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SMSL RAW-MDA 1 DAC & Headphone Amp Review

Rate this DAC & HP Amp

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 2 0.7%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 5 1.7%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 29 9.9%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 258 87.8%

  • Total voters
    294

amirm

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL RAW-MDA 1 stereo DAC and headphone amplifier. It was sent to me by SMSL and it is a collaboration with Shenzehenaudio (available elsewhere as well) and is on sale for $246.
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB balanced stereo DAC Digital To Analog Converter Headphone Amplifier...jpg

The first thing I noticed was the much more polished display. It is also quite responsive to rotary control. If you click it in, you get the standard SMSL menu system that is functional and easy to use, albeit not as pretty. Back panel shows addition of more inputs:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB balanced stereo DAC Digital To Analog Converter Headphone Amplifier...jpg


We nicely have internal power supply and balanced outputs -- two things I really like in this kind of product. I do wish there was trigger output though to turn our a power amplifier in home stereo setting.

SMSL RAW-MDA 1 Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard with balanced output with volume adjusted for nominal 4 volt output:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 balanced DAC USB Input Measurement.png

I expected SINAD of 120 dB for this price class but we have more than that, nicely landing the unit in our top 20 best list:
best budget balanced DAC review 2024.png


RCA output takes a smaller than usual hit:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input Measurement.png


Performance improves if you all the the full 5.3 volt output:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 balanced DAC USB Input distortion vs level Measurement.png


Dynamic range is of course superb:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input dynamic range Measurement.png


IMD curve shows excellent performance:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input IMD vs level Measurement.png

As a note, the blue line was a $245 so the same price showing the progress the industry has made to make more quiet and lower distortion DACs despite the inflation.

Multitone performance is absolutely superb:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input Multitone Measurement.png


As is the stereophile test of 50 Hz into very low impedance of 600 ohm:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input 50 Hz Measurement.png


Jitter is excellent with both USB and Coax with tiniest spurious tones with Toslink:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 balanced DAC Jitter Measurement.png


I have gotten tired of running filter and filter response tests for all the settings as the results are always the same. So I am showing the default, Linear Fast Roll off:

SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input Filter Measurement.png

SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input Frequency response Measurement.png


Using the same, we get this excellent result of THD sweep with frequency:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input distortion vs frequency Measurement.png


Edit: linearity test:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input Linearity Measurement.png


Headphone power with 300 ohm nicely passes my minimum threshold of 100 milliwatts:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input Headphone Out 300 ohm Measurement.png


And produces healthy power with 32 ohm load:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input Headphone Out 32 ohm Measurement.png


The distortion and noise were so low that in both tests I had to scroll the graph up to see where it landed in low gain mode!

50 mv output test shows the best that can be done without a third, negative gain setting:
best headphone amp and dac review 2024.png


Conclusions
The RAW-MDA 1 aims high and achieves it across the board despite its very reasonable price. It is good looking, compact and easy to operate. Some of this we expect from SMSL but the total package is a step forward, as difficult as that may have seemed.

I am happy to recommend the SMSL RAW-MDA 1.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 
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Reserved for @AdamG to kindly post the specs.

Manufacturer Specifications:

IMG_0774.jpeg
 

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Almost Perfect performance in a nice package for a reasonable price.
I only wish it would be USB powered
 
Looks good. Anyone know if SMSL have finally realised that the display should display volume rather than the sample rate by default? Looks likely from the photo.
Always a deal-breaker for me personally...
 
I just purchased this. I have a DL200 & DL300 as well. SMSL is killing it with their AIO's.
 
Looks good. Anyone know if SMSL have finally realised that the display should display volume rather than the sample rate by default? Looks likely from the photo.
Always a deal-breaker for me personally...

The heresy! How else would you know that the music is better and higher res. than your measly 44/16? By listening?
 
I just purchased this. I have a DL200 & DL300 as well. SMSL is killing it with their AIO's.
Why do you need so many DACs? :)
Do you hear any difference in the sound signature of the AKM (DL300) and ESS (DL200) chips? If yes, how would you describe it?

I don't know how, but I hear a difference between Cirrus Logic and ESS. And that is definitely not in a frequency response.
 
The biggest contribution of this DAC is the doubling of the coax and optical inputs but limited to 24/192 (so not suitable for DSD format SACD players). As it is, this dac can be enough to meet most real needs, especially since USB does all formats.
Given Amir's remark about the filters, I wonder why manufacturers don't settle for the fast linear filter alone. What good can others do? Thank you for this complete and serious review.
 
