Thank you for the very exhaustive reviews of both the Modius E and DO100 Pro, your description of the sound aspects for each(holography, soundstage, imaging, house sound) and what to expect from each input when comparing them both is on another level, also you are very kind to talk about shipping cost for international customers which I am one, I just happen to be interested in a sub 250$ DAC/preamp and subscribed because of your Modius E review, I'll make sure to use the affiliate links and donate if I finally do buy one, many thanks!!
Wave, when you do the USB test, please make sure you install the driver, disable safe mode in the driver and set to 32 buffer. This makes the USB sound completely different.
Great point on your International perspective - in Australia we pay A$520 for the Modus e and A$300 for the DO100 Pro so its no context in term of value bang for bucks giving it clearly to SMSL.
People greatly undervalue the benefits of all-around competence, preferring to focus on things that have a 'wow' factor which at this price will usually have a large drawback.
I've been looking at SMSL DO300 as a DAC, based on the previous impressive review, and I wonder how big of a step-up it is compared to the DO100 Pro when comparing the sound quality?
I just sent my DO300 back to SMSL for servicing and God knows when it's coming back. I'm expecting months of waiting. Meanwhile my DO100 and SU1 is still alive and rocking.
I would like ARC input, actually. I use a whopping 42" LG C2 OLED as my computer monitor, and do a fair bit of TV/Movie watching from it. The optical output from these TVs are fairly jittery, and audiophile DACs tend not to deal with such a noisy signal well, causing the audio to drop out from time to time while streaming Netflix from the TV. I suspect ARC would be better, but have never tried it.
When it comes to I2S input please resist the phrase "for those who like it". It comes accross as if you already know that it's not good. As a reviewer you need to be able to test all the inputs that are on a unit. We audio enthusiasts want to know what input sounds best. Please get youself a piece of gear that puts out clean I2S so we can get an idea how well it works on the unit under investigation. There are quite a few dacs out there that do better on I2S than on the Sony/Philips diff input. 😎
@@klausfreis7202 ah, i see. As a newbie that got into the hobby via iems, I'm used to using my phone as the music source and connecting it to the USB C port of a dongle, and so it's caused me some confusion when desktop DAC reviewers mention all these different inputs like i2s, lan, coax
Wave theory why not just promote CLEAN input elimination of noise is where listening should go. Im not reviewer but lab grade power can put competent equipment in every top tier. They typically use low-end OP-AMPS on single end.
If you've been doing this for long enough and have good enough gear differnces between a lot of gear is like night and day. You dont need to ABX when something like soundstage places instruments that were iniside the speakers now are 2 foot wider and the sound now wraps around you, and the detail and bass is back, whereas with the last DAC I was instantly thinking where has all my bass gone, it lacks detail, and soundstage is bad. (D300 v D400ES i AB'ed yesterday)
@@Angellus502 If you are so sure that you can hear that many differences, why not do a controlled abx test and upload it to RUclips with high resolution recordings? I'm sure it would be a huge hit. For some strange reason, no one has published one yet 😏.
@@jari121 many reason; firstly I dont have time. Secondly no one else would hear any difference once its re-recorded then played back though gear that would not have anywhere near the sound resoultion or soundstage of my reference gear and most likely in an untreated room. Thus making the whole exersise pointless apart from proving passing a ABX test in many cases is extremly easy. If you dont belive its true go spend $30k+ on gear and $10k on sound treatment (or find somewho has) and sit down and have a listen for 2 minutes, differences stand out like dogs balls instantly. My 8 year old daughter has even better ears than my 50 year old arse ears, she tells me which gear sounds better and why when gear is very close in sound quallity, 30 minutes later I usualy agree with her very quick aprasle. Obviously you have not ever tried compareing gear on a high end setup, or unfortunatly you have very bad ears :S. Try this; the SMSL SU-1 and D400ES measure the same but sound extremly different in soundstage, and detail. You could probably test this out yourself with a good pair of used floorstanders, a good used amp and the DAC's for under $2kUS (at the end you have yourself a resonable setup), the differences become easier and easier to hear as the gear improves
@@YTjuanchicodit's a ground loop. Every single SMSL DAC has less noise that you could ever possibly hear. It's not a problem with the DAC, it's a problem somewhere else in your system.
Your single ended vs balanced commentary is a top differentiator to all other Dac reviews.
Thank you for the very exhaustive reviews of both the Modius E and DO100 Pro, your description of the sound aspects for each(holography, soundstage, imaging, house sound) and what to expect from each input when comparing them both is on another level, also you are very kind to talk about shipping cost for international customers which I am one, I just happen to be interested in a sub 250$ DAC/preamp and subscribed because of your Modius E review, I'll make sure to use the affiliate links and donate if I finally do buy one, many thanks!!
another interesting offering in a competitive field thx WaveTheory
Wave, when you do the USB test, please make sure you install the driver, disable safe mode in the driver and set to 32 buffer. This makes the USB sound completely different.
