SMSL SP200 Headphone Amp THX AAA 888 Technology XLR RCA Balanced Headphone Amplifie
S.M.S.L SP200 THX AAA 888 Headphone Amp
The S.M.S.L SP200 THX Headphone Amp is the newest product in the S.M.S.L lineup with the top of the line audiophile high power grade THX AAA-888 technology. This technology allows for the highest fidelity with extreme output power and ultra-low crosstalk. This amp is versatile and can be used to drive a variety of headsets including those that have high impedance, require high current, or need high sensitivity. The SP200 comes with an included AC power supply and is equipped with XLR and RCA inputs. The front panel has XLR and quarter inch jack outputs, options for switching between different inputs, and choosing high or low gain. A detailed review for the SP200 and its performance is provided by Amir on Audio Science Review.
The SP200 has a balanced stereo headphone output, a balanced stereo line input, comes with high precision resistors for temperature stability, and a high-efficiency ultra-low noise power supply.
Audio Science Review Highlights: “THX seems to have revolutionized the mid to high-priced headphone amplifier market. It provides a winning combination of vanishingly low distortion and tons of power.” – Amir on ASR
Specs:
Inputs: Balanced x 1, Unbalanced x 1
Outputs: Balanced x 1, Unbalanced x 1
Output Power: 6W x 2 (16ohm) 3W x 2 (32ohm) 440mW x 2 (300ohm) 220mW x 2 (600ohm)
SNR: 130dB, A-Weighted
Output Noise: 2.8uV, A-Weighted
THD+N: -122dB, 0.00007% (1kHz, 32ohm) THD+N: -117dB, 0.00013% (20 – 20kHz, 32ohm, -3dB)
THD: -125dB, 0.00006% (1kHz, 16ohm, -3dB)
Output Impedance: Near 0 Ω
Frequency Response: 0.1Hz – 500kHz(-3dB)
Gain: Low(+6dB), High(+18dB)
Power Supply Voltage/Frequency: AC100-240V, 50-60 Hz
Power Consumption (EN60065): 24W
Power Consumption in Standby Mode: < 0.1W
Size: 160 x 149 x 73 mm Weight: 772g
| Dimensions: | 16 x 14.9 x 7.3 cm; 1 Kilograms |
| Manufacture: | SMSL |
| Reference: | SP200 |
This amp is a excellent value for the money. It is all the power you need and its balanced all for under 300 bucks a steal.
It has been two months since I began using this amplifier and I have to say kudos to S.M.S.L. for producing a headphone amp strong and reliable enough to drive my HiFiMan Arya headphones. Now before buying this amp, I had blown through four—yes four—failed headphone amplifiers: two Topping A90s and two Monolith THX 887 amps (see my reviews at their respective Amazon product pages for details). So when I decided to buy this amp, my expectation of reliability was a bit low, to put it mildly, which is why I wanted to wait a while before posting a review just in case.
So how does it compare to the Topping A90? Well, I will continue to maintain that the Topping A90 is still the best headphone amp I have ever heard. This does not quite match it in clarity of detail. However, that’s totally irrelevant having bought and returned two failed units in a two-month time span. I’m no longer willing to gamble my hard-earned money on amps produced by that company no matter how highly rated, at least not until they fix their quality control issues.
And as compared to the Monolith 887 by Monoprice, quite frankly I can’t tell a lick of difference in sound quality between the 887 and this amp. In fact, I much prefer the SP 200 because of its smaller form factor coupled with its integrated power supply. Yes, the Monolith does have three gain settings as opposed to the two in this unit which might make running IEMs an issue for some. But if like me, you use your DAC to control volume this shouldn’t be much of a concern. And when it comes to reliability, well it obviously beats the Monolith and for less money! What’s not to love?
Quite frankly, for this price, this is an absolutely killer headphone amp. At 6 watts output, it effortlessly drives my Aryas in either balanced or single-ended mode. So a tip of my hat to S.M.S.L. for not only manufacturing a great-sounding desktop amp with a ridiculously small footprint but for caring enough about their customers to institute quality control procedures sorely lacking at both Topping and Monoprice.
Got it paired with a Geshelli labs jnog. And it is amazing the stuff that you will hear in the background will just blow your mind. I am using XLR and I do find it better than RCA .. the sound floor is so low it it still amazes me
I use it exclusively with my Audeze LCD2v2 headphones with the Silver Dragon Cable. The bottom line is that if you want monster results, you must go with an amp that has the guts to deliver. And talk about clarity, detail, strong bass, layering… it’s all there. I would give this ten stars for the price. I do use a Clarion 7 band EQ. It is made for cars but I bought an Amazon Basic power converter to convert the home current to 12v car current. I use it on my home cd player system. So with that, it brings out the best of the amp and headphones, giving you control over the way you want it to sound. Hope this helps.
