SMSL RAW-MDA 1 DAC & Headphone Amp Review

[Ruby Gomez]

Mine arrived yesterday. Sound is fine, but I do miss a simple physical switch for easily/blindly changing between input sources, like my good old Schiit Modi 3 had. Also the remote control misses this user friendly feature.

 

[Lambo1985]

Mine arrived yesterday. Sound is fine, but I do miss a simple physical switch for easily/blindly changing between input sources, like my good old Schiit Modi 3 had. Also the remote control misses this user friendly feature.

There is a button on the remote that is dedicated to switching the input source. It's the button to the left of the "FN" button. It's a circle with an arrow pointing down.

 

[Ruby Gomez]

There is a button on the remote that is dedicated to switching the input source. It's the button to the left of the "FN" button. It's a circle with an arrow pointing down. View attachment 392747

Thank you, yes I know, but you still have to watch the display of the DAC to know if you have arrived at the desired input source. For me that is not user friendly.

 

[Bleib]

Thank you, yes I know, but you still have to watch the display of the DAC to know if you have arrived at the desired input source. For me that is not user friendly.

A couple more buttons would be welcome, agreed

 

[nice-n-easy]

@SMSL-Mandy , The SMSL RAW-MDA1 sounds great but I have a couple of issues.

1. There’s a slight popping sound when skipping tracks.
2. The PCM filters are labeled incorrectly. I’m having a hard time finding the correct roll off points settings.

After doing some research, many RAW-MDA1 owners are facing the same problems with their units. Is SMSL aware of the problems? Can we expect a firmware update to address these shortcomings?

 

[Esprit]

1. There’s a slight popping sound when skipping tracks.

I gave up on purchasing for this reason.

 

[john100a]

Is there a way to reliably reproduce the popping issue? I do notice it on SOME audio sources and its very faint. On others, its not there.

 

[nice-n-easy]

Is there a way to reliably reproduce the popping issue? I do notice it on SOME audio sources and it’s very faint. On others, it’s not there.

If you suddenly decide to skip a track, jump from track to track the RAW-MDA1 will make a slight popping sound between tracks.

 

[john100a]

If you suddenly decide to skip a track, jump from track to track the RAW-MDA1 will make a slight popping sound between tracks.

So on spotify I'll be on track 1, then skip from track 1 to 2, etc, and it would crack? I can't hear it on mine. I use XLR out.

 

[Lambo1985]

If you suddenly decide to skip a track, jump from track to track the RAW-MDA1 will make a slight popping sound between tracks.

I only use USB to an android device, but there are no audible clicks/pops. However, depending on the source/driver, the connection can turn on/off in periods of inactivity or sample rate changes (even when switching tracks). This will cause clicks/pops.

 

[aagstn]

Is there a way to reliably reproduce the popping issue? I do notice it on SOME audio sources and its very faint. On others, its not there.

I use it with USB to my Android Phone, Mac and a PC and have no popping when skipping tracks or changing bitrates. I also use a MoodeAudio setup going in through toslink and CD players through coax and toslink and have no popping. It seems dependent on the input device but I don't have quite the combo or the software to get the popping. I don't use streaming services like Spotify so can't test that.

 

[john100a]

Ok I do experience pops and clicks with my unit as well now. It happens on SOME audio sources, I wonder why. On Sptofiy I don't hear it, but on media played through Telegram I do hear it distincively. Is this a forever-hardware issue or something that can be fixed with a firmware update? Pinging @SMSL-Mandy

 

[Videopac]

Anyone able to configure the RAW-MDA1 on squeezelite, connecting it via USB on a sbc (Odroid C4 in my case)?

 

[Videopac]

Overall I am very happy with the MDA 1. Music sounds great out to my speakers and through the headphone amp. Being able to hook up so many sources at once is very convenient and LDAC through my phone sounds good as well, but I mostly use that for audiobooks.

I am noticing the half second of crackle when first playing a track on my Moode Raspberry PI setup when first powering on the MDA 1. I'm not having it occur after that or when switching inputs. Just when first turning it on. I have started turning it on and playing and pausing the Moode real quick to get that out of the way before turning on my stereo or plugging in headphones.

Edit: Just realized there are two ways to power it off. One is the switch in the back, the other is holding down the dial on front. If I power it off and on using the dial, it does not click when I start up music.

How did you set it up under Moode on your RPi? I am trying to connect a Odroid C4 with Squeezelite.

 

[Ruby Gomez]

Well, once a while this DAC “scrambles” the music in the first two or so seconds of a song and then continues to play the song normally. Not a nice experience it is.

 

[Ruby Gomez]

My laptop app does not recognize the DAC as long this input source (via usb-c) is not selected in he DAC.

So practically I first have to select this input source on the DAC going through the selection programm and only after selecting “usb-c” the DAC pops up on my laptop screen and I can select it there as output choice.

Pfff…

 

[aagstn]

How did you set it up under Moode on your RPi? I am trying to connect a Odroid C4 with Squeezelite.

My Pi3 has a Hifiberry optical out. So I'm just sending out audio that way and using the toslink on the DAC.

 

[porotikos]

wow, i cant believe that this combo dac - amp clicks and pops. And i have read similar comments for other smsl products.
This shouldnt be happenign right? any idea what is causing this?
In my situation, my pc is almost always on and so is the dac (i have a sonkoz dac).
if i had the smsl always on (as well as my pc is always on) would that eliminate the ticking and popping and destorting sounds? or should i forget about smsl dacs in general?

 

[Eddie]

1. There’s a slight popping sound when skipping tracks.

wow, i cant believe that this combo dac - amp clicks and pops. And i have read similar comments for other smsl products.
This shouldnt be happenign right?

If there is a change in sample rate between your skipped tracks or a switch from PCM to DSD or vice versa, I think such behavior may be normal.

Otherwise, it's certainly not normal and the company should fix it via firmware.
I don't think it's built into hardware (XMOS XU-316 USB bridge).

I'm also of the opinion that such behavior is very annoying, especially in this price range.

 

[JIW]

wow, i cant believe that this combo dac - amp clicks and pops. And i have read similar comments for other smsl products.
This shouldnt be happenign right? any idea what is causing this?
In my situation, my pc is almost always on and so is the dac (i have a sonkoz dac).
if i had the smsl always on (as well as my pc is always on) would that eliminate the ticking and popping and destorting sounds? or should i forget about smsl dacs in general?

Over USB, my DL200 disconnects when a signal is no longer received and reconnects when a signal is received again. This leads to muting and clicking. This seems to be due to the XMOS XU-316. There are ways around it. See this thread.