S.M.S.L M500 DAC Headphone Amp Supports MQA decoding ES9038PRO D/A Chip USB Uses XMOS XU-216 with Remote Control (red)
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What is MQA?
MQA is a high-resolution audio coding technology with high SNR and a small enough file size, which is the trend of online high-quality music experience in the future.
M500 includes a full MQA decoder which will unfold the file to deliver the highest possible sound quality. At this level of playback you will be hearing what the artists created in the studio.
| Dimensions: | 28.1 x 18.6 x 11.5 cm; 1.27 Kilograms |
| Model: | S.M.S.L M500 |
| Department: | Girl |
| Department: | Girl |
| Origin: | China |
Ich benutze es als Vorverstrker fr Aktivboxen.
Die Toslink-Stecker rutschen leicht heraus, das war bei dem frher betriebenen Vollverstrker besser.
Ansonsten habe ich nichts zu beanstanden. Der Klang ist gut.
I was able to find this DAC/Amp on Amazon for the great price of $200 through a 3rd-party vendor that was selling it and I have to say, this is very likely the best $200 I have ever spent. This thing is just wonderful. Very easy and straightforward to use and it produces just remarkably clean and sharp sound. I’m running an SACD (Hotel California) through my Sony 4K Blu-ray player (UPB-X800M2) into it over a digital coax connection as I’m writing this and the sound quality is just impossibly good. Get this DAC/Amp and a really good pair of headphones that you like and you’ll be in digital audio heaven! This is the first SMSL product I’ve ever owned but so far, I’m really, really impressed. They totally knocked it out of the park with the M500 DAC/Amp. Well done!
I use this as a headphone amp and I have it connected to my stereo preamp input via RCA. The DAC is excellent for the price. The amp is a little weak for my Sundaras so I will use the balanced outputs for a dedicated headphone amp in the future, probably a Magnius. This is the only DAC /amp I could get for the price that would allow me to do all of this and it sounds great. I love the little screen and the color.
L’ampli casque est de bonne qualit, il saura driver la plupart des casques grand public avec aisance. Bien sr si vous avez un casque ultra exigeant un modle plus puissant sera ncessaire, mais celui ci se dbrouille dj fort bien. La tlcommande permet de basculer directement sur la sortie casque ou de changer de source
C’est bien la V2 qui est livre et qui corrige les problmes de chauffe des premiers modles.
I was may aware of this DAC on the Audio Science Review review website, which found it to measure incredibly well with very low signal to noise ratio and distortion. Its physical shape is a little out of the norm, but it actually works really well for a PC desktop setup.
I’ve owned multiple USB DACs (AudioQuest Dragonfly, Meridian Explorer2, Schitt Fulla 2 and NAD D 7050) and this blows them all away. Sound wise it’s clear, realistic and full of detail and makes it easy to do things like distinguish between First Aid Kit’s Kara’s and Johanna’s vocals when they are harmonising, or pick up background instruments clearly. Listing to heavily layered albums, like Sarah McLachlan’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy on this DAC is a revelation.
It sounds great when driving my Beyerdynamic DT 770 250 ohm headphones or my budget M-Audio AV40 powered monitor speakers, though I plan to upgrade the latter to take advantage of the DAC’s balanced outputs.
I have my M500 paired with the very new SMSL DA-9 in balanced mode and the combination with my warmer-but-detailed Polk LSiM is fantastic! M500’s XLR connection to DA-9 is noticeably better than the line-in despite short cable lengths. M500’s headphone amp is very decent and should suffice for most headphones. I have never had the need to max out on my 58x Jubilee, BT 770 Pro 80 Ohm, or my HE4XX.
I debated quite a bit between the M500 vs. the recent SMSL SU-8s, and I decided that the headphone amp was more valuable to me than having bluetooth, MQA over Toslink, and Sound color option enhancements in the SU-8s. But if those are more important to you (esp. sound color options), then I would suggest the SMSL SU-8s + DA-9 combinations and get a separate headphone amp like the Topping L30 or other balanced THX HA options like SP200.
I would not recommend pairing M500 or DA-9 with a bright/forward sounding amp or speakers or you may end up with fatigue. It is best paired with warmer speakers that still can deliver clarity. The Polk Reserve R200s might be a good choice with these units based on my experience with my LSiM bookshelves.
As a DAC/amp, this functions beautifully. Won’t deliver the power needed if you have hard to drive headphones but this is very clean and the remote makes it super easy to use. For those with Tidal subscriptions, the MQA decoder works as expected allowing a full “unfolding” of MQA music (that’s not to make any statement as to whether MQA is good or not, just that it did what was expected).
El producto es de calidad,muy buena relacin calidad precio, TY-audio la empresa que lo vende es seria y contesto rpidamente a un problema tuve con el producto, pero lo solucionaron sin problemas, recomiendo al vendedor, muchas gracias.
