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My high-level takeaway here is that I actually really enjoy using the DO300 DAC quite a bit. It presents an alternate listening experience to my more analog sounding Spring 3 KTE, and for being a more precise listen, the DO300, has a very smooth overall sound. The treble is also fantastic. Shimmering, sparkly, fast, and detailed, with a lot of air. It goes perfectly with well-mastered music, but as usual with SMSL – badly mastered music can sometimes be a pain to listen to. It is because the DO300 doesn’t hide anything from the listener, it just decodes all the information from the recording and sends it further, with absolutely no hesitation. There’s not even the slightest blanket, darkness, or dullness to the sound, this is highly saturated and just accurate. The menu is the same as the DO200 MKII that I reviewed. Users can navigate through menus to change inputs, outputs, variable or fixed volume mode (preamp), jitter control (DPLL), dimmer, brightness, and most importantly to me -- PCM and DSD filters, and the SMSL's audio Sound Color menus. One interesting feature the DO300 has is “phase inversion” where phase issues on the output side can be compensated for. I’d recommend keeping it turned off unless things sound “strange” (e.g. the center instruments or vocals sound strangely compressed). PCM Filter – you can select your desired digital filter that are built-in directly in the DAC chip itself, there are 6 filters to play with, but the sound difference is slight at best.
SMSL DO300 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org SMSL DO300 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org
While it is still not as precise as HPA4 is when it comes to ultimate transparency and detail retrieval, it still has double the power and that was immediately felt with headphones like Audeze LCD-4 and Hifiman Susvara. I knew that HPA4 was controlling well the drivers of some of the best headphones there is, but SP400 did that so gracefully and so easily, like it was nothing for it. HPA4 is no slouch and it is still one of the best I have ever heard, but with some particular headphones, SP400 worked better at less than ~4.75 times the price of HPA4, impressive! Isn’t it?With D1SE, aggressive music as heavy metal can be a little fatiguing after about an hour or so, while D2 sounded more organic, it put more life in those guitars, while gently smoothing out the ringing of the cymbals. What’s more interesting is that dynamics themselves were going higher on D2, easier reaching their peaks, releasing a higher engagement factor. While the family resemblance is quite big and both units have plenty of technicalities in common, D2 wanted to impress a lot more with music reproduction more than anything else. It took me and carried over my childhood memories when I was still listening to music through a cassette player. I’m not fond on using this word, but it was more musical and more organic sounding to me. Another striking difference was the bass output, D1SE felt immaculate when it comes to speed and decay, but D2 punched nicer and delivered a heftier bass output quantity wise. It was punchier and harder smalling in there, transforming regular electronica into something impactful and toe-tapping all the time. I was quite excited testing for the first time a digital amplifier with so much power under its hood, so I’ve replaced my power amp immediately an connected the SA400. Plenty of Class-XD, D, A/B and full Class-A amplifiers have been tested around here, but not a single digital amplifier based on some of the newest technologies. Frankly I was more than excited to hear what future has to say. I can’t say a single bad word about its build quality, it is really well-made, it’s built at higher standards, it’s isn’t overly large, but at 3 kilos (6.6 lbs) it feels solid and quite heavy. Its heavier case tells me that big transformers are sitting in there and that thought alone makes me quite excited. Thanks to its slim profile case, you could place it in tight spaces, in a killer headphone or loudspeaker setup, you can hide it just below your TV, gaming console or Blu-ray player.
SMSL M400 DAC Review - Can SMSL Compete In a Higher Class?
KEF’s Reference 3 are prone to noise coming from the source and amplifiers, but all I’ve heard was a noiseless performance, with dynamics going wild in an effortless way. SMSL developed a matching integrated amplifier for it that is called VMV A2, but I really don’t get why it doesn’t carry XLR analog inputs. For the best results, please use your own balanced amplifier. Gain: Low (best setting for IEMs or sensitive headphones), Mid or High (for your power-hungry headphones)
I know that most of you are focusing on your speakers, headphones, maybe on amplifiers, cables or room acoustics. Some are swearing that low-priced digital to analog converters like SMSL SU-9N can’t get any better and that’s perfectly fine. However, I will remind you that everything happening in your stereo or headphone setup, starts with your source. A good source will never limit dynamics, stage size, detail retrieval and it will never increase the noise floor. From a dozen of digital sources I’ve tried in the last two years, the ones that had no cons were counted with three fingers on a hand and SMSL’s D2 seems to be one of them. I was not surprised hearing gobs of details brought to the surface, a vast and expansive soundstage and a punchy low-end delivery, but I was surprised having them all, while putting a higher accent on the act of music listening. Sounding squeaky clean and noiseless isn’t a challenge anymore, but sounding extremely dynamic, yet organic and full-bodied is still a big challenge, especially when it comes to chip-based converters.
HEADFONICS—SMSL M400 REVIEW
The D1SE’s treble section is smooth and detailed at the same time. The treble is very clean, transparent, and effortless. It will never pierce your ears, no matter the pairing. The D1SE shows excellent control throughout the ranges and treble is no exception. The smoothness of the treble range contributes to the effortlessness of the sound and this provides a relaxed experience. The D1SE is very easy to listen to and enjoy. You won’t get tired of it easily so I’d prepare myself for long listening sessions.Their D1SE was an exemplary DAC in this area, always highlighting the leading edges and the smallest nuances like it would be a child’s play and D2 goes with the same winning formula. If you’re crazy about your music on a micro-scale, then be prepared hearing the truth alone. With D2 on my table, I’m sure that the only limiting factors would be my upstream equipment, my amplifiers and transducers in a headphone or speaker form. When it comes to sound performance, there are two instances that I will cover. If hard to drive planar magnetics are not on your daily menu, then SH-9 would be a better choice, since there is little to no difference between both siblings with desktop dynamic headphones or with easy to drive planars like Erzetich Phobos and Kennerton Wodan. Both are extremely neutral sounding with a slight tint towards naturalness and real textures. Wodan had a slightly better bass impact and a deeper stage on SP400, but others performed more or less the same on both devices.
SMSL m500 MQA DAC How to upgrade the firmware on your SMSL m500 MQA DAC
This is a highly polished DAC that delivered countless hours of satisfaction, more so than many other converters tested around here and as such, it’s my pleasure awarding it with my highest, Gold Award. It was fully deserved and I wish more manufacturers would put a higher importance to component selection and on actual music listening. There isn’t much to say about them design wise, one is smaller and one is bigger, one has 6 Watts on tap and one is doubling that number, one has a preamp output and SH-9 doesn’t have it. SP400 is pretty much a dual-mono version of SH-9 and it costs twice as much too. Apart from that, their UI is the same, I/O is the same, they look almost the same too. The DO300 DAC is the latest in line of products that have a very impressive spec-sheet while the asking price is relatively modest. DO300 is also one of the first DACs to utilize the latest and greatest ESS Sabre ES9039MSPro chip, sporting class leading distortion figures and dynamic range. There is also numerous input and output options to mix and match with any system out there.
And now onto the comparison with the smallest brother, the DO100. Yet again, the DO300 is slightly warmer than the DO100, but in terms of technical performance, the latter is just not able to keep up.
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