SMSL SP400 Balanced Headphone Amplifier THX AAA

[Artaois]

Ah, they have a US warehouse but I suppose that, especially with the very high sales volume going on this time of the year, they can't help but ship stuff directly from China as well. If in doubt I would e-mail them and ask about stock levels. I'm sure they'll help/reply.

It's already on it's way through DHL. Waiting for a package is the worst. Lol

 

[dmac6419]

Ah, they have a US warehouse but I suppose that, especially with the very high sales volume going on this time of the year, they can't help but ship stuff directly from China as well. If in doubt I would e-mail them and ask about stock levels. I'm sure they'll help/reply.

They always ship my stuff from China,guess it's faster than shipping ground from California to the East Coast lol

 

[Phony846]

I'm very interested to see how the SP400 compare to the Topping A90. I have the M400 DAC, and the A90. Purely for aesthetics I'd like a matching M400/SP400. But I do like the build quality and sound of my A90 + Arya headphones.

 

[amirm]

This appears to have a stepped attenuator for volume control? Channel balance would appear to be the one last thing the Benchmark HPA4 has on the Topping A90. Could this SMSL be the ultimate amp? Is Amir going to test it?

One was supposed to be here already but didn't happen. It is being investigated.

 

[Veri]

I'm very interested to see how the SP400 compare to the Topping A90. I have the M400 DAC, and the A90. Purely for aesthetics I'd like a matching M400/SP400. But I do like the build quality and sound of my A90 + Arya headphones.

Honestly, if you already have the M400 and A90 I can't think of a single thing that could be improved

 

[Phony846]

Honestly, if you already have the M400 and A90 I can't think of a single thing that could be improved

Right the only thing to improve is aesthetics ....matching devices. Sonically I agree...there's nothing really to improve upon.

 

[Justin Maynard]

Honestly, if you already have the M400 and A90 I can't think of a single thing that could be improved

Channel balance, maybe?

 

[rjley]

It's already on it's way through DHL. Waiting for a package is the worst. Lol

+1

 

[pimy]

One was supposed to be here already but didn't happen. It is being investigated.

if possible it would be interesting to measure the crosstalk

Thank you

 

[amirm]

Sure.

 

[mkawa]

apos sent me an email before shipment that there had been customs delays for other products from HK that they had hit so they were upgrading shipping. i ordered something like 11/26, it shipped 12/1 and just got here. smsl may have sent such that it got stuck in customs.

 

[rjley]

apos sent me an email before shipment that there had been customs delays for other products from HK that they had hit so they were upgrading shipping. i ordered something like 11/26, it shipped 12/1 and just got here. smsl may have sent such that it got stuck in customs.

I received the same email and just got my delivery also.

 

[Artaois]

Same email. Was due today but I don't see it happening. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[rjley]

Same email. Was due today but I don't see it happening. Let me know what you guys think!

I got the SP400 and the M400 dac. My goal was to downsize financially from a more expensive combo of the RME ADI-2 DAC and a new Burson Soloist x amp (about $2000 for both of those vs. $1200ish for the SMSL's), hoping to hear not much of a difference. Wondering if the SMSL gear needs warming up as it sounds much flatter to the RME/Busron combo which is punchier.

 

[Artaois]

I got the SP400 and the M400 dac. My goal was to downsize financially from a more expensive combo of the RME ADI-2 DAC and a new Burson Soloist x amp (about $2000 for both of those vs. $1200ish for the SMSL's), hoping to hear not much of a difference. Wondering if the SMSL gear needs warming up as it sounds much flatter to the RME/Busron combo which is punchier.

I also ordered the stack.

 

[mkawa]

sounds good. clearly more power in balanced than the geshelli 2.5. mostly it sits nicely on top of the m400 i got on 11.11, whereas the geshelli was flying all over. driving focal elex. heats up quite a bit. i am going to run my unbalance 600o dt990 and hd600 for high impedance impressions at some point later tonight. i would say quite frankly that the geshelli and the m400 are both completely uncolored but that the sp400 has hilarious amounts of power for dynamics

 

[Artaois]

sounds good. clearly more power in balanced than the geshelli 2.5. mostly it sits nicely on top of the m400 i got on 11.11, whereas the geshelli was flying all over. driving focal elex. heats up quite a bit. i am going to run my unbalance 600o dt990 and hd600 for high impedance impressions at some point later tonight. i would say quite frankly that the geshelli and the m400 are both completely uncolored but that the sp400 has hilarious amounts of power for dynamics

Well the Geshelli 2.5 is only 1 Watt Per Channel @ 16ohms where as the sp400 is an insane 12 watts @16 ohms so yeah there's quite a power difference. Lol

 

[Artaois]

Well my shipping went to shit. It went from China to the US faster than the 2 hours away that it's been sitting at for days.

 

[nj75f]

May consider this over the topping a90.
As good as the A90 is, I Have bad luck with the second unit of it, having some high pitched noise coming from inside (some coil or the power supply) which got even louder the more time passed.
If the power supply is as good as smsl says, I might consider.

No badmouthing the A90, it is unit-dependant and I just got bad luck.
Though there are clearly ways to prevent this (more quality coils for example).

Have to ask shenzhenaudio for a refund and hope they're customer friendly

 

[Artaois]

May consider this over the topping a90.
As good as the A90 is, I Have bad luck with the second unit of it, having some high pitched noise coming from inside (some coil or the power supply) which got even louder the more time passed.
If the power supply is as good as smsl says, I might consider.

No badmouthing the A90, it is unit-dependant and I just got bad luck.
Though there are clearly ways to prevent this (more quality coils for example).

Have to ask shenzhenaudio for a refund and hope they're customer friendly

What did SMSL say about the power supply?