SMSL RAW-MDA1 - Downright Brilliant

[@historyalwayslie]

You are not like any other, so call audiophile + blogger plus+ online salesman. You are AudioLover and a Master. Hats off. Be Blessed and JUST.

[@loreto1815]

Wow. Talk about thorough! Time to subscribe.

[@brannonmcevers1854]

Love your no nonsense reviews! "If you want to add sound coloration, just add tubes!" Audiophiles need to be honest with themselves. If you like colored sound, embrace it! Just don't try to convince people that want neutral unaltered sound that you are right, and they are horribly wrong..

[@r2d3vadar92]

Great review! May I ask, would you recommend this as upgrade to the dac inside my marantz cd60 player - I would use the smsl as my reference stereo DAC. Would this be a worthy upgrade, I understand the RAW MDA1 has a new chips set. Your help is appreciated. thank you.

[@NoThemeReviews]

No, I doubt it. The Marantz has a very capable dac. There's no reason to upgrade.

[@r2d3vadar92]

@@NoThemeReviews Great. Thank you for your response and help.🙂👍

[@ardhern1392]

Good shit as always, lad.

[@liveliferock]

Finally I found someone who speaks the truth. On top of that if you put too much effort in analyzing the music, you won't be able to enjoy the music. Music is like food, a lot of ingredients goes into it to make what it is. If you concentrate too much to analyze what kind of ingredients are there, then you are not tasting the food, but you are testing the food.

[@wim1983]

I'm using the SMSL C100, great mini compact DAC does not need power supply and comes with remote and bluetooth feature. Yes ways difference sound only happen when mess up with different amplifications, be it op-amp, preamp, power amp etc., and of course your final ouput which can be speakers or headphones. It's crazy you people have so many gears in the journey of sound discovery.

[@crazyprayingmantis5596]

Its so refreshing to hear someone say they tried really hard but couldn't hear a difference. Most reviewers (online salesman) like to make all sorts of claims about what they can hear without ever proving anything.

[@Bill-ps2wt]

Great review, I'm going to purchase one in a few days. As far as eq goes, instead of waiting for a eq program from SMSL, just pick up Boom 3D for your PC. It has fantastic and real working eq with plenty of bands and the option to add a bit of fidelity or ambience which I really appreciate, it really sounds fantastic...

[@roa5359]

Thank you for the FiiO K11 (non R2R) review. I got one after watching your review.

[@nicktan4530]

Tomorrow I will head to one audio event and will give my impression on new dacs, even outside of US market. Will try luck if they have different sound or will scale the sound quality via dacs/amps.

[@MoonshineBeforeSunshine]

Great review as usual. But, I still want a Senn HD490 Pro review from you. Haha! When/if you get to review the HD490 Pro, I would love to see you compare it in sheer detail to the Beyer DT 1990 Pro - I'd like to especially know which one has done the midranges and trebles better, among other sonic categories. In fact, I've found it rather strange why no one has done a dedicated comparison on the aforementioned models, since they are the flagship studio headphones from their respective long-established and rival German companies. Without you promising anything, I'm truly looking forward to this review and comparison. I'm not a fan of any company, but a fan of your reviews/comparisons.

[@DeDovla]

There are measurements over on ASR, the RCA and XLR do provide the voltage they specify. However, the HP Output is less than what they stated, in that regard it is closer to C200.

[@DeDovla]

For more context: SMSL RAW-MDA1: Measured - 167mW at 300 Ohms; 1.4W at 32 Ohms Stated on spec sheet - No official spec for 300Ohms but if you were to calculate by max voltage which is stated to be 8.2V then you get 224mW at 300 Ohms; 1.7W at 32 Ohms is on the spec sheet. SMSL C200: Measured - 154mW at 300 Ohms, 1.45W at 32Ohms Stated on the spec sheet - nothing for 300 Ohm, 1.3W at 32Ohms In the case of C200 we can see they posted a lower number than the one actaully measured (even though Amir takes his measurement before the amp starts to clip). In the case of RAW-MDA1 there is a discrepancy of 0.3W at 32Ohms missing from the product (for 300 Ohms I am not gonna pass judgement as there were no official statements from SMSL). My suspicion is that they nerfed the amp a bit because of the higher voltage of the DAC chip (2.5V on RAW vs 2V on C200). Note that there is also no statement on how much high gain provides (for C200 it's +11dB, for RAW-MDA1 it is not disclosed). The SMSL DL200 should be more in line with it's own spec sheet as it seems like it's the same amp from C200 except DL200 DAC outputs 2.5V instead of 2V - however no ASR measurements yet to back it up but when you calculate everything the numbers seem correct. But in the real-world it can probably run 90% of the headphones as is the case with SMSL C200 and DL200 as well.