Also built around 2x ES9039Q2M like the Topping D50-III, and very similar (great!) DAC performances. The SMSL gets the integrated HP amp, but not the 12V trigger, or the PEQ from the Topping. I wish SMSL had made that effort since they both use the same XMOS XU-316 chip…
 
In the past I think we were conditioned (at least me) to think we needed to spend 8k or more on A class amps etc etc. Turns out some of these lauded amps were not even that good. Now there are companies making near state of the art audio for a faction of that. Incredible amps for $1,200. Such an interesting hobby these days. I started out with a hand me down Eico receiver my father built. (1964) I looked it up, it would cost $2,600 in today's money. Probably can do much better than that for $200 now. I don't see that many younger people interested in audo like my generation was, too bad, they can get a lot of bang for their buck these days. Seems like a lot or people are listening to bluetooth speakers these days.
 
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Why do you need so many DACs? :)
Do you hear any difference in the sound signature of the AKM (DL300) and ESS (DL200) chips? If yes, how would you describe it?

I don't know how, but I hear a difference between Cirrus Logic and ESS. And that is definitely not in a frequency response.
I love music, audio, & headphones (I'm also a musician/producer). It's just a fun, if expensive, hobby. I have 3-4 rooms/set ups. I like to have kit for each room, and extra kit to switch in/out. I do hear a difference between DL200 & DL300. DL300 is a touch more laid back & natural sounding (its the safest way I can describe it). I admit, it's splitting hairs at this point though. Different phones/speakers and EQ will make much more of a difference to the sound. I couldn't resist pulling the trigger on this MDA 1 at the current sale price and feature set. I'm most interested in the 9 sound color modes.
 
If the headphone amp's SNR at 50 mV was able to hit 95dB I would get it. Still waiting for an AIO to hit that. It would be fully transparent for 16-bit audio at 98dB.

Also looks like this 50mV chart is missing the Topping L30 II that measured at 100dB?
 
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I have gotten tired of running filter and filter response tests for all the settings as the results are always the same. So I am showing the default, Linear Fast Roll off:

SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input Filter Measurement.png

SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input Frequency response Measurement.png

The filter tested is not the linear phase filter but the minimum phase filter which is the default on the ES9039Q2M which is identified by the stop band level and ripple. SMSL have been mislabeling the filters on their ES9039 DACs for a while now with the D-6S, DL200, DO100 Pro, SU-X, DO400, D400ES as well as the VMV D1se as I have shown in this thread I created on 26 June.

In particular on 29 June, I already pointed out that this is also the case for the RAW-MDA1 in this post in the above mentioned thread. The image quality is poor due to being from pre-release manual. However, it is identical in the manual available on the SMSL website. Note the date and time.

Screenshot 2024-08-20 at 01.01.54.png


This is the menu screen for the filters from a YouTube video. Clearly, selecting the linear fast roll off filter enables the minimum phase filter.
Screenshot 2024-08-20 at 01.17.19.png


At this point, almost two months later, I was hoping SMSL has managed to fix it but alas not. @SMSL-Mandy what in the world is making this take so long?
 
Yet another killer device. We are spoiled really. Golden age of electronics.
 
Headphone power with 300 ohm nicely passes my minimum threshold of 100 milliwatts:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input Headphone Out 300 ohm Measurement.png


And produces healthy power with 32 ohm load:
SMSL RAW-MDA 1 RCA DAC USB Input Headphone Out 32 ohm Measurement.png
The max output in low gain is close to 2.5 V RMS, (192.2*33/1000)^.5 = 2.518 V and (21.29*300/1000)^.5 = 2.527 V. With maximum output being specified as 8.2 V, that makes high gain around 10 dB.
 
@amirm thanks for the prompt and extensive review of this new highly competitive SMSL DAC.
Unfortunately, you chose the wrong filter for your measurement. Not your fault of course, but SMSL mislabeling, like @JIW pointed out in his post.
If the right filter is selected (real Linear Fast Roll off), you should get better THD+N vs Frequency Measurements, something close to Topping D50 III perhaps?

12 Topping D50 III Balanced Stereo DAC PEQ THD+N vs Frequency Measurements.png
 
At this point, almost two months later, I was hoping SMSL has managed to fix it but alas not. @SMSL-Mandy what in the world is making this take so long?
My sample has been here for a while.
 
The filter tested is not the linear phase filter but the minimum phase filter which is the default on the ES9039Q2M which is identified by the stop band level and ripple. SMSL have been mislabeling the filters on their ES9039 DACs for a while now with the D-6S, DL200, DO100 Pro, SU-X, DO400, D400ES as well as the VMV D1se as I have shown in this thread I created on 26 June.

In particular on 29 June, I already pointed out that this is also the case for the RAW-MDA1 in this post in the above mentioned thread. The image quality is poor due to being from pre-release manual. However, it is identical in the manual available on the SMSL website. Note the date and time.

View attachment 387452

This is the menu screen for the filters from a YouTube video. Clearly, selecting the linear fast roll off filter enables the minimum phase filter.
View attachment 387453

At this point, almost two months later, I was hoping SMSL has managed to fix it but alas not. @SMSL-Mandy what in the world is making this take so long?
Yeah. Time to release firmwares for the wide public. And whilst they are at it. Add a 4v mode for the 5.xV DACs!

Edit: finally more inputs!
 
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