S.M.S.L M400 MQA Audio DAC, AK4499 Chip Full Balanced Hi-Res Decoder, APTX-HD Bluetooth 5.0, Support MQA decoding DSD512 32Bit/768kHz,Coaxial Optical HiFi Music USB DAC XMOS

Product Information

This includes XLR and RCA outputs, and a variety of different inputs: AES, I2S, Coaxial, Optical/Toslink, and USB-A. In addition, there is a bluetooth antenna which has the latest Qualcomm Bluetooth 5.0 standard, and allows for LDAC, AptX-HD, AptX, AAC and SBC formats. Instead, I’ll write about one of the most interesting delta-sigma modulation converters that passed through my hands in 2021. It sounded in such a way, that I’ve completely changed my preconceptions about this particular brand. Everybody knows Shuang Mu San Lin Technology by now or SMSL for short. I’ve covered most of their gear, starting with affordable and finishing with top-end units. Just months ago, I’ve learned that there is a sister company under their umbrella, calling themselves VMV Technology that releases only top of the crop that SMSL has to offer. One of their most valuable deeds was releasing a DAC that forced a new spin of competition among industry members. The signature has noticeable differences, however. The DO300 is not as etched in the treble as the M400, and the M400 also tended to push upper-mids a bit too forward. The DO300 is a step up on that front. Staging and imaging are similar on both, but the bass slams harder on the DO300 (which seems to be a thing of this DAC at this point).

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With all that said, there is one thing that I wish SMSL did differently, there is still hope as I’m having the Hardware and Software version 1.0 and maybe there is a chance, I can update it later on. The biggest issue that I’m writing about is its gain position. There is very little difference volume wise between low, to mid and then to high gain and while this doesn’t seem like a huge con, it is a huge con with hard to drive headphones like Hifiman Susvara. When you put it side by side with its smaller brother SH-9 that offers exactly half the power, it doesn’t sound more powerful at all and here are some examples. 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. When M400 comparing with the Audio Gd Master 7 (PCM1704), I prefer the sound from Audio Gd Master 7. However, I am impressed by how good the M400 can stand close to the Audio Gd M7 which is more than twice the price. The music from Audio Gd Master 7 has more layers. The sound stage is more vivid. Audio Gd M7 and R7 sound different to each other. R7 (discreet ladder) has a more sparkle high ends where PCM1704 is more mellow and rich mid range. SMSL M400 is good too all over. 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.SMSL is a Chinese company that specializes in manufacturing audio equipment. The company was founded in 2009 and its headquarter is located in Shenzhen, China. They are widely regarded as one of the two leading DAC and amplifier manufacturers in the audio world currently, next to Topping. They are known for producing a wide range of audio equipment, including DACs (digital-to-analog converters), headphone amplifiers, preamplifiers, power amplifiers, and speakers. The company’s products are highly regarded for their exceptional sound quality, reliability, and affordability. They also constantly push the limits when it comes to measurements of audio equipment, being arguably the best measuring audio gear manufacturer in the world. While both units are reproducing the whole frequency response impressively well, VMV D2 was slashing some grain and a higher treble ringing, focusing more on treble texture, than on its sharpness and leading edge. D1SE was sometimes merciless with treble intensive music, while D2 made it manageable even with linear amplifiers and headphones. I immensely enjoyed the Audeze LCD-4 with D1SE, while Hifiman Susvara worked nicer with D2, that added more body and weight, transforming a linear sounding headphone into an engaging sounding one. Speakers​Finally, I used the SMSL DO300 with my desk rig and desk speakers ( KEF LSX), with the Questyle CMA Twelve Master being a point of comparison. The KEFs have a low-frequency cut around 70Hz, so the change in bass was mostly imperceptible. The staging was noticeably different between the Questyle and the SMSL, however.

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This is basically it, a very simple and straightforward graphical user interface. Most of these settings are set and forget, with the exception of the EQ or tone controls which will be used more often.However, I consistently noticed some sonic characters on the DO300, even in blind testing. Basically: the DO300 has a noticeably harder hitting bass slam, and the stage is slightly cramped compared to my reference setup. Microdynamics is another area where the DO300 struggled, with subtle shifts in volume not being as apparent as they are on the LPGT. At the heart of its digital processing, stays a flagship and out of print AK4499 DAC chip. This is their best and most premium converter, sadly AKM Technology are no longer making it, making the SMSL VMV D2 a limited-edition unit. SMSL has plenty of experience with this particular silicon, as they used it in their M400 DAC, plus lower-grade AKM converters are sitting in their M200 and Sanskrit 10th MKII DACs. Sub Gain – adjust the gain for your powered subwoofer, from -30 dB to maximum +10 dB, by default it stays at -15 dB 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.

