This DO400 it has the ESS 9039MSPRO not the 9039SPRO 😢 as you said. I could not found the difference? I only can see that Dac's with 9039SPRO are more expensive.
Great Review! Thanks a lot. I'm searching for a DAC only, do you think that sounwise this is equal to D400ES/EX or as a standalone DAC that two are better? and in comparison with DO300? Thanks!!
Great review as always Sandu! I’ve been watching your review for my future DAC purchase. Recently I watched your Ferrum Wandla review and you gave it your golden award, but I noticed that you remove that from your signature in the future videos. Is there a particular reason for that?
@@haskell3702 Hard to compare the sound (the ear adapts very quickly) but the K9 Pro is at least as good as the smsl. The difference is the object itself. The smsl looks and feels like a toy, very light and fragile imo. The K9 Pro is the opposite. That makes the Fiio K9 Pro a clear winner for me.
@@sanchomill Yes I notice that, the DO400 is light, but I don't know how real the correlation between weight and sound quality is. But yeah it does make me doubt.
@@haskell3702 Just a question of durability in my opinion. It doesn't give the feeling it is robust at all. A real concern for me, particularly compared to the Fiio K9 Pro which feels like a real dac/amp, not a toy. In sound comparison, I didn't have the feeling the smsl was better, which could have compensated the lack of robustness.
Thanks for the review... Low-Fi = Low Fidelity ... Mid-Fi = Middle (ok) fidelity ... High-Fi = High Fidelity. So is the Do400 sound just ok and not HIgh Fi?
Hi, Sandu! After our last talk, I didn't mention that, instead of PC/laptop, I was going to mainly use SMSL DO400 with my Android phone via USB on USB Audio Player Pro app. Does SMSL DO400 work on Android via USB? I couldn't find any info anywhere regarding its compatibility with Android. Thanks, brother.
Hello, thank you for this review, i have this dac since 2 weeks now and very happy with it, use it with PC and Foobar, i want to add a WiiM Pro Plus for streaming , do you think this could make a coherent association?
To be more precise Topping is the champion for launching a new something every 5 seconds, them Smsl. But for the prices they ask...hard to find better gadgets, AND I RESPECT THAT A LOT. These two brands are responsible for probably the best time to be an audiophile in history. This will be their legacy, an essential one for today's and tomorrow's market.
Do I understand correctly that it makes no sense to connect this device through its balanced outputs to the unbalanced RCA inputs of my amplifier (NAD C356BEE)? After all, in this case, only two contacts of each balanced output will be used, not three, and this will give the same 2.5 V that is on the unbalanced output of the DAC and will not give any advantages of the balanced signal?
Hello, I am a subscriber. I have asked 3 other audiofilers and none have responded. Could you please tell me. I already have the SU 9N SH9. Can you please tell me how this would benefit me? because Ive heard from you before and you were the reason I bought my setup for my desktop. Thank you. Oh I have sudara's Ananda and Senn 6x x
Hi, if you want a real upgrade to your setup, then please discard everything that has to do with THX or NFCA modules, go with a fully-discrete (transistor-based) headphone amplifier, ideally working in Class-A and for your DAC, you could try a more natural sounding one. DO400 won't give you any of that. If you want a single unit that does everything right, then I would get HiFiMan's EF600, reviewed by me here: soundnews.net/reviews/amplifiers/headphone-amps/a-deep-dive-into-the-hifiman-ef600-r2r-dac-headphone-amp-headphone-stand/
If I may say something about that. The Do 400 is a good headphone amplifier. The DAC is also good. I turned the preamp option to off and gave the unit a very good fuse from Phonosophie EII 5 x 20mm activator. The Dac sounds very good, more open and more detailed. The SU 10 is said to be much better as a pure Dac. Best regards from Berlin
Hello! To combine with the Arya Organic which one would best match this DO400 or the aune s9c. I read the both reviews and liked them, now I don't know which one is better and will give less bright sound
Audio Gods of the TH-cam comment section please help! I've been Googling my butt off but I can't seem to come to a clear conclusion. What in the heck do the PCM Filters on this unit do (i.e. minimum fast phase or linear fast phase)? I've been tinkering around and can't come to a clear conclusion on what's good to use, and what the exact effects would be. If anyone with a higher IQ than me would be so kind to explain a little bit I'd be eternally grateful!
