SMSL D100 DAC Released – ES9081 DAC/Amp with Balanced Headphone Output and USB Power Isolation

[Kitty (S.M.S.L Marketing)]

Hello ASR members,

Today we'd like to introduce our latest desktop DAC and headphone amplifier, the SMSL D100.

The D100 was designed around a straightforward goal: combining strong objective performance, low-noise operation, and practical desktop functionality in a compact form factor.

Key features include:

• ESS ES9081 DAC utilizing 8-channel parallel summing architecture
• XMOS XU-316 USB interface
• PCM up to 32-bit/768kHz
• Native DSD512 support
• True balanced headphone amplifier design
• 6.35mm and 4.4mm headphone outputs
• Up to 400mW × 2 @ 32Ω
• Support for headphones up to 600Ω
• THD+N as low as 0.00035% (-109dB)
• Noise floor below 0.83 μVrms
• Independent USB data and power inputs to help minimize ground-loop and power-related noise
• RCA line output with preamp volume control for active speakers

One design aspect we believe may be particularly interesting to ASR members is the physically separated USB data and power architecture, which allows the D100 to isolate signal transmission from power delivery.

We would be interested in hearing your thoughts:

• How important is USB power isolation in desktop DAC/amp designs?
• Do you prefer separate DAC and amplifier components, or integrated desktop solutions?
• Which specification matters most to you when evaluating a DAC/amp in this category?

Looking forward to your feedback.

Best regards,
SMSL Team

 

[staticV3]

How is this different in user experience from the

DL100
DL400
RAW-MDA1
DO400
DO300EX
C200 PRO
C200

?

 

[TonyJZX]

How is this different in user experience from the past catalog

?

its pricing

its $140 usd rrp

currently $123 off hifi express

really how are they doing the case and color screen and whatnot for the money???

partly because they are leaning into the HP part in that it has no remote, no hdmi

 

[MCH]

Hello ASR members,

Today we'd like to introduce our latest desktop DAC and headphone amplifier, the SMSL D100.

The D100 was designed around a straightforward goal: combining strong objective performance, low-noise operation, and practical desktop functionality in a compact form factor.

Key features include:

• ESS ES9081 DAC utilizing 8-channel parallel summing architecture
• XMOS XU-316 USB interface
• PCM up to 32-bit/768kHz
• Native DSD512 support
• True balanced headphone amplifier design
• 6.35mm and 4.4mm headphone outputs
• Up to 400mW × 2 @ 32Ω
• Support for headphones up to 600Ω
• THD+N as low as 0.00035% (-109dB)
• Noise floor below 0.83 μVrms
• Independent USB data and power inputs to help minimize ground-loop and power-related noise
• RCA line output with preamp volume control for active speakers

One design aspect we believe may be particularly interesting to ASR members is the physically separated USB data and power architecture, which allows the D100 to isolate signal transmission from power delivery.

We would be interested in hearing your thoughts:

• How important is USB power isolation in desktop DAC/amp designs?
• Do you prefer separate DAC and amplifier components, or integrated desktop solutions?
• Which specification matters most to you when evaluating a DAC/amp in this category?

Looking forward to your feedback.

Best regards,
SMSL Team

What do you mean with USB power isolation? Will there be an isolator for the data lines like adum416x so that computer and DAC are completely isolated?
If not, separated power input can have advantages if the device is power hungry but I don't know if avoiding ground loops is one of them

 

[TonyJZX]

tbf heaps of dacs have dual type c input where they say that its better to isolate the signal from the power... they've been doing this for years

i have piles of dacs and more than a few do this but i'm not sure it does anything other than give you a warm feeling inside

 

[robbiekhan]

I'm going to test this one out as I've had cheaper DACs before outputting to the power amp and you can hear USB noise at some points through the speakers, given it has no balanced output only RCA, this issue would be more prominent without proper isolation. I recently had the SMSL AO300 Pro which also only has RCA output and that did not exhibit any noise at all going into the power amp, though that is a lot more expensive and has its own internal switch mode power supply (no mention of isolated USB data line).

I'm intrigued...

 

[whazzup]

Hello ASR members,

Today we'd like to introduce our latest desktop DAC and headphone amplifier, the SMSL D100.

The D100 was designed around a straightforward goal: combining strong objective performance, low-noise operation, and practical desktop functionality in a compact form factor.

Key features include:

• ESS ES9081 DAC utilizing 8-channel parallel summing architecture
• XMOS XU-316 USB interface
• PCM up to 32-bit/768kHz
• Native DSD512 support
• True balanced headphone amplifier design
• 6.35mm and 4.4mm headphone outputs
• Up to 400mW × 2 @ 32Ω
• Support for headphones up to 600Ω
• THD+N as low as 0.00035% (-109dB)
• Noise floor below 0.83 μVrms
• Independent USB data and power inputs to help minimize ground-loop and power-related noise
• RCA line output with preamp volume control for active speakers

One design aspect we believe may be particularly interesting to ASR members is the physically separated USB data and power architecture, which allows the D100 to isolate signal transmission from power delivery.

We would be interested in hearing your thoughts:

• How important is USB power isolation in desktop DAC/amp designs?
• Do you prefer separate DAC and amplifier components, or integrated desktop solutions?
• Which specification matters most to you when evaluating a DAC/amp in this category?

Looking forward to your feedback.

Best regards,
SMSL Team

2.1 amp / dac amp with parametric eq, sub out with proper low pass filter and high pass filter for speakers. All the cool kids are doing it now, don't get left behind. Tell your boss to spend a bit more on software dev. Ask Apple how they used software to lock in their customers into their ecosystem.

