy a pair of Kii3s or D&D 8C, or Genelec 8361s or Neumann KH420Gs to pair with this.

 

[student of history]

I ordered this last week because it ticked all the boxes at a bargain price. I'm pleased as punch that it performs well. Can't wait until it arrives.

 

[Jimster480]

Maybe a dumb question, but how do the white LED segments hold up on these? I have the phosphor based LEDs on my PC, and they are all absolutely cooked now. Display and internal case lighting is barely visible at this point. I have been hesitant to buy anything that uses anything other than standard LEDs for the segments since having to deal with a dead display would be rather annoying.

I would imagine the best thing is to reduce the display brightness as much as possible. Any phosphor LEDs are just like OLEDs and they fade over time. More brightness = more fade.

 

[Music1969]

Yea and no because the DX3 Pro+ is about $30 more and there are some original DX3 Pro around the same price.... That has a headphone amp as well... So it depends on what features you want. This offering from SMSL slots in nicely into the existing market.

Noted but I never mentioned DX3

I only said D-6 is better value than E30 V2 for the reasons I mentioned

 

[kongwee]

@RandomEar Yeah a new color for devices above 115, and devices above 120.



Same reason car companies are diehards for old as heck chip nodes. It's gotten so bad that TSMC has said they're not going to be making older chips anymore for companies, and companies will have to move on to using 28nm at worst (keep in mind, you iPhone is running on 5nm chips by comparison, 28nm is basically a decade old now, and shithole car companies with their laggy ass car OS's still want to use chips as old as they can possibly source).

I'm too lazy to check out Mouser, but I think the CL and TI chips for example are to be had for cheaper than AKM and certainly cheaper than ESS. But I think it simply has to do with not having to hire a whole new team to learn how to implement things properly from a totally different manufacturer (and possibly because they get great deals from other manufacturers).

As for why companies don't do this in the AVR space, that's because most of the budget goes elsewhere (consumer DACs get absolutely obliterated by the DSP capabilities, and the I/O options AVR's come with, it's so bad in fact, whenever I see a DAC that has dual TOSLINK inputs, I call that a miracle, and then it gets quickly dashed because it's on a multi kilobuck device which I don't care about). AVR makers also don't take their customers to be a userbase that cares enough to educate themselves beyond brand hype and market penetration (and beyond subjective reviews online). And the last reason they don't change if they even know what a SINAD number even is - is because they don't think there's an audible difference worth considering. They're all in the same AVR industry, and all probably get pooled into a handful of manufacturers providing parts for them at a favorable price. Desktop DACs on the other hand, seemingly will NEVER have things like HDMI audio routing support, or any of the multitude of licensed tech AVRs must support.

As much as I take car tech progress to be a joke, I still have to understand that you're not going to be able to get the price Apple gets for their chips. In 2020, there were I think less than 15 million car sales in America. That's for the entire industry... Apple on the other hand, sells more than that many units per quarter.

28nm is the most cost effective chipset for many application. I believe a few year later, we get to see 7-14nm as ASML and SMIC are mass producing this chip making machines.

 

[respice finem]

So, SMSL can play golf too, and even have one font on the front panel.
I would like it to have a headphone out as well, but that would probably be a slightly different price range.

 

[Jimster480]

28nm is the most cost effective chipset for many application. I believe a few year later, we get to see 7-14nm as ASML and SMIC are mass producing this chip making machines.

Many things are reaching 14 NM now. Global foundries has decided to basically stop at 12 nanometer because of the amount of older designs which are moving down to 14 NM now. The overall tape out cost for something on 7 NM today just does not make sense for anything other than an extremely high volume high yield product. Even though seven nanometer has been out for a few years now the price is still not low by any means. Chips like DACs and amp and other similar IC's I would say are a few years away from even being on 14 nanometer. I would be very surprised if any of them are on 14 NM today.
. Another thing which is happening is that larger companies are making SOC with all of these different chips integrated. So smaller companies will either sell or license their designs to larger companies in order to be integrated into an soc. Or they will be almost made irrelevant by the larger company designing something similar to put into their SOC thus eliminating the need for their chip entirely.

