SMSL D400EX DAC Review

[xeizo]

From @tabby 's pics:

View attachment 250554

That's some disturbing stuff right there. Is that factory rework or someone's mod attempt?

It's from the head-fi thread, it's a mod, the cheaper "gold" capacitors has been changed for Nichicon Fine Gold capacitors. Nicely done for a manual mod, I would have destroyed the circuit board.

 

[sam_adams]

Nicely done for a manual mod,

Actually, that's shockingly shoddy work for probably no actual benefit.

 

[MadMaxx]

I had the D400EX for about a month. Loved the sound it produced. It was a good match with my Adam A7V monitors. Mine never had any of the volume irregularities that some owners reported, but the left channel just stopped working after nearly 4 weeks. No idea why. I've heard that SMSL has a less than ideal QC record. I returned the dac for refund. Ordered the new Topping E70 Velvet instead. I'll post pics/thoughts once it's delivered.

 

[Music1969]

this is what peak performance looks like

The ESS-style IMD hump could be peakier - look for better peak in next SMSL product lol

 

[Music1969]

Hilariously, the ESS based D400ES has beautiful IMD plot without ESS hump feature:

Measurements of SMSL D400ES ESS9039Pro DAC - L7Audiolab

台式设备 随着一个个项目评审会的结束，我忙乱的日子也开始看到了曙光……前两天双木的晶晶问我，说之前测了D400EX之后怎么没测同时送到的 SMSL D400ES 。我也只能很无奈的说了了期末+之前病休导致的忙乱。无论如何，接下来应该会逐渐拉上测量的频率……

www.l7audiolab.com

 

[amirm]

I think Shenzhenaudio sees this forum mostly as free marketing.

Shenshenaudio is just a distributor for audio gear in China. They are not related to or part of SMSL. They do send me gear from time to time, including some SMSL gear but as I said, they are not affiliated with them.

 

[Veri]

It's the sharp filters that screws with phase, their benefit is better frequency response/lower noise/lower distorsion, slow filter affects phase less but frequency response is worse and digital noise/distorsion comes through. The optimal filter is a balance of all that, and as you say it can be beneficial or detrimental depending on what music is playing.
Early CD-players had extreme sharp filters and a perfect frequency response because of that, but people complained it sounded "digital", possibly because of f*ed up phase.

"Linear Phase Sharp" filters have 0 effect on phase, though... only minimum/intermediate phase "Sharp" variants will have the aforementioned side effect.

 

[respice finem]

Shenshenaudio is just a distributor for audio gear in China. They are not related to or part of SMSL. They do send me gear from time to time, including some SMSL gear but as I said, they are not affiliated with them.

While I'm sure a good ASR test result may help sales, any manufacturer is free to send their products in for testing, but the most don't, and I think they know very well, why they don't

 

[Anthony T]

I voted not terrible because apart from the look the performance is pretty indistinguishable from just about every other competent DAC of the last few years but weighed that against still stubbornly using the display of many fonts that indicates a identity crisis and adding a dodgy rotary volume and nothing else whatsoever to justify the rather ambitious price leaves me wondering what everyone likes so much about this product?
GeneriDAC #84?
The vote needs a “Must Do Better“ option that envelops the laziness of the Co. to improve anything other than SINAD decimal-point chasing.

 

[Rover]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL D400EX balanced DAC based on AKM4499EX chip. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $959.99
View attachment 250400
The D400EX is quite attractive looking with the flush controls and the grills on the sides:
View attachment 250401
The latter gives it a high-end look. Alas, I am not a fan of the rotary control. It is very hard to turn, and even harder to push to register a click. Fortunately the standard SMSL remote is included so you don't have to use it. The user interface is easy to navigate (with the remote) and is the same as other newer SMSL DACs.

Note that there is an ES version using ESS DAC chip.

Note: please excuse the mistaken label on the graphs: D400 ES instead of EX. Didn't realize which unit I was testing until I took the review picture.

