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Review on 🎢 S.M.S.L AD18 HiFi Audio Stereo Amplifier with Bluetooth 4.2 & Apt-X Support, USB DSP Full Digital Power Amplifier 2.1 for Speaker – Small 80Wx2 Class D Amplifier with Subwoofer Output by Jeremy Nunez

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Great amp with a few major issues

Hello! The SMSL AD18 is actually an incredibly good little amp. I've used it predominantly with Bluetooth and USB as the source. I've used it with all types of speakers, from Martin Logan electrostatic speakers and large MG-IIIa's to tiny bookshelves. So far it has had no problem providing good sound to anything I threw at it. In keeping with all of the above, this amp should and should get a 5 star rating as it truly deserves it bar one very serious flaw. To be honest I don't really understand why this is happening, but it's incredibly frustrating and damaging to my existing hardware. The amp is primarily used tuned to 48kHz via USB (although it used to be tuned to 96kHz). Not very often, but often enough, when I'm playing a game or just listening to music, the amp instantly pumps an insane amount of static electricity to the point where my ears start to hurt. Nothing indicates that this will happen and it will happen all of a sudden. Every time this happens, the USB port it is plugged into immediately dies and stops working. I ended up with 4 out of 7 ports on the back of the $350 motherboard. This happened with my headphones and also when using the speaker outputs. It is very likely that this will damage the ears as the sound will be well over 100dB in this case. If I were you I would wait for SMSL or someone else to fix this issue as it's not worth the hassle of hearing loss or damaging your gear. due to a simple defect.

Pros
  • High marks for support and durability from testers
Cons
  • Disappearing