SMSL DO200 Pro DAC Review

[Lupin]

That's just sounds insane to me! I wonder what's the benefit for that from a business perspective.

There is a large group of people who already have a perfectly fine fully transparent DAC and still buy a new one within a year just because the new one has 122 dB SINAD and their old one "only" has 120 dB SINAD. Plus, the consensus that newer automatically means better... some people are just sensitive to that.

 

[Lupin]

I'm so confused. Why they put 12 DAC chips into this device, if they can achieve the same or better SOTA performance w/ only 1 ESS/Akm chip? Just trying to understand why 12 chips are needed to put into it. Do they achieve same performance 1 ess/akm DAC chip provides? Better sound? Cheaper? Price? "Sound signature?"

Because 12 is a bigger number than 1, that alone will sell this model.
SMSL has to do something to stand out from the DAC crowd that gets larger every week (not in the least by themselves)

 

[Postlan]

Trying to cram so many different fonts and colors onto such a small front panel makes me think their sense of aesthetics has some serious issues.

 

[Ajax]

I'm firmly in the camp that DACs are a solved problem and new ones should focus on features, such as including a streamer, bass management with high and low pass filters and room correction (DSP).

I do, however, agree with Amir that today's SOTA gear is very affordable, being 10% of the price of SOTA DACs produced in Europe and the USA as little as 5 years ago,

 

[crappypanther]

I am very glad that I did not buy RME ADI 2 DAC earlier.
now it's enough to spend $400 to have a DAC with fantastic performance

 

[Endibol]

This DAC may be transparent but it can't compete with the sound signature of a my $10,000 Premium tube DAC.

Well, in that case your DAC isn't neutral sounding. Enjoy your "colored" Premium tube DAC!

 

[DanTheMan]

I am very glad that I did not buy RME ADI 2 DAC earlier.
now it's enough to spend $400 to have a DAC with fantastic performance

You can definitely do it for less than $400.

 

[crappypanther]

You can definitely do it for less than $400.

what model do you mean?

 

[ttt]

what model do you mean?

Check the list, there are many. DL200, for example, for $190 has even better or same performance.

 

[Tell]

I am very glad that I did not buy RME ADI 2 DAC earlier.
now it's enough to spend $400 to have a DAC with fantastic performance

The RME has built in DSP with an excellent loudness volume control, I'd way rather buy that then spending 400USD on this SMSL DO200 that does not give you any extra performance than even their 80USD SMSL SU-1.

 

[CedarX]

The RME has built in DSP with an excellent loudness volume control, I'd way rather buy that then spending 400USD on this SMSL DO200 that does not give you any extra performance than even their 80USD SMSL SU-1.

I would prefer the RME for the same reasons, but then it’s a discussion about features, whether one needs particular features or value them. It becomes an apples & oranges comparison. Same with aesthetics preferences.

 

[crappypanther]

Я бы предпочел RME по тем же причинам, но тогда это дискуссия о функциях, нужны ли определенные функции или ценны ли они. Это становится сравнением яблок и апельсинов. То же самое с эстетическими предпочтениями.

you are right. for example, i don't use physical volume control on DAC. what is inside OS is enough for me

 

[fricccolodics]

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?

Otherwise this grass is amazing!

Hi, imho John Atkinson of STEREOPHILE set the test frequency at 50Hz because its multiples do not coincide with the multiples of 60Hz (except for 300Hz/600Hz/etc.); this does make it easier to discern between interference from the power supply and harmonic distortion.

 

[Roland68]

I have been sparing you all. I have some 10 DACs waiting to be tested! This one was sent to me last summer!!!

In such a case, wouldn't it be more time-saving to only do one measurement for all 10 DACs and then the next measurement?

For us, this was very time-saving for many measurements and evaluations, but of course I don't know if it is the same here.

 

[MLaranjeiras]

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.
View attachment 421734
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:
View attachment 421735
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:
View attachment 421736
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:
View attachment 421737
View attachment 421738
RCA output costs a bit of penalty but still fully transparent:
View attachment 421739

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:
View attachment 421740

IMD distortion is kept in check with a wide margin compared to our reference:
View attachment 421741

Loading up the output makes little difference:
View attachment 421742

There is inconsequential low frequency jitter over both inputs:
View attachment 421743
Likewise, linearity shows a tiny bit of deviation:

View attachment 421760
Multitone output shows impeccable results:
View attachment 421745

Behavior or default filter is quite good:
View attachment 421746
View attachment 421747

We do see artificially high level of noise in our wideband, 90 kHz distortion test:
View attachment 421748

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/

Thank you! Many Topping and some SMSL with great measures out there. Do see any reason for me to change my well rated Topping E50 (https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-e50-review-balanced-dac.26219/) for this one? Maybe in my room with no "treatment", even a SMSL SU 10 or a Topping D90III will not bring "that" benefit. And, with US$ 1,000.00 of these two models, it is possible to buy, for example, a Lumin D2, a dedicated computer for audio, let´s say.

 

[oleg87]

Thank you! Many Topping and some SMSL with great measures out there. Do see any reason for me to change my well rated Topping E50 (https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-e50-review-balanced-dac.26219/) for this one? Maybe in my room with no "treatment", even a SMSL SU 10 or a Topping D90III will not bring "that" benefit. And, with US$ 1,000.00 of these two models, it is possible to buy, for example, a Lumin D2, a dedicated computer for audio, let´s say.

Unless you need a feature or connector type that your Topping does not offer, no. Both DACs are transparent and will not be distinguishable by sound alone (regardless of room treatment or lack thereof).

 

[Ropeburn]

There is a large group of people who already have a perfectly fine fully transparent DAC and still buy a new one within a year just because the new one has 122 dB SINAD and their old one "only" has 120 dB SINAD. Plus, the consensus that newer automatically means better... some people are just sensitive to that.

I'm happy to consciously not be that person. Last year I got a DO100 (non pro) that is perfectly fine for my purposes, paid 130€ when it was on the brink of being discontinued.

As I don't need HDMI ARC, this one would offer exactly zero improvement, while costing 300€.

 

[jonmichael]

I was thinking of upgrading from my Modius E to this SMSL model, but now I think I will wait a while.