I still have e70 and smsl do200mk2 in tests.
On each, the piano sounds the same (Chopin), so I think I have two DACs made of metal
Do the two mentioned DACs sound identical, as indicated by the very strong group here? Yes, but I still maintain that 99.2%.
What is this 0.8% in my subjective opinion. I can define it in two ways: Wider soundstage (different concentration of instruments). The SMSL DO200 plays behind a slight fog, narrower stereo, more to the center.
e70 plays more space. The shortest and easiest way to describe it is as if I switched the DSP processor effects in the home theater receiver and turned on the hall effect for the e 70.
Let me remind you that I have one source, two DACs working at the same time, one M3si amplifier, so I only change the source on the AUX1, AUX2 amplifier
It's really a minor difference. In a blind ABX test, I would rather not distinguish which one plays, but I would distinguish that once it plays one and the other time.
What it comes from ? Different ESS, different company, different implementation, different PCBs, different paths, different capacitors - in a word, I don't know.
(e70 with a 2.5V output, the hall effect increases because it starts to play louder. Without measurements, I don't know if 2.5V is good for my amplifier or there is no distortion, there is a difference in the sound, but I don't like the sound it will seem distorted, I went back to 2V to be safe).
One last point.
I'm not a fan of MQA, but I have another problem with the DO200. Example of Tidal (this is also not my favorite music service) If I turn off MQA decoding in Tidal, if I switch from Master to HiFi package and DO200 detects that a given track is encoded with MQA, it decodes it anyway. The MQA mark appears on the DO200 display. Tidal is forcing MQA at all costs - a problem described on the forums.
To sum up, DO200 does not give me the control menu and the option to turn off MQA when I don't want it.
The summary will look like this
DO200 - return to the seller
E70 - probably will stay because I like its additional functions (trigger, display)
Unless, after sceptical assessments, I will return to the DX3pro + (but there I had to reset the power after connecting each new cable, there was some mismatch and instead of sound there was a squeak and noise from the speakers, I confirmed it on two pieces. I understand that cables are not switched outside of the tests , but I stopped trusting him that once my speakers would burn, maybe the Chinese forgot about some choke? - I don't know)
All of the above are my subjective feelings, I don't care about convincing anyone to the only right way.
On each, the piano sounds the same (Chopin), so I think I have two DACs made of metal
Do the two mentioned DACs sound identical, as indicated by the very strong group here? Yes, but I still maintain that 99.2%.
What is this 0.8% in my subjective opinion. I can define it in two ways: Wider soundstage (different concentration of instruments). The SMSL DO200 plays behind a slight fog, narrower stereo, more to the center.
e70 plays more space. The shortest and easiest way to describe it is as if I switched the DSP processor effects in the home theater receiver and turned on the hall effect for the e 70.
Let me remind you that I have one source, two DACs working at the same time, one M3si amplifier, so I only change the source on the AUX1, AUX2 amplifier
It's really a minor difference. In a blind ABX test, I would rather not distinguish which one plays, but I would distinguish that once it plays one and the other time.
What it comes from ? Different ESS, different company, different implementation, different PCBs, different paths, different capacitors - in a word, I don't know.
(e70 with a 2.5V output, the hall effect increases because it starts to play louder. Without measurements, I don't know if 2.5V is good for my amplifier or there is no distortion, there is a difference in the sound, but I don't like the sound it will seem distorted, I went back to 2V to be safe).
One last point.
I'm not a fan of MQA, but I have another problem with the DO200. Example of Tidal (this is also not my favorite music service) If I turn off MQA decoding in Tidal, if I switch from Master to HiFi package and DO200 detects that a given track is encoded with MQA, it decodes it anyway. The MQA mark appears on the DO200 display. Tidal is forcing MQA at all costs - a problem described on the forums.
To sum up, DO200 does not give me the control menu and the option to turn off MQA when I don't want it.
The summary will look like this
DO200 - return to the seller
E70 - probably will stay because I like its additional functions (trigger, display)
Unless, after sceptical assessments, I will return to the DX3pro + (but there I had to reset the power after connecting each new cable, there was some mismatch and instead of sound there was a squeak and noise from the speakers, I confirmed it on two pieces. I understand that cables are not switched outside of the tests , but I stopped trusting him that once my speakers would burn, maybe the Chinese forgot about some choke? - I don't know)
All of the above are my subjective feelings, I don't care about convincing anyone to the only right way.
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