SMSL DS20 Portable DAC & HP Amp Review

[Labjr]

Cool looking but I don't have need for it. I hope these companies are working on more useful improvements such as DSP room correction, EQ, sub crossover etc.

 

[Rja4000]

A strong competitor for the Topping G5.
Cheaper and almost as performant.

OK, it doesn't cover all functionalities: it doesn't have analog input nor Bluetooth.
So it won't replace the G5 for my main use of it, which is to feed it with music through LDAC Bluetooth.

Thanks for reviewing this one, anyway.

 

[VientoB]

Does anyone know the difference between this and the M20 which is cheaper?

 

[JakeK]

Does anyone know the difference between this and the M20 which is cheaper?

It is very similar to the SMSL M20 that look slight different and has also selectable line out beyond that the two Headphone out ...

M20 doesn't have an internal battery so you would need a separate battery bank to power that while on the go.

 

[JakeK]

A strong competitor for the Topping G5.
Cheaper and almost as performant.

OK, it doesn't cover all functionalities: it doesn't have analog input nor Bluetooth.
So it won't replace the G5 for my main use if it, which is to feed it with music through LDAC Bluetooth.

Thanks for reviewing this one, anyway.

Reading the review of the G5 it has about 3x the power of the M20 with low impedance headphones and Amir found it has just enough to play fairly loud with his Dan Clark headphones.

hard to drive, low impedance Dan Clark Stealth headphone. I was pleased that I could get pretty high volumes out of it using high gain. For loud listening, I had to go to 3:00 pm on the volume control. There was a bit more volume to be had if you turned it to max. There, I only heard distortion when the sub-bass notes arrived. Otherwise, the sound was super clean, detailed and enjoyable.

This means the M20 doesn't really have enough power for such headphones which does answer my question about if it's suitable to drive them. Not quite good enough.

 

[EJ3]

::

You two stop fighting:
It's not a binary split... Yes, you can have one of each, as well as only one of them.
I am in the latter category, especially now that @amirm made me disgusted with my bad-purchase of a bad-performer Xduoo X5
If this SMSL had a 2TB microSD slot and a decent touch-display, I may consider buying it...

If it wasn't for my mother (91 years old, 12 miles away), my wife (when we are in a giant store together & she is lost), Dr's & lawyers:
all I need phone wise would be a land line & an answer machine (that would cover my personal use case for a phone).
And I would not carry one at all.

 

[IamJF]

I bought a Sony phone cause I need a headphone jack for practising and using my studio headphones.
This is an interesting solution for serious music listening with (my next) phones without jacks.

 

[beefkabob]

The mediocre noise at 50 mw isn't a big deal since this is for somebody with power-hungry headphones on the go. Which is not me. I use bluetooth.

 

[Temple Brandin]

I just bought one and I’m pretty disappointed. It works fine, but it goes into standby mode if it gets no signal for 3 minutes, then starts drawing huge amounts of battery from your phone to charge itself, since it charges in standby mode. That pretty much negates the battery savings over a high performance dongle DAC.

 

[JakeK]

I just bought one and I’m pretty disappointed. It works fine, but it goes into standby mode if it gets no signal for 3 minutes, then starts drawing huge amounts of battery from your phone to charge itself, since it charges in standby mode. That pretty much negates the battery savings over a high performance dongle DAC.

This is what I imagined/theorised it would would do having only one USB port which has to be for both charging and signal.

With this flaw and with it being expensive and powerful but not powerful enough I'm not voting great despite the technical achievement of the measurements. I wouldn't buy this.

 

[amirm]

it gets no signal for 3 minutes, then starts drawing huge amounts of battery from your phone to charge itself, since it charges in standby mode.

I thought one of the power modes disables charging.

 

[Temple Brandin]

I thought one of the power modes disables charging.

I thought one of the power modes disables charging.

As far as I know, there is only one power mode. Power On/Standby. And that’s according to the manual. It doesn’t charge while in use (Power On), but starts charging as soon as you manually switch it to standby, or if it automatically switches after 3 minutes of no signal.

 

[staticV3]

As far as I know, there is only one power mode. Power On/Standby. And that’s according to the manual. It doesn’t charge while in use (Power On), but starts charging as soon as you manually switch it to standby, or if it automatically switches after 3 minutes of no signal.

From what I can tell, all you can do is hold down the power button for 3 seconds to turn the DS20 off, when it's not in use.

It won't charge then, even if it's still plugged into your phone.

 

[Temple Brandin]

From what I can tell, all you can do is hold down the power button for 3 seconds to turn the DS20 off, when it's not in use.

It won't charge then, even if it's still plugged into your phone.

That’s what I’ve been doing. It works, but is slightly inconvenient. I forgot once and was away from the phone for about 10 minutes and it drained about 10% of my phone's battery. Overall I like the device. It sure does get hot though.

 

[Tonton_ZEeD]

That's what I'm saying : Why buying a (assuming big/heavy high end) DAP when you can pair your phone to such portable DACs.

This is to avoid phone addiction and to allow carrying a large collection of FLAC files, modern phones with a sdcard memory extension are rare.

 

[VientoB]

This is to avoid phone addiction and to allow carrying a large collection of FLAC files, modern phones with a sdcard memory extension are rare.

To avoid phone addiction??

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

To avoid phone addiction??

Yeah put the phone/Instagram/Facebook down, close your eyes, listen to the music.

Easier when there’s no phone in your hand to start with.

 

[VientoB]

Yeah put the phone/Instagram/Facebook down, close your eyes, listen to the music.

Easier when there’s no phone in your hand to start with.

But it's easier to put it down when you have it connected to a DAC/amp

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

But it's easier to put it down when you have it connected to a DAC/amp

Never skip arm day!

 

[EJ3]

Yeah put the phone/Instagram/Facebook down, close your eyes, listen to the music.

Easier when there’s no phone in your hand to start with.

Unless someone is dying and I am the only person in the world that can save them, I do not want ANYONE to call me.
Unfortunately (actually fortunately) I have a very active 91 year old mother & a wife, that I have to be available for.
But have the phone connected to the music?: No Way! I have 3 uses for the phone: talking, taking the occasional picture (to share) & the occasional text.
That is it.
Anything else that I need to do with a computer happens at my desk top with a 32" 4K monitor (watching/listening to all the popular formats [from VCR up to 4K for movies & disks [& looking at a few sites, such as here]).
On the other hand, most of you probably have a cell signal all the time.
I'll say that is not an option more than 50% of the time in places that I go.
And, if I did not like that, I would not go there.
But I do like that.
But a great audio quality DAP would be nice.