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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

cosmom3

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Mine is arriving tomorrow after picking one up second hand. Looking forward to it as my living room setup.

I can confirm that the the USB-C to USB-C to my iPad doesn't work. What a travesty.
 
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Ohlsdorfer

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Unfortunately, the quality leaves much to be desired. After 3 months of use, the sound began to be interrupted, and then completely disappeared. Periodically erupts very loud noise and clicks.
Judging by some reviews, this is not an isolated case of SMSL product quality.
 

Ohlsdorfer

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I wrote to the seller from China, he asked me to send him a video with a malfunction. He said he would pass it on to the engineer. Now I'm waiting for a response.
On one of the specialized sites dedicated to professional audio equipment, there was a branch where many spoke negatively about the quality of Chinese manufacturers' DACs. They mainly pointed to problems with cheap components, many of which are fakes.
 
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Only just started listening but I read one review that stated it had a slightly narrow soundstage. I can happily report it's way wider than a Beresford Caiman Seg TC-7535 and makes the Beresford sound thin. Glad in some ways that I held off on an upgrade because it allowed SMSL time to make this. Synergy with an Arcam rHead is excellent. Just tried Billie Eilish Bad Guy and while it sounds good on the Beresford, it sounds way better on the SMSL. Even over bluetooth it sounds pretty good (but obviously better over USB as 32 bit 384Khz). Anyone who claims all dacs sound the same should come and listen to these two ;):D
 
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nsfgp

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No offense but don't think it seems like a fair comparison with the DO-100 per the review/comments here. No doubt it will be a big upgrade ... congrats.

 
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No offense but don't think it seems like a fair comparison with the DO-100 per the review/comments here. No doubt it will be a big upgrade ... congrats.

Non taken. The Beresford replaced an SMSL Sanskrit 6th and was an improvement on that so I always thought I'd got a good dac there. I only recently discovered Amir's review of the Beresford which was partially what got me looking. I think I'll go advertise it for sale on the other place where they seem to love it ;)
 
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aerochrome2

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The only weird thing I've noticed is that sometimes when I'm first starting a listening session it takes my subwoofer anywhere from a few seconds to 30 seconds to turn on. I'm feeding it with the RCA out and my spealer with the XLR out. I'm not sure if it's an issue on the subwoofer end (SVS 1000 PRO with an auto on trigger) or some kind of delay in the DO100 putting the RCA feed out. It's hard to test because my amp only takes XLR and sub only takes RCA, so I can't just swap the lines and see what happens. Any ideas?
 

Robbo99999

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The only weird thing I've noticed is that sometimes when I'm first starting a listening session it takes my subwoofer anywhere from a few seconds to 30 seconds to turn on. I'm feeding it with the RCA out and my spealer with the XLR out. I'm not sure if it's an issue on the subwoofer end (SVS 1000 PRO with an auto on trigger) or some kind of delay in the DO100 putting the RCA feed out. It's hard to test because my amp only takes XLR and sub only takes RCA, so I can't just swap the lines and see what happens. Any ideas?
I've got the SVS 1000 Pro too. If you have the auto shutdown option selected, then it can take a number of seconds for it to reawaken once it receives a signal - it seems to vary though, sometimes it will be zero time, sometimes it will feel like 10 seconds or so. I have my SVS 1000 Pro hooked up to a miniDSP 2x4 and my JBL speakers are attached to that too - so the delay you're seeing is nothing to do with your DAC, it's just that the sub seems to take slightly variable amounts of time to wake up.
 

aerochrome2

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I've got the SVS 1000 Pro too. If you have the auto shutdown option selected, then it can take a number of seconds for it to reawaken once it receives a signal - it seems to vary though, sometimes it will be zero time, sometimes it will feel like 10 seconds or so. I have my SVS 1000 Pro hooked up to a miniDSP 2x4 and my JBL speakers are attached to that too - so the delay you're seeing is nothing to do with your DAC, it's just that the sub seems to take slightly variable amounts of time to wake up.
Thanks. I may just switch to always on and get better at turning off the power strip at night. The delay thing bugs me.
 

drake5000

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Is anyone else getting a high-pitched noise (typical "coil whine") when the unit is turned OFF(!) with the power plugged in (220V)? The coil whine turns silent once I turn it on, but as soon as I turn it off via the volume wheel, it starts again and can be heard from about 20 to 30cm distance. Is this normal with this unit? Is anyone else experiencing this?
I leave mine on 24/7. Just turned it off. 10pm at night so silent house. There is a ?transformer hum/buzz when i put my ear onto the case. Turned back on - no noise. Hope this helps. 240V. g
How bad is that? I am considering this unit, but kinda worried after reading your reports
 

doug2761

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How bad is that? I am considering this unit, but kinda worried after reading your reports
I've had one for a few months now in place of my Chord Qutest. It works fine for me and I don't hear any noises. One exception is that on startup it defaults to DSD and on the first song played there is a pop when it changes to PCM. It doesn't do that again after the initial one even if switching back to DSD and PCM. I just leave it on. No other issues. Reviewers don't seem to talk about these sorts of clicks and pops that can happen on start up so it's a bit of a dice roll on any given model.
 

Graham849

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How bad is that? I am considering this unit, but kinda worried after reading your reports
It's not bad, only there if I turn it off on the unit and not disconnected from power.. I leave it on 24/7. I have been using it for 5 months. I think its great value for money.
 

SmokinJoe

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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.
View attachment 208131

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:

View attachment 208132

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:
View attachment 208133
This is superb performance especially at this price, landing the DO100 nicely in our top 20 list of best DACs ever measured:

View attachment 208134

RCA output is just slightly worse:
View attachment 208135

Same shows up in dynamic range:

View attachment 208136

Multitone test shows the extremely low distortion:
View attachment 208137

We are talking 15 dB lower than threshold of hearing folks!

IMD distortion is excellent with ever so slight hint of "ESS IMD Hump:"
View attachment 208138

Jitter performance is superb across all three inputs -- something we don't always see:
View attachment 208139

Linearity is textbook perfect of course:
View attachment 208140

Seven different filters are provided:

View attachment 208141


Using the default filter 1, we get incredibly good performance in our wideband distortion measurement:
View attachment 208142

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.

---------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Can the XLR and RCA outputs be used simultaneously?
 

panther

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If I got this and paired with the AO200, which device would control the volume?
 

panther

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Use the AO200 for volume control. If I had the AO200 I would connect my DO100 to it with XLR cables. Then just run the volume of the DAC all the way to max (99). There is no DAC mode on the DO100, but using max volume will be the same thing so just do that.
Thank you, this is what I kinda thought but glad to have some feedback.
 
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kolestonin

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I use this is as a dac with a pre amp so I don't need to use the volume function.

Is there a way to make it turn on and off with windows?

My Topping E30 does that and is nice to not have the dac constantly on.

I want to put it in a cabinet and don't have to use the remote.
 
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kolestonin

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I guess I will turn off the screen and leave it permanently on.

Standby power is 0.5w according the manual.

So I guess by leaving it on, the consumption will be 0.5w as long as no signal is going through the DAC.

Is my understanding of standby power correct?
 
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