SMSL M500 MKIII DAC & Amp Review

[777]

We all are. I do not "listen to graphs" either.

Yet,

I would still ask for actual proof that any of your claims could be verified when related to audibility.

It is about opamp current limmiting. 10mA is too high and the protection circuit can trip at this opamp. I'm not talking about functioning in class A anymore wich is at aprox 2mA for OPA1612.

 

[777]

I am interested in technology not in ping pong discussions. So i stop here.

The problems start at high frequency in the I/V converters. Over 350 ohm you have a big capacitor if you want a low-pass filter. That capacitor is between input and output. The output stage must drive that capacitor. After that, at the output of OPA1612, there is onother low-pass filter, R=100 ohm + C=10nF if I remember correctly. It is not easy task for the opamp.

 

[okok]

mk2 measures so good, not sure why they need to do this plus pro max apple path, the whole circumstances is so bad and overpriced

SMSL M500 MKII Review (DAC & HP Amp)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL M500 MKII DAC and Headphone Amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $440. I really like the look of the new SMSL UI. It is more modern and nicer to look at. I am surprised though that they still show the input data type in...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[TNT]

3rd is even lower with RCA... 10 dB lower.

//

 

[holbob]

Well done Topping! About time too!

 

[777]

Well done Topping! About time too!

S.M.S.L. not Topping

 

[respice finem]

S.M.S.L. not Topping

TBH when I saw the panther, initially I associated it with Topping too

 

[Vaskis]

Interesting to see one of these tested after 2 year of use.

 

[BR52]

The problems start at high frequency in the I/V converters. Over 350 ohm you have a big capacitor if you want a low-pass filter. That capacitor is between input and output. The output stage must drive that capacitor. After that, at the output of OPA1612, there is onother low-pass filter, R=100 ohm + C=10nF if I remember correctly. It is not easy task for the opamp.

The problems start at high frequency in the I/V converters. Over 350 ohm you have a big capacitor if you want a low-pass filter. That capacitor is between input and output. The output stage must drive that capacitor. After that, at the output of OPA1612, there is onother low-pass filter, R=100 ohm + C=10nF if I remember correctly. It is not easy task for the opamp.

Now we have a better communication basis. Because of the lack of the schematic, we can only make some assumptions about the reality. Anyhow, if I correct interpret your post you see the problem of this type of DAC's in the output drive capability.
As I know, Amir is measuring balanced outputs with around 2x 47k. This was (is) since a long time the standard input impedance of amp's. So we will see no problems with the measurements. Because a wide range (all) of DAC's will not be really loaded with this impedance.
To the feedback capacitor, we can see different values from manufacturer to manufacturer because it is also layout depending. As well, we can see that the Ess DAC's have a problem with the output stage (Hump) and from this case, the 1612 was the best choice for I/V convertors (bandwidth…)
The output impedance is for my application from interest because I would like to run a Purifi amp in direct mode with its much lower input impedance. I guess (hope)with 4 ops parallel, it would be a manageable load for it.

 

[respice finem]

Interesting to see one of these tested after 2 year of use.

Since it's not a valve amp, I wouldn't expect much performance shift.

 

[777]

Now we have a better communication basis. Because of the lack of the schematic, we can only make some assumptions about the reality. Anyhow, if I correct interpret your post you see the problem of this type of DAC's in the output drive capability.
As I know, Amir is measuring balanced outputs with around 2x 47k. This was (is) since a long time the standard input impedance of amp's. So we will see no problems with the measurements. Because a wide range (all) of DAC's will not be really loaded with this impedance.
To the feedback capacitor, we can see different values from manufacturer to manufacturer because it is also layout depending. As well, we can see that the Ess DAC's have a problem with the output stage (Hump) and from this case, the 1612 was the best choice for I/V convertors (bandwidth…)
The output impedance is for my application from interest because I would like to run a Purifi amp in direct mode with its much lower input impedance. I guess (hope)with 4 ops parallel, it would be a manageable load for it.

Amir load in balanced mode is 200k ohm. I have schematic. It is basic one. OPA1612 in I/V configuration, with R=350 ohm. Over R there is an C=... I do not remember his value..mmm In the output of the opamp is a serie R=100 or 120 ohm and after that C= 10nF. After that again R=100 or 120 ohm in serie. The same thing for minus XLR rail. All that is repeated of 8 times in parallel. There isn't any buffer.

 

[JSmith]

Interesting to see one of these tested after 2 year of use.

This MkIII model came out 2 months ago and all the previous models have been tested here and L7 I think;

Successor M500 MKIII is joining SMSL's lineup now!

Ten years of ingenuity, with professional technology and attitude, present you a high-quality auditory banquet. ---SMSL SMSL is mostly known for its great offerings, and recently, they announced a successor based on M500 MKII, called M500 MKIII, It's budget high-end of their line with a price...

shenzhenaudio.com

JSmith

 

[Music1969]

Well done SMSL engineers.

No ESS hump.

 

[JayGilb]

Wish they would house them in a bigger chassis. I'm old, grumpy and like my electronics in something bigger than a loaf of bread.

 

[AudioSceptic]

Got it. From my little experience measuring DACs, I found that ≈4.2Vrms is much more common than 4.0Vrms anyway.

This seems to have become almost standard, just as ~2.1 V has for RCA. Is this for genuine performance reasons, or just to fool people in subjective comparisons because it will sound very slightly louder?

 

[UltraNearFieldJock]

Great! Technically almost perfect. For me will be interesting such product (I would it bay to upgrade my system) with a few additional features: cross-feed, PEQ, DSP… Only a few dB for me are not decisive enough.

 

[morillon]

I'll be curious to see if there are smalls differences listed in ap32 multitones (32 it's not much.. maybe it would be good to standardize observations in much more numerous multitones closer to reality?) between usb and toslink...? (
even if the differences on the j-test side are not huge (just on the jitter side), so sometimes it differs a lot...)
;-)
(pkane multitone (congratulations to him) even allows you to generate the only files probably observable via the ap555 (?))

 

[BR52]

Amir load in balanced mode is 200k ohm. I have schematic. It is basic one. OPA1612 in I/V configuration, with R=350 ohm. Over R there is an C=... I do not remember his value..mmm In the output of the opamp is a serie R=100 or 120 ohm and after that C= 10nF. After that again R=100 or 120 ohm in serie. The same thing for minus XLR rail. All that is repeated of 8 times in parallel. There isn't any buffer.

Can you share the schematic?

 

[oscar_dziki]

I'll rate it 'fine' as it does not impress me compared to my E30II / L30II combo that costs little more than half the price.

 

[evan123]

Great! Technically almost perfect. For me will be interesting such product (I would it bay to upgrade my system) with a few additional features: cross-feed, PEQ, DSP… Only a few dB for me are not decisive enough.

If your source is a computer, it’s easy to do that in software and the software will probably do a better job? Agree otherwise that we need to upgrade the humans next, as the hardware can already be good enough today.