Do some cross promotion / marketing with subwoofer manufacturers. Add standby mode for your devices.

 

[antcollinet]

• Independent USB data and power inputs to help minimize ground-loop and power-related noise

How does this work in reality.

Is the USB power connection (+V and GND) fully isolated from the analouge output for both power AND data connections? No possibly for PC ground noise from either connection to flow to analogue output ground?

IE have you implemented an internal USB isolation system?

 

[TonyJZX]

you already know the answer to this

you can bet everyone will fail a dbx

also you can power these units with both so it doesnt matter... ie. you can run them off a PC

but i run one of my setups off a wall socket and the other off a PC usb port... there's the idea wall power is more isolated but deep down you know the truth

 

[JSmith]

Needs PEQ...


JSmith

 

[tccalvin]

Oh, this is very nice actually. Worthy replacement for the DS100 that is affected by the Cirrus Logic distortion. A bit more expensive but probably worth it. USB power, true balanced headphone out, a nice display. No PEQ but it might beat the DX1 II in terms of software/hardware stability.

P.S. If you don't need USB power and/or the compact size then I'd still recommend the DL200 over this.

 

[antcollinet]

you already know the answer to this

you can bet everyone will fail a dbx

also you can power these units with both so it doesnt matter... ie. you can run them off a PC

but i run one of my setups off a wall socket and the other off a PC usb port... there's the idea wall power is more isolated but deep down you know the truth

PC's are a common source of audible ground loop noise. This is a system problem, not a component problem - if you get it then there are only two real solutions.
1 - Fully isolate the PC from DAC using either a USB isolation device, or by swapping to a Toslink connection.
2 - Use balanced interconnect after the DAC.

If this device has proper USB isolation built in - it will completely eliminate the risk of having this sort of noise.

 

[robbiekhan]

One design aspect we believe may be particularly interesting to ASR members is the physically separated USB data and power architecture, which allows the D100 to isolate signal transmission from power delivery.

I got my sample today and have been putting it through various tests, no measurements but practical ones. Chiefly this statement quoted as I don't find this to be true at all unless there is a FW update that unlocks it.

Connecting an external USB power source to it powers it on as expected, but then connecting a USB from PC to data continues to draw power from the PC, meaning ground loop noise is heard through the speakers which is fairly common from PC motherboards.

The manual also categorically states that the USB power port is internally connected to the USB-IN port, and that this is merely an aux power input for when you connect a smartphone etc to the D100 so must use an external power source to avoid damage to the phone.

Also given that there are no headphone power output specs for the balanced connection, only SE, I don't believe that it is truly balanced output whereas competing models like the Topping DX1 II specifies SE and balanced output values for its HPA. It appears to be a convenience port given that the other specs of the SE vs Bal ports are virtually identical on the specsheet in the manual.

It appears to be a good DAC otherwise, the 9081 isn't used in anything else like this yet so it was fun to listen to it. I found it acted as pre-amp fine to my PA7 (1.9Vrms input sens) given the D100's 2Vrms, very little headroom but it managed fine and brought the Comete 40th to very loud volume even at around 40% on the volume dial. PA7 in vol bypass mode so D100 being the pre.

Sounds great to me other than the ground loop noise if using USB.

The volume pot is also tactile and increments do not miss. I like using it, and can be operated with one finger alone.

Menu system is simple and intuitive.

MUTE is silly though, you have to dial down the volume to 0 to get mute, there is no quick mute function, which means you have to dial back up to where you were after muting.

Internals:

 

[whazzup]

I got my sample today and have been putting it through various tests, no measurements but practical ones. Chiefly this statement quoted as I don't find this to be true at all unless there is a FW update that unlocks it.

Connecting an external USB power source to it powers it on as expected, but then connecting a USB from PC to data continues to draw power from the PC, meaning ground loop noise is heard through the speakers which is fairly common from PC motherboards.

The manual also categorically states that the USB power port is internally connected to the USB-IN port, and that this is merely an aux power input for when you connect a smartphone etc to the D100 so must use an external power source to avoid damage to the phone.

Also given that there are no headphone power output specs for the balanced connection, only SE, I don't believe that it is truly balanced output whereas competing models like the Topping DX1 II specifies SE and balanced output values for its HPA. It appears to be a convenience port given that the other specs of the SE vs Bal ports are virtually identical on the specsheet in the manual.

It appears to be a good DAC otherwise, the 9081 isn't used in anything else like this yet so it was fun to listen to it. I found it acted as pre-amp fine to my PA7 (1.9Vrms input sens) given the D100's 2Vrms, very little headroom but it managed fine and brought the Comete 40th to very loud volume even at around 40% on the volume dial. PA7 in vol bypass mode so D100 being the pre.

Sounds great to me other than the ground loop noise if using USB.

The volume pot is also tactile and increments do not miss. I like using it, and can be operated with one finger alone.

Menu system is simple and intuitive.

MUTE is silly though, you have to dial down the volume to 0 to get mute, there is no quick mute function, which means you have to dial back up to where you were after muting.

Internals:

View attachment 544439

Well AI frequently hallucinates and dreams up new non-existent things, so I'm not surprised SMSL is doing that for their marketing materials. Wait, that sounds like what the entire luxury audio DAC industry is doing all along. Ergo, this product is going to do very well!

 

[ChenHui]

For around $140, the value here is hard to ignore. Even with the ongoing discussion about the USB power routing, getting a sleek metal chassis, a color display, and a dedicated volume knob at this price point is really impressive. It seems like a very neat and capable budget DAC/pre-amp for clean desktop setups.

 

[robbiekhan]

It's good but the marketing needs to reflect what it is, not what it isn't.