SMSL DL200 the best ever value DAC/AMP?

[staticV3]

Do you think it has enough power for hd6xx? Anyone experienced?

I need about 0.2Vrms to get my HD600 more than loud enough.

The DL200 can output about 5.5Vrms, which is almost 30dB louder, or ~7x the perceived loudness.

Unless you have severe hearing damage or you're losing buckets of headroom to badly normalized tracks or poor playback configuration, the DL200 will have no issues driving the HD6XX.

 

[ext23]

FWIW with my ZMF Auteur Classic (similar ohms and sensitivity to the HD600) I need to put the DL200 at volume 80 on low gain to get properly rockin' volume. That's with Spotify however, with volume normalisation set to normal. Apple Music plays louder I have noticed.

 

[JIW]

Do you think it has enough power for hd6xx? Anyone experienced?

The DL200's specified power for a 300 ohm load is 200 mW which is equivalent to (200*300/1000)^0.5 = 7.75 V or 10*log10(200*300/1000) = 17.78 dBV. The HD6XX's sensitivity is around 105 dB SPL at 1 V RMS or 0 dBV. Thus, the maximum peak level is around 105 + 17.78 + 3.01 = 125.79 dB SPL. That should be more than enough.

For my HD600, I use between 50 and 85 on low gain for almost everything I listen to from highly compressed modern music to big classical works. Some recordings - like Respighi's Roman Trilogy by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Lorin Maazel (see below) - require a more volume but are still good in low gain.

Source: https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/80078

 

[JIW]

The order and labeling of the filters has been updated. Based on the manual, it is correct apart from it being unclear if filter 7 is ESS #7 or ESS #8.View attachment 395875
However, this is from the product page. Filter 1 and 6 have the right name but the wrong colour and placement.
View attachment 395877

This is incorrect. The placement of the labels on the product page figure is correct but filter 1 is labelled incorrectly. Filter 1 (dark blue) is a slow minimum phase filter hiding behind filter 7 (black), i.e. filter 1 is ESS #7 or #8 not #1 minimum phase. Filters 2-6 are correctly labeled though.

 

[Qu@rk]

Your summary after my measurements and your analysis for the SMSL DL200:

SMSL FL1 - Minimum phase slow roll-off low dispersion (ESS #8)
SMSL FL2 - Minimum phase (ESS #1)
SMSL FL3 - Linear phase apodizing fast roll-off (ESS #2)
SMSL FL4 - Linear phase fast roll-off (ESS #3)
SMSL FL5 - Linear phase fast roll-off low ripple (ESS #4)
SMSL FL6 - Linear phase slow roll-off (ESS #5)
SMSL FL7 - Minimum phase fast roll-off (ESS #6)

SMSL filters mislabeled on ES9039 DACs

Several SMSL DACs using versions of the ESS ES9039 chip have mislabeled filters. First, I will use the case of the DL200 using one ES9039Q2M chip to show this is the case and correctly identify the filters. Then, I will show that other SMSL DACs using ES9039 chips namely the D-6S, DO100 Pro and...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[JIW]

Your summary after my measurements and your analysis for the SMSL DL200:

SMSL FL1 - Minimum phase slow roll-off low dispersion (ESS #8)
SMSL FL2 - Minimum phase (ESS #1)
SMSL FL3 - Linear phase apodizing fast roll-off (ESS #2)
SMSL FL4 - Linear phase fast roll-off (ESS #3)
SMSL FL5 - Linear phase fast roll-off low ripple (ESS #4)
SMSL FL6 - Linear phase slow roll-off (ESS #5)
SMSL FL7 - Minimum phase fast roll-off (ESS #6)

SMSL filters mislabeled on ES9039 DACs

Several SMSL DACs using versions of the ESS ES9039 chip have mislabeled filters. First, I will use the case of the DL200 using one ES9039Q2M chip to show this is the case and correctly identify the filters. Then, I will show that other SMSL DACs using ES9039 chips namely the D-6S, DO100 Pro and...

www.audiosciencereview.com

My last posts are based on the manual after the update.

 

[ext23]

So I tried updating the firmware to get the more-accurate-but-still-apparently-not-totally-correct labels, and the firmware app itself just displayed in gibberish characters for me on Windows 11.

 

[Qu@rk]

We would need new measurements to be sure that anything has changed and not only the PDF of the manual. I don't have the time at the moment to perform new measurements and more importantly my two DL200s work perfectly fine and I have no intention to update the firmware.

 

[th2j]

hello
what are the changes in the new firmware 1.3 please ?
thanks

 

[th2j]

i don't know if this is related to the new firmware but this morning i was listening a 96kHz album, and suddenly i have a pink noise at the beginning of a track.
And the screen of the DL200 prints 44,1. I retry the same track and it plays.
did you already have the same problem ?

 

[Qu@rk]

Unknown, no version info from SMSL (@SMSL: Is it so hard to provide basic dev information? OMG).

They changed the PDF of the manual but nobody can confirm that this is related to the firmware update (for example without new measurements).

 

[ext23]

I can confirm that there is nothing to confirm. I emailed SMSL and asked for a list of correctly labeled filters. This is what I got:

...but that's ALL I got.

