Review on 🎧 Enhanced Sound Experience: SMSL DP3 DSD HiFi Headphone Amplifier with Turntable, WiFi, and Hard Disk Music Player by Devon Holmes

Sound quality could be better, but performance characteristics are decent as a vehicle. First, the sound quality of the headphone amplifier. Aims (a large percentage of which sounds pretty bad), but I'd rate it on the high end of the mid-range. The balanced output delivers decent performance and drives the Sennheiser HD650 well. Bass is where this amp performs best. It's tight, well controlled, with a quick attack and no unnatural resonances or coloration. With heavy music without bass, it seems slightly dull. But once you put something in with an extended low-end, the amp handles it very well. But bass notes lack the brilliance of quality amps. The mids and upper mids have this glassy quality that masks detail and darkens texture. The sound reminds me a lot of the iPhone 4S. The upper midrange can often sound shrill and harsh on vocals, even with relaxed benches like the HD650. In the 8-10 kHz range, the sound is sharp and hissing. For these reasons, it's a good pair with darker headphones like the HD650, a bad pair with lighter headphones like the Hifiman HE400i or HE4xx, and a decent pair with the HE400S, given its lower ceiling compared to its siblings. I dare say that the HD650 can actually sound a bit brighter in some passages, which is a statement in itself. It has a very narrow soundstage. There is little to no space or air around the instruments and poor separation of things like individual voices between vocal harmonies. The overall character is thin, except for the harsh low-end. If you're the type of person who confuses crisp highs with detail, you'll probably think this amp is overly detailed. The upper highs are too clear and perceptible. But if you know what real detail is and have experience in your ears, I think you will find that this amp lacks detail. Note that despite these criticisms, it sounds better than the headphone amps in my receivers, CD players, etc., and better than many cheap amps. But in this price range, the Massdrop Cavalli Tube Hybrid (CTH) sounds significantly better. I also discovered that the built-in amplifier in my Hifiman Supermini DAP sounds noticeably better. But I have to reiterate that this headphone amp sounds better than most in the sub $200 price range. I have other DACs with SABER 9018 chip that sound much better than Hifime Saber DAC but cheaper. This must be due to the implementation of the DAC chip, possibly the output capacitor coupling (guess) or the fact that it is a version of the 9018 chip with a headphone amplifier built in, while my other 9018 DAC has a separate headphone output . Amplifier op amp chip. However, one must consider that you get a high-resolution network music player with remote control and color LCD screen, so that the headphone amplifier is a fraction of the cost. Note that I only rated the balanced headphone output, not the unbalanced. ANALOGUE LINE OUT: I first hooked this up to a pair of bookshelf speakers with an amp and found it too bright with harsh sibilance. But then I connected it to my Marantz SR-18 with Martin Logan Aerius i electrostatic speakers and found that the sound is much better. Sure, but a bit deep in space and in the middle. But pretty nice. LOTS: A noticeable click/pop can be heard through the analog line out each time you skip to a track. Very annoying. It was much less noticeable through the balanced headphone jack, but if you listen carefully you can hear it. NETWORK CONNECTIVITY AND PLAYBACK The device connected to my Wi-Fi 2G with no issues, but failed to connect to my 5G networks. The unit could not play 96/24 wav files over the network from my standalone music server without major stuttering and crashes, although my other units (including an 8 year old PC) can do it with no problem. BLUETOOTH: At first I had a lot of trouble connecting any of my devices to Bluetooth until I realized that you first need to turn off the HiBy Link setting on the DP3, then connect your device to BT and then turn HiBy Link back on. Otherwise, every time you try to pair with a BT device, HiBy Link will show, "Connection failed". But once I figured it out, I had no more BT pairing issues. I've connected my Revain Alexa Show to it via Bluetooth, so I can tell Alexa to play songs from Revain Music Unlimited and hear them play through my main stereo. I was surprised at how good Bluetooth sounded on the DP3 with high quality turned on. Also, it was nice to be able to just tell Alexa to pair and unpair the DP3 when I wanted to switch between voice-controlled music from Revain via Alexa and local high-resolution files onboard the DP3 via USB sticks. REMOTE CONTROL: The IR remote works quite well, as does the Android app once you understand the quirks of BT pairing. But you must first press "B" on the remote control to make it work with this unit, otherwise it will not work. INTERFACE: The interface is very fast, even with large music libraries on local drives (more than 20,000 songs). . And unlike many devices, it can easily mix all your songs across locally attached drives. It could scan and catalog my 20,000 songs in just minutes - much faster than some of my other devices. But when I connected it to my NAS, it cannot shuffle all the songs unless they are in the same directory on the NAS. So if I have artist and album subfolders on a NAS (SAMBA protocol) drive, only the songs from the album will be shuffled into whatever folder you're currently in. I have not tested DLNA or Airplay. FIRMWARE: This device came with version 0.6 BETA installed. I was surprised that they come with beta software. I updated to the latest updated version from SMSL website on July 19, 2018 and didn't notice any difference. CONCLUSION: Although it has its weaknesses, it sounds better than I expected in this price range and I like it better than the Schiit Magni. 3/Vali2/Modi Multibit (I didn't like all that), although the amplifier is less powerful. I think at this price it's good for someone on a budget. Updated to the latest updated version from SMSL website on July 2018 and didn't notice any difference. CONCLUSION: Although it has its weaknesses, it sounds better than I expected in this price range and I like it better than the Schiit Magni. 3/Vali2/Modi Multibit (I didn't like all that), although the amplifier is less powerful. I think at this price it's good for someone on a budget. Updated to the latest updated version from SMSL website on July 2018 and didn't notice any difference. CONCLUSION: Although it has its weaknesses, it sounds better than I expected in this price range and I like it better than the Schiit Magni. 3/Vali2/Modi Multibit (I didn't like all that), although the amplifier is less powerful. I think at this price it's good for someone on a budget.