Review on 🎧 S.M.S.L M300 MKII HiFi Audio DAC: AKM4497EQ Apt-X USB DAC Decoder with Hi-Res Bluetooth 5.0 and Full Balanced Output - New Edition (Black) by Abhinav Drury

Absolutely fantastic DAC. Well above its price and quite possibly the cleanest budget DAC on the market, utterly destroying almost every other option, regardless of price. The SINAD in my measurement is -121.2 dB, which is better than all but a few DACs on the market. PERIOD. For example there are about 5 DACs under $3000 with the best SINAD. It's not even a mid-range DAC from SMSL, but it's kinda better than their flagship here and people should pay attention. I know SINAD isn't everything, but it's a good indicator of a serious or subtle bug elsewhere. The processing quality is excellent. The inputs are all very solid and plentiful. The balanced XLR outputs on such a cheap and clean DAC are great. Both outputs can be used simultaneously. I firmly believe that the volume control on a DAC is at best completely pointless and at worst can be dangerous, so it's not a problem for me. The noise level is very low, so ideal for IEMs and very sensitive headphones. I really can't stress this enough. Especially in combination with a really transparent amplifier like the 789. You should look for a clean, uncolored direct output. For games, this means every little detail is revealed in total silence. Tarkov comes to mind where the sound is as important as the game mechanics lol. With a pair of 600 ohm balanced DT990 headphones connected to an XLR connector on a 789 fed by this DAC, I can't even believe I'll ever find a better combo for me in terms of gaming could. The sound is incredibly precise and neutral IF YOU WANT IT! It has a few "color" settings that actually sound pretty good for certain things if you're into that. The remote control works great. The screen is very detailed and I wish they could add more customization options like showing album art for recent songs or something like that because that would be amazing. PLEASE UPDATE THIS FEATURE OF SMSL FIRMWARE! There's literally no need for such a beautiful screen when it's just supposed to display a bunch of numbers, the current input, and sometimes the "HI RES AUDIO" logo. lol. Bluetooth 5.0 works fine with my PC (which is connected to it). anyway, but hey, he still CAN if I want to) and with my phone too. I really see no reason for another DAC. This thing is pretty much everything you could ever need. Return and buy any DAC you have. Serious.