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The funny part is that on the inside, the analog section of SP400 is looking exactly like a double version of SMSL SH-9, here is a picture of them side by side that will tell you more. There is more oomph compared to anything they’ve done before; there is more substance to be felt down low and it’s bolder and juicier sounding too. SMSL’s claim that their power supply is especially low noise is verifiable by the fact that there is no hum, buzz nor hiss in the background even when using very low impedance earphones. Sadly, higher grade codecs as AptX-HD, LDAC and UAT are not supported, suggesting that it was put there mainly for convenience. I’m going as far as say that it feels extremely airy, so much so that it starts rivaling the sound of Flux Lab Acoustics FA-10 and to some degree feels bigger and airier compared to the excellent sounding Topping A90.
SMSL M400 Review — Headfonics
Long story short, D1SE performed excellent in my loudspeaker setup, noise floor was nowhere to be spotted even at close to maximum volume with the KEF Reference 3 that were swallowing around 380 Watts of power. Inserting it in a fully balanced system, lowers its channel crosstalk, increases its dynamic range, unlocking the third eye in terms of scale and openness.The soul of the music awakened from a deep sleep, adding textures and colors, I’ve felt a longer vibration of string-based instruments. Sincerely, everything except for the Susvara, sounded pretty much the same on the HPA4 by Benchmark, it was always fast and engaging, it was always visceral, it had a perfect pin point imagining and a well-spread and layered sound. It is still expansive sounding and fully covers the frequency response, but it didn’t want to brawl in the octagon with some other converters as X26 PRO by Gustard for example.
S.M.S.L - SHENZHENAUDIO S.M.S.L - SHENZHENAUDIO
Interesting is comparison with other Audio-GD DAC, these differences are smaller when comparing the latest MK2 models. All other IEMs performed the same, as after pausing my music, there is only the sound of silence and nothing more.It stood shoulder to shoulder with my Benchmark HPA4 and it even outclassed it on several occasions, while costing about ~5 times cheaper. Absolutely all its features can be controlled via its remote or volume knob that doubles as a joystick for its menu. I’m glad that a passive or active power conditioner wasn’t even needed with such a unit, I’ve tried a Plixir Elite BAC400 and then a BAC1500 and it sounded absolutely the same with or without them.
Loxjie D50 AK4499 DAC | Headphone Reviews and Discussion Loxjie D50 AK4499 DAC | Headphone Reviews and Discussion
When M400 comparing with the Audio Gd Master 7 (PCM1704), I prefer the sound from Audio Gd Master 7. Yes, including the notorious Hifiman Susvara, add the Abyss 1266-TC in here too and the Audeze LCD-4 seems like a child’s play for it. Perhaps, this can fix the Tidal garbage fires you are facing everyday even with offline files (I can’t verify that because I have already migrated to Qobuz).
D1SE is fully covers the frequency response while preserving a richer and a fuller tonality…something that their past converters didn’t do that well.
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