So far I can tell the retail ones have pretty shit pot. My dear friend Oluv got sp200 today and channel balance is absolutely horrible. Audible channel imbalance even at 10 o'clock.
Which headphones were you using?
So far I can tell the retail ones have pretty shit pot. My dear friend Oluv got sp200 today and channel balance is absolutely horrible. Audible channel imbalance even at 10 o'clock.
Oluv, The Oluv?My dear friend Oluv got sp200 today and channel balance is absolutely horrible.
Well, as far I get ready to pull the trigger on this I found this thread. What a shame if this really has build quality issues, because the other THX variations such as Drop 789 or Monoprice 887 can't be even shipped to my country directly without forwarding services which makes it even more expensive and inconvenient.
I recently reviewed the SMSL SP200 THX headphone amplifier and gave it very high marks for excellence in performance. Given that this product was not yet available, I accepted the opportunity to review. Same happens with offers from other manufacturers. Invariably someone after the review wonders if I have received a "golden sample," i.e. a handpicked unit to measure well. My answer is that the chances of that is very low but that if there is some doubt, people should send another one and we can verify. Well, that has happened. A member ordered a SP200 and kindly sent it to me for evaluation.
For this assessment, I am just performing some spot checks as opposed to re-running all the tests. If there are differences, these tests should easily show them.
Let's start with our dashboard view using the same settings as the review unit:
View attachment 37683
SINAD which represents noise and distortion relative to our source signal is only 1 dB down. I see variations like this and more in products I test. There is always some variability with respect to temperature, environment, run to run variation in measurement, etc. So this is definitely within the accuracy limit of our measurements.
What I can't explain is the spectrum of distortion products changed. Here it is from the review unit:
View attachment 37685
We are still below -130 dB but the role of 2nd and 3rd harmonics has changed.
Next I tested the signal to noise ratio for the same input and output level:
View attachment 37684
We see a 1.7 dB difference which likely the reason SINAD changed similar amount. Again, nothing to worry about.
Let's see how our power curve relative to THD+N looks with 300 ohm load:
View attachment 37686
Performance is as identical as you can get. Both high and low gain product the same power and very low distortion and noise.
The one element that I thought would have variation would be the analog volume control. So I tested channel balance:
View attachment 37687
This is quite different than the review sample. First, the level would not change for quite a while and once it started to change, it fell apart a lot sooner than the review unit. You can only get 30 dB of attenuation before channel balance becomes extreme relative to 70 dB before.
Hard to tell if this is an outlier, typical of these analog controls, the one I got was hand picked or what. If you are going to use sensitive IEMs, this may be an issue for you.
Conclusions
I see little evidence of SMSL having picked a special unit to send me. Performance is as superb as the review unit. Volume control has some issues but as mentioned, I think there are other explanations for this than a golden sample.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
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It does. I would be happy to use it myself every day. You do have to make the final judgement yourself relative to cost, features, long term reliability/support.Thanks for re-testing the unit, I actually purchased this unit based on your review and several others. It should be arriving today or tomorrow. All in all do you think the unit still holds up to the other two THX offerings or do you lean to recommending one over another at this point and after the re-test?
It does. I would be happy to use it myself every day. You do have to make the final judgement yourself relative to cost, features, long term reliability/support.
Yeah. won't be an issueI bought it and I'm not even nervous about this, since I can use my SU-8s volume just fine, which is 32 bit so snr will not be an issue
Yes. And by buying the same brand, there should not be any questions about the two working together.Do you think those two paired together will bring good results?
Yes. And by buying the same brand, there should not be any questions about the two working together.
I have the su8 and have used it with the mono price thx which is similar to the sp800. I also have the schiit Asgard 3 with akm dac and have done a comparison. At first the Asgard 3 sounded great. It’s got warmth and dynamics. But the su8/thx combo is cleaner and less distorted but not as warm and dynamic, I ultimately preferred the su8/thx combo as the cleaner less distorted sound was preferable. I think you should be very happy with the su8/sp200.
one question to all
Which sounds better: the su8/sp200 or the m500?
the m500 has the better dac, the sp200 the better headphone amp. And both are close to the same price,
I recently reviewed the SMSL SP200 THX headphone amplifier and gave it very high marks for excellence in performance. Given that this product was not yet available, I accepted the opportunity to review. Same happens with offers from other manufacturers. Invariably someone after the review wonders if I have received a "golden sample," i.e. a handpicked unit to measure well. My answer is that the chances of that is very low but that if there is some doubt, people should send another one and we can verify. Well, that has happened. A member ordered a SP200 and kindly sent it to me for evaluation.
For this assessment, I am just performing some spot checks as opposed to re-running all the tests. If there are differences, these tests should easily show them.
Let's start with our dashboard view using the same settings as the review unit:
View attachment 37683
SINAD which represents noise and distortion relative to our source signal is only 1 dB down. I see variations like this and more in products I test. There is always some variability with respect to temperature, environment, run to run variation in measurement, etc. So this is definitely within the accuracy limit of our measurements.
What I can't explain is the spectrum of distortion products changed. Here it is from the review unit:
View attachment 37685
We are still below -130 dB but the role of 2nd and 3rd harmonics has changed.
Next I tested the signal to noise ratio for the same input and output level:
View attachment 37684
We see a 1.7 dB difference which likely the reason SINAD changed similar amount. Again, nothing to worry about.
Let's see how our power curve relative to THD+N looks with 300 ohm load:
View attachment 37686
Performance is as identical as you can get. Both high and low gain product the same power and very low distortion and noise.
The one element that I thought would have variation would be the analog volume control. So I tested channel balance:
View attachment 37687
This is quite different than the review sample. First, the level would not change for quite a while and once it started to change, it fell apart a lot sooner than the review unit. You can only get 30 dB of attenuation before channel balance becomes extreme relative to 70 dB before.
Hard to tell if this is an outlier, typical of these analog controls, the one I got was hand picked or what. If you are going to use sensitive IEMs, this may be an issue for you.
Conclusions
I see little evidence of SMSL having picked a special unit to send me. Performance is as superb as the review unit. Volume control has some issues but as mentioned, I think there are other explanations for this than a golden sample.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
If you like to support articles like this, please donate using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Just out of curiosity if you were to leave the analog volume control on the amp set to the max listen level for your headphones to say 12-1 o’clock then just use your DAC to adjust volume up or down would this be an acceptable workaround? Excuse me as I am new to some of this technology?