The PCM digital filters were made to deal with high-frequency roll-off past 20 kHz. Since there are no human beings that can hear past 20 kHz, thus you won't hear a difference between these filters. Some of them might induce some unwanted noise, so it's best to keep them stock. I can't hear a difference between them and you probably won't as well. Now, there are custom digital filters (like those developed by HQ player) that can make a difference sound wise, but they will cost you some $ and you can load them only on a few particular DACs, like in the Ferrum Wandla for example. Long story short, leave them at stock and forget about them, the rest of the chain is more important and enjoying your tunes is even more important ;)
Hey folks, it seems that the mic is sometimes rubbing against my hoodie, mildly distorting the sound on several occasions, my apologies for that 🙏
This is not "mid-fi." It's very high-fidelity gear available at a reasonable price.
I'd agree. I own the DO400. It's great.
This DO400 it has the ESS 9039MSPRO not the 9039SPRO 😢 as you said.
I could not found the difference?
I only can see that Dac's with 9039SPRO are more expensive.
Great Review! Thanks a lot. I'm searching for a DAC only, do you think that sounwise this is equal to D400ES/EX or as a standalone DAC that two are better? and in comparison with DO300? Thanks!!
Solid review… appreciate the added details on this one.
was looking at buying the smsl d0400,thanks for the review.
Great review as always Sandu! I’ve been watching your review for my future DAC purchase. Recently I watched your Ferrum Wandla review and you gave it your golden award, but I noticed that you remove that from your signature in the future videos. Is there a particular reason for that?
The king of mid-rate sound channels.
That intro music is satisfyiiinnnn!!!
Hi, what do you think this compared to similarly priced Fiio K9?
Between this and the Burson Audio Conductor 3X Performance, as a dac/amp for planar headphones (EDXS), which one would you choose?
Thanks. Your opinion of this dac vs fiio k9 pro ess ? (just got k9 non-pro but they seem to be very near from each other)
Any conclusion about the comparison?
@@haskell3702 Hard to compare the sound (the ear adapts very quickly) but the K9 Pro is at least as good as the smsl. The difference is the object itself. The smsl looks and feels like a toy, very light and fragile imo. The K9 Pro is the opposite. That makes the Fiio K9 Pro a clear winner for me.
@@sanchomill Yes I notice that, the DO400 is light, but I don't know how real the correlation between weight and sound quality is. But yeah it does make me doubt.
@@sanchomill did you have both at the same time to compare them? I think the only way to compare them is by doing an A/B test with a switch box
@@haskell3702 Just a question of durability in my opinion. It doesn't give the feeling it is robust at all. A real concern for me, particularly compared to the Fiio K9 Pro which feels like a real dac/amp, not a toy. In sound comparison, I didn't have the feeling the smsl was better, which could have compensated the lack of robustness.
Thanks for the review... Low-Fi = Low Fidelity ... Mid-Fi = Middle (ok) fidelity ... High-Fi = High Fidelity. So is the Do400 sound just ok and not HIgh Fi?
Hi, Sandu!
After our last talk, I didn't mention that, instead of PC/laptop, I was going to mainly use SMSL DO400 with my Android phone via USB on USB Audio Player Pro app. Does SMSL DO400 work on Android via USB? I couldn't find any info anywhere regarding its compatibility with Android. Thanks, brother.
In what category do you think the Aune S9c leads the DO400 the most?
Great music and a good review
Please do a -4db cut at 750hz 1.2q and -3.5 cut at 550hz 1.4q on you mic if you have the ability. It will sound so much better.
Hello, thank you for this review, i have this dac since 2 weeks now and very happy with it, use it with PC and Foobar, i want to add a WiiM Pro Plus for streaming , do you think this could make a coherent association?
not sure what is the device, but if its smth like focusrite then yes youll hear mics more accurately
How does it compare to the Fiio K9?
To be more precise Topping is the champion for launching a new something every 5 seconds, them Smsl. But for the prices they ask...hard to find better gadgets, AND I RESPECT THAT A LOT. These two brands are responsible for probably the best time to be an audiophile in history. This will be their legacy, an essential one for today's and tomorrow's market.
