SMSL DA-6 Stereo Amplifier Review

[Ralph_Cramden]

I dunno. In an age of inexpensive, DSP-corrected, bi-amplified powered monitors, this seems kinda pointless to me. JMHO.

 

[carlcamper]

@amirm was there a frequency response difference between Low and High Gain?

 

[Jimster480]

I dunno. In an age of inexpensive, DSP-corrected, bi-amplified powered monitors, this seems kinda pointless to me. JMHO.

Depends on if those perform even worse!

 

[CougarXR7]

Would this be sufficient for a desktop setup with some sscs5's? I'm actually looking at the ao100 but supposably these are the same except subwoofer output.

 

[SmackDaddies]

Would this be sufficient for a desktop setup with some sscs5's? I'm actually looking at the ao100 but supposably these are the same except subwoofer output.

yes

 

[ilya_sy]

topping e30+ smsl sa36a pro+ sony ss cs5. Im going to try new amp and new speakers. shortlist consists of smsl da6 and topping pa3s and mission qx2. so the question is would there be any progress in sound qaulity from changing smsl sa36a pro by smsl da6. or they are in one leaque and difference wil be hardly noticed.

 

[El Cheapo]

Currently $49.99 on US Amazon. Search for SMSL A300 (or B0B48C66Q4) to find the listing.

 

[Jimster480]

Currently $49.99 on US Amazon. Search for SMSL A300 (or B0B48C66Q4) to find the listing.

Wow really nice price

https://www.amazon.com/S-M-S-L-Amplifier-Resolution-Remote-Control/dp/B0B48C66Q4/

 

[AndreaT]

Currently $49.99 on US Amazon. Search for SMSL A300 (or B0B48C66Q4) to find the listing.

Too bad I do not have a use for it! The price is great. Thank you for the info!

 

[mctron]

Very enticing at 50 bucks with remote and display. No use for it but maybe I can come up with one

 

[grogi.giant]

That would be pointless though, since making an all-in-one box is actually more difficult intrinsically. Companies that do this, are slowly not doing this anymore.

It's not. What takes a load of estate (on both PCB and case) and are the balanced output and all circutry associated with those. Take those out and you have enough room inside to implement a DAC and headphone amp as well.

In the very high-end the only issue is rail pumping - but a high-end device like that could have two power supplies. One mighty enough to drive the power stage, and second much more modest to power DAC and the headphone amp. HiFi amplifier would be fine with simple build-in DAC based on Qualcomm chipset, CM or anything else - not necesarily ESS or AKM... You need 120dB of SINAD in your DAC - get a dedicated one.

Imagine having a entre, a main course, and a desert at the same time, cheaper than each separately, and have said combo taste just as good as each of them separately. No one sane business does this for long even if they're able to deliver for a short while.

That is called a stew. Well prepared is actually delicious!


The only reason companies don't do that is potencial profit. Each amp sold can be potencially converted into a DAC sale... If there is a decent DAC inside, 95% of that potencial will never materialze.

 

[ClassicGuy]

It used to be that it was also assumed to be at 8ohms as well. Class D manufacturers now go to 4ohms, some 2ohms.

Class A/B amplifiers have higher power ratings at 8ohm vs 4ohm. Class D amplifiers have higher power ratings at 4ohm.

So when those A/B amp manufacturers show the 8ohm power ratings, they are also showing the power ratings under ideal conditions. They are hiding the fact those amps would perform worse under 6ohm or 4ohm loads. It's the same kind of dishonesty.

A truly honest company would show power ratings under various impedance.

 

[jooc]

Would this be sufficient for a desktop setup with some sscs5's? I'm actually looking at the ao100 but supposably these are the same except subwoofer output.

This is exactly what I'm using this amp with and it's fantastic for that. The Infineon amp chips are really sweet sounding for near-field. I've also used it with Emotiva B1+ and Andrew Jones Pioneer speakers.

One thing to keep in mind about these numbers - it's rated at 70 wpc, 13 watts 'usable' according to this site - 13 watts is far more than most people use with most speakers.

Most in-home listening is done at around 1w of power, so if you have 13 clean watts you likely have enough. I can't turn this amp up more than 1/3 of the way before it gets too loud, and there's no distortion at that volume whatsoever.

 

[grogi.giant]

Most in-home listening is done at around 1w of power, so if you have 13 clean watts you likely have enough. I can't turn this amp up more than 1/3 of the way before it gets too loud, and there's no distortion at that volume whatsoever.

Most do.

But sometimes the speakers have lower sensitivity (exp. 85 vs 91dB), lower impedance (4 vs 8Ohm) and are two times further away - you end-up needing 32W instead of just 1W per channel to have same levels at listening position...

 

[Kimbrough Xu]

For $100 and a digital display that’s pretty nice.

I wouldn’t recommend it for living room use, but for desktop use the wattage is plenty (maybe not if using some super low sensitivity designs).

But it has digital display and remote, and nice looking, what do you want for an amp of $99?

 

[ClassicGuy]

Most do.

But sometimes the speakers have lower sensitivity (exp. 85 vs 91dB), lower impedance (4 vs 8Ohm) and are two times further away - you end-up needing 32W instead of just 1W per channel to have same levels at listening position...

One thing to keep in mind is that at 4ohm it actually has 30 clean watts, so the calculus changes a little as impedance changes.

 

[grogi.giant]

One thing to keep in mind is that at 4ohm it actually has 30 clean watts, so the calculus changes a little as impedance changes.

I wasn't taking about any particular amplifier. It's general observation - sometimes you need 1W, sometimes you need 32W - same listening levels...

 

[Kimbrough Xu]

That would be pointless though, since making an all-in-one box is actually more difficult intrinsically. Companies that do this, are slowly not doing this anymore.

Imagine having a entre, a main course, and a desert at the same time, cheaper than each separately, and have said combo taste just as good as each of them separately. No one sane business does this for long even if they're able to deliver for a short while.

But there are demands for this, even though it is not as good as the separate one.

 

[Tks]

But there are demands for this, even though it is not as good as the separate one.

Sure, they'll make it if you're willing to pay a bit over the cost of two separates.

 

[gasolin75]

SMSL DA-6 vs SMSL AO100 ?​