• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

SMSL M500 MKIII DAC & Amp Review

Rate this DAC & HP Amp

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 6 2.1%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 5 1.8%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 52 18.5%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 218 77.6%

  • Total voters
    281

Jimbob54

Grand Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Oct 25, 2019
Messages
11,063
Likes
14,694
Love the price, but in reading the review, the 4.4mm headphone output does not look like it a balanced output either.
Correct. Just out of interest , what headphones do you have/ will get? Balanced connection in and of itself buys nothing for a pair of headphones unless its to get more power into them.
 

Jimbob54

Grand Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Oct 25, 2019
Messages
11,063
Likes
14,694
Interestingly, their website says the 4.4mm is balanced. I did not get that impression from Amirs review but I might have misinterpreted it
Lets just say sometimes some manufacturers websites arent as thoroughly fact checked as we would always like. Regardless, multiple sites report the output power is the same from either output.
 

vitop

Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2023
Messages
7
Likes
0
Correct. Just out of interest , what headphones do you have/ will get? Balanced connection in and of itself buys nothing for a pair of headphones unless its to get more power into them.
I currently have a pair of STAX headphones, but the extra amp, etc is taking up too much room and I am going to go to either a pair of Meze Empyeans or a one of the HIFIMans planer headphones.
 

Ceez

Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2021
Messages
6
Likes
2
I picked up an M500 MkIII last year after favorable reviews here and elsewhere. Despite some minor quibbles with the UI, I enjoyed it a great deal and had been using it for both headphone duties and to feed my speakers. That's until it started acting up, with the audio output randomly stopping, requiring a restart or switching between inputs to fix temporarily. Oddly, even though the output would stop, my PC would not lose connection to the DAC (USB) which seemed to indicate that it wasn't on the connection side that the issue came from. A firmware update to the latest one available made no difference.

I contacted SMSL as it's under warranty, and initially received no response. It took a couple of emails to finally hear back, although when they did finally get back to me, they told me to send it in so I could get a replacement. They've had it now for almost a month, and I've yet to receive any tracking information for the replacement, despite inquiring now twice. Frankly curious if I'll even get it back at this point, but I figure I'll keep trying for a bit longer.

I'm semi-peeved about the whole thing, as I frankly expected better from a 500 dollar device, both in regards to the device itself, but also the level of customer service and how much it seems that it requires constant prodding to get anything done. Although of course, I'm still without my supposed replacement.
Prior to this, I would have gladly recommended the M500, it looks nice, it sounds great (when it's working, natch), but given the issues with apparent longevity and the customer service... That's pretty difficult for me at this point.
Sorry you had to go through that. My M500 MkII just started exhibiting the exact same behavior, and on SMSL's Amazon page for the MkII many others complain about the same thing. I hoped SMSL would have resolved it with the Mk III, but your case proves otherwise. My bet is the power supply module (the only relay in the M500 that could make the clicking sound), and it seems the MkIII uses the same one. Even though my MkII is past its warranty period, SMSL replied quickly and said they will fix it if I send it to them. How is your replacement is doing?
 

Thx1326

Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2023
Messages
15
Likes
0
Is anyone here have any experience in feeding these DAC's from a Raspberry Pi4 music server? I'm trying to find a good quality add-on board for the RPi4 that has a high quality USB, Coax and or Toslink connection to go to the DAC. An suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 

kchap

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Jun 10, 2021
Messages
579
Likes
566
Location
Melbourne, Oz
Is anyone here have any experience in feeding these DAC's from a Raspberry Pi4 music server? I'm trying to find a good quality add-on board for the RPi4 that has a high quality USB, Coax and or Toslink connection to go to the DAC. An suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Is you are using a Rpi4b (and I think the Rpi3b) you would be better off sticking with usb. I have several Rpi4b with usb DACs and have had no issues.
 

Nutul

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2023
Messages
315
Likes
173
Is anyone here have any experience in feeding these DAC's from a Raspberry Pi4 music server? I'm trying to find a good quality add-on board for the RPi4 that has a high quality USB, Coax and or Toslink connection to go to the DAC. An suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
The issue here is that the Pi3 shared the bus with USB and ethernet. This is no longer true for the Pi4.
 

Thx1326

Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2023
Messages
15
Likes
0
Thanks for the answer.... A couple of follow-up questions: Will the following scenario work properly?

RPI4 running Logitech Music Server and PiCore Player will be connected to an external USB DAC via one USB 3.0 port. A Crucial X6 4tb external SSD will be connected to the other USB 3.0 port with all FLAC files. This RPI4 will be connected hardwired to network via ethernet. The external DAC will be connected via RCA to System 1. A Logitech SqueezeBox Touch will be hardwired to the same network via ethernet and then connected to via RCA to System 2.

