SMSL DA9 - Wait and see, or solid buy?

[lordhumungous]

Hey Jokan! I've been looking for an answer for quite a long time and nobody including SMSL customer support [email protected] (which is useless) could help me.
Here is the issue: when I connect my DAC to amp's XLR input (RCA to XLR cable) it plays significantly (approx. 4-5 dB) quieter then when I go from my DAC to RCA amp's input. No difference in sound quality, only in volume.
What's wrong? I checked with different cables and still RCA are louder. Is my unit faulty?

PS other then this amp is great for the price and I really like it.

That's why i will no longer buy from shenzenaudio , unless it's under 100 bucks

 

[Toku]

Hey Jokan! I've been looking for an answer for quite a long time and nobody including SMSL customer support [email protected] (which is useless) could help me.
Here is the issue: when I connect my DAC to amp's XLR input (RCA to XLR cable) it plays significantly (approx. 4-5 dB) quieter then when I go from my DAC to RCA amp's input. No difference in sound quality, only in volume.
What's wrong? I checked with different cables and still RCA are louder. Is my unit faulty?

PS other then this amp is great for the price and I really like it.

The symptoms are completely normal.
XLR balanced connections transmit using two pairs of unbalanced signals with positive and negative polarities. An RCA connection carries a voltage of 2V, while an XLR balanced connection carries a combination of +2V and -2V for a total of 4V.

If you use an RCA > XLR conversion cable, you will get sound, but the signal that is input to XLR is only 2V on one side.
This means that the input signal is lowered by -6dB. Equivalent to lowering the volume by 6dB.
RCA to XLR conversion cables can be used as an alternative method when you really want to get sound, but you lose all the benefits of a balanced connection and the sound quality definitely degrades from the original connection. Also sometimes worse than RCA > RCA connections.
Therefore, please understand this point and use it.

 

[josh6113]

First time poster just wanted to share that I too own and use the DA-9 in my main 2 channel sysyem.I run 2 JTR 210 RT's that are 95 dB efficient an smsl M400 dac and series 9 smsl streamer forget the model #.My source is an M1 mac mini.I have mac mini connected to streamer via USB from there i2s from streamer to m400 dac then balanced out to DA-9.The amps I was running were 1500 dollar mono's from D-sonic...there the m3a-1500m's.Its crazy but the DA-9 is giving me a much nicer sound almost sweet and very detailed.I don't crank my system so the power of the DA-9 is more than fine for me.I have been super impressed with it and no problems whatsoever.I might get 2 more for my other 2 channel systems there that good.The details this Amp brings out is kinda crazy especially at 250 a piece.I will be curious too to see measurements of this Amp if and when it happens.

Cheers

 

[cosmom3]

Picked up a DA-9 to complete my little SMSL stack (SU-9N + SH-9) to power my KEF Q150s, but I was wondering how much performance would be lost by going SE between the DAC (SU-9N) and the AMP (DA-9) since my DAC's balanced output is being used by the other AMP (SH-9).

 

[juliangst]

Do we have measurements for the DA-8s or DA-9? I'm looking for a good alternative to more expensive offerings from Hypex or Purifi.
I don't need much power since I will high-pass my LS50 but I need balanced inputs which don't many infineon amps have.
Are those Infineon amps from Topping or SMSL a solid buy or should I save up for a better amp?

 

[PatentLawyer]

I’m not aware of any measurements, unfortunately. For what little it is worth, I really like my DA9.

 

[JSmith]

DA-9

There is this on the product page;

DA-9

Foshan ShuangMuSanLin electronics Co., LTD. founded in 2009 which located in Shenzhen, China. And our branch company VMV Technology(HK) Company Limited registered in HK in 2013. Our company is specialized in the audio DAC, stereo headphone amplifier, power amplifier, and with own R&D...

www.smsl-audio.com

JSmith

 

[juliangst]

Really want to know if it has any common issues like load dependency, too much phase shift or any switching noise

 

[san]

Hi Guys,

I sold my 1 month old A300. I was using it with Q Acoustics 3020i speakers. The sound was good at low volumes under 30. But when I crank the volume above 30 the highs become piercing and it is unbearable in some songs.

Now I'm thinking of buying DA-9. Will it be any better than the A300 or should I look for something else.

