VMV D1se2 Stereo DAC Review

[VintageFlanker]

Maybe they're testing the waters of the "audiophile" swamp market

They do for quite a few years already. VMV is indeed the higher end brand of S.M.S.L, with a different targeting audience:

SMSL VMV D3 Review (R2R DAC)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL VMV D3 R2R DAC. It was kindly sent to me by a member and costs US $3,499. Being part of the "high-end" VMV division, it comes in the milled enclosure and separate power supply section of that design path. As such, it is quite heavy and...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Milanraf]

Where should we go from here? What's left in DAC improvements, facilities aside?

 

[Koeitje]

So what is the limit of dynamic range that we can expect to hit? We can't go lower than the passive noise (so with the device off), but at what level do we reach that?

 

[amirm]

So what is the limit of dynamic range that we can expect to hit? We can't go lower than the passive noise (so with the device off), but at what level do we reach that?

Actually the limit is partially my audio analyzer! These devices are more quiet than the measurements show. All the noise you see is the sum of my analyzer+DAC noise.

 

[amirm]

Adding on, we get better dynamic range as a system if we increase the output voltage from the DAC. Would be great to have DACs with 15 to 20 volt output while maintaining the same low distortion. Then we can feed this into power amps without a gain stage to get the best dynamic range possible.

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

Actually the limit is partially my audio analyzer! These devices are more quiet than the measurements show. All the noise you see is the sum of my analyzer+DAC noise.

Since the limit is partially our analyzer, does it make sense to rank the top DACs to 4 significant figures? I guess what I'm asking is: how confident are we in the ordering of the top 10-20 DACS?

 

[amirm]

Yeh, the decimal thing is not good as I see SINAD value jumping back and forth fair bit. I started doing that when there was more distinction than there is now. I was almost tempted to erase the decimal point with this review but didn't.

I do however think that the top 20 is really the best 20 or so DACs as far as least distortion+noise. The analyzer noise is constant so being better does mean lower noise.

 

[Bleib]

Where should we go from here? What's left in DAC improvements, facilities aside?

More inputs would be nice as many use them as pre-amps. Two toslink I'd certainly welcome

 

[renaudrenaud]

you can find dacs with sota performance and balanced outputs even under 200 euros by now. see smsl C200

And even with headphones output!

 

[Oldasdrt]

Thanks for the great review, I want to see the Inards

 

[MBO]

I'll be honest, I've had a lot of good digital converters over the past 20 years. I now have new DAC with ES9039Pro, and it's the best DAC chip I've heard so far, its audio performance is so good that it outshines the older multibit chip or even modern R2R DACs.
I would be very happy if there were more different devices with the new Hyperstream IV series from ESS.

 

[Music1969]

Do Topping and S.M.S.L plan for different offerings for every 50€/$ slices ?...

Maybe the plan is to own the top 20 on the SINAD rankings.

And more sales $ will follow

Every month they are taking the place of another non-SMSL / non-Topping it seems, in the top 20

 

[potfur]

I think they are all the same: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...c3-review-bluetooth-receiver-bt-codecs.23740/

But sure, I will do a spot check here and there. In general, if you have LDAC, that is the codec to use. All the others sound pretty lousy to me with the worst being AAC. If you don't have LDAC, then SBC is the second best.

Does this also apply to AAC on iPhones, or just to the Android implementation? I mean, is AAC broken natively or just on Android?

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Here is the SINAD vs position of volume control:

Apologies if you've explained this chart elsewhere but why does a SINAD vs volume control position chart have an X-axis with time as its unit?

 

[MacCali]

Adding on, we get better dynamic range as a system if we increase the output voltage from the DAC. Would be great to have DACs with 15 to 20 volt output while maintaining the same low distortion. Then we can feed this into power amps without a gain stage to get the best dynamic range possible.

Is that not similar to the pre90? I thought it’s typical range was 12 volts with XLR and peaks much higher than that

 

[Aperiodic]

Another worthy contender in the Topping/SMSL Audibly Transparent DAC Of The Month Club. How about some more headphones, IEMs, and speakers?

 

[AdamG]

Adding on, we get better dynamic range as a system if we increase the output voltage from the DAC. Would be great to have DACs with 15 to 20 volt output while maintaining the same low distortion. Then we can feed this into power amps without a gain stage to get the best dynamic range possible.

You should get paid to be a part of the Product Development Team!!!

I hope they (SMSL, RME, Gustard, Topping, Eversolo, Schiit, Okto, etc..) are paying attention? One less device in the chain raising the SINAD while reducing the Stack.

 

[nagster]

Dear amirm. Thank you for continuing ASR for many years. I am thankful.

Audio Precision Bluetooth option costs $6,000 or so! I don't know how they justify that cost but I am not going to pay it.

I have never seen the word "LDAC" within the APx software. . .

 

[Ken Tajalli]

So basically transparent? This is good news (and I've never recognized ldac from optical or coaxial signal)

This is what you get with 24bit LDAC (from Amir's link and test).

But as Amir correctly points out:

So transparent?? I don't think so! LDAC is good, but subjectively (compared to bit-perfect) it sounds a little washed out and compressed.
It is not the hardware, I believe.
It is the CODEC itself. and first half of that is in the transmitter.

 

[Billy Budapest]

I think they are all the same: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...c3-review-bluetooth-receiver-bt-codecs.23740/

But sure, I will do a spot check here and there. In general, if you have LDAC, that is the codec to use. All the others sound pretty lousy to me with the worst being AAC. If you don't have LDAC, then SBC is the second best.

Agree—Apple, Microsoft, and Google would behoove themselves to adopt LDAC as the standard for wireless audio transmission, damn their “not invented here” phobia.