Questions:

1. This should allow both System 1 and 2 to access and stream music from the Crucial SSD connected to the RPI4?

2. Will PiCore Player run on Android Phone and Tablet to control System 1?

3. Will PiCore Player on the same Android devices control the SBT on System 2 or will I need other software? I also have the SBT factory remote. Suggestions?

4. Also, on the RPI4, is there a way to turn off the USB2.0 and HDMI ports?

5. Will a fan be beneficial in the RPI4 case or will it create "noise" on the USB Port?

Am I missing anything or should this work?

All suggestions are welcome and thanks in advance for your help!

Happy New Year!
 

Nutul

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2023
Messages
315
Likes
173
Thanks for the answer.... A couple of follow-up questions: Will the following scenario work properly?

RPI4 running Logitech Music Server and PiCore Player will be connected to an external USB DAC via one USB 3.0 port. A Crucial X6 4tb external SSD will be connected to the other USB 3.0 port with all FLAC files. This RPI4 will be connected hardwired to network via ethernet. The external DAC will be connected via RCA to System 1. A Logitech SqueezeBox Touch will be hardwired to the same network via ethernet and then connected to via RCA to System 2.

Questions:

1. This should allow both System 1 and 2 to access and stream music from the Crucial SSD connected to the RPI4?

2. Will PiCore Player run on Android Phone and Tablet to control System 1?

3. Will PiCore Player on the same Android devices control the SBT on System 2 or will I need other software? I also have the SBT factory remote. Suggestions?

4. Also, on the RPI4, is there a way to turn off the USB2.0 and HDMI ports?

5. Will a fan be beneficial in the RPI4 case or will it create "noise" on the USB Port?

Am I missing anything or should this work?

All suggestions are welcome and thanks in advance for your help!

Happy New Year!
Hmm, see if I can help, at least a little.
First of all, you probably want the DAC connected to a USB2.0 port, but you'll say. It may or not be recognized on a 3.0 port. YMMV, not a big issue.
1. to my knowledge, yes.
2. have no clue, but if it acts as a LMS control point it should.
3. as per 2. it should, as it will see any device on the LAN as LMS endpoint.
4. you have no need of this, but at least for the USB hubs (READ: not the single ports, the set of 2, either both the 2.0 or both the 3.0) yes, there is - it is not permanent (after a reboot you'll need to disable them again, and yes, it is a matter of issuing commands on the console via SSH, or to create a script that gets run automatically at boot and does the job for you - but again, I don't see the reason why...). For HDMI there could be the same kind of commands, but ATM I am not aware of them.
5. the need for the fan depends on the case, I have my Pi4 in the case for the official 7'' display, no fan, only heat-sinks, and it stays comfortably at about 50/55 C. I cannot tell if it might introduce noise on the USB, but consider this: the DACs using UAC2.0 (almost all of them nowadays) are immune to the noise because the stream is not being forced by the Pi into the DAC - as per UAC1.0 - but instead it is a) requested by the DAC in chunks as it sees fit, and b) it is reclocked on the DAC side. It is true that your Pi will be under bigger load (PCP + LMS) than mine (just moOde player) so you may want to monitor it for a while, and connect a fan only if its temperature reaches trespasses 60C.

Please, consider my answers with a grain of salt, especially those about LMS (I am not an expert, most probably you'll find more help in the PiCorePlayer documentation about its LMS server / client capabilities), as I said I am confident it should, but cannot guarantee 100%.

HTH
Cheers, Al.
 

Vyscerath

New Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2024
Messages
1
Likes
1
Sorry you had to go through that. My M500 MkII just started exhibiting the exact same behavior, and on SMSL's Amazon page for the MkII many others complain about the same thing. I hoped SMSL would have resolved it with the Mk III, but your case proves otherwise. My bet is the power supply module (the only relay in the M500 that could make the clicking sound), and it seems the MkIII uses the same one. Even though my MkII is past its warranty period, SMSL replied quickly and said they will fix it if I send it to them. How is your replacement is doing?

Hi everybody!

I originally bought an MkII in 2022/03 and I was very satisfied with it for almost a year, then the sound started to cut out sometimes with crackling and other noises. I wrote to SMSL on Amazon and got the unit replaced eventually (with another MkII).

Fast forward another year -> the replacement unit started doing the same thing again. I don't remember how long the warranty is, but I wrote them on Amazon again, but have no reply as of yet.

Currently I'd say there is a major issue somewhere, if even the MkIII has the same behaviour, probably only recommendable if you want to spend 400-500 EUR/USD for a product which only lasts a year.

Cheers,

Bjoern
 
Top Bottom