This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL DO100 stereo balanced DAC with Bluetooth. It was sent to me by
Aoshida Audio and costs US 239.
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Sorry about the fuzzy front panel picture. It looks better in person. The rotary control makes it nice to adjust volume. Back panel is the usual affair but with USB-C connector instead of the usual Type B:
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Nice that AC adapter is built into the unit so you don't have to worry about a dongle. The usual SMSL remote control is provided.
SMSL DO100 Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard using XLR balanced out:
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This is superb performance especially at this price, landing the DO100 nicely in our top 20 list of best DACs ever measured:
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RCA output is just slightly worse:
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Same shows up in dynamic range:
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Multitone test shows the extremely low distortion:
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We are talking 15 dB lower than threshold of hearing folks!
IMD distortion is excellent with ever so slight hint of "ESS IMD Hump:"
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Jitter performance is superb across all three inputs -- something we don't always see:
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Linearity is textbook perfect of course:
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Seven different filters are provided:
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Using the default filter 1, we get incredibly good performance in our wideband distortion measurement:
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Conclusions
This is a flawless performance from SMSL. Every test is aced, leaving no room for any complaint whatsoever. When you consider that this state of the art performance is offered at relatively low cost, it is quite an achievement. There is no excuse left to not opt for full transparency folks.
It is my pleasure to recommend the SMSL DO100.
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