SMSL PL100 Review (CD Player)

[Droid_chinchilla]

Ok, but that does not mean the Denon would do better, right?
Also, with the large number of buyers and feedback, you get unfortunate unhappy people, probably more vocal than those happy.
Stats would tell us more, maybe, not sure. I guess packaging and handling during shipping can have a significant influence on these fragile mechanics.

So I think you are right. You are far way more qualified than I am to assess a CD device, you have seen so many. And you just forecasted what was goin to happen. Long story short, the Denon was in pristine condition BUT had a veeeeery noisy drive like the CD was scrathing something. I returned it.

And to justify my choice - I am a marketing guy. Pharma marketing, but still. I work on creating brand image every day. And what I saw that SMSL did with the PL series was in fact how not to create a brand image. They sold the PL100, with which I was not happy due to the looks. And then - pow they put on their news website a teaser for the PL150. Which is an upgrade, and has an external high fidelity PSU, and a true gapless playback, and a balanced 4.4 pentacon jack, and it was stated as audiophile grade CD player...the PL100 was not.....It is not there anymore but I saw it. And I said wow a better CD player...and I was waiting for it.

And then the PL150 was available...no PSU, no true gapless only the balanced jack (fully?). I do know that when you create a need and high (er) expectations, you do it with a purpose. And here there are two options - they did this knowing it is a lie, just wanting to create the hype, or they realized that they cannot do it - either case it is a bummer.

I do really appreciate the work you do to test the drives, I see the amount of work behind, I see the results are very good, but I need more from a customer point of view from SMSL. What turned me off was the case of re-used (maybe no reused, but re-converted) drives and the rusty chassis...I was born in a comunist country. I remeber when my father's car (a copy of Renault 12) tape player broke and I disassembled it and saw the rusty chassis....that was a sign of poor quality parts. And had a very ugly imbalance between channels...

Long story short, it is a cheap device. It is not only about price, but about a promise. I still have my CD player that my mom gave me when I was 16 - still working. Hard to press buttons, but her memory lies in every CD I play in it. BTW, that was 30 yrs ago. That is what I expect from a device.

Thanks again for opening our eyes with what you do. I really appreciate it

 

[anonyless]

What turned me off was the case of re-used (maybe no reused, but re-converted) drives and the rusty chassis...

how did you get to the conclusion about the "rusty chassis" on the PL100/150 ? from a single video on Youtube?

 

[Droid_chinchilla]

how did you get to the conclusion about the "rusty chassis" on the PL100/150 ? from a single video on Youtube?

Yes, from that video, and another posts that stated this. I cannot cite them, I do not recall the source. If I hadn't heard about it, I wouldn't have looked for it. It just raised my curiosity.

Not for the 150, only for the 100.

 

[Berwhale]

I would say that the transport in my PL100 has either been stored very poorly, or it's been pulled from something else (almost certainly the latter)...

I think the CDM M10 is a Phillips transport. My old (non-working) Marantz CD63 has a CDM 9 transport.

 

[DavidM1]

What turned me off was the case of re-used (maybe no reused, but re-converted) drives and the rusty chassis...

This doesn’t gel with my experience of the brand or the numerous test results and reports here. My PL100 has been faultless as has my SMSL C200 DAC/ headphone amp. They arrived in perfect condition and are used every day.

If SMSL has employed a Philips mechanism designed for cars then good on them. The spec would likely exceed anything designed for the home and I posted a far more expensive Danish brand that uses Philips car mechanisms for that reason. The picture that Cheapaudioman grabbed of some dashboard being pulled apart is typical of his tabloid approach.

The purpose of ASR is to step behind the nonsense to find some objective reality.

 

[Droid_chinchilla]

My wish is not to bother anybody, as I consider that everyone's experience is valuable.

I am a new member on ASR. I walked in here to find a right small CD player. What I saw here was a bunch of enthusiasts doing their best to analyze and find the smallest differences in specs. So maybe I am wrong, but my comments about SMSL was aimed at helping us all to make an educated guess when buying a new device. It is not about highlighting nonsense in anything, but asking questions.

If anyone does not experienced any issue with a brand, it is perfect. If anyone did, let us find why. If anyone questions something, let him speak. Together we will find more answers this way.

