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SMSL HO200 Review (Headphone Amplifier)

Rate this amplifier:

  • Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 7 2.8%
  • Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 18 7.2%
  • Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 118 47.4%
  • Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 106 42.6%

  • Total voters
    249

Snoopy

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If they measure the same or beyond audible limits, then they'll sound the same. So I'm far more likely to take @RHO 's side on this one. Frankly it's ridiculous to compare amps (incl with headphone pairings) with wine analogies, I mean that is silly!
I can't even hear a difference between my singxer SA1 and SMSL SP400.
 

avoidwork

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If they measure the same or beyond audible limits, then they'll sound the same. So I'm far more likely to take @RHO 's side on this one. Frankly it's ridiculous to compare amps (incl with headphone pairings) with wine analogies, I mean that is silly!
so to clarify, you're saying every device off the manufacturing line will be exactly the same as every other device, and every implementation of all the dac chips in the world are meaningless because of 1 chip in the pcb?

wow.

that's like saying the cpu with the fastest clock speed will do the work the quickest - ignoring physical topology, cache layers & sizes, ipc stages, etc.; if you look at a single number you miss the larger picture of how the system works.

do all cars that go 100mph drive the same?
 

avoidwork

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I can't even hear a difference between my singxer SA1 and SMSL SP400.
that's unfortunate i guess? class a sounds warmer than the analytical* aaa, but cool i guess.

another factor is your ears vs my ears, vs everyone else's ears, and like, every other environmental factor you need to consider.
 

Robbo99999

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so to clarify, you're saying every device off the manufacturing line will be exactly the same as every other device, and every implementation of all the dac chips in the world are meaningless because of 1 chip in the pcb?

wow.

that's like saying the cpu with the fastest clock speed will do the work the quickest - ignoring physical topology, cache layers & sizes, ipc stages, etc.; if you look at a single number you miss the larger picture of how the system works.

do all cars that go 100mph drive the same?
Analogies are absolutely meaningless and carry zero weight. (and also your analogies don't make sense even on a superficial level, I think you should stop with the analogies.).

If the headphone amps & dacs both measure well and they're enough to drive your headphone to loud levels, then any differences you think you're hearing are likely due to psychological bias combined with uncontrolled listening comparisons......no amount of analogies can save you from this.
 

Snoopy

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that's unfortunate i guess? class a sounds warmer than the analytical* aaa, but cool i guess.

another factor is your ears vs my ears, vs everyone else's ears, and like, every other environmental factor you need to consider.
Or you you imagine things after reading reviews.

And R2R DACs probably sound more smooth and musical am I right?

ESS DACs are "cold" and akm DACs are "warm"? Digital files have a "glare" and vinyl sounds "analog"? You probably use silver cables and copper cables to influence the sound as well.

How about a power filter to make the background "darker"?
 

avoidwork

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Or you you imagine things after reading reviews.

And R2R DACs probably sound more smooth and musical am I right?

ESS DACs are "cold" and akm DACs are "warm"? Digital files have a "glare" and vinyl sounds "analog"? You probably use silver cables and copper cables to influence the sound as well.

How about a power filter to make the background "darker"?

i find r2r usually has better separation in sound stage; i have 3. the difference is pretty noticable with some genres of music.

i love the projection here my dude, please keep that heat up. i'm a software developer with >20yr experience. unlike people that theorize, i happen to gather info and experience to learn. that's why i'm on this forum - the data amir produces is amazing! but it's only a few dimensions.

i'm genuinely curious - what was the point of your reply?
 

avoidwork

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Analogies are absolutely meaningless and carry zero weight. (and also your analogies don't make sense even on a superficial level, I think you should stop with the analogies.).

If the headphone amps & dacs both measure well and they're enough to drive your headphone to loud levels, then any differences you think you're hearing are likely due to psychological bias combined with uncontrolled listening comparisons......no amount of analogies can save you from this.
no... this is electronics... analogies are on point.
 

avoidwork

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Analogies are absolutely meaningless and carry zero weight. (and also your analogies don't make sense even on a superficial level, I think you should stop with the analogies.).