I got it for the DAC mostly to replace a Asus Xonar Essence which I had for 7-8 years which was starting to have problems switching sources. Im very pleased with the upgrade the new DAC doesn’t disappoint in any department with any of the FLAC, Wav, DTS files in my music collection connected to a Little Dot MK3 tube amp with upgraded tubes and Beyerdynamic Amiron home headphones.
MQA music sounds amazing!
I also use the headphone amp with the TV via optical, when I want to keep the noise down at night and don’t want to add hours onto the tubes on my other amp while watching TV and movies etc. it drives my headphones with no issues and sounds pretty great even with music, I could see a lot of people being very happy with the sound quality with this DAC and 1/2 decent headphones.
A very sold upgrade from the Asus DAC highly recommended.
I upgraded from the S.M.S.L Sanskrit 10th MK II to this (the M500) and am beyond pleased
Pros:
– Goes up to 32 bit / 768 kHz, will literally handle anything you throw at it
– Decodes raw MQA which is awesome for Tidal
– Outputs balanced audio (main reason I picked it up)
– Built in single-ended 1/4″ headphone out, which does the job if you don’t have an Amp / plan on moving it around
– Really well built, solid metal, heavy and has enough grip that it stays put no matter what
– A small thing but the display will put up a unique logo based on what you’re listening to (Regular USB input, Hi-Res Audio, MQA input, etc)
– Has a knob you can navigate around with in case you lose the remote, something the Sanskrit 10th MK II didn’t have which is a big step up
Cons:
– Fairly long, quite literally the size of a brick. Not a huge con but something to be aware of based on your setup. My desk isn’t super big so it just barely fits.
This was my first DAC. I didn’t want to go too deep out of pocket before testing the waters a bit. I must say this unit delivers on all promises so far. I stream master quality audio with Tidal and it definitely sounds like the real deal thru the M500. I also run my CD player thru it and while not a huge difference, it does present a better soundstage than directly from the CD player on board DAC. All in all, I would recommend this unit to get into the DAC game and experience more detail and clarity from the music that you are paying for.
I use the SMSL M500 as a dac although it has a built in pre-amp in it. I wire this dac via xhr cables to the SMSL SP 200 amp. This combination produces better audio results when listening to music.
That said the SMSL M500 on its own is quite pleasant to listen to. I use my MacBook as the audio source using the Tidal app for the MQA audio.
It’s a pretty solid dac.
Excellent matos pour un prix assez contenu vu la qualit de ce qu’il propose.
Achet de pair avec un Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro de 300 Ohms.
Le son est clair et prcis dans toutes circonstances.
Je l’utilise pour mater un film, couter du son avec Tidal, ou simplement jouer.
Aucun problme avec les drivers sous Windows 10.
Tout en mtal, il fait bien son poids, a fait quali.
Quelques problmes de chauffes avec la V1, moi j’ai eu la V2 en Mai qui a rsolu ce soucio, et on en est la V3 actuellement.
I’ve owned many headphone amplifiers and digital-to-analog converters – all in the budget range. I’ve tried Schiit products, however I have had very bad luck with them losing functionality for unknown reasons, and having to replace them. In my experience, which does not seem to be the experience of others, Schiit lacks quality control.
Prior to this, I’m coming from an SMSL SAPII PRO headphone amplifier running off of my Focusrite Scarlett interface as a DAC, into Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro headphones. Recently, although being very happy with my DT 880’s for the last two years, I took the plunge on a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro headphones. I needed a suitable DAC/Amp unit that would fully utilize what these fantastic headphones have to offer.
I’ve been very impressed with the SMSL SAPII PRO headphone amplifier. For the price I paid for it, it has lasted nearly two years with no issues whatsoever. It’s volume output is fantastic, and drives headphones rated at 250 to 300 ohms with plenty of headroom to spare. Due to this, the first brand I looked into was SMSL – and they appeared to have exactly what I was looking for. The M500, utilized as a DAC/Amp combo, seemed like a very affordable option. As a Tidal HiFi subscriber for several years, and never having owned an MQA capable DAC, I wanted something that could decode the MQA audio in my collection. I also wanted an all-in-on sort of unit if possible, and at this price point there seems to be no competition – MQA capable DAC units seem to run twice the price of this item, if not more.
There are a couple of negative aspects to this unit that I have noticed, although they are certainly acceptable to me. The first is very minor – it would be nice if this had an XLR output for headphones that can utilize this. I do not own any, but it would be a nice feature for future-proofing. It does have left and right balanced XLR outputs on the rear of the device, I assume for studio monitors.
Secondly, the volume output of the amplifier is significantly lower than my SMSL SAPII PRO unit, although I did know this before purchasing. This is not a problem currently, however, as it drives headphones with a 250 ohm impedance rating perfectly fine – with a maximum volume of 40, comfortable listening volume for me is between 25 and 28 on most tracks. On quieter tracks or albums, especially noticeable with MQA content, I found myself turning the volume all the way up to 35 on occasion. More headroom would be nice, and I do not believe the amplifier in this unit would drive headphones with a 600 ohm impedance rating competently – just something to be aware of.
