SMSL RAW-MDA 1 DAC & Headphone Amp Review

[totti1965]

Does anybody know, why the Topping L30 II was removed from this graph?

The Test of the Topping L30 II was in July, 26 2022 and normaly it should appear here on rank 1 with 100 dB SNR @ 50 Millivolts:

Topping L30 II Review (Headphone Amp)

This is a review, detailed measurements and listening test of Topping L30 II. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $149. It comes in a number of colors. Usability could not be better with positive clicking switches for power/pre and gains. Three gains are provided with the low gain...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[RHO]

Does anybody know, why the Topping L30 II was removed from this graph?

View attachment 448770

The Test of the Topping L30 II was in July, 26 2022 and normaly it should appear here on rank 1 with 100 dB SNR @ 50 Millivolts:

Topping L30 II Review (Headphone Amp)

This is a review, detailed measurements and listening test of Topping L30 II. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $149. It comes in a number of colors. Usability could not be better with positive clicking switches for power/pre and gains. Three gains are provided with the low gain...

www.audiosciencereview.com

From what I remember, there was a measurement error generating the 100dB SNR number. So it's not fair to the competition to advertise it as such.

 

[IgorD]

I ordered Topping DAC+AMP E50 and L50.
Is it good idea if I pair my SMSL RAW MDA 1 DAC with Topping L50 headphone amp? I’m planning to test them together, as I’ve found that the MDA1 has an excellent DAC when pairing my studio speaker monitors, while the headphone amp could be better for my taste.

 

[ziggurcat]

I'm looking for a DAC/HPA combo, and was looking into this device - I haven't read through all 34 pages, but is there anyone who can confirm whether the pop/tick issue has been resolved or is it still present? It's the one thing I noticed with the AO300 I tried out at one point, and because SMSL doesn't believe Mac users exist, there was no FW update available for me to install, so it went right back the next day. I have mitigated that particular problem by installing VMWare Fusion on my Mac, but if that issue is still lingering around, it would be a deal breaker.

 

[jkim]

I ordered Topping DAC+AMP E50 and L50.
Is it good idea if I pair my SMSL RAW MDA 1 DAC with Topping L50 headphone amp? I’m planning to test them together, as I’ve found that the MDA1 has an excellent DAC when pairing my studio speaker monitors, while the headphone amp could be better for my taste.

Of course, you can pair the SMSL RAW-MDA 1 with Topping L50. But what made you believe you do not like the internal headphone amp of the RAW-MDA 1?

I doubt you will hear any difference between the stack of the RAW-MDA 1 + L50 and the RAW-MDA 1 itself, unless you are testing the power limit of the RAW-MDA 1's HP amp.

 

[jkim]

I'm looking for a DAC/HPA combo, and was looking into this device - I haven't read through all 34 pages, but is there anyone who can confirm whether the pop/tick issue has been resolved or is it still present? It's the one thing I noticed with the AO300 I tried out at one point, and because SMSL doesn't believe Mac users exist, there was no FW update available for me to install, so it went right back the next day. I have mitigated that particular problem by installing VMWare Fusion on my Mac, but if that issue is still lingering around, it would be a deal breaker.

You may want to see this thread. Not sure if the solution discussed there resolves the popping/clicking noise, though.

 

[ziggurcat]

You may want to see this thread. Not sure if the solution discussed there resolves the popping/clicking noise, though.

Well, I'm going to give it a try. If it's no good, it's going back right away, and I'll wait for the Topping DX 5 II.

I definitely saw that thread from the OP citing it somewhere in the first 8 pages of this thread. I'm not sure whether any FW update has resolved the ticking/popping, but at least I don't have to install any drivers for Mac OS. EDIT (Brain was broken when I initially posted this...): I might install the new driver when running VMWare Fusion to install the latest FW update, but I don't think that will affect anything on the Mac side or is even required for FW installation.

 

[JIW]

Well, I'm going to give it a try. If it's no good, it's going back right away, and I'll wait for the Topping DX 5 II.

I definitely saw that thread from the OP citing it somewhere in the first 8 pages of this thread. I'm not sure whether any FW update has resolved the ticking/popping, but at least I don't have to install any drivers for Mac OS. EDIT (Brain was broken when I initially posted this...): I might install the new driver when running VMWare Fusion to install the latest FW update, but I don't think that will affect anything on the Mac side or is even required for FW installation.