Sin duda alguna, uno de los mejores amplificadores de audfonos por el precio, mucha potencia y una claridad y definicin inigualables.
Awesome quality, well built, I don’t think you can find a better amp under 500$
Nice size. Great sound. Easy to setup. Plenty of power.
it does what it’s suppose to do and very well…
This unit was everything reviewers have been raving about for months now: Crazy amount of clean power + transparent and analytical sound, which is exactly what I wanted.
Having said that, this unit is not a jack of all trades, of course (no amp is). For music that requires some “warm coloring”, you’ll still need a tube amp or something equivalent. But if transparency is what you’re after (and if your source music is of high quality), look no further than this little box!
Also, a shout out to Apos Audio (the seller I got this from)! Even though I got it as an “open box” deal, the product was in pristine condition! I couldn’t tell this was an open box product at all. Highly appreciated!!!
Not truly balanced but considering the comparable THX 789 from Drop I would recommend this if you aren’t primarily running IEMs. The xlr connection produces cleaner signal and pumps up the power a bit compared to single ended through RCA. Harmonic distortion on my unit is almost non existent and is almost as clear as my Drop 789, side by side the Drop wins but the difference is minimal and will save you enough money to grab a decent dac to pair with it. By far my best budget entry level solid state desktop AMP and a great place to start for anyone getting into hifi.
I bought the SMSL SP 200 to use with my Astell & Kern SR15 audio player and Sennheiser HD 650 headphones. I hooked it up in balanced mode with interconnects purchased from Surf Cables. The unit easily powers the headphones and the sound is fantastic. Highly recommended combination.
I got the amp because I wanted more power for my Modhouse Argon MkII to bring out their best.
The amp DOES do what I wanted. Much better performance than I was getting from my Drop Cavalli LCX + SDAC.
Problems:
* There is a right-side balance bias that skews the soundscape, throwing off instrument and voice placement in the soundstage
* There is also a right side volume imbalance. Expected in analog potentiometers, but it’s pretty severe up until between about 8-9 o’clock on the dial. I could overlook up to 6 or 7 o’clock.
These 2 issues make an otherwise stellar performance always just shy of 100% satisfying when actively listening or auditioning headphones and especially iems. Super sensitive iems might never need to go beyond 9 o’clock even on low power setting, so the pot imbalance is always there.
For headphones, things get better. The volume imbalance stops being a major issue, but the soundstage skewing is sometimes distracting. Definitely prevents me from counting this as a “reference amp”, which is disappointing because it performs SO well in most other ways.
It has a very clean sound and is able to power anything i throw at it. Very good value for money
Ich bin echt froh von einem A20 auf dieses gert gewechselt zu sein.
Vor dem SP200 ist ein Dacmagic100.
Diese Kombi ist der Hammer!
Betreibe damit meine HD820, Stax 2170, DT990 pro und LCD-3!
Got this as an upgrade for my old FiiO K5, the upgrade was quite obvious. Also some have said that the volume control is bad, but I can use plenty of the knob even on my grado 125’s which are quite easy to power. On my sennheiser hd700 And hd600 I can turn volume knob to almost 1 o’clock with still being listenable but loud.
This amp sounds great and has loads of power. Pretty much the same sound as the Monoprice and Drop THX amps, but with an integrated power supply and for a little less money. My only complaints are the lack of a passthrough or pre-amp output, and the case design. Why the heck did they make it a parallelogram?
I’m very new to HiFi PC audio. I took the dive into the higher end of consumer audio for home theater about 15 years ago, but lived with onboard audio and gamer-grade audio headsets / mics for 20 years. I really got tired of dealing with a high noise floor and generally poor audio. I tried using a USB DAC from the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition and while it was fine paired with that headset, it was full of noise (constant background static) when I hooked up a pair of Philips X2HR. This is currently paired to the line out on my onboard audio (Realtek AC1220) and it’s fantastic. Probably don’t really need a DAC because the audio sounds great, but I ordered a SMSL M200 because it looks like it’ll pair well with this amp from a feature perspective and looks (they both appear to be trapezoidal shaped instead of box-shaped). So far everything has sounded perfect with this setup, no weirdness in lows, mids, or highs. But I’m not a audiophile, just a guy that hates bad audio. I ordered some Argon MKIII and fully expect this amp to drive those just fine. I’m listening to my Philips Fidelio X2HR right now and a comfortable listening volume is at 10 o’clock on the volume dial, output set to low (which is not low, but medium. Search “Z Review SP200” for circumstances where that will matter (e.g. it may cook some in-ear-headphones, this amp can put out some serious watts).
