SMSL M500 - Owners' Thread

[Toku]

DSD256 seems to be playing just fine, not hearing any noise.

Sorry for the late reply.
The information I get is
There is a problem with DSD256 where sound drops every few seconds.

Today I received my second order M500 from Shenzhen Audio in China.
I would like to report the comparison with the M500 of the initial model purchased before.

 

[TC!!]

Sorry for the late reply.
The information I get is
There is a problem with DSD256 where sound drops every few seconds.

Today I received my second order M500 from Shenzhen Audio in China.
I would like to report the comparison with the M500 of the initial model purchased before.

I've now bought one direct from SMSL and it should be with me this week, then I'll be able to join in with the testing.

 

[NorthGraves]

There is a problem with DSD256 where sound drops every few seconds.

Nothing like that for sure, played a couple of DSD256 songs start to end, 5 or so min each.
SW 1.5
HW 1.2
2019-10-9
USB firmware 1.08

 

[jamezdk]

Why am i getting a lot of MQA 44.1/48 kHz in the display when playing Tidal Masters, is it not decoding properly?

 

[NorthGraves]

Why am i getting a lot of MQA 44.1/48 kHz in the display when playing Tidal Masters, is it not decoding properly?

1) Make sure your subscription (plan) is HiFi

2) Make sure the track is marked with a letter "M"

3) Many "M" tracks on Tidal are 24 bit/44.1 KHz (which is better than CD)

4) In Tidal, choose Exclusive Mode and Passthrough MQA

5) Try this, for example
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/38cb1bd2-ac7b-46fd-8e0d-677223f46590

 

[jamezdk]

1) Make sure your subscription (plan) is HiFi

2) Make sure the track is marked with a letter "M"

3) Many "M" tracks on Tidal are 24 bit/44.1 KHz (which is better than CD)

4) In Todal, choose Exclusive Mode and Passthrough MQA
View attachment 41587

5) Try this, for example
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/38cb1bd2-ac7b-46fd-8e0d-677223f46590

Great thanks!

Never thought to expand that menu...

All is working perfectly now

 

[Spocko]

Just ordered M500, is the firmware update fairly straightforward with instructions in the box or am I going to have to search the Internet for a primer?

 

[TC!!]

Just ordered M500, is the firmware update fairly straightforward with instructions in the box or am I going to have to search the Internet for a primer?

Download the USB update 1.08 from here:
http://www.smsl-audio.com/download.asp

There's instructions in English explaining how you upgrade the Windows USB driver and then the USB firmware of the M500. I'm on a Mac and had to use Virtualbox to run Windows but it was still pretty straightforward for me.

 

[NorthGraves]

Just ordered M500, is the firmware update fairly straightforward with instructions in the box or am I going to have to search the Internet for a primer?

https://download.shenzhenaudio.com/Smsl/M500 1.08 USB firmware/M500 1.08 USB firmware.zip

1) Install XMOS_USBAudio_v4.67.0_setup.exe

2) Run XMOSUSBDACDfu.exe, point to SMSL_M500_1.08_DFU.bin and hit Start; when finished updating, hit Exit

3) The end

 

[Telya]

Hi again,

just ignore my question. I will keep the question in the forum, as I was not able to find the solution in the forum.

Solution: I didn't know that I have to switch the output stage from headphones to XLR-Out. On the other side it's interesting that the M500 has such a high level of crosstalk between the headphone Output stage and the XLR-Outs.

Hi,

I just joined the club of the M500 owners and have a problem: My M500 works fine with the headphones, but my Speakers (Adam A3X) are just playing at very low volume and suffer from strong Distorsion.
I update the M500 from 1.05 to 1.08 already and installed the latest USB-Driver.

Thanks for help in advance
Telya

 

[Toku]

Hi again,

just ignore my question. I will keep the question in the forum, as I was not able to find the solution in the forum.

Solution: I didn't know that I have to switch the output stage from headphones to XLR-Out. On the other side it's interesting that the M500 has such a high level of crosstalk between the headphone Output stage and the XLR-Outs.

Hi,

I just joined the club of the M500 owners and have a problem: My M500 works fine with the headphones, but my Speakers (Adam A3X) are just playing at very low volume and suffer from strong Distorsion.
I update the M500 from 1.05 to 1.08 already and installed the latest USB-Driver.

Thanks for help in advance
Telya

Did you switch the output mode of the M500 from headphones to line output at that time?
Is the speaker symbol displayed on the upper left of the display?

When the volume is set to the maximum in the headphone output mode, the M500 leaks a little sound to the RCA output.
The sound will be a little distorted as you heard.

 

[Shoaibexpert]

Favorite and most musical PCM Filter...those who can hear a difference?

 

[Veri]

Favorite and most musical PCM Filter...those who can hear a difference?

I personally use either the Apodising or Minimum Phase Slow(~1dB roll-off of higher frequencies). Both are minimum phase and not linear phase but I can't hear difference in phase changes whatsoever... very few people can.

 

[Shoaibexpert]

I personally use either the Apodising or Minimum Phase Slow(~1dB roll-off of higher frequencies). Both are minimum phase and not linear phase but I can't hear difference in phase changes whatsoever... very few people can.

Thanks. Didn't know you were on M500 too. Its a pretty neat DAC...but been a bit disappointed with the chip heating fiasco. I loved Apodidizing myself but nowadays going for Hybrid which is a Linear filter I believe...it seems to boost the highs...Don't know if that's a good thing with Headphones...

 

[Veri]

Thanks. Didn't know you were on M500 too. Its a pretty neat DAC...but been a bit disappointed with the chip heating fiasco. I loved Apodidizing myself but nowadays going for Hybrid which is a Linear filter I believe...it seems to boost the highs...Don't know if that's a good thing with Headphones...

If you love apodising I'd just use that the differences besides roll-off with slower filters, are neglegible to non-existent/placebo anyway..

 

[ArturoKiwi]

Hi to everyone, I hope I'm not asking a stupid question, but could I connect a raspberry volumio to m500 by usb?
Thanks

 

[Anders O]

Just got my M500 today, works well so far, use it with tidal, Im just wondering every time I change song it looses MQA and takes a second to come back again, often the new song has already started. Any solution for this?

 

[Shoaibexpert]

Just got my M500 today, works well so far, use it with tidal, Im just wondering every time I change song it looses MQA and takes a second to come back again, often the new song has already started. Any solution for this?

Did you upgrade the SW?

 

[NorthGraves]

use it with tidal, Im just wondering every time I change song it looses MQA and takes a second to come back again, often the new song has already started. Any solution for this?

Using Tidal MQA now, nothing like that at all. Perfectly seamless.

Please update to FW 1.08, also make those choices within Tidal as in my screenshot above.

 

[NorthGraves]

Btw, XMOS driver 4.82 seems to have become available. Not that it makes any difference, but wondering if SMSL makes it available at some point.
SMSL latest is 4.67.

https://www.thesycon.de/eng/usb_audiodriver.shtml
Current Version: 4.82