SMSL DO100 PRO - HDMI ARC DAC

[formdissolve]

The A70 has a high failure rate, not a safe purchase. If yours is among the good ones be glad.

I still have a warranty until Nov 2024, so hopefully it lasts a long time.. I had the SMSL SP400 which I liked too and never failed on me, but I like the feature set on the A70 Pro better.

I've had one Topping unit fail on me within three months: L50.. they sent a brand new replacement so I hope that doesn't fail.

Funny, I have two pieces of audio equipment from the mid-90s that I use almost daily and they have never had a problem in 30 years.

 

[formdissolve]

I finally received the D100 Pro and got it set up with ARC to my TV, and confirmed that it's limited to 16-bit 44.1kHz at all times from my TV.. which makes sense because standard ARC is limited to 1.5mbps! I watch a lot of blu-rays and would prefer to get an undithered and non-resampled PCM stream from my player, so I ordered an eArc extractor and will just use the coax connection to the D100.. Debating not keeping it, but it does sound excellent.

 

[Gamefreak]

I got my D100 Pro and here are some issues I've faced regarding the HDMI Arc when using with an LG C2:

The janky hdmi arc connection issue is present, need to power it off (cannot just turn it to standby) and on to connect every time if you change inputs to other than arc to make it connect. And using the TV remote to increase or lower volume, its a separate volume meter on the TV that it's controlling instead of directly changing the dac volume.

However, the biggest issue is: there is a constant noise that's playing from my speaker when hdmi arc is connected, its very audible at listening position (1.5m away) and it is also present when nothing is playing. All other inputs I've tried, usb, optical and coaxial, this does not happen. In fact, I've just been using that audible noise to know when hdmi arc has successfully connected since getting the sound to output from arc is already problematic.

I've reported this issue to AOSHIDA which I bought this from, hopefully it's just my specific unit that has this issue, or maybe it's just the TV model issue. I've stopped using the hdmi arc input completely because of this, previously I've used it for streaming on TV, netflix, prime video etc, I'm now using coaxial instead, there is no noise issue from it, maybe the HDMI ports on the C2 are bad.

Anyone else got this issue of noise from hdmi arc? Is it possible the hdmi arc on the dac doesn't actually go through the usual circuits like the other inputs and isn't actually low noise?

I probably won't be returning this, I'm enjoying the overall sound improvement as compared to my previous dac, current using usb for pc, coaxial for TV streaming and optical for bluray player with no issues (other than the popping noise on usb when playing music that happens whenever sampling rate changes, its mild and I don't mind it). In the first place I got this because I was hoping I could use HDMI instead of coaxial for TV streaming, because previously, I had to change DPLL to max every time to prevent audio dropouts, which happened far to many time when streaming Netflix when DPLL is at minimum and then changing it back to minimum when using usb-pc. I was hoping HDMI arc didn't have that issue, however that don't matter now, I've been using DPLL at minimum all the way and so far zero audio dropouts with coaxial when streaming, haven't touched DPLL at all.

 

[nanook]

However, the biggest issue is: there is a constant noise that's playing from my speaker when hdmi arc is connected

This might be a ground loop or leakage current of the TV combined with poor cabling between DAC and Amp..
.
You can check this by unplugging the HDMI (no noise if I got you right). Then hold the HDMI connector such that only the outer metal shield of the plug touches the metal shield of the connector.
In case the noise returns just by connecting the shields (and therefore the internal ground of the two units) the root cause is a ground loop or leakage current.

 

[Gamefreak]

I should clarify that, there's noise only when using hdmi arc is selected as the current dac input (while the hdmi cable is connected), not that there's noise happening constantly regardless of which input is selected when the hdmi cable is physically connected to the tv, its only when I change input to hdmi arc.

When I tested, I basically had all the 4 inputs connected at the same time, 2 of them, coaxial and hdmi arc is connected to the same device, the tv for streaming. There is no noise from any except when hdmi arc is the current input, so I doubt its a cabling issue between the dac and amp. I've also tested 3 different hdmi cables, 2 hdmi 2.0 and 1 hdmi 2.1, and its the same, all have noise for hdmi arc.

 

[Head_Unit]

If the wife has to turn power off/on to get ARC to work wouldn't optical be better?

If you have a wife and/or kids and/or roommates who just watch TV casually and don't care about the stereo it is far better methinks to have the TV speakers on all the time. When you want to watch seriously, connect HDMI or optical. If you must be connected then optical is far far less likely to #$%& than HDMI, plus ARC will turn on the stereo whenever you turn on the TV which again most people don't care about for watching most content (news, old reruns, court TV, game shows).

 

[randomusername]

so this dac supports only arc and not earc? I do not get why they did not add earac support when there are plenty of cheap earc audio extractors.

 

[Toku]

so this dac supports only arc and not earc? I do not get why they did not add earac support when there are plenty of cheap earc audio extractors.

eARC is an expanded version of arc that adds audio effects such as Dolby and DTS. However, DACs for pure 2ch audio cannot process the expanded functions of eARC.

 

[randomusername]

eARC is an expanded version of arc that adds audio effects such as Dolby and DTS. However, DACs for pure 2ch audio cannot process the expanded functions of eARC.

but the device owner stated a few posts ago https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...msl-do100-pro-hdmi-arc-dac.53361/post-1979681 that the device is limited to 44.1 khz because lack of earc support.. is he wrong? Doesn't an eark device could extract more bitrate from the basic PCM through the HDMI port? my nvidia card can send up to 192khz 24bit autio to an hdmi port. it would be nice to have the same bitrate on the external stereo at the tv end

 

[Toku]

but the device owner stated a few posts ago https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...msl-do100-pro-hdmi-arc-dac.53361/post-1979681 that the device is limited to 44.1 khz because lack of earc support.. is he wrong? Doesn't an eark device could extract more bitrate from the basic PCM through the HDMI port? my nvidia card can send up to 192khz 24bit autio to an hdmi port. it would be nice to have the same bitrate on the external stereo at the tv end

The ARC standard can transmit up to 192kHz/24Bit. In this case, the limit of 44.1kHz is due to the TV's output specifications.

