SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

[Bleib]

It's on sale again

SMSL DL200 AUDIO DAC & Headphone Amplifier MQA-CD ES9039Q2M

SMSL DL200 AUDIO DAC features MQA-CD ES9039Q2M, Bluetooth APTX HD, OPA1612 XU-316, and DSD512 compatibility, plus 6.35mm & 4.4mm headphone outputs and a handy remote control. Support MQA decoding, support MQA-CD; ESS new generation high-end digital-to-analog chip ES9039Q2M; Qualcomm latest...

hifi-express.com

 

[ext23]

AliExpress also has a pretty big sale on at the moment, you should be able to get the price down to about US$130 with coupons and coins. Insane value!

 

[Yersinia Bestmate]

I'm really impressed of the headphone amplifier in DL200 now that I've been able to properly test it. I've had the device for about 10 months functioning as the dac in my no.1 setup, thus kind of wasting the hp amp alltogether.

Compared to Topping A70pro the only difference I can tell is the larger power reserves of A70pro.

 

[ext23]

Compared to Topping A70pro the only difference I can tell is the larger power reserves of A70pro.

We're talking 1.5W vs 1.7W right? Only stuff like TotL planars would really need MORE power than this SMSL. What headphones are you using?

 

[DeDovla]

We're talking 1.5W vs 1.7W right?

1.5W at 32Ohms on DL200 in high gain (+10dB or +11dB gain) vs 3W SE Out or 12.6W Bal Out at 32Ohm on A70 Pro in high gain (+14dB gain for SE; +20dB gain for Bal). For most headphones DL200 has more than plenty of power, but it is nice to have some headroom in case of using EQ pre-amplifying or getting less sensitive headphones in the future.

 

[ext23]

1.5W at 32Ohms on DL200 in high gain (+10dB or +11dB gain) vs 3W SE Out or 12.6W Bal Out at 32Ohm on A70 Pro in high gain (+14dB gain for SE; +20dB gain for Bal). For most headphones DL200 has more than plenty of power, but it is nice to have some headroom in case of using EQ pre-amplifying or getting less sensitive headphones in the future.

OK I totally misunderstood the specs of the Topping haha. That is a beast of an amp.

 

[StefanR]

Bought the DL200 in June. A lot to like and high value. However, using Moode Audio with CamillaDSP on a Raspberry Pi (various versions of Pies), there are clicks and pops several times a minute in USB mode 2.0, making it quite useless, particularly for classical music. In USB 1.1 mode they actually go away, while obviously limiting the high sampling frequency capabilities. I discovered this semi-remedy after testning various Camilladsp and Moode settings for many annoying hours (particularly CDSP Device settings, e.g. chunk size, rate adjust a.s.o). Have asked support about FW update but no response yet. No such update listed on website. Anyone else had similar issues? (Not referring to clicks btw. tracks but in the middle of music)

 

[Grael]

Pops through USB DACs occurred for me with older versions of Raspberry Pi, but nothing since Raspberry Pi 4 (and 5)

 

[StefanR]

Pops through USB DACs occurred for me with older versions of Raspberry Pi, but nothing since Raspberry Pi 4 (and 5)

Yes, indeed it turned out that using a Raspberry Pi 4B 2GB instead of weaker/older models did the trick! Funny, since CPU and RAM utilization still didn't seem that high.

 

[Alp]

Any measurements available besides the smsl's? Long thread, "old" device, no review from Amir, that is odd

 

[Power Pop 23]

Any measurements available besides the smsl's? Long thread, "old" device, no review from Amir, that is odd

None that I am aware of......

Amir has measured the $219 SMSL C200 DAC/Headphone Amplifier :

AOSHIDA SMSL C200 Review (DAC & Amp)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the AOSHIDA SMSL C200 balanced DAC and headphone amplifier. It costs US $210. The unit looks attractive enough for a desktop product. The LED is function but sadly displays the sample rate rather than volume (until you change that). Navigating the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[staticV3]

Any measurements available besides the smsl's? Long thread, "old" device, no review from Amir, that is odd

ASR user @nick_l44.1 has shared measurements of the DL200:

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

I mean if the volume is at 10% on the TV and the optical output take it in account, you got a weak volume signal entering the DAC. Oh i see what you mean! Changing TV volume makes no difference, sadly. I thought optical was fixed output. *edit* appears I was wrong. Found a setting on the tv...

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

I mean if the volume is at 10% on the TV and the optical output take it in account, you got a weak volume signal entering the DAC. Oh i see what you mean! Changing TV volume makes no difference, sadly. I thought optical was fixed output. *edit* appears I was wrong. Found a setting on the tv...