On the rear of the amp, are both unbalanced left and right channel XLR inputs, as well as unbalanced RCA inputs. It comes with an on/off switch, input selector switch, and low/high gain switch, as well as the volume control. Because I am going with this setup, I’m bypassing my speaker system all together. I’m using a Monoprice RCA premium 22-gauge cable, to literally connect from the output of my Realistic EQ box, directly into the headphone amp.
And its so nice that the V-Moda’s come with their own 1/8 to 1/4 adapter, cause I needed that to plug into the new amp. I know I am not the only one who got fooled into thinking the XLR connections were balanced, based off reading the description of the product. But like many of us, we eventually learn the truth. The XLR connections are not balanced. Not that big of a deal per say, they work perfectly fine, and offer convenience of connection if you do have XLR.
When I first tried the amp on low gain, I felt it was too quiet, at all levels up to 50% volume. My V-Moda LP2’s are 32 OHM headphones, and I think they just need the full 3-watts, so I flipped the GAIN switch to HIGH POWER! All the sudden my can’s woke up, and now when the volume is set to 50%, my cans get real loud! I tested the cans with the typical bass track I always use, Wiz Khalifa On My Level – BASS BOOSTED, and holy molly! I also listened to Jelly Role – Creature, Feel That Bass III, and Post Malone – Go Flex. They all sounded amazing with the amp at 50%.
The bass hits are punchy, and they get down low. This amp seems to like straight up amplification with noise floor reduction. I find that it doesn’t seem to mess with the frequencies at all, and if anything, sound is more analytical and amplified. I really like how this amp does its job, I feel like I can hear everything in the tracks, even stuff I never heard before. The amp really brings both the music, and the headphones to life. The THX portion of the amp seems to provide for a very clean sound.
Most of the time, I can keep the volume at the 10 O clock position for general listening. Or if I want to listen to something loud, I push it to 50%. Other then songs, I tested this amp while gaming. If you thought your headphones sounded good before. Well, I am here to tell you, once you plug a pair of can’s into this amp, your gaming world will be amazingly enhanced like it was not before. That means you can hear things more, and feel things, with a solid pair of 50mm drivers or better.
Overall, I am extremely pleased with this amp, it does exactly what I need it to do, bring headphones to life, that is what this amp excels at. I am aware that some people got defective boxes in the past, thankfully, mine was not defective. Nor did I have that strange volume issue that someone else had, where only the left channel was heard, until the volume was at 50%, my volume works perfectly fine. Also, some people complained about the POWER LED being super bright, blindingly like a flashlight. Mine is nothing like that, just a dim blue glow, so I think they fixed that.
Now while my volume potentiometer, or POT for short, may work properly in the technical sense, in the physical sense, its practically awful. If you’ve experienced a smooth moving volume knob before, well this volume knob is kind of rough. Multiple reviews cover on this fact as well, so don’t just take my word for it. Because of it, I went on a competitor website and ordered a golden aluminum 25mm volume knob as replacement. With the added weight of a metal knob, should smoothen out the POT movement.
Do I recommend this amp? Absolutely! I used to use those portable Fiio amps, they are not even in the same weight class, as the S.M.S.L desktop amp. But you might want to think about replacing the volume knob is all. Other then that, and the fact its not really a balanced amp, its a perfect little unit. 5 out of 5 stars!
Using this amp to power my HifiMan Sandara’s. Clean powerful sound.
Great amp that pairs very well with my 6xx and K5 Pro (though I have a Topping D10 on the way). Compared to the K5 Pro and other AIOs under 300, this amp puts out sound effortlessly. Get this, break it in for 20 hours (yes, there’s an audible difference) and get a DAC like the OL Dac or D10. You won’t be disappointed.
Bought this amp to use together with my Sennheiser HD800s. Sounds amazing 🙂 Fast shipping and works excellent.
If you love high impedance cans, and you want to feed them with clean power, for this price, this is a no-brainer. So much quality tech for the money that it isn’t even funny. You are not going to get power luke this from anything in this price range. This amp is really that good. And if you have been wondering how to really bring your planars to life? Here is one way that might blow your mind.
Sehr schner Sweetspot fr Diminishing Returns. Auerdem wurde seit Januar alle Probleme des Lautstrkereglers behoben! 5/5
This drives my AKG Q701 headphones with plenty of power at about 1/2 volume.
I am using the balanced inputs with the gain switch set to high.
