SMSL PL200 MKII Review (CD Player, DAC & HP Amp)

[VientoB]

I suppose SMSL can make a CD-less version of this and add some PEQs and all that jazz.

Great review!

SMSL already make loads of DACs

 

[VientoB]

A version without CD? Doesn't SMSL already have enough DACs in its lineup?
There are at least eight devices using the ES9039Q2M alone, and over thirty devices in total across all price ranges.

A DSP would only make sense if they sourced the technology externally or hired a capable developer. Otherwise, it will turn into a disaster dragging on for months or even years—just like what happened with Topping, for example.

Topping have a DAC with PEQ selling for $120

 

[anibal66]

Thanks again to NTTY for another great review, and kudos to SMSL for a mkII that also reduces the price.

It is difficult to believe that the "MQA" bad joke still features in the front. I hope it can be erased without voiding the warranty...

 

[fordiebianco]

Gosh. I have the PL100. Now I have upgrade fever.

Thanks for the brilliant review, @NTTY

 

[Marc v E]

Excellent review.
Funny that state of the art can challenge any high end cd player for a fraction of the price.

 

[NTTY]

I added couple of tests when used as a DDC, since I forgot it could be used this way

 

[VientoB]

I added couple of tests when used as a DDC, since I forgot it could be used this way

Are there any benefits to a DDC?

 

[Roland68]

Are there any benefits to a DDC?

Only if the DAC's USB interface is broken, audibly inferior, or has other limitations—or if a digital interface is required that isn't available.
An optical connection between the DDC and DAC achieves 100% galvanic isolation, which can resolve various issues, such as grounding problems or popping noises.

 

[RetroStereo]

Thanks again to NTTY for another great review, and kudos to SMSL for a mkII that also reduces the price.

It is difficult to believe that the "MQA" bad joke still features in the front. I hope it can be erased without voiding the warranty...

When MQA first appeared I was suspicious. It took some serious digging but I was convinced by what I found that it was essentially a licensing snake oil scam rather than an innovation. It took several years, but the curtain was finally pulled back exposing the fake wizard. I don't understand why any company would continue to include it in new products.

 

[reajus04]

Do you prefer the DAC in the MK1 or the MK2 ? Worth testing out if I have the MK1?

 

[aagstn]

Do you prefer the DAC in the MK1 or the MK2 ? Worth testing out if I have the MK1?

Based on the measurements, both are transparent and would have no audible difference. I would personally pick the AKM since I do have a few CDs that need de-emphasis.

 

[Azathoth]

SMSL already make loads of DACs

But with these state of the art performance.

 

[NTTY]

But with these state of the art performance.

Yep, or better: eg the SMSL DO400 that I reviewed.

 

[wernerwc2wc]

When MQA first appeared I was suspicious. It took some serious digging but I was convinced by what I found that it was essentially a licensing snake oil scam rather than an innovation. It took several years, but the curtain was finally pulled back exposing the fake wizard. I don't understand why any company would continue to include it in new products.

Nad is doing this again with "qrono d2a" in their new c589 player

 

[Herbert]

Many thanks for the great review! Who makes the drive? Cannot be many producers worldwide… When I researched the topic a decade ago, Philips (in 2007) and Sony left the market. Sanyo was said to be the only one, but never marketed this in the OEM market. Visiting the manufacturer’s section at IFA, there was no company offering to produce CD-Drives. Streamunlimited and their offspring, SUOS, rely on Sanyo stock.

 

[Ziroz]

Many thanks for the great review! Who makes the drive? Cannot be many producers worldwide… When I researched the topic a decade ago, Philips (in 2007) and Sony left the market. Sanyo was said to be the only one, but never marketed this in the OEM market. Visiting the manufacturer’s section at IFA, there was no company offering to produce CD-Drives. Streamunlimited and their offspring, SUOS, rely on Sanyo stock.

I believe it is Sanyo indeed.

 

[Roland68]

But with these state of the art performance.

Most of these DACs from SMSL, Topping, and the like have offered these (and even better) specifications for a few years now—sometimes starting at just €100–150. It’s nothing new.
Unfortunately, the CD/DAC combo tested here has a major drawback: it features only a USB input and lacks any other digital inputs.

 

[Herbert]

I believe it is Sanyo indeed.

