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

[aagstn]

That's partly correct. dBpoweramp can detect pre-emphasis in a CD's table of contents (TOC) and will then automatically apply the correct de-emphasis DSP filter during the ripping process.
However dBpoweramp is not able to detect pre-emphasis in a CD's subcode (SUBQ) - so if a CD has been authored by the studio with pre-emphasis indicated in the SUBQ but not the TOC, then dBpoweramp will be unaware of the presence of pre-emphasis, and will obviously not automatically apply the de-emphasis filter.
The solution is to check the pre-emphasis status of your vintage CD's from this list -
https://studio-nibble.com/cd/index.php?title=Pre-emphasis_(release_list)
and then apply the de-emphasis filter in dBpoweramp manually, as a second stage -
In the "Output" window under "DSP Effects" click "Add" > "Add DSP Effect" > "Audio CD - De-emphasis"

The situation is the same with Exact Audio Copy - it can detect pre-emphasis in the TOC, but not SUBQ.
Also Exact Audio Copy does not include a de-emphasis filter - you must perform any de-emphasis with separate software - I recommend SoX or foobar2000.

Thank you for this information. I always learn something important on this forum.

 

[Alex_spec]

I agree.

Alex_spec created his account last Saturday, after the review was published, and that mentions no de-emphasis, to keep on talking about another CD player to play one CD he owns (providing the code - who does that?) that requires de-emphasis (surprise!). This is not random and/or user error.

I might update the review to specify the SMSL does not play SACD. It could be funny (not).

I'll be honest, I've only recently gotten into CDs. I learned about de-emphasis by accident in this thread. I think it's a slightly more specific feature than SACD playback. Thank you for the clarification. I ended up buying a Pro-Jec CD Box DS3)

 

[linuxfan]

I ended up buying a Pro-Ject CD Box DS3

You probably researched this already, but the Pro-Ject CD Box DS3 applies any necessary de-emphasis during the digital-to-analogue stage, via a digital filter implemented within its PCM1796 DAC chip.
Thus de-emphasis is not applied to the DS3's S/PDIF output - but it should embed a "flag" in the S/PDIF stream to indicate the presence of pre-emphasis - relying on the downstream external DAC to apply de-emphasis.
Google tells me that the DAC in your Onkyo A-50 will not recognise a S/PDIF pre-emphasis flag, so obviously you must use the analogue outputs of your DS3 CD player.

 

[Alex_spec]

You probably researched this already, but the Pro-Ject CD Box DS3 applies any necessary de-emphasis during the digital-to-analogue stage, via a digital filter implemented within its PCM1796 DAC chip.
Thus de-emphasis is not applied to the DS3's S/PDIF output - but it should embed a "flag" in the S/PDIF stream to indicate the presence of pre-emphasis - relying on the downstream external DAC to apply de-emphasis.
Google tells me that the DAC in your Onkyo A-50 will not recognise a S/PDIF pre-emphasis flag, so obviously you must use the analogue outputs of your DS3 CD player.

Yes, I understand the logic, it directly depends on the DAC, which is why I listen through an analog connection. Thank you.

 

[Sugano-san]

SMSL PL200 MKII - DAC Measurements



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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

This is a little confusing. It should read PL200 MkII in each box, not DO400, right?

 

[NTTY]

Absolutely, I forgot to update the title between two reviews.

EDIT: updated.

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 552793

View attachment 552794

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

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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.

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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.

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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

Very thorough and enjoyable review! I purchased a PL200T transport based your earlier review of it and it really is a terrific piece of audio gear!

 

[joer308]

Hello - this is one of the best forums for quantitative data I’ve ever seen!

But I need some help!

I am getting another pure cd player and now I’m torn between the Denon CD-900NE and the SMSL PL200 MK2?

Please comment…

 

[VientoB]

Here's a guy looking at this CD player:

 

[LynnTunes]

You're comparing apples and oranges: 1 is last generation (nothing wrong with that) intended to permanently occupy a space on an equipment rack. It plays old (pre-emphesis) CDs and current CDs perfectly. But at 20++ pounds, it isn't going anywhere. I have never heard it but I'm told it has a near flawless "tube sound" warmth.
The other is a current generation solid state portable marvel that handles pre-emphasis only through its line level and headphone outputs. Digital out to an external DAC will have older CDs sounding excessively bright.
Neither device plays SACDs.
Build yourself a menu of traits and purchase accordingly or continue your search elsewhere.
Best I can do.

I never even thought about SACDs. Glad you mentioned it. I don’t think I own even one, so, I may buy this unit, Seems like most people agree it’s quite excellent.

 

[LynnTunes]

I’m not sure why you quoted me in this one. But I was suggesting to buy another version, obviously remastered without pre-emphasis. It is cheaper than changing the hardware, unless the member owns many CDs with pre-emphasis, of course.

@NTTY This touches on a question coming to mind. I am looking to buy a new CD player. I see this SMSL review, with the pre-emphasis topic and recommendation for the Sony BDP-S1700U due to it having pre-emphasis. I am sure I have early 80s CDs, but uncertain % of my collection that would represent. Which should I choose?

 

[NTTY]

If you want to play CDs with pre-emphasis, you’ll need a player that includes it, or an external DAC that can process it. The Sony you mentioned is a transport, so be careful with the DAC you chose.

 

[RetroStereo]

@NTTY This touches on a question coming to mind. I am looking to buy a new CD player. I see this SMSL review, with the pre-emphasis topic and recommendation for the Sony BDP-S1700U due to it having pre-emphasis. I am sure I have early 80s CDs, but uncertain % of my collection that would represent. Which should I choose?

If you do not need a portable, you might look at the Sony UBP X700 (or, if you don't mind buying used, its recently discontinued big brother, the X800M2 - the one I am using).
Advantage: plays everything (CD thru 4K) properly.
Disadvantage: output via HDMI only.
Peculiarity: to get the absolutely best sound, route its HDMI-2 output --> DoP --> I²S input on your DAC.
Big plus: it's inexpensive.
The X800M2 is physically much more robust than the X700 model.