S.M.S.L M200: Advanced Bluetooth 5.0 Audio DAC with AK4497EQ Chip, UAT/aptX-HD/AAC/SBC Support Review

Great external dac. I wanted to make a Chinese on a high-end chip from Saber, but I couldn't reach for it since I didn't have enough money, and I don't have any regrets about purchasing this one at all. The DAC helped me achieve my goal of improving the system's transparency and level of detail, both of which were successfully accomplished. The sound became less dense and more airy, the top and middle registers sounded cleaner and more distinct, and the instrumentation was more easily…

Connected to SMSL SP200 with XLR. I've heard Philips Fidelio X2HR and Sivga P-II with hybrid perforated pads. It sounds great. It should be noted that I need to pay attention to the audio to distinguish the audio coming from my Realtek AC1220 from my motherboard. It definitely sounds cleaner, but I'm not sure I'll notice it outside of A/B testing. I was able to get pretty good results with a cheaper DAC (no one uses 32-bit/768kz, 24-bit/96kz is more than enough) but I wanted something that…

It has several sound filters, but none of them are neutral and cannot be switched off. This can easily be fixed with a firmware update, but SMSL offers nothing of the sort. It also has a display with powerful blue LEDs that are hard on your eyes. This surprised me, I didn't expect it to be such a big problem. Looking back, I wouldn't have bought something like that just because of that. The market trend today is color-controlled lighting, dark mode apps, and blue light reduction software and…

An instant improvement over the internal DAC in my Denon AVRX4700H. USB powered, the M200 produced amazing sound (clear direct sound on the Denon) from the Raspberry Pi used as the Roon endpoint. Lots of deep bass, full mids and clarity when you roll off the highs a bit. I looked through the filters available on the M200 and found #1 to be good enough for my taste in music. Filters definitely change the sound signature and allow you to customize the sound to your liking. Music streamed via…

I first bought the SMSL M300 Mkii but returned it because it doesn't have APTX HD or LDAP Bluetooth. The M200 is a bit more expensive but has these Bluetooth codecs. Modern Android phones support these codecs and offer excellent sound quality wirelessly. Google how to enable LDAC. Then if you have a high-quality music source (FLAC, etc.), amplifier, speakers, headphones, you will be satisfied. There is no documentation. The paper copy is so small and poorly printed that I couldn't even read it…

I bought this as an upgrade from Modi 3. It's a huge improvement. The Modi 3 was a great $100 performer. The M200 costs $279. 3 times better? Such a comparison is really hard to put into numbers. As a general rule, the principle of diminishing returns applies to almost anything you try to improve. So no, it's not three times better. However, it's definitely worth the price if you want a noticeable upgrade. This device really exceeded my expectations. I was hoping for a small improvement, but I…

I wanted a DAC with a remote and XLR and I think this is one of the cheaper options for that! It has 4 inputs and I'm a big fan of DACs with remote controls that can switch the digital source, almost everything I listen to is digital so being able to feed everything is very nice. I don't know why they had to make a parallelogram instead of a rectangle, but since it's so faint that I can't even see it from across the room, I'm just wondering why? Next, you can't completely turn off the onboard…