S.M.S.L Products (Amplifier / DAC) Owners thread..

[elangoas]

Hi All,

Though the SMSL products have been discussed in different threads, there is no dedicated thread that collectively has the inputs..

SMSL Audio have at-least half a dozen DAC and amplifiers..

I own two of the SMSL products..SMSL Q5 Pro stereo amplifier and SMSL IDOL USB DAC..

SMSL Q5 Pro - (Procured from UK from 90 Pounds - 8K INR)

SMSL IDOL USB DAC - (Procured from Malaysia for RM200 - 3.7K INR)

 

[MaSh]

Nice. I recently picked up the Sanskrit.

 

[Naturelover]

Good step, elangoas. Some of the lesser known known budget products should get their due.

 

[all4music]

been using SMSL M8 - happy with it.
PS: yet to explore all the options provided in the DAC

 

[greenhorn]

smsl sa98e user
Good things - very powerful
cons - sound lacks warmth, PSU died after 9 months or so

 

[Audiodoc]

I have the smsl m8. A great dac for my sacd DSD collection on pc.

 

[ttarasu]

Nice. I recently picked up the Sanskrit.

Can please post your experience


TT

 

[avesbilal]

I have SMSL M8 and Sanskrit, very good products with good built quality. No complaints as of now with failures.

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

 

[greenhorn]

today I opened up my amp and PSU to fix the blown PSU. ended up replacing the blown PSU with a locally sourced PSU - then noticed that the output reservoir caps in the chinese psu are some no name chinese caps rated at 63V, which is a bit borderline for something putting out 36V - the rule of thumb is that the caps should have at least 2x the voltage that they usually handle. Figuring that the amp might have better filtering, i checked the filter cap on the amp board supply input, and found a fancy looking "audio" branded (chinese generic) 50V rated cap.
In my opinion, with these caps, these amps are ticking time bombs. these should be replaced with 80V rated parts ASAP! Thankfully the replacement PSU had adjustable voltage, and then i noticed that the smsl has 32V marked as input (even though it is provided with a 36V brick). running it at 32V now, hopefully will get some better caps and upgrade them soon

 

[elangoas]

today I opened up my amp and PSU to fix the blown PSU. ended up replacing the blown PSU with a locally sourced PSU - then noticed that the output reservoir caps in the chinese psu are some no name chinese caps rated at 63V, which is a bit borderline for something putting out 36V - the rule of thumb is that the caps should have at least 2x the voltage that they usually handle. Figuring that the amp might have better filtering, i checked the filter cap on the amp board supply input, and found a fancy looking "audio" branded (chinese generic) 50V rated cap.
In my opinion, with these caps, these amps are ticking time bombs. these should be replaced with 80V rated parts ASAP! Thankfully the replacement PSU had adjustable voltage, and then i noticed that the smsl has 32V marked as input (even though it is provided with a 36V brick). running it at 32V now, hopefully will get some better caps and upgrade them soon

Please post some pics with the old & new parts...

 

[MaSh]

Can please post your experience


TT

Sure I had to travel soon after buying it, so have not heard it much. What little or heard, I immediately felt the sound to have more body, better imaging and improved vocals.

MaSh

 

[greenhorn]

Please post some pics with the old & new parts...

i had based my earlier post on pictures of the smsl sa98 internals posted by various sellers.
I opened it up to find that mine actually had a 8200uF Nichicon cap as opposed to a 4700uF. However it is still rated at 50V. I was checking the reference tda7498e circuit, and saw that it too, uses 50V caps. I suppose if its good enough for them, its ok, though I'm still planning to replace it in the long term.

tried taking photos, but the markings were not visible in the photos my phone took

 

[Audiodoc]

It is not essential to have the capacitor to have twice the voltage rating if they are good quality ones. A leeway of 10 to 20v over the output voltage of the circuit is usually fine. I have safely used 50v 10000 if capacitors for 35 v output supplies from nichicon gold, panasonic z series or elna from audio. Even philips and samwha work fine.

 

[Abhinav_Rakesh]

How is smsl idol+ ?

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

 

[elangoas]

How is smsl idol+ ?

I have the SMSL IDOL DAC, never used it with headphones.. Used it with stereo power amplifier and Sonodyne BS, i loved the low end that the DAC produced, rest of the band almost clean and some good details..

SMSL IDOL + looks like an updated version, with some change in DAC chip & Hi-Res handling capability..

 

[elangoas]

Got an other SMSL Q5 Pro from singapore thru my cousin for 5.5K INR..

Some pics..

Also picked up an almost new condition Taga Harmony S90 SL sealed speakers from a Forum member to pair with it..

Connectivity to the amp from laptop is thru micro USB.. I also tried connecting my mobile (Nexus 6, which supports USB-OTG) to the amp directly thru micro USB cable and it works without a glitch..

I sit a maximum of 3 feet from the speakers, and near field listening is very good.. Since the speaker is sealed, there isn't a kick of bass as with ported speakers.. But still does decent bass and like them..

All in all spent <15K for this 2.0 set-up.. Must say, has to be the most satisfying buy in these years..

 

[bobbyprajan]

Got an other SMSL Q5 Pro from singapore thru my cousin for 5.5K INR..

That's a steal !!! I bought from US and it was around 10K

 

[kvandhi]

Also picked up an almost new condition Taga Harmony S90 SL sealed speakers from a Forum member to pair with it..

It mentioned as Surround speakers , how do we use it for Stereo purpose.
Surround means , it has to be used only for HT setup - This is my understanding. Clarify.

 

[elangoas]

It mentioned as Surround speakers , how do we use it for Stereo purpose.
Surround means , it has to be used only for HT setup - This is my understanding. Clarify.

Nope.. Don't think it has to be used as surround speakers only, at-least this speaker..

Here are the specs of the speaker :

Design: Surround 2-way, 2 drivers, Wall mounts 12mm MDF TLIE enclosure Crossover points 4.3kHz
High-Frequency Driver: 25mm (1”), TPTTD, TWG faceplate, TTP
Bass / Midrange Driver: 133mm (5.25”), TPACD
Recommended Amplifier Power: 20-120W
Frequency Response: 44Hz-40kHz
Impedance: 6 ohm
Sensitivity: 87dB

If you remove "surround" from the first line of the specs, this speaker is like any normal bookshelf speaker..

 

[kvandhi]

Nope.. Don't think it has to be used as surround speakers only, at-least this speaker..

Here are the specs of the speaker :

Design: Surround 2-way, 2 drivers, Wall mounts 12mm MDF TLIE enclosure Crossover points 4.3kHz
High-Frequency Driver: 25mm (1”), TPTTD, TWG faceplate, TTP
Bass / Midrange Driver: 133mm (5.25”), TPACD
Recommended Amplifier Power: 20-120W
Frequency Response: 44Hz-40kHz
Impedance: 6 ohm
Sensitivity: 87dB

If you remove "surround" from the first line of the specs, this speaker is like any normal bookshelf speaker..

I think Platinum one speaker driver size and back ported is the only difference with this speakers right ?. The dealer suggested me to take Platinum one when i was checking different models in Taga.