Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions
Xmetaldavex
110
Nov 7, 2017
Finally something for the pricks that hate on smsl. You guys are all buying this, right?
dvn.clrk
29
Nov 7, 2017
XmetaldavexTo even mention SMSL in the same breath as this thing is ridiculous. I have an SMSL dac/amp at work, and it is ok. Not great, but decent. At home I have a Grace m903 (earlier generation of the m920) and it is perfection. Perfectly transparent sound, paired with a quality set of cans you can not beat the m9xx series for pure transparency and neutrality. SMSL's aren't even in the same ballpark, which of course at the relative price levels is to be expected. SMSL's are noisy, and add their own color to the music. A Grace m920 isn't for everyone, just anyone who wants pure transparency, it is pro level monitoring kit that is somewhat affordable to normies (I bought my m903 on eBay for a very reasonable sum).
Jimster480
395
Nov 8, 2017
dvn.clrkAs someone who has had 2 SMSL DAC's.... I'm not really sure what you are talking about. You sound like those people who buy a $125 windows PC from walgreens and then say its "shit" compared to your $2000 Macbook Pro.
If you buy a high level SMSL product, it competes against products which are many multiples of its price.
dvn.clrk
29
Nov 9, 2017
Jimster480Owning 2 SMSL's is meaningless if you don't have a Grace to compare them to. You can be perfectly happy in your ignorance of what true transparency sounds like, and if you are I recommend not auditioning an m920. However, no SMSL I have heard (using the same cans, HD800's) has come anywhere close to my m903. You lose transparency, you add noise, the imaging is inferior.
That doesn't mean they are bad, they just aren't anywhere near as good. They are a great value, like I said I run an SMSL at work where my listening is rarely my focus and more just background and I am completely happy with them. But when I am sitting in my chair intently listening, where the listening is my sole focus, like I often do at home it just doesn't get the job done for me anymore.
There are plenty of places in audio where you can spend vast sums of money for relatively small increases in quality, I personally don't think the Grace m9xx series is one of those places, but I also buy my high end gear used mostly to lessen the pain. I got my m903 for ~$500, and at that price point there is zero chance of finding anything else in the same galaxy when it comes to sound and build quality, imo. At $1400 it gets a bit tougher, but for anyone with the disposable cash to spend they won't be disappointed.
Jimster480
395
Nov 9, 2017
dvn.clrkI own a whole stock pile of DACs. There are no magical high end components to put into a Grace product that are already not in an smsl product. The cost of high-end components has fallen sharply Over The Last 5 Years there for you can buy a very high-end unit for a price of 400 or less dollars and have literally the most bleeding edge possible components in every single category. Considering smsl transparency with their use of high-end components it's pretty clear that you are definitely getting your money's worth. But it depends on which smsl product you purchase. If you have a low end all in one product then you cannot expect a high-end sound. But the quality of the sound is still incredible for the price even in the low end. But if you put their high-end product like a M8 or M8A or even M9 against any high-end product I think that it will be more than comparable. This has been my personal experiences when testing the smsl products against other higher-end products. I would be willing to bet my whole stock of gear that you could not reliably A/B test your grace product against any of my Chinese high-end products.
PRODUCTS YOU MAY LIKE
Trending Posts in Audiophile