If the headphone amps & dacs both measure well and they're enough to drive your headphone to loud levels, then any differences you think you're hearing are likely due to psychological bias combined with uncontrolled listening comparisons......no amount of analogies can save you from this.

do you live in a vacuum? i don't. my hearing isn't perfect, so what i'm hearing is likely due to physical differences from the measuring devices that the headphones are sitting on. i also move them on my head for an ideal* sound.

i simply can't grok herd mentality that a single measurement normalizes all other aspects of the device. you use 1 measurement of many potential measurements to draw a conclusion. that's incredibly* naive. taking that measurement to it's logical conclusion where's the control so we can get an idea of what the difference really is? the sinad/thd charts are very cool to have, but how do _you_ relate that to real world performance without a control to provide context? or is this just classic american "more is better"?
 
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Robbo99999

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no... this is electronics... analogies are on point.
Gees, you need to leave it out, it's been a long time since I've seen such vacuous posts by someone on this forum. Speaking for the rest of the ASR forum users, I think we should leave the troll alone.
 

Haruko

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He is right tho in one aspect... we did not developed yet measurement method that would tell us how the headphones actually sound like ... sure we can read from the graph how are they balanced in terms of FR... how and if they color sound when pushed to the limits of driver from the THD graph but how can you tell what what are the spacious qualities of the headphone? sure you can have group delay and phase mismatch graph but it will tell you how precise imagining is not how wide the soundstage actually appears to be... i take graphs as sort of quality control telling me if the unit is actually worth even trying out before buying but some qualities still need empirical approach. I am not saying this won't be fixed in the future (maybe it already is) but as of right now i don't see anyone releasing graphs that would tell me how headphones actually sound.. you have in the signature that you have dynamic and planar headphones surely you know that planar do sound completely different (with EQ or not) to dynamic phones.. especially in the treble. Maybe the information is in the FR graph but is lost in the var smoothing.. i may sound like complete idiot to you but to me this is very important
 

Robbo99999

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He is right tho in one aspect... we did not developed yet measurement method that would tell us how the headphones actually sound like ... sure we can read from the graph how are they balanced in terms of FR... how and if they color sound when pushed to the limits of driver from the THD graph but how can you tell what what are the spacious qualities of the headphone? sure you can have group delay and phase mismatch graph but it will tell you how precise imagining is not how wide the soundstage actually appears to be... i take graphs as sort of quality control telling me if the unit is actually worth even trying out before buying but some qualities still need empirical approach. I am not saying this won't be fixed in the future (maybe it already is) but as of right now i don't see anyone releasing graphs that would tell me how headphones actually sound.. you have in the signature that you have dynamic and planar headphones surely you know that planar do sound completely different (with EQ or not) to dynamic phones.. especially in the treble. Maybe the information is in the FR graph but is lost in the var smoothing.. i may sound like complete idiot to you but to me this is very important
(Even if some of what you said is true, which I won't counter because it's off topic, it's got nothing to do with headphone amps).
 

mrjayviper

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if sound was like a wine, id say ho200 is a nice white, and the sp400* is maybe a cab sauv. the difference comes across with grado headphones more so than the others i have.
Forgot to ask can you please explain the wine analogy? I'm not really into wines. Thanks
 

mrjayviper

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Seems my original question take resulted in some sort of debate...
 

RHO

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no... this is electronics... analogies are on point.
I seems you don't know enough about electronics to know your analogies make no sense.
 

Haruko

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I seems you don't know enough about electronics to know your analogies make no sense.
i didn't know you listen the music with your deep knowledge of electronics
 

RHO

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mrjayviper

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Can someone explain this (from the manufacturer product page)

"The specially designed volume potentiometer greatly reduces channel deviation"

All i see is a "cheap" log potentiometer. Thanks
 
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Bleib

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Can someone explain this (from the manufacturer product page)

"The specially designed volume potentiometer greatly reduces channel deviation"

All i see is a "cheap" log potentiometer. Thanks
Basically no channel imbalance. As products should be designed, and that includes the likes of L30 II
 

Jimster480

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Can someone explain this (from the manufacturer product page)

"The specially designed volume potentiometer greatly reduces channel deviation"

All i see is a "cheap" log potentiometer. Thanks
It just means that here isn't so much channel deviation, aka the channels should be matched even at lower volumes (something that seriously plagues cheaper pots). However be aware that the tested pot doesn't mean that it is the one that YOU will get. There has been more than 1 occasion where the pot is switched out to the buyers dismay.
 

mrjayviper

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Anybody using this amp? Your personal feedback?

What's the equivalent to toppings offering? (Current production)

Thanks
 
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