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SMSL DO100 Review (Stereo DAC)

Rate this DAC:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 4 1.1%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 7 2.0%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther

    Votes: 32 9.0%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 311 87.9%

  • Total voters
    354

Green7

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May 31, 2020
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Looks like there is a new driver that is available. Just downloaded and now I get all the various resolution setting options in Windows 10 sound settings.
 

Veri

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Looks like there is a new driver that is available. Just downloaded and now I get all the various resolution setting options in Windows 10 sound settings.
Good :)
 

Lajamajasaman

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May 27, 2022
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Windows10 setting

For me it is set up under windows 10 as in this video. 382 kHz for me. 2.0 usb. But whatever format I listen to dsd, 44khz always has 382 prints on the display. Is that good? Or do I have to say something else? Factory driver is installed. 512 sampling. This is good? I use google translate.
Musicbee error. If I switch to wasapi exclusive, throw this error out: unable to initialize the output device (error=BASS_ERROR_NOTAVAIL) if I put it on asio, it will play 44.1, 192 khz music at speed up. Is there another hint? Or which player is trouble-free? Which isn't foobar with plenty of installations ... Wasapi share windows setting fix 384 khz the display always. Smsl driver 2021.12.15 v5.30 (Google Translate)
 

Lajamajasaman

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May 27, 2022
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Musicbee error. If I switch to wasapi exclusive, throw this error out: unable to initialize the output device (error=BASS_ERROR_NOTAVAIL) if I put it on asio, it will play 44.1, 192 khz music at speed up. Is there another hint? Or which player is trouble-free? Which isn't foobar with plenty of installations ... Wasapi share windows setting fix 384 khz the display always. Smsl driver 2021.12.15 v5.30 (Google Translate)
All problems solved by jriver media center....
 

Matias

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_thelaughingman

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Cristian

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Hi guys!

Thank you for your great job. I bought the DO100, to connect to my Focals Eco 65, and the usb-c does not show up in the midi interface. I use the latest Intel Mac, just before the switch to M1. Could you please give me a hint that could help me?

Thanks.
 

hampestampe

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Jan 12, 2021
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Does anyone use the DO100 with LG OLED C7, or any other dirty bad toslink implementation. I've raised the DPLL setting to dp7, but still not solid lock on the signal, I giving up and just maxed it out to dp9. My Sabre-based Okto Research dac8 stereo did not lock either that's why I bought my SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK2 dac with the AK4493 just to use with my TV. Before this dacs I had a Auralic Vega with Sabre ES9018s, it did not either manage to lock the signal.
How come AKM seems to be superior to Sabre in locking on poor quality toslink signals?
 

Veri

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Does anyone use the DO100 with LG OLED C7, or any other dirty bad toslink implementation. I've raised the DPLL setting to dp7, but still not solid lock on the signal, I giving up and just maxed it out to dp9. My Sabre-based Okto Research dac8 stereo did not lock either that's why I bought my SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK2 dac with the AK4493 just to use with my TV. Before this dacs I had a Auralic Vega with Sabre ES9018s, it did not either manage to lock the signal.
How come AKM seems to be superior to Sabre in locking on poor quality toslink signals?
I don't think it's AKM but the surrounding/supporting receiver chip (which there is a shortage of given current supply chain issues). If I remember correctly ESS Sabre chips do not necessarily need one unlike AKM, but compatibility is not 100%, as you notice.. Buying another, current production AKM-based device may not result in the same solid lock, it'll depend on several design decisions.. a lot of silicon has gone up in price and/or is very hard to find!
 

Green7

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I don't think it's AKM but the surrounding/supporting receiver chip (which there is a shortage of given current supply chain issues). If I remember correctly ESS Sabre chips do not necessarily need one unlike AKM, but compatibility is not 100%, as you notice.. Buying another, current production AKM-based device may not result in the same solid lock, it'll depend on several design decisions.. a lot of silicon has gone up in price and/or is very hard to find!
Saw something similar with the newer Topping E30 DAC's - issues with the receiver chip. Since the AKM factory fire, there has been a shortage of AKM products, The AK4418 receiver chips that were used in the initial batch of Topping E30 DAC's (before the fire) got replaced by non-AKM receiver chips. This had issues with CD players not working properly via Optical input. Topping finally put out a warning regarding compatibility of E30 DAC's and CD players.

