SMSL H400

[SMSL-Mandy]

You need to install the driver first. Only with the driver can you use it. The upgrade package contains the driver installation and instructions

 

[bric-out]

I sold the H400 sometime ago but I'm pretty sure it was a friction fit.

Why? If i may

 

[denniswaugh]

I purchased a couple of SMSL Dac/Headphone amps and thought I'd try some solid state amps for music playback.
I purchased both the H300 and H400 SMSL Headphone amps.

Perhaps I'm used to the sound of my WA22 but I found both the H300 and H400 somewhat flat and boring. I know this is not going to go down well with others opinions on this site but that's my opinion.

I used the following SMSL Dac's with the H300 and H400.
VMV D2R - D300 - DO300EX (Dac/Headamp) - RAW MDA1 (Dac/Headamp) + my Lampizator L4G5 fully balanced.

The following headphones were used.
Hifiman HE1000Se and HE6Se V2, Senn HD800S and Grell OAE1 headphones.

Both the H300 and H400 could drive the notoriously power hungry HE6Se V2 to adequate levels but I never got excited or involved with the music with any of the headphones I listened through.
I could hear the differences between the dac's but my overall impression of the presentation of the music being a bit lifeless and boring remained.

Functionality wise both the H300 and H400 offered all the input and output capability that I needed.
The H400 has the added convenience of remote functionality that I found very useful.

The H300 and H400 offer great features for the money but didn't do it for me.

I've now got a Burson Soloist GT 3 that I'm happy with.

 

[bric-out]

I purchased a couple of SMSL Dac/Headphone amps and thought I'd try some solid state amps for music playback.
I purchased both the H300 and H400 SMSL Headphone amps.

Perhaps I'm used to the sound of my WA22 but I found both the H300 and H400 somewhat flat and boring. I know this is not going to go down well with others opinions on this site but that's my opinion.

I used the following SMSL Dac's with the H300 and H400.
VMV D2R - D300 - DO300EX (Dac/Headamp) - RAW MDA1 (Dac/Headamp) + my Lampizator L4G5 fully balanced.

The following headphones were used.
Hifiman HE1000Se and HE6Se V2, Senn HD800S and Grell OAE1 headphones.

Both the H300 and H400 could drive the notoriously power hungry HE6Se V2 to adequate levels but I never got excited or involved with the music with any of the headphones I listened through.
I could hear the differences between the dac's but my overall impression of the presentation of the music being a bit lifeless and boring remained.

Functionality wise both the H300 and H400 offered all the input and output capability that I needed.
The H400 has the added convenience of remote functionality that I found very useful.

The H300 and H400 offer great features for the money but didn't do it for me.

I've now got a Burson Soloist GT 3 that I'm happy with.

Got it.
I'm actually using my H400 with D90 III discrete* alternating between HD600 and DT880 600 Ohms (both with diy cable for balanced connection). As of now i'm feeling quite happy.

* There's one major problem, i can't put the dac on top of the H400 otherwise statics noises start to join the party, especially on the left output of the D90 (guess it has something to do with electrical interference between the transformer of one unit and some components of the other, but i'm still investigating and trying to find a solution that doesn't imply moving the D90 away from H400...)

 

[donjoe0]

Has anyone measured the crosstalk for the H400/SP400 or H300? Or listened for soundstage width differences vs. equivalent Topping offerings?

I see SMSL doesn't publish the crosstalk spec, which is usually not a good sign. (At least Schiit are open about being satisfied with lenient/mediocre NwAvGuy kinds of numbers on this front.)

 

[bric-out]

* There's one major problem, i can't put the dac on top of the H400 otherwise statics noises start to join the party, especially on the left output of the D90 (guess it has something to do with electrical interference between the transformer of one unit and some components of the other, but i'm still investigating and trying to find a solution that doesn't imply moving the D90 away from H400...)

Solved. I made a new pair of XLR cable in StarQuad config.

 

[RedEyeNinja]

If anyone is still having issue with firmware update.

Make sure you choose Unknown Device #1 here. The PDF instructions have this field empty.

Then after it's done installing the driver, then double click the bat file

If everything works like it should, you'll be able to see the update progress instead of the window closing after 2 seconds:

 

[J-Fly]

I just kept running the updates over and over again and I got one of them to work. The amp is still an amazing performer. I’m on the waiting list for a Flux Labs………some day.