 

[RandomEar]

Hi Guys,

I sold my 1 month old A300. I was using it with Q Acoustics 3020i speakers. The sound was good at low volumes under 30. But when I crank the volume above 30 the highs become piercing and it is unbearable in some songs.

Now I'm thinking of buying DA-9. Will it be any better than the A300 or should I look for something else.

If there's too much treble, I would suspect that's a problem with either your speakers, your positioning or your room / room treatment. I would expect both, the SMSL A300 and the DA-9 to not have a significant load dependency and to offer an essentially flat FR. Therefore, I would recommend looking into positioning, room treatment or EQ to fix the piercing treble.

 

[RandomEar]

Do we have measurements for the DA-8s or DA-9? I'm looking for a good alternative to more expensive offerings from Hypex or Purifi.
I don't need much power since I will high-pass my LS50 but I need balanced inputs which don't many infineon amps have.
Are those Infineon amps from Topping or SMSL a solid buy or should I save up for a better amp?

Here's a quick overview of basic THD+N measurements from different sources:

Sources:

• SMSL DA-9
  

  DA-9

  Foshan ShuangMuSanLin electronics Co., LTD. founded in 2009 which located in Shenzhen, China. And our branch company VMV Technology(HK) Company Limited registered in HK in 2013. Our company is specialized in the audio DAC, stereo headphone amplifier, power amplifier, and with own R&D...

  www.smsl-audio.com
• SMSL AO200
  
  

  SMSL AO200 Digital Amplifier

  SMSL AO200 Digital Amplifier

  aoshida-audio.com
• Hypex NC122MP
  
  https://www.hypex.nl/documenten/download/902
• Toppping PA-5
  
  

  Topping PA5 Review (Amplifier)

  This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping PA5 stereo desktop amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $349. PA5 enclosure looks like their standard DACs and such: Hard to imagine that an amplifier can fit in the same size but here we are. There are large...

  www.audiosciencereview.com

I've had a Hypex-based unit with NC122MP for a couple of days. It had some minor buzzing from the unit, which is why I returned it. That may not affect all of them, though. I now have an AO200, which initially had issues with my specific speakers and made a low-level squeaking sound. I got that fixed later on and have found only a handful of reports of that problem elsewhere. The hardware of the DA-9 is mostly identical to the AO200, but there are firmware differences. The Topping PA-5 has got a design problem causing units to fail after a couple of months, which is why I would not recommend it. Overall, the SMSL stuff works fine for me, but each unit has some minor quirks and - from what I've read around the forums - after sales service is sketchy, unless you buy from a local dealer.

As long as they produce enough power for your use case, I would expect all four of these to perform identical - except for speaker hiss. It's extremely faint with the AO200 on my speakers (sensitivity 87 dB), but the NC122MP was a bit better still. Both are inaudible to me past half a meter, even on an extremely quiet day.

 

[san]

If there's too much treble, I would suspect that's a problem with either your speakers, your positioning or your room / room treatment. I would expect both, the SMSL A300 and the DA-9 to not have a significant load dependency and to offer an essentially flat FR. Therefore, I would recommend looking into positioning, room treatment or EQ to fix the piercing treble.

Will check.Thanks

 

[Boxermotor]

I purchased an SMSL DA9 and I'm only getting the subwoofer output. Any thoughts on what might be the issue? I did reset the unit a number of times to no avail.

 

[18000rpm]

I purchased an SMSL DA9 and I'm only getting the subwoofer output. Any thoughts on what might be the issue? I did reset the unit a number of times to no avail.

If your input setting on the DA9 (balanced or unbalanced) is correct, it sounds like your unit is defective.

 

[yodog]

What does everyone think of the sa300 but using two of them for 330wpc?

Would it just be louder/more headroom or would it actually measure good?

Would it be superior to having a single ao200 for powering sb acoustics Rinjani Be floorstanders?

 

[3125b]

I‘ve recently bought a DA-9 and am happy with it so far. Haven‘t measured it, but it‘s powering my KEF R5 for nearfield use and it‘s plenty powerful for that. Preamp is an RME ADI-2 Pro. Noise floor is a couple dB lower than my Denon X2700, not audible at more then 10cm with my speakers (and most others for that matter).
The case is a clear step up from cheaper units and looks quite good on a desk, the internal PSU and good looking display interface are nice touches as well. It‘s very efficient too.
Anyone considering this and similar „2.1 amps“ must realize though that they are not receivers. The subwoofer output is not an LFE and there is no highpass for the speakers.

