SMSL DO200 Pro DAC Review

[johny_2000]

Over the summer, they seemingly were sending me a new one every week!!!

Every week! Ouch! That's probably how their design team makes "new" devices.
Unfortunately, there's nothing new about them, other than different hardware stacks used to achieve the same goals.

 

[johny_2000]

Time for boiler plate about how it should have a PEQ capability, bass management, and subwoofer outputs.

This!

 

[johny_2000]

Would be kind of nice for someone to make sense of how all these models fit into a line, who each model is more likely to be for, etc.

That would be great! Something like the HiFiMan headphone hierarchy map:

 

[Kuma]

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?"

With Topping, SMSL, etc, cranking out device after device measuring similarly excellent, it does feel it’s gotten to the point of more of the same with slightly different UIs, different aesthetics, a few additional I/O options, but essentially the same otherwise.

Maybe integrated PEQ will be the next thing? I don’t know. There’s really little left to ask for from modern DACs. Not complaining, just observing.

 

[Cadillacofminds]

So, if you use a power amp that has only a real high gain, and it's driving super efficient speakers that you're sitting quite close to, there's some chance you need something like twelve of these chips so that your dac isn't introducing audible noise?

 

[amirm]

So, if you use a power amp that has only a real high gain, and it's driving super efficient speakers that you're sitting quite close to, there's some chance you need something like twelve of these chips so that your dac isn't introducing audible noise?

Correct.

 

[Tell]

Vast majority of DACs I have sitting here are from SMSL! Over the summer, they seemingly were sending me a new one every week!!!

Tbh if I where you I'd just ignore all those SMSL DACs from now on, I mean their track record shows that all their DACs perform as good as it can possibly get so there's no reason to prioritize any of their stuff over anything else.
Then we could of course discuss what their reason is to have so many extremely similar DACs in their lineup, but we don't need them all tested for that topic

 

[antcollinet]

I wish that you would consider measuring THD at 15khz. Ken Pohlman used to do this for CD Review in the 90s. Many of the CD players measured 12-15%. The best would measure around 2-3%. Now, it might not matter now. Improvements might have dropped it to a negligible level. On the other hand, something might show up. You could just try a few you have around, and if it amounts to nothing, you could say, "no,"and drop the matter.

However if the results were significant, you might want to include in in your measurements.

Why are we interested? The first harmonic of 15kHz is 30kHz - well outside anything anyone can hear.

 

[Tell]

Why are we interested? The first harmonic of 15kHz is 30kHz - well outside anything anyone can hear.

Can't those inaudible harmonics create audible IMD?
This is something that some guys over at a small swedish forum always complain about when they talk about ASR, that ultrasonic harmonics will create IMD in the audible range but that ASR measurements ignores this, is there any truth to this?

 

[amirm]

This is something that some guys over at a small swedish forum always complain about when they talk about ASR, that ultrasonic harmonics will create IMD in the audible range but that ASR measurements ignores this, is there any truth to this?

Again, my measurements show harmonics to 90 kHz. So nothing is ignored.

Further, I show you multitone which would display any IMD distortion:

People who say those things don't understand the basics of what I measure.

 

[antcollinet]

Can't those inaudible harmonics create audible IMD?
This is something that some guys over at a small swedish forum always complain about when they talk about ASR, that ultrasonic harmonics will create IMD in the audible range but that ASR measurements ignores this, is there any truth to this?

Comprehensively answered

 

[Tell]

Again, my measurements show harmonics to 90 kHz. So nothing is ignored.

Further, I show you multitone which would display any IMD distortion:

People who say those things don't understand the basics of what I measure.

So are those multitones up in the ultrasonics as well but not just shown in the graph?

 

[Chr1]

Curious if SMSLs new DACs display volume by default yet.
Anyone know?

Bump.
Can't find anything online...

 

[Antagron]

SMSL needs to catch up to Topping with PEQ and a spectrum analyzer display. Otherwise it’s another day another DAC from them.

 

[antcollinet]

So are those multitones up in the ultrasonics as well but not just shown in the graph?

I'm not sure what the bandwidth of that test is, proably 90kHz with the 196k sample rate - but in any case it doesn't matter. If there are overtones at any frequency that are causing IMD products in the audble range, those products must be present in the 20KHz band of that chart. (you don't have to measure the ultrasonic distortion products in order for the IMD to happen. If they exist at all, they are still there whether you measure them or not)

So if that IMD is happening and causing products in the audible band, those products must be down in the "grass" at the bottom of the chart below -120dB and hence inaudible.

 

[Tell]

I'm not sure what the bandwidth of that test is, proably 90kHz with the 196k sample rate - but in any case it doesn't matter. If there are overtones at any frequency that are causing IMD products in the audble range, those products must be present in the 20KHz band of that chart. (you don't have to measure the ultrasonic distortion products in order for the IMD to happen. If they exist at all, they are still there whether you measure them or not)

So if that IMD is happening and causing products in the audible band, those products must be down in the "grass" at the bottom of the chart below -120dB and hence inaudible.

But if ultrasonic THD would appear as IMD in the audible range then the multitone test should play tones in the ultrasonics as well for us to know right?

 

[peng]

But if ultrasonic THD would appear as IMD in the audible range then the multitone test should play tones in the ultrasonics as well for us to know right?

I don't think so because we are interested in the intermodulation distortions in the audible range that are resulted from harmonic distortions of the fundamental frequencies in the ultrasonic range, not the fundamental frequencies themselves in the ultrasonic range, that musical instruments do not produce. So, since "“A multitone excites both harmonic and intermodulation distortion mechanisms in a device.", it seems to me what Amir stated in post#91 makes sense, you are getting/seeing the total distortions.

 

[antcollinet]

But if ultrasonic THD would appear as IMD in the audible range then the multitone test should play tones in the ultrasonics as well for us to know right?

No, because the ultrasonic THD is distortion products of the played tones. IE the 10kHz tone has harmonics at 20kHz, 30kHz 40kHz etc. The 20kHz tone has harmonic products at 40kHz, 60kHz....


Now think about how severe that multitone test is as a distortion test.

Each of those 32 tones is producing its own harmonic distortion at multiples of itself, right the way through the audible band (for the lower frequency tones) and on way up into the ultrasonic band for all of them.

Then all the 32 tones, plus all the harmonic distortion tones are all inter modulating together to produce IMD tones at the difference frequency between every tone and every other tone. Yet all that HD and IMD is all sitting in the grass of that particular chart below -120dB.

 

[DSJR]

I wonder if they spray out a series of dacs and then look to see which ones sell most. The current plethora may be a lot of older but still fully worthy models not intended to be re-made in a new batch and quietly discontinued once stocks run out? Schiit have been doing this in a smaller scale admittedly, as when I was looking around at their headphone amps, I discovered I was two generations or more out of date, not that it'd matter especially as none of my headphones/iems are difficult to drive at all.

I'm still delighted with my little SU1, but one day, I'd need balanced outputs as well. A display isn't important to me at all as it's all hidden away currently and eq not important in the source as I use analogue sources too.

 

[AndreaT]

Great review, essentially SOTA for less than $ 400. The sweet spot to have AES/EBU digital input seems to be around $500. I just wonder how it furthers improve the performance of the DAC when you use AES/EBU as an input compared to optical or SPDIF and how much worth is to spend extra $ to purchase a DAC model that offers this option, like the recently reviewed SMSL RAW.