VMWare has not worked for firmware updates on SMSL DL200. Read the page of this thread from this post onwards.

SMSL filters mislabeled on ES9039 DACs

D-6S has no new firmware. DO100 Pro manual has not been updated. This is from the updated manual of the DL200. It is correct apart from it being unclear if filter 7 is ESS #7 or ESS #8. However, this is from the product page. Filter 1 and 6 have the right name but the wrong colour and...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The popping as a standby issue can be resolved on macOS but not for sample rate changes. They are all described in the thread linked by @jkim. One is to use the Qobuz app if you use the service already (Post #53), another is to use the TASCAM Hi-Res Editor (Post #70) and the last is to use the FFPlay method (Post #74).

 

[ziggurcat]

VMWare has not worked for firmware updates on SMSL DL200. Read the page of this thread from this post onwards.

SMSL filters mislabeled on ES9039 DACs

D-6S has no new firmware. DO100 Pro manual has not been updated. This is from the updated manual of the DL200. It is correct apart from it being unclear if filter 7 is ESS #7 or ESS #8. However, this is from the product page. Filter 1 and 6 have the right name but the wrong colour and...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The popping as a standby issue can be resolved on macOS but not for sample rate changes. They are all described in the thread linked by @jkim. One is to use the Qobuz app if you use the service already (Post #53), another is to use the TASCAM Hi-Res Editor (Post #70) and the last is to use the FFPlay method (Post #74).

Ugh...

 

[ziggurcat]

VMWare has not worked for firmware updates on SMSL DL200. Read the page of this thread from this post onwards.

SMSL filters mislabeled on ES9039 DACs

D-6S has no new firmware. DO100 Pro manual has not been updated. This is from the updated manual of the DL200. It is correct apart from it being unclear if filter 7 is ESS #7 or ESS #8. However, this is from the product page. Filter 1 and 6 have the right name but the wrong colour and...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The popping as a standby issue can be resolved on macOS but not for sample rate changes. They are all described in the thread linked by @jkim. One is to use the Qobuz app if you use the service already (Post #53), another is to use the TASCAM Hi-Res Editor (Post #70) and the last is to use the FFPlay method (Post #74).

It was received this evening, and I have been testing it out over the last several hours. I noticed a faint pair of ticks if I stop a tracks, so I tried your Qobuz trick, which seems to have eliminated that. There's still some very faint ticks when changing the bit rate/sample in the audio midi, but it's nothing that I would consider out of the ordinary.

As far as the firmware is concerned, unless I have downloaded the wrong thing, there's installation instructions for the firmware (attached the .pdf file to post). This works even without using any virtual PC machine on Mac, so the good news is VMWare Fusion is not needed to install this firmware? However, it is still unclear whether the unit I received has the latest FW installed or not. It won't let me install the XMOS audio controller in my VMWare Fusion (I get a "the current system is not supported" error). What appears if I go into the the RAW MDA-1 menu Settings > Reset is:

SDAA-1

RAW MDA-1 1.00

Sound-wise, it's pretty good, and no noticeable difference between the Topping gear. I think I'm on the fence on whether I want to keep the RAW MDA-1, though. Considering that I don't have any ticks or pops with the Topping gear, and don't have to go through any weird workarounds to get the popping to 90% go away, that might be enough to send it back. I'll come back with what I like about this after I've slept on it. Too exhausted right now...

 

[JIW]

It was received this evening, and I have been testing it out over the last several hours. I noticed a faint pair of ticks if I stop a tracks, so I tried your Qobuz trick, which seems to have eliminated that. There's still some very faint ticks when changing the bit rate/sample in the audio midi, but it's nothing that I would consider out of the ordinary.

As far as the firmware is concerned, unless I have downloaded the wrong thing, there's installation instructions for the firmware (attached the .pdf file to post). This works even without using any virtual PC machine on Mac, so the good news is VMWare Fusion is not needed to install this firmware? However, it is still unclear whether the unit I received has the latest FW installed or not. It won't let me install the XMOS audio controller in my VMWare Fusion (I get a "the current system is not supported" error). What appears if I go into the the RAW MDA-1 menu Settings > Reset is:

SDAA-1

RAW MDA-1 1.00

Sound-wise, it's pretty good, and no noticeable difference between the Topping gear. I think I'm on the fence on whether I want to keep the RAW MDA-1, though. Considering that I don't have any ticks or pops with the Topping gear, and don't have to go through any weird workarounds to get the popping to 90% go away, that might be enough to send it back. I'll come back with what I like about this after I've slept on it. Too exhausted right now...