Thirdly, the most annoying issue I have found – if I find a fix for this, I will update my review – has to do with the playback of MQA content without any software decoding of the source material, and fully utiliziing the DAC. When switching between tracks, or albums, or bit-rates, there is an approximately one second stutter (or delay) at the beginning of each track that clips the audio off of the beginning. Perhaps this has to do with my buffer size, but trying different values did not seem to fix the issue.
DSD playback seems to work and sounds great, although I do not have enough DSD content (nor have I listened to enough) to full analyze this feature, but I appreciate having the option to do so.
I look forward to listening to more music on this unit every day, and am very happy with my purchase. Hopefully it will have the same reliability and longevity as my previous SMSL product has had. Thanks for reading.
a ace sounding dac ,,high end sound sound at a good price the mqa decoder is great bonus, i just love it driving my focal elears a greatmatch,at a great price.
he unit came very quickly and it was some what easy to set up. I received one with SW 1.6 – Hw 1.3 version. Been playing MQA off the Tidal hifi app thru the USB input. I followed the setup guide for Tidal on the SMSL website , however the display shows the MQA logo during playback indicating that the file is mqa but with only green or blue light on . It has never turned magenta indicating the final unfold of the mqa file. I have been trying to get answers from their support. Not to helpful so far and no real explanation why this is happening. Other than that what I’m hearing so far sounds great , both thru my headphones and thru my hifi setup
Why you have to push the C button for the remote to work the 1st time is odd…you can push in the volume button for submenus. Mine has 2020 firmware so Im good to go.
I use Volumio and Roon to control my Pis so its pretty easy to que up music.
I had a M300 that was DOA but I highly recommend the M500. Its loud and clear and decodes almost everything I can throw at it. Highly recommend it. If you have any problems return it quickly… Im using the USB input and have been running it for hours with no issues.
Build quality is outstanding as is the sound…I paid $399 and think its money well spent…
As my gramps always said, take everything you hear and see with a grain o’ salt. In this case though, the evidence is overwhelming. Both subjective and objective reviews demonstrate this hunk of marvelous technology’s superb performance. Granted, some people are having issues using it for their TVs. However, if you’re not touching the TOSlink and just using USB input for your computer then consider the SMSL M500.
I received version hardware 1.3 with software 1.6 which is the latest available. After downloading XMOS 4.67, it says my usb firmware is also 2.01. With my unit at least, everything is latest version so no headaches.
After using about a month now it’s still holding up well. Adjustable LCD dimmer is nice and remote is a pleasant bonus. Note that the unit does not include a 6.35 to 3.5mm adapter.
Ich habe sofort das neueste Firmware (1.08) installiert. Es funkt sehr gut mit Audirvana und MQA spielt er auch ber USB. Die Klangqualitt ist unbeschreiblich.
Es gibt leider Probleme mit TOSLINK (optischer Eingang). Es gibt Unterbrechungen und das ist leider nicht annehmbar da mein LG OLED55C997LA damit verbunden ist und keine Probleme mit dem altem DAC hatte.
Nachtrag: Die Firma hat mich kontaktiert und bietet ein Test an. Ich habe SMSL M500 zurckgegeben und ein Sabaj D5 bestellt- gleiche Tonaussetzer, kein MQA und annhrend nicht so gute Klangqualitt. DacMagic Plus wurde repariert, M500 wiederbestellt und noch ein Paar Sterne dazu da die Klangqualitt extrem gut ist .
Upgrading the firmware to November 28 version fixed all current issues.
SMSL needs to add the ability to select either RCA OR XLR. It’s currently headphone out or line out.
Lo que no me ha gustado es que no pueda avanzar o retroceder pistas desde el mando (o yo no he sido capaz de hacerlo) y que la calidad en mis auriculares me parece un poco pobre. Me gustara conocer otras opiniones porque este es un tema que da para mucho.
I have a Macbook Pro, which supposedly comes with a good DAC. However, when I plugged my two PreSonus studio monitors into the audio plug, there always was a weak buzzing sound – music sounded fantastic though. Then, with external display things changed, buzzing got really loud; and with USB-C to monitor and then audio monitors plugged into the headphone plug of the monitor the sound was horrendous.
So I thought, an external DAC may be the solution. The experience is nothing less than transformative. Any buzzing sound is gone and the sound is clean up until highest volumes. What is most impressive is, how much more detailed complex music is resolved. I am listening to a lot of classical music, and in some recordings, some noises that I previously attributed to bad digital reprocessing of the recording become audible as very quiet background instrument sounds. Wow! Never expected that, coming from a decent hifi CD player before.
I can only recommend using external DACs. You will most likely have a similar experience like me. If you want balanced outputs, volume control for your studio monitors, and MQA for Tidal Masters – the M500 is a fantastic pick!