SMSL M500 MKII Review (DAC & HP Amp)

[Hiilari]

I wish these sorts of feature related things were a focus of product reviews. Seems that we're in a place of audibly transparent front end equipment so these little things really become the material differentiators. Does it click or pop when switching sample rates? Does it drop samples when starting up? How quickly and easily can a user perform common tasks like switching to headphone listening, change the volume, turn off or dim display.

Agree. In our kitchen/living room area I have the RME ADI DAC connected to active Genelecs (in Finland, naturally ) with XLR cables. RME has all these usability features nicely figured out. Plug in headphones and speakers mute, no cliks & pops, volume and (if in use) EQ is set for headphones. When unplugging headphones the speaker volume raises to previous level within a sec or so, not at-your-face. Just small, well thought things.

But RME is of course more expensive, not the nicest looking unit, and for some reason does not work with Tidal Exclusive mode. So I'm okay with my nice SMSL box which I got in nice red color And sound quality is really nice, both with active monitors (balanced XLR connections rule!) and HifiMan Edition XS planars

 

[doug2761]

Agree. In our kitchen/living room area I have the RME ADI DAC connected to active Genelecs (in Finland, naturally ) with XLR cables. RME has all these usability features nicely figured out. Plug in headphones and speakers mute, no cliks & pops, volume and (if in use) EQ is set for headphones. When unplugging headphones the speaker volume raises to previous level within a sec or so, not at-your-face. Just small, well thought things.

But RME is of course more expensive, not the nicest looking unit, and for some reason does not work with Tidal Exclusive mode. So I'm okay with my nice SMSL box which I got in nice red color And sound quality is really nice, both with active monitors (balanced XLR connections rule!) and HifiMan Edition XS planars

I've got an RME that I use exclusively for headphones. I agree with the RME's looks being a bit polarizing. To me, it reminds me of a car radio or HAM radio. I think it's a nice look for headphone listening but it looks a bit retro in my main system. I've got an SMSL M300 MKII, in blue color, in a second system and I really like the looks of that one.

Using the RME with the Genelec's sounds like a great idea. If I were building a system from scratch today, I think I'd go with an active speaker system too. The Genelec's digitize the input from the RME, right? Do you find that you use the features on the RME with the Genelec's? Genelec has tools to do room correction with their speakers, right?

 

[Hiilari]

I've got an RME that I use exclusively for headphones. I agree with the RME's looks being a bit polarizing. To me, it reminds me of a car radio or HAM radio. I think it's a nice look for headphone listening but it looks a bit retro in my main system. I've got an SMSL M300 MKII, in blue color, in a second system and I really like the looks of that one.

Using the RME with the Genelec's sounds like a great idea. If I were building a system from scratch today, I think I'd go with an active speaker system too. The Genelec's digitize the input from the RME, right? Do you find that you use the features on the RME with the Genelec's? Genelec has tools to do room correction with their speakers, right?

Hello

My Genelecs are a bit older so no room correction, all analog, not even class-D amps but good 'old AB. So I use the RME's EQ to mildly take some room modes off, then take XLRs to the Genelecs and RCAs to the Elac subwoofer. Since both the speakers and sub are active, their own controls give a nice crossover between the two. I really like this setup, and in party mode I can go LOUD without breaking stuff! Only minor complaint with active speakers IMHO is the need to have double cables to both speakers: signal and power. Cable spaghetti is never pretty.

PS. Latest Stereophile praised again Genelec's new G-series which has no SAM room correction, but is also quite affordable. Especially on Stereophile prize scale

 

[phua]

Hi All, I have a M500 MKII which plays fine when output to headphone output. However, when it is output to XLR or RCA, I encountered cut off (unlike skip; that portion of the song is lost) at a certain point in the song regardless of the source. I experienced it with Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music and with DVD player connected to M500 MKII via optical cable. The cut off will happen at the same time stamp. So far I experienced this with 2 songs.

This unit I have is a brand new replacement unit after the 1st unit with above mentioned problem was returned to SMSL hoping they will investigate and provide solutions. Seems it may not be an isolated case with 2 units exhibiting same problem.

Manufacturer suggested factory reset and it works only for one of the song. Below are the 2 songs, one is a Chinese song (no problem after factory reset).

Singer: Katie Melua
Song: Blues In The Night (cut off at about 3’31”; problem persists after factory reset)

Singer: 张惠妹
Song: 默 (encountered 8 cut offs but no problem after factory reset)

Does anyone else encountered the same problem and managed to fix it? Please share if you have. For users with M500 MKII, if you have the time, please try if your unit does the same

 

[schan_ban]

Hi Everyone,

Just came here to post that my M500 MKII has encountered the exact same issue my M300 MKII did only a few months ago. Both units have seemingly been bricked without any notable event happening to either. My M300 lasted about 3 months and then one day it suddenly only started playing music at a very quiet level, had to turn it up to 99 just to get enough volume for my powered monitors to wake from sleep mode to hear anything and even then the sound was clipping bad.