If so, it would be a proof that there is only one manufacturer left and this might also explain the 600$ pricetag. When Streamunlimited offered OEM / turnkey CD solutions to small HiFi manufacturers(first based on Philips drives, later Sony and Sanyo), a sales person, eye to eye, admitted that they had no influence on quality control at Sanyo which resulted in a relatively high failure rate. He could do so as they planned to leave the CD- market. They had no influence in the design and later developed better table-platter an a more stiff chassis. This might explain, why the PL 200 tracks better than the PL 200MKII

 

[yewneek]

However it measures, for me, the lack of retained cover for the CD is a hard pass. It's a fundamental design flaw that I couldn't forgive.

 

[totti1965]

SMSL PL200 MKII - DAC Measurements

All measurements performed with an E1DA Cosmos ADCiso (grade 0) in mono mode, the Cosmos Scaler (200kohms from balanced input) and APU (when required) for analog outputs. I used a Windows 11 PC to connect via USB and did not have to install a driver.

Unless otherwise notes, all the below are from balanced outputs.

----

I aligned this review with the one I made of the SMSL DO400, so not all measurements are aligned with those of Amir, as I explained in that review of the SMSL.

Here we start with the standard 1kHz @0dBFS test tone, and output volume set to 4Vrms (48kHz SR, FFT 32k, 4 averages):

View attachment 546866

The two channels perform exactly the same with a 123.6dB SINAD. When extending the span to the one of Amir (10Hz to 22.4kHz), the SINAD is 123.3dB. Note that left channel has a little more distortion, but all the spikes are below -135dBr, at full scale. Impressive.

The SINAD loses 2dB when using the RCA outputs:

View attachment 546868

You can see the THD+N of -121.2dB.

----

Back to XLR outputs, and from experience reviewing CD Players and you saw before, I like to run the same 1khz test 6dB lower:

View attachment 546869

Again a little more anecdotical distortion in the left channel.

----

Stereophile was often showing the below and I like it too, so I'm used to reuse it. It is a view from 20Hz to 1kHz with a 1kHz sine at 0dBFS:

View attachment 546870

As neat as it can be.

----

Since I'm here, let me add the 50Hz @0dBFS into 600ohms, for compatibility with Stereophile measurements:

View attachment 546871

Again a little more distortion in left channel, but that is a beautiful trace, from a high performing device.

----

I already talked about the different filters, so I won't repeat.

----

Let's talk jitter though (48kHz, 512k FFT. 32 averages):

View attachment 546874

This is SOTA. The FFT shows 0 side bands, there's absolutely no trace of jitter here. Very nice.
The low frequency "stressor" component of the jitter test can be seen at low frequency, meaning very low noise floor, although not as low as with the SMSL DO400.

----

Of course, I won't forget the Multitone test (48kHz SR, 256k FFT, 16 averages):

View attachment 546875

Wow, beautiful again, and much better than the recently reviewed Loxjie D40 Pro. This the proof that not all rely on the DAC chip itself, but the surrounding components that are obviously best in class here.

----

Next is the THD+N vs Frequency (192kHz, 512k FFT 4 averages, 3PPO (20Hz to 20kHz), 4Vrms output):

View attachment 546876

This test is hitting the max resolution of the ADC, but less so than the SMSL DO400. As you see from the plot at 1kHz, we get -114.5dB THD+N at 1khz (3.5dB more than the SMSL DO400), with all noise included up to 90kHz. What a performance! The other channel overlays perfectly (noise limited), so I did not include it.
When setting the scaler 6db lower to release the stress on the ADC, it inevitably increases the noise floor relative to the fundamental, and so the measurement becomes identical to that of the SMSL DO400 in that case (-111dB THD+N). This means we truly reach the limits of the analyzer.

----

Next is the IMD SMPTE vs output level sweep, which can't be compared to the one of Amir because this measurement is based on FFT analysis of IMD distortion only (192kHz, 128k FFT 4 averages, 1dB step, scaler in auto mode):

View attachment 546877

Ah, finally I have something to talk about! I repeated this test at all sampling rates, and it's always the same story. There is that bump at -45dB, and a little more distortion in the left channel when reaching full scale. That said, we are bellow -100dBr distortion from -30dBFS output, nice.

----

Dynamic range is where we finally get to see the difference with the higher end ESS9039S of the SMSL DO400 (CCIR-2K weighted an A-Weighted):

View attachment 546882


View attachment 546881

That is 6dB less than the SMSL DO400, but still well above the 120dB that we need for transparency.