 

[formdissolve]

The ARC standard can transmit up to 192kHz/24Bit. In this case, the limit of 44.1kHz is due to the TV's output specifications.

ARC only supports around 1.5mbps - or CD quality!

eARC supports a lot higher bandwidth: "With its 37Mb/s bandwidth, eARC can carry up to 32-channel audio, including 8 channels of 192 kHz and 24-bit uncompressed audio. It also supports modern advanced audio formats like DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS:X, Dolby TrueHD, and Dolby Atmos. In comparison, HDMI ARC only supports up to 6-channel compressed audio and has a maximum bandwidth of 1Mb/second. It supports different audio formats like PCM (2 channel), Dolby Digital (up to 5.1 channel) and DTS Digital Surround (up to 5.1 channel)."

 

[randomusername]

1.5 mbps bitrate - maximum 44.1 khz according to this table

 

[staticV3]

My LG OLED E7N outputs Stereo 16Bit 48kHz LPCM via ARC:

WiiM Ultra

What are the chances of the WiiM Ultra sounding as good as this $95K MSB DAC?

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[formdissolve]

My LG OLED E7N outputs Stereo 16Bit 48kHz LPCM via ARC:

WiiM Ultra

What are the chances of the WiiM Ultra sounding as good as this $95K MSB DAC?

www.audiosciencereview.com

Yeah 16 bit 48khz appears to be the max speed per HDMI ARC spec. My LG TV forces 16 bit 44.1 PCM stereo over ARC on the SMSL, but does 16 bit 48khz PCM stereo over optical.

If I use an ARC/eARC extractor I get 16bit 48khz from the TV though, which is weird.

 

[Argonil]

I watched a guy review the DO100 Pro, and after stating that he has a general preference for the Modius E which he compares all DACs to, he said the DO100 Pro doesn't sound quite as great, calling it "Chi-Fi" (because it's Chinese), noting that the soundstage in particular was less defined than the Modius E using the USB connection. Forgive my ignorance, but how do I know he isn't just getting a placebo effect from his stated preference for the Modius E and his bias towards Chinese products?
I find it hard to believe that any sound quality differences between two DACs of this quality can easily be discerned by the human ear. The placebo effect should give an error margin that is larger than the actual sound quality difference, making such reports unreliable. To top it all off, saying that the soundstage is the biggest difference... does that even make sense? I thought the speakers themselves had the largest effect on the soundstage, not your DAC.

Does anyone have both the Modius E and the DO100 Pro who can compare the soundstages?

 

[staticV3]

I watched a guy review the DO100 Pro, and after stating that he has a general preference for the Modius E which he compares all DACs to, he said the DO100 Pro doesn't sound quite as great, calling it "Chi-Fi" (because it's Chinese), noting that the soundstage in particular was less defined than the Modius E using the USB connection.
Forgive my ignorance, but how do I know he isn't just getting a placebo effect from his stated preference for the Modius E and his bias towards Chinese products?

By asking for the specific details of his comparison setup:

-How did he match levels and Nyquist filters?
-How long was the dead time between switching DACs?
-How did he assure (double) blind test conditions?
-What was the number of trials?
-What was the confidence interval of him correctly identifying the DAC by sound?

Spoiler warning:
He didn't do any of those things, therefore his results are full of bias and not to be taken seriously.

I find it hard to believe that any sound quality differences between two DACs of this quality can easily be discerned by the human ear.

Rightly so.

 

[Lord19]

Friends. Share the SMSL DO100PRO firmware. There is no firmware on the official website, technical support is not responding.

 

[formdissolve]

Friends. Share the SMSL DO100PRO firmware. There is no firmware on the official website, technical support is not responding.

I haven't heard of new firmware

 

[LADO_B]

Hello guys! My first message here. Just got my DO100PRO, everything is fine on audio but... the display appears to be defective(?) Has anyone seen something similar? It looks misaligned, and if you look from the side it becomes hard to read de characters. Does not affect any functionality but is very ugly, very annoying visually. Is it possible to fix? It was ordered in Canada and my sister brought to me in the box to Brazil. So I can't return it.

any help is appreciated

cheers

 

[nanook]

Hello guys! My first message here. Just got my DO100PRO, everything is fine on audio but... the display appears to be defective(?) Has anyone seen something similar? It looks misaligned, and if you look from the side it becomes hard to read de characters. Does not affect any functionality but is very ugly, very annoying visually. Is it possible to fix? It was ordered in Canada and my sister brought to me in the box to Brazil. So I can't return it.

any help is appreciated

cheers

This looks like some misalignment horizontally indeed.
I do not own the DO100PRO (got another D-6s shipped a few days before the DO100PRO was online, otherwise I would have given it a try. From what I saw from PCB photos I'd expect the performance might even exceed the D-6s; nothing audible t.m.h.o. though), but as far as I saw the case is similar to the DO300EX and the DO400. Both of them were really easy to open, you just need the correct hex-nut (2mm, 4 screws on the buttom and 3 screws at the rear for the DO400; the DO100 might have only 2 screws at the rear). Then you can slide the top cover towards the rear and take it off. No need to remove the knob like for the D-6s.
Maybe you can locate and fix the misalignment.