Chatted back and forth with support who ended up ghosting me after trying to get in contact with them further to get them to replace the unit and they never did, so I was basically left with a bricked M300 and never got my money back for the unit even though it was under warranty (failed after only 3 months).

I decided to give SMSL another chance with the M500 MKII and once again about 3 months in and the EXACT same issue has happened to it that happened to the M300 MKII. Will only barely play music at the highest volume level and it's clipping/barely enough to hear anything.

Neither unit had any music playing when the issue started within both and I can't pinpoint any common cause for this in either. I've tried resetting both and updating the firmware for both but no luck on either.

Thankfully Amazon is letting me return the M500 MKII for a refund (less an $88 restocking fee) but suffice to say my trust in SMSL has been completely ruined and I'll never be purchasing another DAC from them again.

I'm considering maybe a Topping DAC now but honestly am pretty skeptical to most chi-fi units now that I've had 2 fail in the span of about 6 months so maybe I take the plunge into something higher end. I don't need anything sophisticated though (honestly couldn't care less about MQA or anything), just looking for a clean DAC that can output music via XLRs and has bluetooth and USB inputs.

Just wanted to warn anyone considering any SMSL product that they haven't been very reliable in my experience. Other people will definitely have different experiences but that's mine for what it's worth. Open to any suggestions on other DACs or maybe anything I could do to fix either DAC before I send the M500 back in a few days. Thanks!

 

[Veri]

I'm considering maybe a Topping DAC now but honestly am pretty skeptical to most chi-fi units now that I've had 2 fail in the span of about 6 months so maybe I take the plunge into something higher end. I don't need anything sophisticated though (honestly couldn't care less about MQA or anything), just looking for a clean DAC that can output music via XLRs and has bluetooth and USB inputs.

Just wanted to warn anyone considering any SMSL product that they haven't been very reliable in my experience. Other people will definitely have different experiences but that's mine for what it's worth. Open to any suggestions on other DACs or maybe anything I could do to fix either DAC before I send the M500 back in a few days. Thanks!

Maybe consider a Schiit Modius DAC, or a JDS Labs El Dac II with the balanced outputs option; you'll need a TRS>XLR cable then though.

 

[Roland68]

Hi Everyone,

Just came here to post that my M500 MKII has encountered the exact same issue my M300 MKII did only a few months ago. Both units have seemingly been bricked without any notable event happening to either. My M300 lasted about 3 months and then one day it suddenly only started playing music at a very quiet level, had to turn it up to 99 just to get enough volume for my powered monitors to wake from sleep mode to hear anything and even then the sound was clipping bad.

Chatted back and forth with support who ended up ghosting me after trying to get in contact with them further to get them to replace the unit and they never did, so I was basically left with a bricked M300 and never got my money back for the unit even though it was under warranty (failed after only 3 months).

I decided to give SMSL another chance with the M500 MKII and once again about 3 months in and the EXACT same issue has happened to it that happened to the M300 MKII. Will only barely play music at the highest volume level and it's clipping/barely enough to hear anything.

Neither unit had any music playing when the issue started within both and I can't pinpoint any common cause for this in either. I've tried resetting both and updating the firmware for both but no luck on either.

Thankfully Amazon is letting me return the M500 MKII for a refund (less an $88 restocking fee) but suffice to say my trust in SMSL has been completely ruined and I'll never be purchasing another DAC from them again.

I'm considering maybe a Topping DAC now but honestly am pretty skeptical to most chi-fi units now that I've had 2 fail in the span of about 6 months so maybe I take the plunge into something higher end. I don't need anything sophisticated though (honestly couldn't care less about MQA or anything), just looking for a clean DAC that can output music via XLRs and has bluetooth and USB inputs.

Just wanted to warn anyone considering any SMSL product that they haven't been very reliable in my experience. Other people will definitely have different experiences but that's mine for what it's worth. Open to any suggestions on other DACs or maybe anything I could do to fix either DAC before I send the M500 back in a few days. Thanks!

It's a little strange that two different devices fail with the same error, which is also not known until now.
Your error description suggests that something is defective in the output stage. What kind of amplifier were the two DACs connected to?

Why should you pay a restocking fee on Amazon?
If the device is defective, Amazon should replace it or give a full refund.

 

[staticV3]

So far I experienced this with 2 songs.

Singer: Katie Melua
Song: Blues In The Night (cut off at about 3’31”

On this track it's a clear case of DC protection kicking in:

I wouldn't call this a fault of the DAC. DC protection is good (maybe a bit sensitive here).
It's just a bad master.

Singer: 张惠妹
Song: 默 (encountered 8 cut offs but no problem after factory reset)

Looks like the extreme deep bass triggered DC protection again.

If you want to fix the skipping, simply put a high shelf filter at 20Hz or so in place, using Equalizer APO or whatever EQ program works on your playback system.