For the firmware update, you only get an exe-file, which cannot be executed in macOS as far as I am aware.

EDIT: I checked the RAW-MDA1 FW-update package and its different from the DL200. It should work in macOS.

 

[ziggurcat]

For the firmware update, you only get an exe-file, which cannot be executed in macOS as far as I am aware.

EDIT: I checked the RAW-MDA1 FW-update package and its different from the DL200. It should work in macOS.

Yeah, I was going to say: what you download isn't an .exe file, and I personally performed the installation on Mac side without any issues. The FW update process is the same even when going through PC. Now, the driver you can download is an .exe file, but that won't even load/boot/launch even when I'm in VMWare Fusion (I get that "current system not supported" error).

I think that "problem" (assuming there's a problem) with the FW update is that I don't know if it even stuck because I can't use the XMOS/SMSL audio control panel to really verify, and what it displays in the setting menu looks like it's not version 1.01 as it seems to indicate in the file name (i.e. the V101 at the end of the name). I'm wondering if @SMSL-Mandy can shed some light on that? Because this is a later unit purchased just a few days ago, it seems logical that the latest FW would be installed, but who knows!

The other thing I don't particularly care for is there's not apparent auto on/off function. I don't want to keep it on at all times, and if I put it in standby (pressing the knob on the front or the power button on the remote), and turn it back on, I have to go into my Mac's Audio MIDI app, and reselect the bit/sample rate I want to use (it defaults to 32-bit, 48kHz).

It should be noted that all of this listening testing has been done through headphones. Whether any of those pops/ticks are audible with an external amp, I don't know yet. The ticks/pops are all over the place when I was going through VMWare (any time a sound plays, and stops, there's ticks/pops -- so any system notification sound).

The positives are:

- The most important: it sounds fantastic. I was a little concerned about the HPA side, but it's clean (i.e. no audible hissing despite the specs being 6dB lower -- 89dB vs. 95dB -- in the SNR department vs. the L50), and feels like it has the same punch/oomph as my L50.
- I like the volume controls. And like the E50 I had/have, when plugged into my Mac, the Mac volume control is disabled (i.e. when pressing the volume buttons on my keyboard, the window shows up with a circle/line through instead of an adjustable volume bar), which is exactly what I want. With the D50 III, I have to create a new Multi-Output Device profile in the Audio MIDI app to achieve that same functionality.
- It's solid, and well-built, but wish it came in a silver option.
- Seems to run very cool, even after a few hours of use.

Still on the fence, I think, but maybe leaning towards returning because of the pops/ticks. I know your workaround resolves most of it, but coming from gear that doesn't have that at all (even when operating via VMWare Fusion), and doesn't require leaving a different app running in the BG... I just have to decide whether it's going to bother me enough

 

[JIW]

Yeah, I was going to say: what you download isn't an .exe file, and I personally performed the installation on Mac side without any issues. The FW update process is the same even when going through PC. Now, the driver you can download is an .exe file, but that won't even load/boot/launch even when I'm in VMWare Fusion (I get that "current system not supported" error).

I think that "problem" (assuming there's a problem) with the FW update is that I don't know if it even stuck because I can't use the XMOS/SMSL audio control panel to really verify, and what it displays in the setting menu looks like it's not version 1.01 as it seems to indicate in the file name (i.e. the V101 at the end of the name). I'm wondering if @SMSL-Mandy can shed some light on that? Because this is a later unit purchased just a few days ago, it seems logical that the latest FW would be installed, but who knows!

The other thing I don't particularly care for is there's not apparent auto on/off function. I don't want to keep it on at all times, and if I put it in standby (pressing the knob on the front or the power button on the remote), and turn it back on, I have to go into my Mac's Audio MIDI app, and reselect the bit/sample rate I want to use (it defaults to 32-bit, 48kHz).

It should be noted that all of this listening testing has been done through headphones. Whether any of those pops/ticks are audible with an external amp, I don't know yet. The ticks/pops are all over the place when I was going through VMWare (any time a sound plays, and stops, there's ticks/pops -- so any system notification sound).