This is especially true for the largest companies which are on the smallest most advanced nodes of today. Some of the chips integrated today include memory controllers and power management IC as well as decode and encode ASIC codecs for various common audio, video and photo formats.

The mass availability of smaller and better lithography will guarantee more advancements in everyday consumer electronics for at least the next decade even as lithography technology slows down in its advancement.

 

[machinejump]

I can do it. should be pretty straightforward... and im bored right now. good combination

Is there a reader here who can generate a HTML5 or JavaScript real-time display that pulls from the database? Surely there is someone with that skill set?

First pass: https://codepen.io/verymickey/full/Barrdwx
Right now it's just using local data to get a feel for the presentation, tomorrow I can see about having it pull from the db, linking back to articles, refining etc.

M

 

[amirm]

To the extent DAC chips are mixed signal ICs, they cannot easily or at all moved to fine pitch foundries. Analog characterization and optimization of these processes is required which is the reason companies like AKM have their own foundries.

 

[respice finem]

To the extent DAC chips are mixed signal ICs, they cannot easily or at all moved to fine pitch foundries. Analog characterization and optimization of these processes is required which is the reason companies like AKM have their own foundries.

Just a thought: Maybe, chips made in very fine processes, such as 7nm or 5nm, would also be more "fragile" / prone to failure when exposed to voltage spikes etc.?

 

[amirm]

Just a thought: Maybe, chips made in very fine processes, such as 7nm or 5nm, would also be more "fragile" / prone to failure when exposed to voltage spikes etc.?

That can be managed externally but you do make a good point that these fine geometries are optimized for very low operating voltages which is fine for digital, but not an analog IC.

 

[carlcamper]

I have not but will test for it when I get a chance.

Thanks @amirm , I also have this issue from USB input from my Windows 10 Laptop, as well as my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra mobile (when audio signal is inactive for 5 seconds, there is a slight click sound. The click also happens when the audio signal comes back)

I circumvent this by using the Optical Toslink out from my Topping D10 Balanced into this.

Hope this helps you reproduce the issue!

I have also contacted @SHENZHENAUDIO support via email, but they cannot seem to reproduce this issue, even though I pointed them to this thread where many have encountered it.

 

[Jimster480]

First pass: https://codepen.io/verymickey/full/Barrdwx
Right now it's just using local data to get a feel for the presentation, tomorrow I can see about having it pull from the db, linking back to articles, refining etc.

M

Looks cool but doesn't format well on my phone. Obviously it's early but I like the layout

That can be managed externally but you do make a good point that these fine geometries are optimized for very low operating voltages which is fine for digital, but not an analog IC.

I never thought about that. I don't have any experience with these specific IC. So it may take much longer for them to have different / better lithographys.

 

[vrobec]

Is it worth to switch from SMSL Sanskrit 10th mkII to D-6? Are there sonic improvement?

 

[Kevinfc]

This moves into the number one spot in the value DAC category. Checks all the boxes for me.

 

[carlcamper]

It is the cheapest balanced dac out there by a good margin.

AC powered yes, DC powered, you still have the Topping D10 Balanced.

 

[staticV3]

Interesting suggestion. In such a graph, you wouldn't be able to see and identify the rest of the products. You are OK with that?

I did a mock-up some time ago:

Proposal: New SINAD Ranking Design (Histogram)

Since its conception, the SINAD Ranking has grown from this: to this: Instead of just making the graph wider and wider with each addition, why not switch to a histogram:

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Docteur Poulet]

Does this DAC keep the current volume information when shutting down?

 

[JSmith]

Is it worth to switch from SMSL Sanskrit 10th mkII to D-6? Are there sonic improvement?

Possibly... if using coax in;

JSmith

 

[brandonhall]

The feature set on this DAC for 170 USD is flat out remarkable. Transparent performance, balanced connections, all the Bluetooth codecs, and USB-C for the computer. What else could you want?