Cayin HA-300 mk2
4 Likes
Interesting…but whoever designed that must have pretty weirdly shaped ears.
Oh shoot, missed this announcement…
7 Likes
cool, thank god they are including a input on this one 
although i wish they would just release the amp by itself lol
it seems like questyle might be starting to become more active again, I will be interested to see if they have anything planned for the dap market. I love my QPM and would be stoked for a new flagship from them.
6 Likes
Another R2R DAP incoming, it would appear
4 Likes
A lot of people jumping on the R2R train
1 Like
Oh nice. Pumped to see some impressions on this in the future
Hmmm…don’t “look” hi-end to me. Still interesting considering the price they’re going for. Another one to add to your DAC comparison @M0N. lol
2 Likes
I think I’m tapped out on dacs for now lol. Also like hell I’m going to spend 3.5k blind on a smsl. Regardless, I’m guessing it follows the D1 design style which actually was decent, wonder how it will end up being
6 Likes
I’m surprised a Chinese company that specializes in mass market devices would sell a new device with a discontinued R2R chip in it.
I assume they must have a big enough supply and they are confident they won’t sell too many of them. Maybe a statement piece?
Does use an op amp based output section though.
3 Likes
From what I’ve read these R2R chips are quite popular among audiophiles in China and some manufacturers actually hoard them (notably Hifiman). The D1 (not D1SE) was well regarded in China so this has some high expectations over there.
I’m also guessing that they’ve decided to jump on the R2R hype train seeing how the international market has reacted to R2R DAPs and stuff like Denafrips / Holo.
But to give them the benefit of the doubt I think SMSL does stand differently (or at least used to) from stuff like Topping/Soncoz and they did produce some decent stuff before taking a detour with the measurement-chasing / THX offerings in recent years so it could also be a piece making a statement to set them apart. At least from a marketing point of view the higher end SMSL products were released under the brand VMV.
Also the local dealer price is around 2.8k USD.
2 Likes
This SMSL is going to blow people’s minds. All DACs sound the same, no DACs over $1000 dollars, but an Apos Audio sent it. What’s a reviewer to do?
2 Likes
They are pretty much popular everywhere, there are many dacs based around the burr brown dacs
Totally makes sense, actually kinda makes me mad to see how gullible people are being at this point going nuts over the simple tech it uses. R2R dacs can be great, so can sigma delta, think people are getting way too caught up in basically marketing turning these terms into selling points rather than just basic information
I’d agree, they were at least trying to make things sound good initially, then saw how profitable it would be to just chase measurements (aka not try and make things sound good lol)
Might put some reviewers in a dilemma lol. What if it sounds good, or even different perhaps, for those that say dacs don’t matter that might cause problems. Or if you go off of measurements it’s likely to measure worse than the other smsl dacs so do you bash it for that and potentially risk smsl pulling out if you sucked them off for their measurement stuff? Or do you have a more budget minded audience and if you suggest it do you risk getting backlash about diminishing returns and all that by your audience? Lol
7 Likes
Right? Like the entire proposition of the device seems wierd to me unless they got their hands on like 5k+ of the chips
#1 it’s very possible
#2 the Chinese are known for knock-off chips - it’s a major source of angst among the DIY community.
1 Like
The recent r2r runs remind me of the guitar and car world. The small shops would do something that was unique or added to their projects in a special way. The big companies would basically steal the idea and take all the credit and pump it out in mass production. The small shop gets no credit, and then looks like the copy cat and the uninformed are non the wiser.
New P6 Pro with different tuning (from what I can tell, im kinda lost tbh)
http://www.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2242929&extra=page%3D1
2 Likes
Ooooh, Mojo Dojo 2?!
3 Likes
I feel like a teaser 3 months out is wierd
2 Likes