Let's enjoy our gear

 

[DavidM1]

I agree, this is definitely a place for people to enjoy gear and to raise questions and share expertise. There are some very generous folks here and the science of audio is fascinating in itself.

I lost interest in hifi when I grew tired of the lack of objectivity in the way it was marketed and discussed. It was always a lot more sizzle than steak and some products such as high-end cables and accessories seemed only to exist to take advantage of the uninformed. ASR is a pretty good antidote for all that.

 

[anonyless]

This doesn’t gel with my experience of the brand or the numerous test results and reports here. My PL100 has been faultless as has my SMSL C200 DAC/ headphone amp. They arrived in perfect condition and are used every day.

same, i own 3 devices from SMSL (SU1, PO100, PL150) so far, all work perfectly and are excellent value for money

If SMSL has employed a Philips mechanism designed for cars then good on them. The spec would likely exceed anything designed for the home and I posted a far more expensive Danish brand that uses Philips car mechanisms for that reason. The picture that Cheapaudioman grabbed of some dashboard being pulled apart is typical of his tabloid approach.

i've watched all recent Cheapaudioman's videos and i don't recall him mentioning "pictures of dashboard being pulled apart". I see people here spin the deleted video about the PL100/150 to prove a point about those players, but i don't think they actually watched the videos . so allow me to sum up the "cheap audio man cheap SMSL player experience" :

1. a while ago he released a video basically recommending the PL100 , as a great way to return to CD listening, for the price of 100$
2. about a week ago, he released a video saying a received an email from "former SMSL employee" (showing the email all over in the video) , which says -
* SMSL didn't pay my last salary
* the PL100/150 use a used mechanism that was pulled from car cd players. "used" here can also mean repurposed as CAM later clarifies in the live stream video (below).
* the PL150 is basically the PL100 in a different chassis -
personal opinion: so what? it looks much better to my aesthetic requirements, and I'm willing to pay 50$ more for a 100$ product.

3. in that same video, CAM was going all about how the 5.2V 2.4A requirement written on the back of the PL150 is very unusual and close to car CD player requirements. I Just checked my PL150 unit - it says 5V/2A on the barrel power jack connector , which is very standard .
I assume he was referring to the silly sticker (that wasn't sticked to anything..) that came with the PL150 saying "warm tip: please use 5.2V 2.4A power supply".
4. he summed the video with a notion that he basically recommended the PL100 (in past video), and this email happened. so be warned
5. that video was pulled off in the last couple of days by CAM

on Tuesday, CAM did his weekly live stream on YT, answering questions and such and referred to this mess:
1. again, he went on about the 5.2V 2.3A (i assume he remembered wrong the 2.4A) which is very atypical and matches what a typical car cd player uses - 12 watts.
2. summarizing what that email he received said
3. finds the barrel jack to USB cord that came with the PL150 "weird".
personally i tried that cord with a proper (65W) USB power supply - everything worked fine. then connected to a 5V/2A power supply with a barrel jack I had lying around with no use - again , everything works fine.
4. mentions that almost immediately after he made that video, the person who wrote him that email reached out saying "hey i got paid what i (was) owed, can you take down the video".
5. CAM goes into how he does not like to make controversial videos and throw people under the bus. which is why he took down the video. he also mentions there were certain things that weren't adding up with that person .
6. "Will I be doing more videos with SMSL products? probably not"

see for yourself (video is set to the exact second he started talking about the issue)

The purpose of ASR is to step behind the nonsense to find some objective reality.

yes, i assume that includes not assuming things up , and making them sound like "facts".

 

[NTTY]

I would say that the transport in my PL100 has either been stored very poorly, or it's been pulled from something else (almost certainly the latter)...

I’d think the former. It sounds like a painful and costly process to pull from cars, but maybe some companies specialized in that sourcing type of activity. So that’s just my perception and perception is not reality.

I had a similar issue with an old Aiwa integrated amplifier, as I saw the vu-meter showed traces of rust, not the rest of the amp which meant to me that the vu-meters were badly stored at the time (40+ years ago) by the supplier. Hence my perception.

I’ll open my PL100 and report. I should find time on Friday.

 

[Mart68]

I’d think the former. It sounds like a painful and costly process to pull from cars,

It isn't at all hard to get the CD players out. Or most other parts except for in the engine. I used to do it.

