Can’t wait for the reseal date.
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It’s important water doesn’t get in lol.
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Hey guys, first post on the forums! So I picked up the SP200 and M200 about a month ago from Amazon (Australia). First and foremost I am pretty floored by the detail this stack presents, especially when compared to the Emotiva A-100 (which is now a dedicated speaker amp) and a JDS Labs OL dac. I honestly can’t express how impressed I am with this combo overall. As for details, I found immediately that the sound-stage was much, much wider than my A-100, imaging and details in all frequencies were much more forward as well. The one issue I have experienced was some buzzing noise when using RCA inputs from the M200. Not sure if this is an issue with my cables, unit or if my desk setup is just very noisy. Regardless this issue ceased to exist as soon as i changed to using the XLR output from the M200. Dead silent.
To conclude, as an Australian who has the privilege of paying a ridiculous markup on pretty much anything audio related, the SMSL SP200 and M200 are very nicely priced products and fill a niche for those wanting a bit more than entry level, but are not prepared to invest thousands (yet). Couldn’t be happier.
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Hi! Welcome to HFGF!
Glad you’re enjoying the new gear. What headpones are you rocking with that SMSL stack?
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Thanks for the welcome!
Right now I’m running three sets of cans. I have the Massdrop HD58x which are my personal favorite pairing. I also am running the DT770’s (250 ohm). I also have a pair of K7xx’s which I find myself using less and less which I’m leaning towards selling when the time comes. I have plans to purchase LCD-x’s and HD600’s in the future and I’ll update this thread when that eventually happens.
Overall the stack does a great job of powering all of these cans, even on low gain.
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Nice, also Australian and ordered myself the SMSL SP200 - I also ordered myself an E30 dac in case i don’t like it paired with my NFB 11.28 or DX7. Hoping it sounds good! Looking to use it with my T1’s, DT1990’s and so on.
Will even see how it sounds with low impedance high sensitivity headphones. Hopefully it doesn’t destroy nothing.
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From what I’ve heard (and probably what you’ve heard too) the low gain setting is still fairly high so it might be a bit too much for more sensitive things. I personally set my m200 to -20 so I can get more use out of the volume pot, rather than the 60 or so degrees of movement I would get out of it before my ears exploded. I’ve personally tried my SP200 with koss porta pros and found it to be perfectly adequate, no such experience with sensitive IEM’s since I don’t own any.
If my experience is anything to go by you should really enjoy it! Let us know how it goes.
I’ve just got it in - set it all up and have been trying out various headphones. My initial impressions are i like it, i get zero issues with it, volume pot works as it should, no distortion noises even at max volume everything is how it should be - None of the problems on my system other people seemed to have. So i don’t know if they updated the amplifier and fixed any issues it had or I’m lucky.
When it comes to the sound - i find it slightly more detailed and the sound-stage to be slightly bigger - i don’t know if this is placebo or not but I’ll have to really test it over the next few hours. I also noticed on certain songs that transitions to play a beat or sound in one ear to pop out more.
But so far, would i say it’s definitely better over something like my NFB 11.28? No, plain and simple. SMSL may demolish it on the measurement graph but in real time actually listening to it i find it really does not matter at all - not in anyway shape or form. Sound truly is subjective.
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Yup. Sound is definitely subjective. I’d say you got two complete opposites. Audio-Gd stuff is done in their own particular way, and some say, weird choices were made (why choose X component over Y etc…). Still, a lot of people like their stuff. For the M200 + SP200 combo, it’s the “all about measurements race”. Just accuracy, accuracy, accuracy for critical listening etc., and some say THX AAA stuff can sound too “analytical”.
Again, to each their own. 
Amen! I really like them both after listening for a few hours now. NFB sounds sweet, warm, luscious - and i have never ever had a single issue with that brand. My SMSL sounds way more analytical - to the point - straight up front no hesitations, no apologies if it offends you, basically a big fuck you to any shitty converted music you listen to.
Even some FLAC albums i am listening to sound bad, i can hear the crackles and just that it wasn’t converted correctly. This may take the enjoyment out for some. Gaming wise - Accuracy to the T. I can see in some aspects why the THX chip is raved for.
Also all this was paired with the E30 DAC, I’ll plug it into the NFB to see if it changes the flavor over the E30 in a few more hours.
To me the E30 / SMSL is so analytical it sounds just as good as the systems in the $1000+ range I’ve listened to.
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Honestly if you own HD58x’ won’t make much sense to purchase the HD600’s
Please note that the tests of distortion would have to be done with songs with low end as that is the only way to really pull some power out of the amp and to test distortion and push an amp hard.
Back on drop for 240$
So I picked up a new replacement cable for my Sundara’s because, well, the stock cable… anyway, I picked up an XLR to dual 3.5, to feed into my SMSL stack, (SP200+M200)
Now this is my first XLR headphone cable and I’m not sure if the cable itself is defective, or maybe my amp is, or I’ve got something setup wrong but I’m not getting any audio playback.
I currently have my pc running to my m200 via optical, and then the m200 to sp200 via XLR.
@LuminatX I know this sounds silly but did you swap the input toggle on the front of the SP200
to XLR
The toggle on the front just switches inputs, and I’ve been using XLR, the only thing that I’ve changed is my output from SE to XLR.
So now I’m wondering if my cable is defective, or not compatible somehow? or the XLR output on my amp is defective.
I ordered a new cable for my headphones from another brand and will see, if it works then I know this one is just defective.
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Are you sure about the cable being soldered correctly? I take it you don’t have anything else to check with?
About the 6,3mm and XLR on the front, they both carry the same power afaik. The SP200 isn’t a “true balanced” amplifier in that sense, it just has XLR out as a convenience more or less. So take whatever cable works best for you to be honest. I would certainly look up how this cable is soldered though or faulty.
Yeah I just bought XLR because I prefer the stronger connection, not because balanced makes any difference.
I ended up buying another cable and it worked, so the first one I bought was just faulty so I returned it.
I see, yeah that’s understandable. I use mine with XLR mostly as well. Nice to hear that it sorted itself out!
Back on drop for 160$