If you can tell: A DAC with which chip sounds better with Infineon MA5332MS (SMSL AO300) or with ES9039MSPro (SMSL DO400)
I hesitate between them...
Do I understand correctly that it makes no sense to connect this device through its balanced outputs to the unbalanced RCA inputs of my amplifier (NAD C356BEE)? After all, in this case, only two contacts of each balanced output will be used, not three, and this will give the same 2.5 V that is on the unbalanced output of the DAC and will not give any advantages of the balanced signal?
The op-amps are in a parallel design, so their error does not accumulate in the signal path, but rather cancels it out.
Hello, I am a subscriber. I have asked 3 other audiofilers and none have responded. Could you please tell me. I already have the SU 9N SH9. Can you please tell me how this would benefit me? because Ive heard from you before and you were the reason I bought my setup for my desktop. Thank you. Oh I have sudara's Ananda and Senn 6x x
Hi, if you want a real upgrade to your setup, then please discard everything that has to do with THX or NFCA modules, go with a fully-discrete (transistor-based) headphone amplifier, ideally working in Class-A and for your DAC, you could try a more natural sounding one. DO400 won't give you any of that. If you want a single unit that does everything right, then I would get HiFiMan's EF600, reviewed by me here: soundnews.net/reviews/amplifiers/headphone-amps/a-deep-dive-into-the-hifiman-ef600-r2r-dac-headphone-amp-headphone-stand/
Thank you for getting back to me.
it should have bass and trteble controls, smsl shoud make a dedicated PREAMP dac with phono and tape inputs
Thank you for the video.
For the 500$ this dac costs how would you compare it to the xduoo ta-22? Great review!!
when "xduoo ta-20 plus" head amp review? :)
Hey mate, in about a month.
Hi my friend I'd like to know whether the SU 10 justifies its double the price or not [for dac use only]Thanks in advance
If I may say something about that. The Do 400 is a good headphone amplifier. The DAC is also good. I turned the preamp option to off and gave the unit a very good fuse from Phonosophie EII 5 x 20mm activator. The Dac sounds very good, more open and more detailed.
The SU 10 is said to be much better as a pure Dac.
Best regards from Berlin
So my plan is to pair this with Topping A70pro? Anyone try that yet? Just ordered this.
Hello! To combine with the Arya Organic which one would best match this DO400 or the aune s9c. I read the both reviews and liked them, now I don't know which one is better and will give less bright sound
Lo dijo en el video le parece mejor con el DO400
@@eldisenador662Me parece que lo que dice en el vídeo es que es casi tan bueno como el aune s9c
Audio Gods of the TH-cam comment section please help! I've been Googling my butt off but I can't seem to come to a clear conclusion. What in the heck do the PCM Filters on this unit do (i.e. minimum fast phase or linear fast phase)? I've been tinkering around and can't come to a clear conclusion on what's good to use, and what the exact effects would be. If anyone with a higher IQ than me would be so kind to explain a little bit I'd be eternally grateful!
The PCM digital filters were made to deal with high-frequency roll-off past 20 kHz. Since there are no human beings that can hear past 20 kHz, thus you won't hear a difference between these filters. Some of them might induce some unwanted noise, so it's best to keep them stock. I can't hear a difference between them and you probably won't as well. Now, there are custom digital filters (like those developed by HQ player) that can make a difference sound wise, but they will cost you some $ and you can load them only on a few particular DACs, like in the Ferrum Wandla for example. Long story short, leave them at stock and forget about them, the rest of the chain is more important and enjoying your tunes is even more important ;)
@@Soundnews Absolute legend, thanks so much for clearing that up for me!!
Seems like a more expensive Loxjie d40 pro.
Well, basically the same factory, just different brands.
@@Flavius7 exactly. the units themselves seem VERY similar apart from mostly aesthetics.
@@JoseFerreira-zb7whI'd seen there internal, literally the exact same except for the screen controll chip
@@illustrious420 yes, screen/ ui is more Basic but componentes, functionality (and i Guess sound quality should BE) pretty much the same.
You can't do review like that and you don't have good video sound yourself for the video it's a big contrast
Shame about the lack of a trigger out