Looking at the state of that drive it does look to me like it was in car for a fair few years where the humid environment will cause corrosion.

It could have just been badly stored but I have my doubts.

Taking players from scrapped cars would certainly keep the costs down and this is a player that sold for $100 and presumably at a small profit even after tax, shipping cost and dealer/distributor margin.

 

[Berwhale]

I’d think the former. It sounds like a painful and costly process to pull from cars, but maybe some companies specialized in that sourcing type of activity. So that’s just my perception and perception is not reality.

Just Google 'CDM M10' and see what you think. Also search for CDM M10 on AliExpress. Anyway, there's only 2 allen screws securing the unit and a single ribbon cable that needs to be disconnected to fully remove the transport from the case.

 

[NTTY]

(…)
i've watched all recent Cheapaudioman's videos (…)

Good summary, and drama out of not much. If someone thinks there’s a need to disclose issues to their community, he/she should stand by it. Not doing so "because I don’t want to waste time on that" means loss of credibility.

 

[NTTY]

It isn't at all hard to get the CD players out. Or most other parts except for in the engine. I used to do it.

We are way off topic, but I don’t see that economically viable, when put at scale, as in thousands of items are necessary.
Sourcing the "dead" cars to pull the drive from sounds already quite complex, and requires human (ie expensive) manual intervention. So, one has to have all connections to do so, and a very cheap supply chain to make it happen. But again maybe some companies have specialized in that.
If SMSL was selling it for $1000, maybe the low volume and high price would make it viable. But at $100 shipped to you, I don’t see it.
On the other hand, imagining a cheap storage of new old stock mechs that a supplier wants to get rid of at a cheap price, sounds economically much more viable.

All that said, and either way, I’m happy when someone manages to repurpose items instead of burning/burying them.

 

[Mart68]

We are way off topic, but I don’t see that economically viable, when put at scale, as in thousands of items are necessary.
Sourcing the "dead" cars to pull the drive from sounds already quite complex, and requires human (ie expensive) manual intervention. So, one has to have all connections to do so, and a very cheap supply chain to make it happen.

China scrapped 2 million cars in 2019 alone - and unskilled labour is very cheap there. Likewise in India. Plus lots of older cars still with CD players in those countries.

But I agree it is speculation.

 

[NTTY]

China scrapped 2 million cars in 2019 alone - and unskilled labour is very cheap there. Likewise in India. Plus lots of older cars still with CD players in those countries.

But I agree it is speculation.

Scrapped yes, repurposed every single sub-part of them, I’m not so sure, but it could be, indeed.

 

[DavidM1]

i've watched all recent Cheapaudioman's videos and i don't recall him mentioning "pictures of dashboard being pulled apart".

No, he didn’t mention pictures. What happened was that as he talked about the parts being repurposed there was a brief cutaway to a stock picture of someone working on a dashboard. It might have been his sense of humour but he seemed to be playing up the strange idea that the parts were actually removed from cars instead of coming from some regular supplier.

Just another bit of YouTuber nonsense.

 

[NTTY]

And then the PL150 was available...

Just received it, after 8 open days waiting:

You'll get to know everything about it (Probably tomorrow evening (CET)).

In the meantime, here are additional pictures of my PL100:

The Servo/decoding board of the CDM10:

And the SMSL conversion board:

And the other side of the CDM10:

Scrap if dropped, it's written on it

No traces of rust.

 

[thewas]

No traces of rust.

Maybe I misunderstood you but I clearly see such on your above photos?

 

[Berwhale]

Just received it, after 8 open days waiting:

View attachment 474259

You'll get to know everything about it (Probably tomorrow evening (CET)).

In the meantime, here are additional pictures of my PL100:

View attachment 474270

The Servo/decoding board of the CDM10:

View attachment 474271


And the SMSL conversion board:

View attachment 474272

And the other side of the CDM10:

View attachment 474273


Scrap if dropped, it's written on it

No traces of rust.

Your drive looks much cleaner than mine! Seems to be exactly the same model though.

 

[Sokel]

Maybe I misunderstood you but I clearly see such on your above photos?

Yep. upper left corner.
That's probably the worst mess we have ever seen here for a brand new gear