SMSL M400 Toslink, RCA issues still?. Compared to RME ADI2 and D70s

[AW61]

After doing a lot of reading and asking questions on this site and others I have narrowed down my DAC choices to a current shortlist of Topping D70S, SMSL M400, ADI RME-2.

The application is
Optical output of Chromecast Audio into the Toslink input of the DAC then RCA output into active speakers

Despite what I've read there are still a few things I’m not quite sure about .


First on the M400:-

Mention has been made of the poor Toslink input eg

“It is amazing that the performance is achieved using half a dac using minimal peripherals. I wish the toslink and coax inputs are better tho”

Are we talking mechanical issues or issues affecting the sound? I've read this affects Topping products also.

Also - The RCA output seems to have tweaked for “musicality”.

Does this mean that if I were to connect an XLR to RCA converter the sound will be different than using the RCA outputs (obviously the XLR would now be unbalanced)

But then another comment “The RCA issue has been corrected.” ??? Does this mean a firmware or hardware update, or something else?

Any other issues on the M400 to watch out for?


Finally some talk of high output impedance on the M400. Would this (and the D70s and the RME) all be OK feeding straight into active speakers?



Thanks