SMSL SP200 channel imbalance

[adehaan968cs]

I've been the owner of the SMSL SP200 for about a month now but the experience hasn't been the best unfortunately. When I got it all wired up and plugged my headphones in, I immediately noticed a channel imbalance with it. The left channel was louder than the right one. I returned it and bought another one so I wouldn't have to sit around without an amp. When the second one came in and I got it all set-up again, it had the same problem. Left channel is louder than the right one. I can eliminate this problem by turning the amp all the way to the max, and controlling the volume digitally in Musicbee or Windows.

Now this is where I need help, what would you do? Would you go with the third unit of the SP200 and hope that the channel imbalance is gone? Or is there another amp that matches the SP200?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Paperdragons]

Hey, I'm sorry you're going through that. I've heard the channel imbalance is common with the SP200 and generally gets better after 50% volume. If I were you, i'd try a different amp. I'm wondering if there's something in the design predisposing them. I personally use a geshelli archel 2.5 and it drives my Ethers, LCD2s, AKGs, and DT1990s without even trying. If you need balanced the SH-8 is on drop for like 90$ when packed with the su-8 (which is a great dac that I've been using personally for a week). The SH-8 supposedly has a good balanced output. Power isn't crazy high but honestly it should be enough for 95% of headphones especially with an SU-8.

 

[adehaan968cs]

Hey, I'm sorry you're going through that. I've heard the channel imbalance is common with the SP200 and generally gets better after 50% volume. If I were you, i'd try a different amp. I'm wondering if there's something in the design predisposing them. I personally use a geshelli archel 2.5 and it drives my Ethers, LCD2s, AKGs, and DT1990s without even trying. If you need balanced the SH-8 is on drop for like 90$ when packed with the su-8 (which is a great dac that I've been using personally for a week). The SH-8 supposedly has a good balanced output. Power isn't crazy high but honestly it should be enough for 95% of headphones especially with an SU-8.

Thanks for your reply! I think I'm gonna try one more SP200. If that doesn't work either, I'll have a good look at the Archel 2.5. Since I live in the Netherlands, and Drop doesn't have the best reputation here, I'm a bit wary of buying anything from them.

 

[Bob-23]

I can eliminate this problem by turning the amp all the way to the max, and controlling the volume digitally in Musicbee or Windows.

If you feed your amp by a source with a volpot - that could be a simple solution for your problem. You always have imbalances with potentiometers, mainly in the lower region, but often all over the spectrum. Even with expensive Alps 'Big Blue' ones: got three of them, last year, and all of them have channel imbalances, one of them even more than cheap small Alps, that's simply so, by construction, can't be made much better; stepped attenuators can be better in that regard, but not everybody's happy with the steps they have. If you build amps as a hobby or professional, it's useful to buy 5 or 10 of them (per amp), measure them and then take the best one. For reducing the output voltage, you could also use an attenuator adapter. That said, if the imbalances are huge, you might try a third amp - but it can even get worse...But if regulating volume by the source works for you, why not do that.
(And, btw, often our ears also have 'channel' imbalances.)