[@RocketLauncherwithInfiniteAmmo]

How did you hook up the little valve amp? It looked as if it was coming out of the front headphone output and using two preamps, but I take that wasn’t the case and that you used the output from the back? Thanks and good review.

[@NoThemeReviews]

1/4” output from MDA1 to 3.5mm input on the tube amp.

[@RocketLauncherwithInfiniteAmmo]

@@NoThemeReviews but isn’t that going to make both volume controls active and give the pre-amp another pre-amp?

[@stephencosta6814]

Very nice review keep up the good work❤

[@sirlordcomic]

There did seem to be some difference in the sound colour filters. The only one I liked was Tube 1. But as you said too subtle. If they're adding filters make them have a clear effect.

[@nicktan4530]

And sorry, do you think its quite impossible to do a/b for speaker setup ?

[@FunFiEmpire]

Thank you so much for this FunFi review. I totally agree "Oh My Gawd!" thank you SMSL for putting the volume front and center. Just wish it was 1-100 rather than -dB. I really appreciated your thorough testing and stating plainly and logically your process and findings. It is unfortunately more and more rare to find a reviewer that does not depend on measurements alone or "chocolatey sharp sound" or some such nonsense. I think the Wiim Ultra features bluetooth out, but I could be wrong on that. It tries to hard to be everything to everyone, and is very nice, but "meh" in most areas other than the streaming app.

[@theexpatgunner]

I have the FIIO K11 and using HD 660S2. Would I be beneficial upgrading to the MDA1, and how does it fair against the K11?

[@NoThemeReviews]

No. They sound identical. Don’t waste money.

[@nicktan4530]

So as usual they sounds the same ? Own and heard any resister ladder dac ?

[@epicmike3915]

Great review as usual. Question is the knob metal or plastic?

[@NoThemeReviews]

Seems to be plastic

[@epicmike3915]

@NoThemeReviews That's disappointing. I would prefer all metal. Thanks.

[@j_moonchild]

Gadgetry tech reviewer said the knob is aluminum.

[@IrenESorius]

Iw got it, I love it.

[@brentkjernisted2215]

How does the smsl compare to the aune s9c?

[@eddiebaby22]

A B testing is the only way, you are correct.

[@haydenbull6622]

Every SMSL dac with a colour screen has displayed the volume front centre and largest text for at least the last 5 years. It's something that is really annoying in pure Dac mode as who wants to se 00db on their screen. Makes more sense in an all in one.

[@JPC326]

Hows does it compare to Fiio k9 AKM ?

[@spectrumsatilink689]

YES EQUALISER GOOD DOLBY ATMOS😁😆👍‼️

[@7in1]

What AB switch are you using?

[@NoThemeReviews]

www.amazon.com/STEREO-Manual-Speaker-selector-available/dp/B073GWCRP3/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2MRLCDXNZ94E1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.AvUD_rCDvzboU2sz0gATP35b7w0oR6cpmo57Iej9PTpHx111bY0PLk_nAkPFTddfKvt-QKVw3Yw4Ocsx9gVy05O_QYT05ehYxlOx1zLNOASwwSphKW0Il4jz1ND_0BDaN9EELF62K5fzmEbms_WKucXjIyK3-wyhW4IyPv_BwDlQAWXesBIdEdGQ-VeGpmhfaqdBYvYLAJPEvCOZzyo65zbXZTQqHk4jtvWgzqvnq_0.pYryNgBnfiQgDvAA1szhWS79IhthICOk_1lxfgipzg8&dib_tag=se&keywords=3.5mm+switch+box&qid=1725624674&sprefix=3.5mm+switch+box%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-3

[@RocketLauncherwithInfiniteAmmo]

Can you completely defeat the display on it? Displays actually do audibly affect the sound quality, causes interference.

[@jamesschneider3828]

Sorry but driving us to buy test equipment makes no sense. All I or probably most others care about is how does it sound? You speak volumes that most don’t care about.

[@NoThemeReviews]

$25 is too much to pay to make sure you’re not wasting money? I did explain how it “sounds” and I always encourage people to do their own tests.