SMSL PL20 Review (CD Player)

[Ziroz]

Isn't this just the PL100 with a different face plate and a much higher price tag?

 

[Haskil]

Impressive review for this CD player whose weaknesses are clearly highlighted.
From my point of view, the absence of gapless playback, which seems increasingly common in recent CD players, is a major flaw that disqualifies the device outright. Therefore, I give it a headless panther..

All home CD players since the first two models on the market have always played CDs without interruption due to track changes. Only CD recorders added a gap between each track if this function wasn't disabled.

 

[VientoB]

People voting terrible are going a bit over the top I think.

Isn't the issue that most modern drives don't do gapless?

 

[MCH]

People voting terrible are going a bit over the top I think.

Isn't the issue that most modern drives don't do gapless?

I think that's what they are complaining about. There is no excuse to create an issue that was solved from the start 40 years ago.
To me personally, there are only two things that matter in a CD transport. Gapeless and that it doesn't take ages to play music from the moment you inset the disc. So easy, so difficult.

 

[Bleib]

Isn't this just the PL100 with a different face plate and a much higher price tag?

No, it has more functionality
USB, BT bi-directional, ripping function

And I'd say better looks

 

[DSJR]

In my opinion, lack of gapless is a terminal failure as far as CD reproduction is concerned. I'm also concerned about the overload distortion, which although maybe outside red-book requirements, would it have an influence on 'loudness wars' era disc remasterings?

They need to get this sorted, otherwise it's pretty useless in its prime task I feel.

 

[Scytales]

I think that's what they are complaining about. There is no excuse to create an issue that was solved from the start 40 years ago.
To me personally, there are only two things that matter in a CD transport. Gapeless and that it doesn't take ages to play music from the moment you inset the disc. So easy, so difficult.

Yes, the inability of a disc player to play gapelessly is a detrimental downside, not only for conceptual music albums (of which there are many great titles) but above all classical music or other acoustic genre such as jazz, with which the interruption of the music flaw or even acoustic ambiance between tracks is unbearable.

This problem is not limited to CD Audio, by the way. I noticed that the first multiformat disc player that I have bought to listen to multichannel music programs, an otherwise magnificent Yamaha DVD-S2700, wasn't able to play DTS CDs gapeless, which was very annoying for I have a significant collection of rare multichannel classical recordings published on DTS CDs.

 

[Multicore]

It is not gapless playback

You might want to save such info for the conclusion. I stopped reading your review at that point.

 

[zany.ninja]

I've seen the measurements of loads of CS43131 based devices, but never saw the oversampling filter behave like in the PL20. Any theories as to what's going on? Probably @jkim is best placed to answer I suppose...

 

[MaxwellsEq]

What a poor performance. The designers demonstrate a lack of understanding of how CD players should work. A lack of gapless is one thing, but why resample the digital outputs when it could just produce them bit-perfect at 16/44.1?

 

[M.C. Logan]

what is the point in a cd player that doesn't do gapless ? total fail

Well, playing the 99.9999% of non classical discs is one point.

 

[M.C. Logan]

All home CD players since the first two models on the market have always played CDs without interruption due to track changes. Only CD recorders added a gap between each track if this function wasn't disabled.

But given 99.9999% of non classical discs are not gaplessly recorded, for most uses outside of classical, it's moot.

 

[VientoB]

But given 99.9999% of non classical discs are not gaplessly recorded, for most uses outside of classical, it's moot.

I'd say you're overstating that. If you take an album like Dark Side of the Moon that really needs gapless. There are many album that have at least a couple of tracks that run into to each other.

 

[M.C. Logan]

I'd say you're overstating that. If you take an album like Dark Side of the Moon that really needs gapless. There are many album that have at least a couple of tracks that run into to each other.

Whilst DSOTM is a well known album, it's pretty unrepresentative.

 

[Fletcher Munson]

But given 99.9999% of non classical discs are not gaplessly recorded, for most uses outside of classical, it's moot.

lol, lots of people listen to gapless cds. lots of people listen to classical music.

 

[VientoB]

Whilst DSOTM is a well known album, it's pretty unrepresentative.

I disagree. I'd say probably 10% of rock and prog albums have tracks that are joined together with no gap.

In any case why would you want gaps made longer?

 

[Haskil]

But given 99.9999% of non classical discs are not gaplessly recorded, for most uses outside of classical, it's moot.

An objective defect cannot be transformed into an absence of defects due to a particularly exclusive musical consumption... which also omits live recordings and those of popular music artists whose studio works include tracks linked together without silence, and worse, without the characteristic little digital noise...

 

[tokyo_blues]

This is a toy for the younger generation who don't know better how good CD playback can be.
It certainly looks like we're in the technological dip for CD, just where cassette decks and turntables have been in the 90s.
Then, in x amount of years people will grow tired of general enshitification, paying subscriptions for everything and we will see more nostalgia for the CD as a physical media.

I find CD playback equipment development is doing fine, all things considering.

I own and use a SMLS PL200 player, I mostly listen to classical music, and its gapless playback is perfect. Absolutely perfect.

In fact, everything else about it is perfect, too: lightning fast operation, never skips a beat, will read everything, plenty of inputs - also incredibly small AND measures brilliantly. Probably one of my best hifi purchases ever.

We're living in a fantastic time for CD playing. I know because I've have had plenty of used crappy CD players glorified by your generation. My SMLS blows them all out of the water.

I would never go back to a compromised used CD player, some 'audiophile' ebay purchase that might fail in one way or another tomorrow, and that we now know measures sub-optimally.

 

[Linnie]

No gapless, fast forward or rewind? I think it'll be difficult to find a CD Player of any age without that.
Thanks for these important informations!

 

[M.C. Logan]

I disagree. I'd say probably 10% of rock and prog albums have tracks that are joined together with no gap.

In any case why would you want gaps made longer?

More like <0.1% of pop & rock albums, of the in excess of 1000 LP's I have I can only think of 1, which is DSOTM.