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This is a combo for those who want to take the smoothness of the D1SE to the next level. When combined with the D1SE, SGA1 offers a sound that is mellow, smooth, and musical. The details are not as present as with the combo above and rather presented subtly. The mids are vivid, smooth, and pure. The bass feels lighter and the treble region feels slightly smoothened. Overall the combo offers a pleasurable listening experience for the followers of the musicality cult. SMSL VMV D1SE vs. SMSL SU-9 Customers are to bear the consequences and fees incurred, if the parcel was undelivered due to any of the following situation: 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. Today we’re taking a look at their newest DO300 DAC, which is built on the newest ES9039MSPRO chip. Therefore I am now having the benefit of the both. SMSL M400 is doing the receiving from my laptop via USB, then decoding of MQA, the i2S signal is then passed to my Audio Gd DAC. The display on the front of the Master 7 confirm the sampling rate is now either at 192Khz or 96Khz or just 44.1Khz matching the SMSL display. Streaming provider is Tidal.

For unknown reasons, from the land of delta-sigma converters, those that had ESS-Sabre chipsets were undisputed champions when looking at your music with a magnifying glass. Matrix Audio Element X stood out as being extremely technical sounding, so much so that I couldn’t part ways with it for about two years in a row. It just pushed all details forward, as if trying to get the attention of the listener. AKM based DACs can do that too, but only the ones carrying a flagship AK4499 with top components around it. As I’ve mentioned before, component selection around the DAC chip is extremely important and I believe SMSL did an amazing job in here, squeezing a higher dynamic range, making it the cleanest sounding SMSL DAC to date.

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However, the DO300 has an upper hand when it comes to technical performance, but it’s again, very slight. I feel the DO300 has a bit better detail retrieval, even though the DO200 is basically surpassing most of the headphones in the market when it comes to what you’re able to actually hear. Considering its impressive power supply design and filtering stages, I would be surprised hearing anything less than an immaculate performance in repelling all types of noise. Adding a cell phone on top didn’t add hum or hiss and all I’ve heard was a clean, undistorted sound. As can be deduced from their names, these modes do have a slight impact on the color of the sound signature. Rich mode provides a smoother signature, where the upper midrange and highs are affected and trimmed the most. The tube mode provides an overall smoother sound but I felt like it hindered the detail retrieval capability of the DAC and didn’t like it very much due to this argument. I think if you’re aiming for a smoother sound, you’re better off with the Rich setting instead of the Tube setting. Lastly, the Crystal setting increases the upper mid sharpness and treble extension. This setting slightly increases the perceived clarity, resolution, and airiness. Considering that SP400 offers 12 Watts and SH-9 only 6 Watts, I expected a much bigger difference volume wise and the culprit seems to be the low gain amplifier design of both devices. From their user manuals, SP400 is having a max gain of 11.6 dB if its balanced inputs and outputs are being used and SH-9 has a max gain of 10 dB. If you are upgrading from SH-9 to SP400 and you don’t feel the increase of power, that is normal behavior, but you still should hear the improvements in terms of layering, easiness and dynamics, which are quite obvious from the start. Right now, it makes a lot of sense why that is happening, but I would still raise the high gain of SP400 to 20 dB so it would work much better with hardest loads as Hifiman Susvara, HE-6SE and Abyss 1266 TC. Because of that slight tilt in tonality, the midrange gets buffed a little, especially in the note weight and timbre of male vocalists. While every single SMSL I’ve tried offers a very neutral and realistic color, the DO300 just gives you a little bit of that oomph in the midrange frequencies, which helps bring the vocalist a bit closer to you. This aspect is highly subjective though, as most SMSL fans are all about that ultimate neutrality and transparency.Sending music from my smartphone that was connected to streaming services as Qobuz and Tidal worked as a charm and LDAC codec sounded almost indistinguishable to its wired connections. Bottom line is that D2 worked well with all Bluetooth senders, but it performed better with those that support BT 5.0 and LDAC codecs. This applies for most countries. However, large items such as headphones and desktop DAC/AMPs (e.g. HarmonicDyne G200, MUSICIAN MDP-2, and etc.) are excluded. With SP400, SMSL is targeting the top of the crop, releasing a statement device that could drive pretty much any headphone on the market. It’s a world first amp on several key aspects too, for example it’s the first THX amplifier that can pump 12 Watts into your precious headphones, it’s the first one using four flagship AAA-888 modules instead of two found on Benchmark HPA4, on SMSL SP200 and on SH-9, meaning that it’s the first true-balanced input to output AAA-888 amplifier there is. So, could it be true? A true high-end piece of kit with a mid-fi price tag attached to it? Let’s find out together! I have MHDT Balanced Pagoda on the same chips and it plays neither DSD nor PCM above 192K (as stated in specs). When I convert DSD in Foobar to PCM, of course it plays.