 

[JIW]

I can confirm that there is nothing to confirm. I emailed SMSL and asked for a list of correctly labeled filters. This is what I got:View attachment 402321
...but that's ALL I got.

That is straight from the manual and incorrect for filter 1.

 

[Qu@rk]

My measurements confirmed the filters for pre FW 1.3.

SMSL FL1 - Minimum phase slow roll-off low dispersion (ESS #8)
SMSL FL2 - Minimum phase (ESS #1)
SMSL FL3 - Linear phase apodizing fast roll-off (ESS #2)
SMSL FL4 - Linear phase fast roll-off (ESS #3)
SMSL FL5 - Linear phase fast roll-off low ripple (ESS #4)
SMSL FL6 - Linear phase slow roll-off (ESS #5)
SMSL FL7 - Minimum phase fast roll-off (ESS #6)

We don't have measurements for FW 1.3 to confirm if anything was changed.

 

[nick_l44.1]

Your summary after my measurements and your analysis for the SMSL DL200:

SMSL FL1 - Minimum phase slow roll-off low dispersion (ESS #8)
SMSL FL2 - Minimum phase (ESS #1)
SMSL FL3 - Linear phase apodizing fast roll-off (ESS #2)
SMSL FL4 - Linear phase fast roll-off (ESS #3)
SMSL FL5 - Linear phase fast roll-off low ripple (ESS #4)
SMSL FL6 - Linear phase slow roll-off (ESS #5)
SMSL FL7 - Minimum phase fast roll-off (ESS #6)

SMSL filters mislabeled on ES9039 DACs

Several SMSL DACs using versions of the ESS ES9039 chip have mislabeled filters. First, I will use the case of the DL200 using one ES9039Q2M chip to show this is the case and correctly identify the filters. Then, I will show that other SMSL DACs using ES9039 chips namely the D-6S, DO100 Pro and...

www.audiosciencereview.com

This was true for the old FW. I was getting the same results as well. The new firmware has brought the filters in line with the manual for the most part. Here are the filters set by the new firmware:

FL1 Minimum phase slow roll-off low dispertion
FL2 Linear phase apodizing fast roll-off
FL3 Linear phase fast roll-off
FL4 Linear phase fast roll-off low-ripple
FL5 Linear phase slow roll-off
FL6 Minimum phase fast roll-off (or maybe Minimum phase)
FL7 Minimum phase slow roll-off

It is safe to say that FL1 and FL7 do not match the documentation.

Spoiler: Some graphs (FW 1.3)

FL1:

FL2:

FL3:

FL4:

FL5:

FL6:

FL7:

 

[JIW]

This was true for the old FW. I was getting the same results as well. The new firmware has brought the filters in line with the manual for the most part. Here are the filters set by the new firmware:

FL1 Minimum phase slow roll-off low dispertion
FL2 Linear phase apodizing fast roll-off
FL3 Linear phase fast roll-off
FL4 Linear phase fast roll-off low-ripple
FL5 Linear phase slow roll-off
FL6 Minimum phase fast roll-off (or maybe Minimum phase)
FL7 Minimum phase slow roll-off

It is safe to say that FL1 and FL7 do not match the documentation.

Spoiler: Some graphs (FW 1.3)

View attachment 402474
FL1:
View attachment 402476
FL2:
View attachment 402477
FL3:
View attachment 402478
FL4:
View attachment 402479
FL5:
View attachment 402480
FL6:
View attachment 402481
FL7:
View attachment 402482

Many thanks for the measurements.

FL6 is the minimum phase fast filter, i.e. ESS #6, due to the smooth stop-band.

Thus,
FL1 - Minimum phase slow roll-off low dispersion (ESS #8)
FL2 - Linear phase apodizing fast roll-off (ESS #2)
FL3 - Linear phase fast roll-off (ESS #3)
FL4 - Linear phase fast roll-off low-ripple (ESS #4)
FL5 - Linear phase slow roll-off (ESS #5)
FL6 - Minimum phase fast roll-off (ESS #6)
FL7 - Minimum phase slow roll-off (ESS #7)

 

[JIW]

I was just thinking of something else that could have been fixed with the new firmware. In the old firmware the volume attenuation for 88 and 89 is the same. Can anyone check if this has been fixed?

I am using a Mac so updating the firmware is not so straightforward which is why I have not done it.

 

[nick_l44.1]

I was just thinking of something else that could have been fixed with the new firmware. In the old firmware the volume attenuation for 88 and 89 is the same. Can anyone check if this has been fixed?

Not fixed. Here are the exact output levels for volume 1-99 with the new firmware.

 

[JIW]

Not fixed. Here are the exact output levels for volume 1-99 with the new firmware.
View attachment 402586

I borrowed a Windows PC to do the update just now and found the same.

 

[olds1959special]

So I tried updating the firmware to get the more-accurate-but-still-apparently-not-totally-correct labels, and the firmware app itself just displayed in gibberish characters for me on Windows 11.

I did this using VMWare Fusion on my Mac, but having the same problem, and I have no idea how to do anything in the app.