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SMSL M500 - Owners' Thread

bobby1945

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I used the link and the update installed to ver 2.01 with no issues.
Still do not get magenta led light up ????????????
 

Jeriko

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Your M500 is the latest version.
But if the XMOS USB DAC Driver is Ver 1.08, please update to Ver 2.01. I attached the confirmation method of Ver and the update file of Ver2.01.

What is the origin of that firmware? I downloaded and installed it and it rolled back to version 1.05 and now I can no longer update.

SMSL has already withdrawn this firmware version (2.01) weeks ago from the homepage.
Certainly not without reason.. should probably not be installed at the moment.
 

Shoaibexpert

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Hi @SMSL-Mandy and @SMSL_Liu can we know why some of us can update to SW 1.8/2.01 while others are stuck at 1.5 like myself? Are you guys doing something to sort your SW issues or should people just start looking elsewhere for reliable products? Thanks
 

bobby1945

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As Albocan has advised , after updating to ver 2.01 , the software defaults back to ver 1.05 SW / 1.2 HW -Although appearing and having confirmation that update of ver 2.01 was successful.
Functionality on the M500 does not appear to have been effected so far.
 

SwampyDude

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As Albocan has advised , after updating to ver 2.01 , the software defaults back to ver 1.05 SW / 1.2 HW -Although appearing and having confirmation that update of ver 2.01 was successful.
Functionality on the M500 does not appear to have been effected so far.
apart from can,t select 32 bit
 

bobby1945

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I have tested the MQA functionality on the M500 , by using test files from 2L.no/hires/

Selecting an MQA file from the available options for test, proved that an MQA file is not being recognised and is played as a HIGH RES 384KHz file , but no decoding or rendering of the MQA unfolding is being executed.
Surely this is not correct , or am I missing something?

OK changed the rate and bit depth in Windows 10 sound settings .
MQA now recognised !!
 
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Toku

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Hi @SMSL-Mandy and @SMSL_Liu can we know why some of us can update to SW 1.8/2.01 while others are stuck at 1.5 like myself? Are you guys doing something to sort your SW issues or should people just start looking elsewhere for reliable products? Thanks
I also emailed SMSL about 3 weeks ago.
However, SMSL has never answered this question.
I can't feel sincerity for the user.
Topping will always send us a reply email.
What is the difference between the two companies?
 

Shoaibexpert

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I also emailed SMSL about 3 weeks ago.
However, SMSL has never answered this question.
I can't feel sincerity for the user.
Topping will always send us a reply email.
What is the difference between the two companies?
I guess my next DAC is Topping then...a little more money...but better quality materials and some one replies to emails...is that too much to ask I wonder...
 

Fawzay

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SMSL just release the M400 series DAC
This will compete i guess neck to neck against Topping D90
11229965.jpg
 

Jumpwire

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I guess my next DAC is Topping then...a little more money...but better quality materials and some one replies to emails...is that too much to ask I wonder...

If SMSL wants to compete with Topping it needs to step it up. Hire a native english speaking person to run SM/PR/CS. Mandy seems busy with sales.

Can't just throw a product out there with the same price and expect people to cartwheel their way over to your company.
 

mon2

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Hello all. First time here. I am a senior, independent developer with XMOS devices and a hardware developer with 35+ years of experience at our company here in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Coming here from the XMOS user forum after a discussion with another SMSL customer:

https://www.xcore.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=7915

Fairly confident that there is now an understanding on what is the issue with these boxes that are reverting back to the 1.05 firmware and refuse to accept an update after this upgrade procedure.

At this time, do not believe it will be possible to fix via software although still researching the tools that are most likely embedded inside your firmware.

Hardware fix is logical and respectively why the factory is asking for the product to be returned back to their office in Shenzhen.

Have some questions and welcome feedback:

1) Are there any owners of this product and also happen to be hardware developers (with respective tools)?

2) Any chance someone is in (Ontario?) Canada with one of these boxes? We really do not wish to purchase a unit off Amazon for R&D to debug this case unless we can at least recover the product cost. We are not audio developers but tossing around the idea of building such products. If you are comfortable with the idea, send us a private email and the unit for loan, we will then repair the unit and return back to you at our expense - best if you are in Canada but USA would work as well.

Our company has been designing h/w products for 35+ years and supporting XMOS designs for the past 10 years.

The root cause is related to the XMOS DFU tool having a bug that demands that the upgrade firmware be compiled on a specific version (or higher) of the compiler.

The fix is to locate the 8 pin SMD (surface mount flash IC) -> desoldering it is best -> make a backup of the firmware -> locate the corrupt firmware inside this flash -> erase the sectors containing the corrupt upgrade image. Solder back the flash device. Upgrade again to the latest version.

The alternate plan is to use a zero force 8 pin spring clip (SOIC) adapter to piggy-back the same soldered part -> place the entire PCB into #RESET mode (ie. ACTIVE LOW so ground it) -> this will then tri-state (high impedance) the 8 pin FLASH device so that an external SPI bus master can be used to re-flash the same corrupt flash device.

The above process has to be confirmed with a true corrupted M500 but very confident this to be the root cause and immediate resolution.

In hindsight, it would have been wise to incorporate a rather simple onboard SPI flash programmer for such corner cases like this one to fix "bricked" firmware.

Bye for now.

Adding what is believed to be the root cause document (summary: external SPI flash is now corrupt for the upgrade image and the DFU tool is confused and using the factory original & known good firmware @ 1.05 but also preventing the use of the DFU tool to further upgrade the box):

https://axxonshare.s3.amazonaws.com...returned-in-libflash-and-libquadflash_1.0.pdf
 
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w1000i

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Guys, I can't play 768hz file without pop sound ?

any idea ? I'm upsampling using HQplayer
 

Jimbob54

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Guys, I can't play 768hz file without pop sound ?

any idea ? I'm upsampling using HQplayer
Dont upsample? OR upsample to lower rates
 

Jimbob54

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I thought M500 could that :(
Play 768khz pcm? It can. With pops. Or possibly the pops are a result of the cpu intensive upsampling you are doing on your computer.

But I'm interested to know what you are trying to achieve by upsampling? Especially to such a high degree. And what is your source file?
 

w1000i

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Play 768khz pcm? It can. With pops. Or possibly the pops are a result of the cpu intensive upsampling you are doing on your computer.

But I'm interested to know what you are trying to achieve by upsampling? Especially to such a high degree. And what is your source file?
I play all my files through ROON and up-sampling done by HQPlayer. for all sources of files
 

Jimbob54

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I play all my files through ROON and up-sampling done by HQPlayer. for all sources of files
Right. But you didn't answer the main part of my question (why are you upsampling) and barely answered what your source was. In fact, you didn't do that either. You said what your player was.
 

w1000i

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Right. But you didn't answer the main part of my question (why are you upsampling) and barely answered what your source was. In fact, you didn't do that either. You said what your player was.
To improve it, and sometime I use upsampling to DSD256 to give it more smooth and more body
 
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