 

[sauhamm]

If there's too much treble, I would suspect that's a problem with either your speakers, your positioning or your room / room treatment. I would expect both, the SMSL A300 and the DA-9 to not have a significant load dependency and to offer an essentially flat FR. Therefore, I would recommend looking into positioning, room treatment or EQ to fix the piercing treble.

in my setup the smsl da-9 was a touch sharp too unfortunately. it has tons of detail up top but it seems to trade that for any warmth in the upper mid area. i tried it on my JBL 570s and no matter who, female singers were shouting above the rest of the mix. hi-hats could cut your ears clean off. as far as my room... out of 5 pair of speakers and 6 amps, only the smsl was too bright for me.

my main speakers are emotiva t2+, they have the lows, they have the highs, but more importantly they have the mids in droves... i love them like a fat kid loves cake. they lost their magic with the smsl da-9. they still sound striking and full on the bottom and very (too) detailed up top. but they lost the depth of the entire image and any warmth.

conversely if you have a gooey tube preamp - the smsl could settle in and sound amazing. it's a nice little piece of kit, but like all things in this hobby, pairing matters. and in my case, the da-9 carries a blade she ain't scared to cut a MF.

 

[RandomEar]

my main speakers are emotiva t2+, they have the lows, they have the highs, but more importantly they have the mids in droves...

They actually really don't:

[Source]

Emotiva t2+ have a distinct and very pronounced lack of anything and everything mid-range (and lower treble). There's almost 10 dB less from 400 Hz up to 5 kHz compared to the top and bottom end. If these sound like they lack some mid range with the DA-9, the amp works as designed.

Look, I'm sure that won't convince you but just to state it: I've got an SMSL AO200 running here, which is identical hardware-wise to the DA-9. I've had a Rotel class AB amps before, tested a Hypex NC252MP based unit and some other compact class D stuff. I can assure you that I would not be able to tell the AO200 apart from my old Rotel in a blind A/B test. The frequency response of my AO200 is flat, as far as I can tell (and I have actually measured it with my speakers). The same will be true for the DA-9, as it is identical apart from some firmware stuff and the case. So no "lack of warmth" or anything like that. Any amp that colors sound like that is either badly designed, broken or itentionally build to distort like some tube amps.

If you talk about imaging, that is nothing any amp will influence. The stereo image is mainly an aspect of the recording and during playback, it is influenced by the speaker and room characteristics (speaker directivity, resonances, room reflection and so on). I am sure that you think you heard these differences. But with some things, the brain is easily tricked. And I would bet my ass that this is what happened here.

 

[Poultrygeist]

in my setup the smsl da-9 was a touch sharp too unfortunately. it has tons of detail up top but it seems to trade that for any warmth in the upper mid area. i tried it on my JBL 570s and no matter who, female singers were shouting above the rest of the mix. hi-hats could cut your ears clean off. as far as my room... out of 5 pair of speakers and 6 amps, only the smsl was too bright for me.

my main speakers are emotiva t2+, they have the lows, they have the highs, but more importantly they have the mids in droves... i love them like a fat kid loves cake. they lost their magic with the smsl da-9. they still sound striking and full on the bottom and very (too) detailed up top. but they lost the depth of the entire image and any warmth.

conversely if you have a gooey tube preamp - the smsl could settle in and sound amazing. it's a nice little piece of kit, but like all things in this hobby, pairing matters. and in my case, the da-9 carries a blade she ain't scared to cut a MF.

The DA-9 has lots of EQ settings. Did you try them all?

 

[3125b]

This is a pretty efficient amp. Playing content at low volume (what most people use most of the time, best measured in milliwatts) the power consumption is only 2-3W:

That's better than most comparable amps*, SMSL clearly put focus on efficiency with this design. As a result it does not get warm to the touch at all, my RME feels like a space heater next to this. Standby power consumtion is about 0.5W which is typical for most amps.

I've had this amp for close to a month now and I'm still very happy with it. The one thing I would like to see upgraded considering the somewhat high price for this kind of product are the speaker terminal though, they are small, feel cheap, and aren't deep enough to fit standard-length banana plugs. I'd much prefer PCB plug-in connectors like on installation amps, they take up less space and are nicer to use.

*and most active speakers. My Focals are pretty good at 10W/pair, most designs even with class D amps draw far more.