 
Last edited:

Chilli

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Nov 7, 2018
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Does anyone use the DO100 with LG OLED C7, or any other dirty bad toslink implementation. I've raised the DPLL setting to dp7, but still not solid lock on the signal, I giving up and just maxed it out to dp9. My Sabre-based Okto Research dac8 stereo did not lock either that's why I bought my SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK2 dac with the AK4493 just to use with my TV. Before this dacs I had a Auralic Vega with Sabre ES9018s, it did not either manage to lock the signal.
How come AKM seems to be superior to Sabre in locking on poor quality toslink signals?
This is a very real problem. I have the same issue when trying to extract audio from my apple TV 4k hdmi output. It's absolutely ridiculous that apple has left out an audio output, relying on us to use hdmi. Let's find a dac with an hdmi input.... There's not much choice but to get a new avr.
It has been suggested that the common receiver chips don't do as good job as they used to. My Arcam avr from 2005 locks the signal, but my recent dac cannot.
I have been thinking about a DO100 or a Sabaj a10d/a20d 2022 using the adjustable dpll settings but it seems that sometimes it still won't lock? What are we to do? Great that you have a dac that does work.
Another option might be to buy a dac with i2s input as there are extractors that convert the hdmi into an i2s signal. Again, getting the mystical i2s connection to work or be compatible would be another small miracle.
I wonder how many dac manufacturers test their product with dirty inputs like our oled tvs and apple TV boxes....
 

Chilli

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Actually I have not had any drop outs when I use DPLL setting dp9, but I have just tested for like 60 minutes.
Ahh!
That's good news!
Then I guess it works! It might be worth giving this a go with either this dac or the new Sabaj equivalent.
Keep us in the loop. I think 60 mins is long enough for me to buy into these new dpll settings.
Thank you!
 

doug2761

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That looks great and is even a bit cheaper than the E50 I am currently using in my livingroom set up. Does anyone know whether the SMSL remotes are better than the Topping ones, cause the E50 Remote is annoying me (you have to be very precise in pointing the remote towards the DAC).
It's a generic SMSL remote. I haven't found it or other SMSL remotes to be problematic. It's an IR remote so it does need a line of sight to the device. Works fine for me across the room.
 

Zoide

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Oct 20, 2018
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No. aoshida, linsoul, hifi-express, shenzhenaudio, among numerous others import to EU by third parties (which are essentially warehouses) first. - Mostly located in Netherlands, Germany or Belgium. From there they distribute the goods all over EU to end users. ...So you will receive it as EU originating shipment then - customs cleared, tax paid, VAT (moms) paid.
Not necessarily, unfortunately:

"Shipping fees exclude import taxes or processing fees that might be applicable for your country. Linsoul is not responsible for any form of such fees."
(https://www.linsoul.com/pages/shipping)

1655465690034.png
 

doug2761

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Excellent results. I would have been happy to get this and the accompanying HP amp, had they been available two months ago... Oh well :rolleyes:

One question: Seeing the problems with clipping on the Gustard X18 due to (from my understanding) intersample overs, would it make sense to add this to the test suite? Because it looks like manufacturers effectively "cheat" out 3 dB of SINAD by accepting distortion of 0 dB signals which nobody checks.
This seems to be fairly common in ESS DAC implementations. I read RME's posts about their migration to ESS chips from AKM for their ADI-2. They added some logic to the design to handle this situation with the result being that the ESS and AKM implementations perform the same. Seems that a designer can address the overload scenario but at a cost of a few DB as you pointed out.
 

doug2761

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There's something fishy with the filter. The manual doesn't say which filter is the default (although I'd assume the 'default' is #3 Apodizing.) If the default filter actually was -12db at 20khz, wouldn't that mess up some of the other testing, at least the multitone?
On first power up, the filter on my unit was filter #1. I presume that's the default.
 

Bleib

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It's a generic SMSL remote. I haven't found it or other SMSL remotes to be problematic. It's an IR remote so it does need a line of sight to the device. Works fine for me across the room.
It's more responsive than the Topping remotes, which is why this DAC is now in my main system.
 
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