 

[doanhuan22291]

when you switch outputs, there is an audible "click" coming from the speak,is that a bug on xlr port SMSl 500mkii,
Anyone have the same error as me?

 

[radbase]

Loving my MKII so far...
But is it just me, or did anyone else notice that it gets hotter than other dac/amps (I also have ifi zen dacv2 and xdsd which is relative "colder" to the touch than M500)
Its as hot as my SMSL A300 Amp and Hiby R6 DAP

 

[Vangelo]

Loving my MKII so far...
But is it just me, or did anyone else notice that it gets hotter than other dac/amps (I also have ifi zen dacv2 and xdsd which is relative "colder" to the touch than M500)
Its as hot as my SMSL A300 Amp and Hiby R6 DAP

Yah....mine ran hot too, but not as hot as my Topping D90LE!

 

[radbase]

Yah....mine ran hot too, but not as hot as my Topping D90LE!

OK... so I guess it's normal then... thanks

 

[AlexTaler]

Hi guys and @SMSL-Mandy

I REALLY need your help. I have a SMSL M500 mkii DAC and I have an issue with any audio source connected to USB Audio input. My computers or mobile devices recognize the DAC. I can install drivers and it looks like it should work without any problem, but I can't hear any sounds when I play various music from any app/browser. Headphones output has no audio. The display on the DAC does not change the sampling rates based on the file I play. It always shows PCM 44.1kHz even if I won't connect the DAC to any source. I played MQA from Tidal, DSD64/12 from Foobar, I played music from a web browser, YouTube, but it was still the same. No sound, no sample rate change. I've tried to use different driver versions, different computers, but the result is the same. I did a reset the DAC from the menu, but no luck. I have a FiiO K5 Pro DAC as well and it works fine with everything.

I can hear the music from headphones output when I play music from Bluetooth input. The DAC can show the Hi-Res logo and LDAC when I play Tidal. So, the headphones output is working. The DAC has SW v1.0 and Firmware 3.03. Is there a way to do a XMOS chip reset if it's stuck for some reason? Or is there a firmware update I can perform to reset/fix USB? I tried to search for a solution on the internet, but could not find anyone talking about a similar issue.

Please let me know if I need to provide any other information. Thank you in advance.

I can't upload photos here for some reason. Uploading the to the Gdrive

Smsl - Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[Dennis_FL]

Hi guys and @SMSL-Mandy

I REALLY need your help. I have a SMSL M500 mkii DAC and I have an issue with any audio source connected to USB Audio input. My computers or mobile devices recognize the DAC. I can install drivers and it looks like it should work without any problem, but I can't hear any sounds when I play various music from any app/browser. Headphones output has no audio. The display on the DAC does not change the sampling rates based on the file I play. It always shows PCM 44.1kHz even if I won't connect the DAC to any source. I played MQA from Tidal, DSD64/12 from Foobar, I played music from a web browser, YouTube, but it was still the same. No sound, no sample rate change. I've tried to use different driver versions, different computers, but the result is the same. I did a reset the DAC from the menu, but no luck. I have a FiiO K5 Pro DAC as well and it works fine with everything.

I can hear the music from headphones output when I play music from Bluetooth input. The DAC can show the Hi-Res logo and LDAC when I play Tidal. So, the headphones output is working. The DAC has SW v1.0 and Firmware 3.03. Is there a way to do a XMOS chip reset if it's stuck for some reason? Or is there a firmware update I can perform to reset/fix USB? I tried to search for a solution on the internet, but could not find anyone talking about a similar issue.

Please let me know if I need to provide any other information. Thank you in advance.

Sounds like it needs a repair.

 

[AlexTaler]

Sounds like it needs a repair.

Any other solution? I can't return it to a seller for a repair.
Is there a place I can order that part online and replace it myself? Thank you.

 

[Dennis_FL]

Any other solution? I can't return it to a seller for a repair.
Is there a place I can order that part online and replace it myself? Thank you.

Try a factory reset. Connect the power cord when pressing the power button, until the screen shows the logo.

 

[AlexTaler]

Try a factory reset. Connect the power cord when pressing the power button, until the screen shows the logo.

I did a factory reset from a menu many times, but it doesn't make any difference. A long press on a power button switches the DAC OFF/ON.

 

[Dennis_FL]

I did a factory reset from a menu many times, but it doesn't make any difference. A long press on a power button switches the DAC OFF/ON.

Pull the power cord and then wait 10 minutes then hold the power button while plugging in the power cord

 

[AlexTaler]

Pull the power cord and then wait 10 minutes then hold the power button while plugging in the power cord

I doesn't powers ON nor doing a reset. It stays OFF. I have to switch OFF/ON a power button from the back panel to start the DAC.
Is there another way to perform a HARD RESET for the DAC or XMOS chip?

 

[Dennis_FL]

Here’s a similar thread