This amp is part of an upgrade I did for my iMac’s sound. I went from and integrated DAC and amplifier and inexpensive Sony headphones to a separate DAC, this amp and Audeze headphones. Overall I’m very pleased with the performance of all my new components. And the price is right! This amp provides more than enough power for my new headphones and really seems to have a nice, flat frequency response. I like nice tight bass without any boominess and this amp and headphone combination gives me the sound I like. Nice smooth volume control and the gain switch gives you some adjustment to account for the power your headphones need, or to just change the sensitivity of the volume knob. I’m using this with the single ended inputs and outputs which is probably fine since my understanding is that the amplification circuitry is single ended. Obviously anything I really say about this amp is also related to my end to end system including the DAC and headphones. But I have no complaints whatsoever. I can listen to my new system for hours without any sort of listener fatigue. Overall a very nice headphone amp that I am extremely happy with.
I was honestly going to spend less, until i saw a review on the THX 888 unit.
Honestly, just do it.
Spend the extra and get it.
The Amp is absolutely amazing, and i completely understand why everyone recommends it, especially since its cheaper then the drop THX 789.
This is definitely one of those purchases you wont regret having to spend a bit more for.
Sound quality is great, I’m using Sennheiser 6XX. Paired with a Balanced Dac, makes it a game changer. Price is excellent compared to other companies that have released THX amps.
This amplifier truly brought livelihood with my ears and it is matched very well with the smsl su-8v2! The only “issue” with the amplifier is that the volume is VERY LOUD even at low gain. So it never goes past 10 o clock on my Aeon Flow headphones.
One thing, however. I’ve got mine as part of my desktop PC setup.. That means that along with the power cords from both of these audio devices, there’s 2 power cords from monitors, a power cord from my tower, multiple USB cords carrying power, and cords for my UPS and power regulator all behind the desk in close proximity (and touching, even) the power cord for this amp. I didn’t think it would matter much, but on a whim decided to try upgrading the power cable to a Pangea AC-14 power cable, and despite my thought that it couldn’t get any better, the mids and especially low-end frequencies tightened up even more. So, if you’re in a high EMI environment like mine, invest the extra $35 for that cable.
SMSL audio engineers have done an excellent job on developing a product that stands out for its convenience, sound quality, size and cost-benefit. Extra points for the balanced output that leverages the clarity and definition of the unit with greater power. Fully recommended.
Great headphone amp high quality sound – many reviews available online by experts. Highly recommended compared to much more expensive amps.
I am happy with my purchase and would definitely buy it again. SMSL has knocked it out of the park with the SMSL SP200.
Pas froid du tout, pas chaud non plus. Pas totalement transparent car il apporte une certaine paisseur chaque morceau et les timbres ont un certain grain particulier. tonnamment fluide. Vraiment musical. Ne donne pas envie de zapper les morceaux.
Trs trs recommand.
Il faut dbourser plusieurs centaines d’euros supplmentaires pour faire mieux.
En plus Amazon expdie extrmement rapidement.
This amp comes with a low and high gain. I don’t even need High Gain with this amp LOL. Logan Powers those headphones beautifully and I only have to turn it up to a little over halfway before it’s too loud for my ears. And by the way, no matter how loud I crank it, there is no Distortion whatsoever or hiss. I’m amazed at the way all the different musical instruments separate and clarify using this amp. My previous amp was a Fiio e12 mont blanc and that worked wonderfully as a portable amp but cannot hold a candle to the clarity and power of this amplifier. For $260 this is a no-brainer!
Amazing little AMP. If you are looking for the best desktop/headphone amp. Get this. That THX sound quality. Mmmmmmm
My cans are Focal Clears and my primary source is an OPPO 105, which has balanced outs. I wanted to replace the Vali with an amp that has balanced inputs. My listening used balanced connections between the OPPO and the SMSL SP200 (Hosa pro cables), but a standard 6.3 jack for my headphones.
Listened to Hotel California, 461 Ocean Blvd and Let it Bleed SACDs (and Night at the Opera DVD-A). The SP200 added a noticeable quantity of well-defined bass compared to my Vali 2. The additional slam was immediately noticable on Hotel California, even using my bass-light Focal Clears. The SMSL also (unsurprisingly) produces clearer, better defined and more analytical trebble and mids than the hybrid tube Vali. The background on all of the SACDs was pitch dark (Vali is close).
The SMSL SP200 easily drives my low impedence Focal Clears. Constant listening with the volume knob set at 9:00 would cause long-term hearing loss using the low gain setting. I don’t own any high impedence headphones so I can’t offer any observations in that regard.
The $290 SMSL SP200 is a good match for my rig. It improves the output of my OPPO and adds bass to the Clears, which benefit from the boost. Highly recommended for the very reasonable price.