SMSL D400EX Measurements
As usual let's start with our dashboard of 1 kHz tone:
View attachment 250402
I expect superb performance and that is precisely what we get. Playing the silly game of ranking SINAD using decimal point, the D400 EX easily falls in our top 20 best measured DACs:
View attachment 250403

RCA performance is not far behind:
View attachment 250404

Noise performance is excellent as you can imagine:
View attachment 250405

Multitone performance lands in the same bucket:
View attachment 250406

Linearity is perfect:
View attachment 250407

Jitter over USB is perfect but we have a tiny jitter component on toslink:
View attachment 250408

It was strange to see the mid-level IMD hump:
View attachment 250409
Never seen this on non-ESS DACs.

Various filters are offered:
View attachment 250410

Here is their impact on frequency response:
View attachment 250411
Using default filter #1, we get very nice wideband response for distortion+noise:
View attachment 250412

Conclusions
The D400 EX performs at top of the class as expected. Price is up there and for that, you get a nicer looking case. Two minor misses are the rotary control functionality and rise in IMD distortion at mid-levels.

I am going to put the SMSL D400 EX on my recommendation list.

P.S. Sorry, I forgot to put the golfing panther on the picture of the unit.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Amir is an excellent review.
But why is there no "sound color" test?
This test is extremely interesting to everyone because in 400ex it is somehow connected with 5.6 mhz and 11 MHz.

 

[xeizo]

"Linear Phase Sharp" filters have 0 effect on phase, though... only minimum/intermediate phase "Sharp" variants will have the aforementioned side effect.

Yes, it is in the name "Linear Phase", but then you have to know which filter lives up to that name

 

[Veri]

Yes, it is in the name "Linear Phase", but then you have to know which filter lives up to that name

Of course

 

[xeizo]

Amir is an excellent review.
But why is there no "sound color" test?
This test is extremely interesting to everyone because in 400ex it is somehow connected with 5.6 mhz and 11 MHz.

Yes, I'm also curious to what sound color actually does. On my lowly AK4493S DAC I prefer color 2. Color 1 is default but do not sound as nice imo.

 

[Trell]

Amir is an excellent review.
But why is there no "sound color" test?
This test is extremely interesting to everyone because in 400ex it is somehow connected with 5.6 mhz and 11 MHz.

How so?

 

[Rover]

Trell​

Have you read the instructions(manual) 400EX?

 

[Jimbob54]

Trell​

Have you read the instructions 400EX?
View attachment 250569

EDIT- IGNORE , THIS POST ACTUALLY RELATES TO THE ESS VERSION!

Assume its the same effects as on a previous SMSL just without the intensity settings

Personally I would leave off but cant hurt to play around https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smsl-d400ex-d400es-impressions-thread.965459/post-17238840

 

[Veri]

Trell​

Have you read the instructions 400EX?
View attachment 250569

Those are instructions?

 

[Ra1zel]

1000 bucks for stereo DAC, that makes my expensive Merging (Swiss) converter cards actually a better value, kinda funny.

 

[Rover]

Those are instructions?

Translation difficulties sorry.Yes, part of the manual
for the 400EX, and here is the full manual SMSL D400EX

 

[Lupin]

I wouldn't mind this price tag or higher,I know that good components don't come cheap

The objective performance of this $960 DAC is about the same as other DACs that cost less than half... I don't see the "good components, and therefore more expensive components" argument being relevant here. Other brands.. or even SMSL themselves can design DACs with a much lower BOM that performs the same as this expensive DAC.

Even if they use "better" audiophile components like linear PSU super fancy caps and so on and so on.. what does that matter when the the signal that comes out of the DAC is objectively the same as other DACs that cost less than half?

In an extreme way you could even say it is a design fail that they need expensive "audiophile grade" components to put a DAC together that in the end objectively performs the same as a DAC with "cheap" components.

There's nothing else that is going for this DAC. It doesn't have any features nor connectivity that stands out which cheaper DACs don't offer. It doesn't have a high end chassis made of premium materials that would justify the increased price.

So I honestly don't see why one wouldn't mind this price tag. Especially when one thinks about the fact that in this price range DACs like the RME exist which offer actually more.