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

I mean if the volume is at 10% on the TV and the optical output take it in account, you got a weak volume signal entering the DAC. Oh i see what you mean! Changing TV volume makes no difference, sadly. I thought optical was fixed output. *edit* appears I was wrong. Found a setting on the tv...

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

Linux. Thanks for the advice, I guess :rolleyes: But there's no way I'm going to jump into that swamp and start changing my whole OS and start learning how to use a new one just because of a faint pop/click when switching tracks (and which are not there in my no.1 set which runs on Win10, as I...

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

Linux. Thanks for the advice, I guess :rolleyes: But there's no way I'm going to jump into that swamp and start changing my whole OS and start learning how to use a new one just because of a faint pop/click when switching tracks (and which are not there in my no.1 set which runs on Win10, as I...

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

We don't have measurements for DL200 Actually you have some: Post 1 Post 2 Post 3

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

I have a degree in Biochem and Molecular Biology and can assure you that getting vaccinated has noting to do with "crap poison".. the amount of poison you get injected with is far lower than what you get from drinking a single beer. But that wasn't my point. Dear Lambo1985 travels...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[ext23]

ASR user @nick_l44.1 has shared measurements of the DL200:

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

I mean if the volume is at 10% on the TV and the optical output take it in account, you got a weak volume signal entering the DAC. Oh i see what you mean! Changing TV volume makes no difference, sadly. I thought optical was fixed output. *edit* appears I was wrong. Found a setting on the tv...

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

I mean if the volume is at 10% on the TV and the optical output take it in account, you got a weak volume signal entering the DAC. Oh i see what you mean! Changing TV volume makes no difference, sadly. I thought optical was fixed output. *edit* appears I was wrong. Found a setting on the tv...

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

I mean if the volume is at 10% on the TV and the optical output take it in account, you got a weak volume signal entering the DAC. Oh i see what you mean! Changing TV volume makes no difference, sadly. I thought optical was fixed output. *edit* appears I was wrong. Found a setting on the tv...

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

Linux. Thanks for the advice, I guess :rolleyes: But there's no way I'm going to jump into that swamp and start changing my whole OS and start learning how to use a new one just because of a faint pop/click when switching tracks (and which are not there in my no.1 set which runs on Win10, as I...

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

Linux. Thanks for the advice, I guess :rolleyes: But there's no way I'm going to jump into that swamp and start changing my whole OS and start learning how to use a new one just because of a faint pop/click when switching tracks (and which are not there in my no.1 set which runs on Win10, as I...

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

We don't have measurements for DL200 Actually you have some: Post 1 Post 2 Post 3

www.audiosciencereview.com

SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

I have a degree in Biochem and Molecular Biology and can assure you that getting vaccinated has noting to do with "crap poison".. the amount of poison you get injected with is far lower than what you get from drinking a single beer. But that wasn't my point. Dear Lambo1985 travels...

www.audiosciencereview.com

What's the simple English TLDR?

 

[Bleib]

SMSL Audio Official -Professional audio product manufacturer

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

New firmware; 1.3. I can't get it to update. Likely because I have previously installed version 1.1 which I found on this forum?

Edit: Got it to work, had to push restart button first in the app

 

[Lambo1985]

What's the simple English TLDR?

It's good.

 

[audioje]

SMSL Audio Official -Professional audio product manufacturer

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

New firmware; 1.3. I can't get it to update. Likely because I have previously installed version 1.1 which I found on this forum?

Edit: Got it to work, had to push restart button first in the app

Hmm once I plug in the power cable per the instruction, usb-serial ch340 turns to just (com**) and clicking restart or start don't do anything. Does it do anything special?

 

[Bleib]

Hmm once I plug in the power cable per the instruction, usb-serial ch340 turns to just (com**) and clicking restart or start don't do anything. Does it do anything special?

I think I might done one additional thing before I got it to work. I held down the button on the unit as I inserted the USB cable or maybe it was the power cable. This seems to have reset the settings at first. The idea was perhaps that this help the firmware to work.
But it's a bit hard to know exactly what happens as I don't have the right language pack installed, can't copy and paste the text into google translate.
SMSL could do a lot better on this, Topping's firmwares are so much easier to apply.

 

[Qu@rk]

What problems should the new firmware fix?
Do you have any problems with your DL200 and the factory firmware?
Or just update because it seems to be newer?

 

[Bleib]

What problems should the new firmware fix?
Do you have any problems with your DL200 and the factory firmware?
Or just update because it seems to be newer?

Well, the pdf suggests it adjusts it from 12mhz to 11.944mhz
Fixing sync-problems?

 

[Qu@rk]

Have you experienced sync-problems?

My point: The firmware development of these Chinese manufacturers has not been very reliable. I would apply a firmware update only if I absolutely have to and if it is solving a problem I am having.