Great point on your International perspective - in Australia we pay A$520 for the Modus e and A$300 for the DO100 Pro so its no context in term of value bang for bucks giving it clearly to SMSL.
People greatly undervalue the benefits of all-around competence, preferring to focus on things that have a 'wow' factor which at this price will usually have a large drawback.
Thank you for another wonderful review, Professor! 👌
We need the DO200 Pro review to see if its better than the D70 Pro Octo. 12 vs 8 chips.
Great review
Can I stream tidal directly from my phone through SMSL DO100 Pro ?
Have you had a chance to compare this to the new Topping D50 III?
I've been looking at SMSL DO300 as a DAC, based on the previous impressive review, and I wonder how big of a step-up it is compared to the DO100 Pro when comparing the sound quality?
I just sent my DO300 back to SMSL for servicing and God knows when it's coming back. I'm expecting months of waiting. Meanwhile my DO100 and SU1 is still alive and rocking.
@@danielc5191 This is not the first time I saw someone talking about DO300 failures. I guess I am better off holding my money with my current gear.
No more chi-fi. Fun-fi is the new term baby!
I don’t need the screen, hdmi or XLR plus I’m cheap so I picked up the SMSL PS200 with the same ESS9039Q2M. For $80 getting my $ worth.
I would like ARC input, actually. I use a whopping 42" LG C2 OLED as my computer monitor, and do a fair bit of TV/Movie watching from it. The optical output from these TVs are fairly jittery, and audiophile DACs tend not to deal with such a noisy signal well, causing the audio to drop out from time to time while streaming Netflix from the TV. I suspect ARC would be better, but have never tried it.
When it comes to I2S input please resist the phrase "for those who like it". It comes accross as if you already know that it's not good.
As a reviewer you need to be able to test all the inputs that are on a unit. We audio enthusiasts want to know what input sounds best.
Please get youself a piece of gear that puts out clean I2S so we can get an idea how well it works on the unit under investigation. There are quite a few dacs out there that do better on I2S than on the Sony/Philips diff input.
😎
Can I ask what devices you would need to use the i2s input on the dac?
@@radiofreealbemuth
Pcs with AMD graphics cards... many streamers.. Raspberry Pi.....TVs...ect..
@@klausfreis7202 ah, i see. As a newbie that got into the hobby via iems, I'm used to using my phone as the music source and connecting it to the USB C port of a dongle, and so it's caused me some confusion when desktop DAC reviewers mention all these different inputs like i2s, lan, coax
Wave theory why not just promote CLEAN input elimination of noise is where listening should go.
Im not reviewer but lab grade power can put competent equipment in every top tier.
They typically use low-end OP-AMPS on single end.
Did you make any abx tests? You must have golden ears 😅
If you've been doing this for long enough and have good enough gear differnces between a lot of gear is like night and day. You dont need to ABX when something like soundstage places instruments that were iniside the speakers now are 2 foot wider and the sound now wraps around you, and the detail and bass is back, whereas with the last DAC I was instantly thinking where has all my bass gone, it lacks detail, and soundstage is bad. (D300 v D400ES i AB'ed yesterday)
@@Angellus502 If you are so sure that you can hear that many differences, why not do a controlled abx test and upload it to RUclips with high resolution recordings? I'm sure it would be a huge hit. For some strange reason, no one has published one yet 😏.
@@jari121 many reason; firstly I dont have time. Secondly no one else would hear any difference once its re-recorded then played back though gear that would not have anywhere near the sound resoultion or soundstage of my reference gear and most likely in an untreated room. Thus making the whole exersise pointless apart from proving passing a ABX test in many cases is extremly easy. If you dont belive its true go spend $30k+ on gear and $10k on sound treatment (or find somewho has) and sit down and have a listen for 2 minutes, differences stand out like dogs balls instantly. My 8 year old daughter has even better ears than my 50 year old arse ears, she tells me which gear sounds better and why when gear is very close in sound quallity, 30 minutes later I usualy agree with her very quick aprasle. Obviously you have not ever tried compareing gear on a high end setup, or unfortunatly you have very bad ears :S. Try this; the SMSL SU-1 and D400ES measure the same but sound extremly different in soundstage, and detail. You could probably test this out yourself with a good pair of used floorstanders, a good used amp and the DAC's for under $2kUS (at the end you have yourself a resonable setup), the differences become easier and easier to hear as the gear improves
just use the Su1 for single ended use
👌👍
Never buying smsl again since my Su-6 starts making rain noise 2 months after buying it
Do you mean STATIC noise? 😢
@@ReverendDr.Thomas yes, imposible to keep listening..
@@YTjuanchicodit's a ground loop. Every single SMSL DAC has less noise that you could ever possibly hear. It's not a problem with the DAC, it's a problem somewhere else in your system.
@@pokrog it's not, i try it in 2 different systems, a defected unit for sure.
👍🌟👍