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SMSL DO200 MKII DAC Review

Rate this DAC:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 9 3.7%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 15 6.2%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 64 26.3%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 155 63.8%

  • Total voters
    243

prerich

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If the filters mainly effect 16-20kHz I think it would be lost on me.
Do you like it better than the X16 because of the sound quality or other aspects, like practicality?
Other aspects definitely...I could live with both dacs but maybe the talk of the window being so small finally got to me when I started using the remote and had to go up to my rack anyway. Convenience and the ability to shape the "flavor" a little bit is why I changed. I'm keeping 1 D/S dac and 1 R2R dac. Done......
 

oleg87

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6 pages and no mention of DSD performance. I don’t think many members of Audiosciencereview are using their DACs to their fullest potential if nobody is interested in the popping sound that plagues many DACs in between DSD tracks.
How many members of ASR are using DSD in any capacity?
Not exactly a mainstream format...
 

prerich

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A steep fast linear filter is the only accurate choice.

Going full Spock, logic dictates that if filters don’t matter, use the fast linear filter, if filters do matter, use fast linear filter. :)

- Rich
That's the filter I use the linear filter, I also use the "Crystal 1" mode.
 

confucius_zero

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So, what do you want in addition?
I don't have much ideas aside from trying to come up with a new objectively scientific value that possibly covers possibly subjective interpretation of "dac sound signatures"...
 

confucius_zero

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because if you are in the 120dB+ SINAD range its probably a competently designed DAC without major issues.
The major issues being loads of subjective talk on their "sound signature" still occurring in most audio forums that favor both subjective and objective banter. I just wish for a test bench update to evolve in order to objectify data that are part of the subjective world...
 

pablolie

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How many members of ASR are using DSD in any capacity?
Not exactly a mainstream format...
Nobody has ever needed a new format in audio... all these are just about making some $, but if people feel better about it... good for them.

Same about these new DACs that are just built for test bench purposes and provide zero new features to make their performance usable.

And... do people still use remotes? Tablets are your friend...
 

Rewind

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How many members of ASR are using DSD in any capacity?
Not exactly a mainstream format...
I see it as a treat everytime I find an album I like in the DSD format. I prefer my DAC to follow the DSD specification when I do, and not pop annoyingly.
 

oleg87

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The major issues being loads of subjective talk on their "sound signature" still occurring in most audio forums that favor both subjective and objective banter. I just wish for a test bench update to evolve in order to objectify data that are part of the subjective world...
I suspect quantifying that would require data-mining head-fi or SBAF for subjectivist keywords rather than anything to do with the DAC itself.
 

okok

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can they do some -120db speaker amps instead of tons of DACs, many of us own a bunch of DACs already.
 

Doodski

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Same about these new DACs that are just built for test bench purposes and provide zero new features to make their performance usable.
I suppose a DAC is becoming a common household appliance and sales supports the number of models available.
 

pablolie

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The major issues being loads of subjective talk on their "sound signature" still occurring in most audio forums that favor both subjective and objective banter. I just wish for a test bench update to evolve in order to objectify data that are part of the subjective world...
Maybe there was a time when people could hear a difference between equipment that was well designed within the parameters and limitations of their time - and made a living out of it, writing for mags etc and probably providing a valuable service in making vendors improve e their products.

With top electronics these days... you know what you get. Either accurate or embellishing. There will be differences there. But anyone that claims. they can hear differences between two DACs that measure linearly and are in the 100db+ range -all other things being the same- is completely deluding themselves,

The thing is that the aforementioned people still need to make a living and perpetuate the old. myths for survival. And those who buy the hype will never admit they can't hear a difference, but good for them if they are happier listeners.
 

