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SMSL M9 DAC/Amp
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SMSL M9 DAC/Amp
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Product Description
A compact, fully featured DAC/amp from SMSL, the M9 features a CNC-machined aluminum chassis with a 1.44-inch TFT LCD screen, customizable with your choice of six text colors. And it doesn’t stop there Read More
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keyboard_arrow_downRayF
22218
Sep 16, 2021
Occurs to me that if everyone using this site new as much as they wish they knew about this category of gear (or sometimes pretend they know), MD really wouldn’t have business model.
Judging from the Q&A and Reviews, you have a better shot at getting truthful answers and a good “deal” at your local buy here/pay here, used car lot! At least there you can take a test drive. Here, you’re just laying your money down and rolling the dice.
So, you have to ask yourself, do you feel lucky today?
”Well, do ‘ya—punk?!”
rumata13
563
Sep 15, 2021
Very tempting for $150...
What kind of phones are best to be used with this amp? Can it drive SD600 or HD650?
(Edited)
PotatoRawr
187
Sep 15, 2021
rumata1332ohm: 108mW
64ohm: 104mW
150ohm: 86mW
300ohm: 57mW
I found this power output specs on an aliexpress listing. Did some calculation and found out that this can only power the hd600 to about 114db and hd650 to about 115db at best. Probably not ideal for both headphones especially if the tracks are mastered softer. They look really tempting to me too even though I just got myself a schiit stack today.
(Edited)
RayF
22218
Sep 16, 2021
PotatoRawr
Today, headphone amps—tomorrow, hearing aids ;- )
https://www.hearingaidknow.com/how-loud-is-too-loud-decibel-levels-of-common-sounds
GalvoAg
166
Jan 24, 2021
Still think this is the best buy I have had off drop, sad deals like these are things of the past.
oceannnnn
44
Jun 18, 2019
...So since I'm the owner of a new desktop paperweight I took a look at the problematic unbalanced input from the inside. There is photo showing the solder connections for the unbalanced jack. The wires the we're in place were so thin and soldered at such a high temp that two of them came undone just from removing the board with very little force (I clipped where they were connected to the main PCB.) For comparison there is a 0,5mm pencil lead in the photo.
Unfortunately removing the unbalanced jack didn't fix the problem... I've read through many of the other DAC drops and there are some that are full of problems. Even worse is when they sell you a poorly manufactured product without a warranty, and the only products that actually have more than 30 days warranty list it as a feature. Ridiculousness... tfn
oceannnnn
44
Jun 18, 2019
oceannnnnThose are the GROUND and right channel that were poorly connected. The ground came off only by gently moving the wire to the side. Makes sense that the unit gets damaged there is a very poor common ground connection. Don't waste your money with DAC deals on massdrop
oceannnnn
44
Jun 18, 2019
Poor build quality, Drop and SMSL no help with warranty
When I first received the unit I very briefly listened to the unbalanced output with inexpensive headphones to make sure everything is in order. Sound was not that great but no real issues and only wanted it for the dual mono balanced output headphone out really. I've only listened to the balanced output and haven't had any issues. Fast forward around six months until now and I want to use the DAC as a source so i decide to do some tests.
There was something wrong with the output relay on the unbalanced side and after running through some pink noise, brownian noise, and a few sine waves a 1kHz sine wave was looking like a square wave. The worst part is now the sound on the balanced output is now grossly distorted as well.
Testing an output with no load with a different protection relay shouldn't damage a different output with a different relay. So I contact SMSL. They say contact the original seller, which is massdrop.
Massdrop support says only returns or exchanges for the first thirty days?!? So they are basically saying no warranty... would have never purchased this DAC with a THIRTY DAY WARRANTY 🤦♂️. Massdrop never again. SMSL never again. Too sketchy.
DePon
2
Mar 2, 2019
This is quite interesting. I have being measuring with my limited home equipment, a Creative X-Fi SB0460 and a X-Fi front panel. The actual numbers are of course, not accurate at all. But as I am comparing this unit to what I got from a previous drop, i.e. a SMSL Sanskrit Pro-B DAC.
The results I am getting are saying that the Pro-B is performing better in terms of THD and THD+N from sine waves generated by ARTA in different frequencies ranging from 20 Hz all the way up to 11,000 Hz. With the SB0460 front panel as the SPDIF output @88.2Khz, both coaxial and optical, the Pro-B DAC managed to beat the M9 by around 0.001% of THD and THD+N in almost every frequency I measured. The two DACs are roughly performing the same when USB is used as the interface and the best result was achieved at setting both to @176.4Khz.
My guess: the clock of my SB0460 at 88.2Khz when used in combination with the Pro-B DAC resulted a smaller jitter than that the USB interface SMSL had implemented on both DACs.
Let me know what you guys think, or if anyone wants the data I've recorded, even though those numbers are not going to be accurate whatsoever.
Thanks for reading~~
DePon
2
Feb 11, 2019
I was wondering about the RCA R/L outputs, can anyone confirm if the two RCA outputs of this unit shared the ground? Or are they in a quasi-balanced setting that has independent ground connections feeding directly from the dual DAC chip? Thanks!
SnakeW
2
Feb 3, 2019
M9 power consumption is about 6W. One tip to even more improve sound quality - connect it instead of attached power supply or computer to power bank. It's noticeable better than power supply.
Anyone tested and noticed differences beetween three operating modes?
oceannnnn
44
Feb 1, 2019
** edit **. Received mine, opened the box, screen appeared to be all scratched up. It's actually the world's most difficult to remove film protecting the screen.
(Edited)
oceannnnn
44
Feb 10, 2019
Well I only have limited experience with headphones, but much more experience with car audio gear (not the junk from the big box stores either.) I recently purchased a Fiio Q1 mkii and it was a significant improvement over my iphone 6s headphone jack. And this is a world apart from the Q1. The channel separation is noticeably better. There is much more detail also, so a dual mono DAC setup is clearly a plus. The Q1 has a really low noise floor, possibly even a little darker than this dac, but distortion in the higher frequencies is kind of an issue for me with the Q1, it doesn't let me rock out as much (read Nirvana). The SMSL does better in that area, maybe a little thinner in mid bass. I agree with others that this would be a great DAC to use with a standalone amp. DSD128 out from Foobar is nice and working with foo_dsd_asio driver. I paid $40 more than I did for the Q1. The Fiio wont take up to much space on the shelf.
(Edited)
brainwave
704
Feb 11, 2019
oceannnnnI recommend to turn on ASRC upsampling and leave it ON at all times, but set it to the lowest possible level (i.e. 44Khz/48Khz). CS8422 chip will remove jitter and make music sound much more natural with pleasant and pronounced mid-bass.
(Edited)
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