SMSL D1 - ROHM DAC for everyone

[fkam]

I have the D1 bought new about a month half no touch problems and nothing that I can say bad. For me, rohm sounds great. One of my best DAC.

 

[KurtKlötentreter]

You should be able to turn off power to the USB ports when the pc is turned off from the bios.

Yeah I had to enable S4 and S5 sleep states first, so I could disable USB power during S5 state. D1 can now be left on as it will simply power up and down with the system.

That being said, my Fosi K7 came in, and I am left contemplating if I should maybe return the D1 now - don't get me wrong, there ain't nothing wrong with it, but the RCA outs of either trade blows with one another from what I can tell, and the K7 is a much more versatile device overall (and I didn't pay that much more for it in comparison).

I'll give it a few days as my return window is far from over, but I'm finding the K7 more useful right now.

So, touch the right touch button, and the standby mode light will turn red, indicating power consumption (<0.1W). Then, when you touch it again, the active white light (<5W) will turn on again for the input from which it was turned off. Everything is great there.

It's not a very in your face LED even when on - which don't get me wrong, is a good thing. But it means it's not unlikely for me to forget about it when going away from my PC. Regardless, toggling S5 sleep state in UEFI and disabling USB power in that state mitigates this "issue" entirely

 

[billbillw]

Have you tried powering the d1 with your phone charger plugged in the ac, my amp had the same problem when the 5v was coming from my computer usbc , i solved it this way

I finally had the chance to hook a separate USB-C for power and it does improve things. Not really hearing anything other than music now! Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[sabih]

has anybody tried to swap opamps on this DAC?

 

[JSmith]

has anybody tried to swap opamps on this DAC?

Why would anyone bother doing that?


JSmith

 

[sabih]

Why would anyone bother doing that?


JSmith

to get better objective performance numbers

 

[JSmith]

to get better objective performance numbers

Why do you think that would be the case by randomly inserting another opamp? This DAC already has 108.42dB SINAD... what performance gain are you expecting and how are you measuring (probably not at all)?


JSmith

 

[sabih]

that is why i am asking a question. Its just a question

 

[Roland68]

has anybody tried to swap opamps on this DAC?

to get better objective performance numbers

Perhaps you should take a look at the performance figures for the D1 DAC first!?!

The AP measurements published by SMSL are always very consistent with Amir's measurements, so they are sufficiently reliable.
The op-amps are located in the I/V conversion/filtering stage of the DAC chip. If you are not able to adapt/calculate the circuitry for different op-amps, then you have a very high chance of making things worse.
In this case, it's not about the op-amp with the best measured values, but about the one that fits best into the circuit.

The Rohm DAC chips are not cheap, and Rohm certainly has a strong interest in delivering the best possible measurements. All evaluation boards use NE5532s, which are presumably also used in the D1.

In the D200, SMSL managed to slightly improve the measured values by about 2-3% with 8 op-amps, using the same DAC chip.
Do you think that will result in an audible improvement?
Guess what. I have both DACs on my desk...

 

[JSmith]

that is why i am asking a question. Its just a question

A question with an agenda no doubt... based on past posts and interactions with you.


JSmith

 

[Roland68]

Yeah I had to enable S4 and S5 sleep states first, so I could disable USB power during S5 state. D1 can now be left on as it will simply power up and down with the system.

That being said, my Fosi K7 came in, and I am left contemplating if I should maybe return the D1 now - don't get me wrong, there ain't nothing wrong with it, but the RCA outs of either trade blows with one another from what I can tell, and the K7 is a much more versatile device overall (and I didn't pay that much more for it in comparison).

I'll give it a few days as my return window is far from over, but I'm finding the K7 more useful right now.

The two devices aren't really comparable. The D1 is just a DAC, while the K7 is a DAC/HPA with an additional microphone input and a lot of functionality, including quick access to many features. It's ideal for gaming, which is one of the reasons Fosi designed it.
The K7 also received a very good review.
With the D1, you'd need at least an additional HPA.

 

[sabih]

A question with an agenda no doubt... based on past posts and interactions with you.


JSmith

agenda is to improve performance and that's it.

 

[KurtKlötentreter]

The two devices aren't really comparable. The D1 is just a DAC, while the K7 is a DAC/HPA with an additional microphone input and a lot of functionality, including quick access to many features. It's ideal for gaming, which is one of the reasons Fosi designed it.
The K7 also received a very good review.
With the D1, you'd need at least an additional HPA.

Certainly, and the K7 didn't just measure "fine" but quite well tbh. Even compared Amir's K7 measurements to SMSL's claimed numbers for the D1, the K7 looks great. Obviously this isn't to say the D1 is bad by any means, but I'm not sure I actually need the D1 now.

K7's digital volume control for RCA out allows me to bypass less than perfect pot low-gain (slight imbalance) so I can listen on very low volume without much trouble.

Definitely devices in separate classes, and I do like the simplicity of the D1, but would my ears ever notice that the delta sigma conversion is done by an AKM vs a ROHM chip? Unlikely

 

[conuss]

has anybody tried to swap opamps on this DAC?

What prevents you from trying and submitting optimistic results?

 

[sabih]

Ok will try to install opa1612 opamps in this DAC and will report

 

[Roland68]

Ok will try to install opa1612 opamps in this DAC and will report

If you have meaningful before/after measurements, or a second D1 DAC for a true blind test of original and modified D1s, that would be great.

Unfortunately, anything else is completely meaningless; I can assure you of that from 25 years of blind tests and 30 years of tuning experience.

 

[Scrivs]

DAC Fetish and low comprehension of the properties and function of electronics make humorous bed fellows.

 

[Evgenliman]

Hello.
Can anyone tell me what kind of chip this is?

 

[amanieux]

Perhaps you should take a look at the performance figures for the D1 DAC first!?!

The AP measurements published by SMSL are always very consistent with Amir's measurements, so they are sufficiently reliable.
The op-amps are located in the I/V conversion/filtering stage of the DAC chip. If you are not able to adapt/calculate the circuitry for different op-amps, then you have a very high chance of making things worse.
In this case, it's not about the op-amp with the best measured values, but about the one that fits best into the circuit.

The Rohm DAC chips are not cheap, and Rohm certainly has a strong interest in delivering the best possible measurements. All evaluation boards use NE5532s, which are presumably also used in the D1.

In the D200, SMSL managed to slightly improve the measured values by about 2-3% with 8 op-amps, using the same DAC chip.
Do you think that will result in an audible improvement?
Guess what. I have both DACs on my desk...

the rohm chip in d1 and d200 is $10(BD34352EKV) , unlike the rohm chip in d300 and dc-elite that is $100 (BD34301EKV), not sure how much of a difference it makes to the ear vs the second stage output amp that comes after the dac chip signal. so do you hear a significant improvement between d1 and d200 ?

 

[sabih]

Changed buffer opamp in d1 to opa1612 and I can confirm that it has made substantial difference in sound quality. I was not expecting this.
Wondering why SMSL didn't use opa1612/1656. Maybe because this is a low price category product.