AndreaT

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Does that matter in our consumer audio systems, though? Just relevant on long, long cable distances. I like analog XLR, don't get me wrong (even though I know it's really just relevant with longer dustance, really), but with digital it just takes a $30 interface adapter (prolly much cheaper in places I dont check).
XLR always tests better than RCA
 

Koeitje

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The major issues being loads of subjective talk on their "sound signature" still occurring in most audio forums that favor both subjective and objective banter. I just wish for a test bench update to evolve in order to objectify data that are part of the subjective world...
You can read the review and see if there are other audible problems. The data is there.
 

mocenigo

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I think I can tell a difference. I can give you an example:

Amplifiers like the Firstwatt Sony V-FET pt1 lottery amp, uses SMPS, and sound a bit… like the power supply is full of sand. Same type of sound from the much worse Firstwatt ACA. The best was sound I have had at home in the respect of clean electricity was the Firstwatt F5. The F5 has a power supply that is found in all of the Firstwatt amplifiers. At least up to F6, I think. It hums like crazy in my sensitive horn speakers, and I think I need to build a dual mono PSU to reduce it. But at least it did not have that horrid SMPS type of sound.
But it is an A/B test that I would love to do one day. It keeps me up at night what I am missing by using SMPS here and there.

This is not a proper comparison, and it does not prove what you claim. You have compared different types of amplifiers, not only their power supplies. The first watt distorts a lot, and it is frankly a toy, like the ACA, you are definitely hearing that. Also, if your F6 hums, making it dual mono will not reduce the hum.
 

mocenigo

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I see it as a treat everytime I find an album I like in the DSD format. I prefer my DAC to follow the DSD specification when I do, and not pop annoyingly.

Yes, but there are precise reasons there is often a pop between the tracks in a DSD, and they are technical. Either you have a single DSD master and you chop it - then you get a pop when you start a track in isolation, i.e. not following the previous one; or each track is its own master and it may have differences in potential baked in between the end of one track and the beginning of the next. To avoid those pops there are workarounds, but they usually involve adding some samples between the tracks. However there are solutions, and shame on those the do not apply them.

Note that a modern DAC converts everything internally to a multi-bit DSD-like representation anyway. Also the PCM. But a native 1-bit signal will either stay single bit (whence it does not use the full potential of the DAC itself) or be processed and converted into a multi-bit format before the digital-analog step.

By the way, you claim that the data should not be processed or over sampled. In fact, this MUST be done to get a proper result, and tis was known since before the beginning of the digital era. The bits of the carrier format are a representation of how you expect the wave form to be, but they are not the wave form. And converting them in a NOS way does NOT provide that – mathematically you MUST first upsample with a proper filter and then pass through the digital-analog circuitry, to reduce spurious effects of the latter. This is something that should not even be up for debate, like the fact that the earth is round and not flat and that vaccines do not cause autism. The proper way to convert IS to use aggressive oversampling (in the DAC itself, for instance) to avoid having an attenuation of the treble and the introduction of distorted positive and negative copies of the original signal translated by the Nyquist frequency.
 

mocenigo

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You can mod and get different sounds with different power supplies, and upgrade to better capacitors and do opamp rolling. An engineer can do this properly and sell it as a new and better sounding product. No delusions.

The delusion is that "better sounding" can be done by hand waving and magic instead of engineering. You are actually describing of the first.
 

pablolie

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You can mod and get different sounds with different power supplies, and upgrade to better capacitors and do opamp rolling. An engineer can do this properly and sell it as a new and better sounding product. No delusions.
That means it is not "all other things being the same". If the mods you talk about result in the same linear response and a SINAD difference of 0.5dB - it'd seem delusional to claim there is a hearable difference.
 

BDWoody

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In regards to DACs, this brings up the discussion about SMD components sounding worse than through hole component counterpart. Some people claim to hear a fifference there too. I never tried it, but it could be a similar case.

People claim lots of things. The question is whether there is any reason to believe it is true either based on what is currently understood, or based on evidence that supports the claims.

It is likely a similar case, in that people don't understand how easily we fool ourselves and the importance of basic controls.

Maybe our ears and nervous system with an R&D time of a few billion years, are slightly more senstive than a Klippel.

Our ears and nervous system are truly marvelous, but in terms of accuracy when being used as a measuring instrument maybe not so much. All you need to do is show you can hear what can't be measured, or that you can do it more accurately and you'll have people paying attention. Until then...
 
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