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SMSL DO200 Pro DAC Review

Rate this DAC:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 5 2.9%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 12 7.1%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 58 34.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 95 55.9%

  • Total voters
    170

amirm

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL DO200 Pro balanced stereo audio DAC. It was sent to me by Aoshida Audio and costs US $399.
SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced XLR Audio Review.jpg

The small curve on top of the display distinguishes this DAC from myriad of others from SMSL and adds a bit of class to it. Otherwise, the user interface is the familiar SMSL interface which is easy to use if not fancy. Rear panel shows a couple of variations from ordinary:
SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced XLR Audio back panel Review.jpg

We have USB-C instead of type 2 and importantly, inclusion of HDMI ARC support for better integration with TVs outputting the same.

Power supply is included in the case which I appreciate.

If you are not familiar with my DAC measurements, please watch my tutorial on it:

SMSL DO200 Pro DAC Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard with volume set to 0 dB and output, XLR:
SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced XLR Audio Measurement.png

Distortion is vanishingly small and combined with noise, we are comfortably in the "transparent" zone for DACs. Ranking is way up there despite the modern cost:
Best stereo balanced audio DAC review 2024.png

Best stereo balanced audio DAC review high-end 2024.png

RCA output costs a bit of penalty but still fully transparent:
SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced RCA Audio Measurement.png


I tried testing the HDMI ARC but whether it is the fault of my adapter or the DAC, I could not get stable output.

Noise performance is essentially state of the art:
SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced DNR Audio Measurement.png


IMD distortion is kept in check with a wide margin compared to our reference:
SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced XLR Audio IMD distortion Measurement.png


Loading up the output makes little difference:
SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced 50 Hz 600 ohm Audio Measurement.png


There is inconsequential low frequency jitter over both inputs:
SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced XLR Audio Jitter Measurement.png

Likewise, linearity shows a tiny bit of deviation:

SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced XLR Audio Linearity Measurement.png

Multitone output shows impeccable results:
SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced XLR Audio Multitone Measurement.png


Behavior or default filter is quite good:
SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced XLR Audio Filter Measurement.png

SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced XLR Audio frequency response Measurement.png


We do see artificially high level of noise in our wideband, 90 kHz distortion test:
SMSL DO200 PRO HiFi MQA MQA-CD DAC Stereo Balanced XLR Audio THD vs Frequency Measurement.png


As you can see in the inset, this is due to "noise shaping" which takes noise in the audible band and pushes it up to 50 kHz+. I reduced the bandwidth of the measurement to 45 kHz and as you can see in brown/green, the levels are vanishingly low.

Conclusions
The DO200 Pro DAC turns in state of the art performance for what is a very good price these days for a balanced DAC. Inclusion of HDMI ARC I am sure is appreciated by many. There are a few minor nits but nothing remotely interfering with fully transparent (to source) operation of the unit.

I am happy to recommend the SMSL DO200 Pro.
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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/
 

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Hi @amirm. I apparently missed the testing procedure threads because it's apparent to me that I don't understand why 50Hz is used as a test reference. Why 50Hz? Does this not mask 60Hz of the North American standard AC supply? Am I off base in asking?
index.php

Otherwise this grass is amazing!
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Hi Amir

Thanks for reviewing this one.

The HDMI Arc input is an interesting selling point.
It's too bad you can't measure it.

Are you ever able to measure through HDMI Arc ?
Any way you could do it in the future ?
 
Hi @amirm. I apparently missed the testing procedure threads because it's apparent to me that I don't understand why 50Hz is used as a test reference. Why 50Hz? Does this not mask 60Hz of the North American standard AC supply? Am I off base in asking?
You need to write Mr. Atkinson at stereophile about that. :) To make at least one test comparable to his, I picked this one. Neither the source frequency, nor the 600 ohm loading make sense to me.

I have made sure that the scale and parameters are as close to his as possible to make it easy to compare DACs.
 
Are you ever able to measure through HDMI Arc ?
Yes, I measured a recent device using it. Here, the DAC was stuck at 48 kHz and samples truncated to 16 bits, causing a lot of artificial distortion. I spent a good half hour but could not get around it. I had this issue before when I got this adapter but had worked through it. Maybe I have forgotten something about the process.
 
@amirm yet another lovely device, but it’s getting a bit repetitive. Can we have some speaker reviews again? The Klippel must be feeling rather ignored!
 
Yes, I measured a recent device using it. Here, the DAC was stuck at 48 kHz and samples truncated to 16 bits, causing a lot of artificial distortion. I spent a good half hour but could not get around it. I had this issue before when I got this adapter but had worked through it. Maybe I have forgotten something about the process.
That's a shame, I was really hoping to see a good result with ARC. It might be a good solution to avoiding all the usual HDMI jitter, noise and interference.
 
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@amirm yet another lovely device, but it’s getting a bit repetitive. Can we have some speaker reviews again? The Klippel must be feeling rather ignored!
I have had a run of bad luck with speaker testing. I had to test one 3 times only to still find issues. Then I tested another speaker from another company with the same unexpected results. :( I have tested a third one which I will post in a day or two.
 
Maybe is starting to make sense letting these companies just post their own measurements (which seem to be accurate) and maybe occasionally test one of the lot just to confirm them.
Unless some new features or something goes out I think is time to leave DACs behind as an entirely solved issue and test stuff that may actually matter,like speakers,amps,etc.

Thanks Amir!
 
This meme is not towards measuring a DAC! It's just another one from SMSL. To be honest, their line-up is so big it confuses me.
Vast majority of DACs I have sitting here are from SMSL! Over the summer, they seemingly were sending me a new one every week!!!
 
My current thought is to do quicker reviews on them with a few measurements so that I can spend time on other products. That is, assuming you all don't complain "where is this measurement?" :)
 
Vast majority of DACs I have sitting here are from SMSL! Over the summer, they seemingly were sending me a new one every week!!!
That's just sounds insane to me! I wonder what's the benefit for that from a business perspective. I guess, more choice to choose which aesthetic you like? Because from a technical pov, they all seem to work perfectly fine. And features are mostly the same too.
 
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My current thought is to do quicker reviews on them with a few measurements so that I can spend time on other products. That is, assuming you all don't complain "where is this measurement?" :)

Personally I’d be fine with that - it’s a DAC, it measures fine. It has one or two interesting features, here are some more detailed measurements of those specifically.
 
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