The positives are:

- The most important: it sounds fantastic. I was a little concerned about the HPA side, but it's clean (i.e. no audible hissing despite the specs being 6dB lower -- 89dB vs. 95dB -- in the SNR department vs. the L50), and feels like it has the same punch/oomph as my L50.
- I like the volume controls. And like the E50 I had/have, when plugged into my Mac, the Mac volume control is disabled (i.e. when pressing the volume buttons on my keyboard, the window shows up with a circle/line through instead of an adjustable volume bar), which is exactly what I want. With the D50 III, I have to create a new Multi-Output Device profile in the Audio MIDI app to achieve that same functionality.
- It's solid, and well-built, but wish it came in a silver option.
- Seems to run very cool, even after a few hours of use.

Still on the fence, I think, but maybe leaning towards returning because of the pops/ticks. I know your workaround resolves most of it, but coming from gear that doesn't have that at all (even when operating via VMWare Fusion), and doesn't require leaving a different app running in the BG... I just have to decide whether it's going to bother me enough

My DL200 defaults to the last sample rate used by Qobuz if that is still running and has selected it as output. Otherwise, it uses the last selected.

 

[ziggurcat]

My DL200 defaults to the last sample rate used by Qobuz if that is still running and has selected it as output. Otherwise, it uses the last selected.

Unfortunately, not in my case

 

[JIW]

Unfortunately, not in my case

Another SMSL software gore special, it seems.

 

[ziggurcat]

Another SMSL software gore special, it seems.

In VMWare, it seems to go to whatever is set in the sound card settings (i.e. 32-bit/384kHz) even if I turn the unit off/on again, so it appears to be a Mac-only issue.

 

[JIW]

In VMWare, it seems to go to whatever is set in the sound card settings (i.e. 32-bit/384kHz) even if I turn the unit off/on again, so it appears to be a Mac-only issue.

It works fine with the DL200 on macOS so I have no idea how they managed this since they use the same USB receiver. Anyways, good to know.

 

[ziggurcat]

It works fine with the DL200 on macOS so I have no idea how they managed this since they use the same USB receiver. Anyways, good to know.

Weird. Now it's working just fine. *shrugs*

 

[Brian Hall]

I ordered one of these Saturday from Amazon. The price was $251.99. Got it for my office setup.

It is replacing an Eversolo DAC-Z8 + Schiit Midgard headphone amp to simplify things and save a little desktop space.

I like it. No issues. No clicking. The unit is about half the size of the DAC-Z8. On high gain, I have the volume set to -32 db for a comfortable listening level with my HD800S headphones. -26 db is way too loud so this unit has plenty of power. Just switched to my Arya Stealth Magnet headphones and needed to turn the volume down to -35 db. I wasn't expecting that since on the Midgard, the same volume setting worked for both.

The SMSL sounds great, but so did the Midgard and the headphone amp on the DAC-Z8.

It does not have an HDMI arc input. Have to use an HDMI audio extractor. Every dac should include an HDMI arc input and every preamp should have a subwoofer out. That is my only dislike.

Wiim Pro Plus -> Coax 1
HDMI audio extractor -> Coax 2
CD transport -> Optical 1
Linux PC -> USB C

SMSL XLR out to a Fosi ZA3.

I'm using a Wiim Pro Plus instead of my Eversolo DMP-A6 because the Wiim supports both Chromecast and Alexa Cast and has a better app.

If Fosi had a version of their ZD3 with a good headphone amp, I probably would have gone for that instead. This SMSL box came closest to what I wanted.

Just tried out the bluetooth input from my phone. The display on the SMSL shows it is using aptX. It sounds good.

After two hours, this SMSL is cool to the touch. The Schiit Midgard always got pretty warm.

 

[ziggurcat]

I decided to return the RAW MDA-1. Too much of a hassle to resolve the issues it has, which are not present in my current Topping D50 III/L50 stack. I guess I will have to wait for the DX5 II to release, unless theres another DAC/HPA option that doesn't cause pops/ticks every time audio is paused or when a system sound is played. I know the workaround on Mac isn't that much of a hassle, but no one should have to do anything like that to allow a component to function as it should out of the box. If SMSL would only just put out a MacOS version of the audio control panel to enable the device to be always on, it would be a different story.