----

And now let's have a look at other less usual measurements. The one that I like is the resistance to intersample-overs.
This test is performed with dedicated test tones with a specific phase shift to generate digital overs. If anything in the digital path (oversampling filter / DSP / ASRC) does not have enough headroom for digital overs, it will generate clipping within the interpolator.
For that, I'm using a test tone of 11'025Hz with a phase shift of 45° that goes up to +3.01dB over, by 1dB steps. This allows me to process what's the headroom of the digital interpolator of the DAC. Here are the results (THD+N measurement up to 90kHz):

Intersample-overs tests THD+N 20Hz - 90kHz	Peak = -0.99dBFS	Peak = +0.01dBFS	Peak = +1.01dBFS	Peak = +2.01dBFS	Peak = +3.01dBFS
SMSL PL200 MKI (Vol 0dB)	-110dB	-110dB	-43dB	-25.8dB	-20.4dB
SMSL PL200 MKI (Vol -1dB)	-110dB	-110dB	-110dB	-43dB	-25.8dB
SMSL PL200 MKII (vol -2.5dB)	-110dB	-110dB	-110dB	-110dB	-110dB

The above means that at full output power (4.2Vrms from XLR), the interpolator of the SMSL PL200 MKII (Linear Fast filter) has a headroom of just less than 1dB. But because the volume control is done in digital domain, before interpolation, there is more than 3dB headroom when lowering the volume by -2.5dB.

So, with volume set at -2.5dB, you get the best ISO resistance. Like I said in the previous message. The penalty on SINAD is negligible, especially considering how good it is.
Note that the best result (-110dB) is driven by noise, not distortion, and the SMSL DO400 was reaching -115dB of THD+N. This will not change anything to your ears, since we are talking first harmonic at 22kHz, and super low noise + distortion.

----

I did not repeat the IMD measurements (you have them with the CD Player review), this time including noise, but I lost the excel file I created for that and I don't have the time to recreate it now.

----

Last and not least, as I did with the Loxjie D40 Pro, I again take the opportunity to revisit the linearity test, since these latest DACs are so good. Here we go:

View attachment 546895

I'm failing to set the y-axis in dB, and as a consequence to align the result to 0dB. But linearity reaches a staggeringly good -127dB!


SMSL PL200 MKII - Measurements - Headphones

In high gain mode, I got 5.088Vrms with volume set at 0dB into 200kΩ, and 3.44Vrms in low gain mode from the 4.4mm jack. This is not much of a difference between the two.

In low gain mode, 3.44Vrms output, the 1kHz @0dBFS is the below:

View attachment 546901

In high gain mode, the SINAD (opposite of THD+N) improves:

View attachment 546903

Now we are at 117dB SINAD.

At 50mVrms output (vol -36.5dB), in low gain mode, I get a little disappointing SNR of 81.8dB:

View attachment 546905

This is decent for a non-dedicated HP Amp.


SMSL PL200 MKII - DDC Measurements

I forgot to test the DDC functionality and, even if I already verified that it outputs a perfect digital signal from a CDA, let's test if it's the same when used as a Digital to Digital Converter.

Here below is a 997Hz test tone at 0dBFS, 24bits, with dither on the lastvbit, and so that should provide us with a clean signal and 23bits ENOB. And indeed...

View attachment 547087

...this is what we get.

Complementary test, my good old interesample over test (5512.50Hz @0dBFS with phase shift of 67.5°). That should show a +0.69dBFS over. I player it from Foobar (the file is 16bits):

View attachment 547089

We get the over and no distortion.

These two quick tests confirm no digital process and we can get a clean digital output to another DAC, from a computer.


Final Conclusion

Not only the SMSL PL200 MKII is a Master Class CD Player, it is also an extremely performant DAC. It is too bad we can't feed it with other sources than a computer, and that leaves room for an MKIII version to SMSL

The Headphones output is here for convenience, and offers decent performances, for a CD Player.

I am really happy I got the opportunity to test this very well put together device.

Well done to SMSL, this is the new reference to beat.

Enjoy your WE!

Flo

Fantastic and ultra in deep review as always, Flo!

Apples with Apples comparison would mean that you have to check the minus 2.5 dB setting for intersample overs also with the SMSL PL200 Original Version.
As an AKM chip fanboy, I doubt, that anything can be better .