This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL D-6 balanced stereo DAC with Bluetooth. It was sent to be by
Shenzhenaudio and costs US $169.99.
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I like the compact enclosure even though there is a built-in power supply and balanced outputs. Included volume control lets you bypass a pre-amp and driver a power amplifier directly.
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SMSL is joining others in using compact TRS for balanced output. Along those lines, USB input is also the diminutive USB-C connector.
I found the navigation of settings or even changing inputs to be somewhat confusing. This is compounded with selections not rolling back to the beginning. So you wind up pressing buttons while seemingly nothing happens because you are at the end of list of selections.
AKM AK4493 DAC chip powers the unit.
SMSL D-6 Measurements
Let's start with RCA output:
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Distortion is well below threshold of audibility so noise sets SINAD. Switching to balanced output improves the situation still:
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For a budget DAC, this is excellent response, ranking above average in that category alone: (highlighted in yello)
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Dynamic range is situated the same:
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Multitone test shows off the low distortion:
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Linearity is excellent to 20 bits limit of measurement:
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Great to see jitter being extremely low for all three inputs and not just USB:
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IMD test shows off the low distortion:
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We have the usual filter settings from AKM:
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None are sadly very sharp so we see the effect in THD+N vs frequency which uses a wideband measurement spectrum of 90 kHz:
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We can see why if we perform an FFT:
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Fortunately not an audible artifact.
Conclusions
SMSL delivers an excellently engineered DAC with my favorite features of included power supply and balanced output at very budget friendly price. You don't get state of the art performance but come close while saving fair bit of money. The D-6 is also stylish with its compact and slim size.
I am happy to add SMSL D-6 to my recommended list.
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