S.MS.L D300 Native DSD DAC Review with Measurements

[satshanti]

6 minutes ago, bogi said:

DAC RESET screen shows (that's for 1.0, newer ones show MCU firmware version and USB firmware version in that screen).

My USB driver version is the latest 5.58 form SMSL home page.

Hi Bogi, thank you so much for this. I hadn't realised I might need to update drivers. I'll look into that and will report back.

[satshanti]

4 minutes ago, bogi said:

What does your reset menu show? Looks like mine or does it show firmware versions?

SW Ver 1.21

[satshanti]

1 minute ago, bogi said:

So there is a difference. I am interested to know if USB driver version 5.58 has influence on it.

I'm not sure how to go about the driver. I use a Raspberry Pi as NAA, so HQP automatically recognizes that with the DAC attached. I guess that the RPi image used generic USB drivers?

I don't think that in this case installing 5.58 drivers on the PC will do anything, Will it?

[satshanti]

7 minutes ago, bogi said:

You could test it on any Windows PC or notebook.
If that would work, NAA software is available for Windows OS too. Pi4 can run Windows.

I didn't know Pi4 could run Windows. I'll look into that. Thanks a lot for all the help.

[satshanti]

8 hours ago, bogi said:

@satshanti Just one question. Did you use image naa-450-raspberrypi4-holored.7z from https://www.signalyst.eu/bins/naa/images/ or did you install NAA software from https://www.signalyst.eu/bins/naa/linux/ on already running Linux system?

Oops! I had forgotten that I'm probably still running it on version 4.20, so I should have tried updating that first. :-( The reason I'm still using this older version is that when I upgraded to 4.30 in the past, suddenly I could hear a very loud pop at the start of each new track, which was super annoying. So I thought: if it works, don't fix it. :-) When I have some time I'll use the newest 2.50 image and see if that changes things.

 

BTW, I saw some mention of an idle time setting in the newest release, which I haven't updated to yet, that could prevent pops. Did I understand that right?

 

Another thing: in your post you link to a Holo Red version. I've always used the regular RPi4 version. What's the difference and which should I use?

 

Thanks again for your helpful engagement!

[satshanti]

48 minutes ago, satshanti said:

Another thing: in your post you link to a Holo Red version. I've always used the regular RPi4 version. What's the difference and which should I use?

Sorry, I get it now, this is a version for both the RPi4 and the Holo Red. Ignore this... :-)

[satshanti]

8 minutes ago, bogi said:

I'm not sure if that would help, but it looks like easy to try.

Yes, I'll do some experimentation of my own and will report back. Thanks a lot for your help!

[satshanti]

16 hours ago, Miska said:

No, that is entirely up to the USB firmware inside DAC.

Yes, I was afraid of that, and you did already mention this in your first response. I did try it yesterday with the latest NAA image 4.50 and as I kind of expected, it didn't make a difference.

 

Bogi mentioned that if I'd run Windows on the RPi4 and install SMSL's ASIO driver, that might work, but is that true? I'd want to run a headless NAA. Would SMSL's driver even work on such a Windows-based NAA? I'm keen to try options, but for music listening I can't connect my PC directly to the DAC, as it's a noisy monster that has to stay in another room. My limited understanding tells me that there's no solution then.

 

It's a pity, because having had the Cayin RU7 for a few days, which could actually run 48k-based DSD, not only was it now possible to run Sinc-Medium with 96k material, and the halfbands with 192k, but it seemed to sound better as well, maybe not surprising considering it's possibly more accurate to reconstruct waves to multiples, rather than from 48k to 44.1k.

 

Anyway, even converted to 44.1k DSD, the music sounds pretty damned good with Sinc-Short. Those last 3 filters in the list are awesome, as are many of the new halfbands by the way. I do have some more thoughts about filters, but will write a new post in the HQP thread, when I have some time.

[satshanti]

1 hour ago, bogi said:

I prefer now more old poly-sinc-mp, poly-sinc-short-mp, along with newer poly-sinc-hb-m, poly-sinc-hb-s, poly-sinc-gauss-halfband, poly-sinc-gauss-halfband-s, sinc-short, sometimes sinc-Lm. Now I am less using poly-sinc-gauss and poly-sinc-xtr-short-mp, since I am somehow missing more fullness in sound with them than with E50. I am using mostly EC7-super and EC5-super modulators.

At first I used ED5 but as my system was upgraded, I now settled on EC7-super as well.

I tried a lot of filters, but will have to try some of your suggestions, earlier ones at the top of the list. My current favorites are: sinc-short/medium/long (depending on genre and sample rate, for classical, acoustical or anything else that's well-recorded and bass-shy. For pop. rock. blues etc I have a number of choices, depending on the recording: poly-sinc-hb-x-ss, gauss-halfband-2, poly-sinc-xtr-short-mp and even the mqa-mp3-mp is a great choice for poorly recorded material. And occasionally I fall back on the default xla, but in most cases I then actually prefer the non-apodizing version xl. 

[satshanti]

11 hours ago, bogi said:

Linux - GentooPlayer:
Kernel: 6.6.1-rt14-x86_64-GP-RT-MIN
GentooPlayer | 05:34 | Wed 13/12/23
v8.40-182 | Generic Device (x86_64)

Thanks for sharing this, Bogi. I noticed it's the x86 version he's using. Doesn't GentooPlayer also have a RPi4 version? I seem to remember having tried it in the past, but Miska's NAA sounded better to my ears at the time. I'll look into this. 

Another thing: is he really sure it's working properly? Displays and figures don't mean everything. They might show the correct data, but the DAC might still play music at a slower speed, at 44.1/48 = 0.91875x to be exact. With some music you barely notice, especially if you've never heard before how it should sound. At first, it seems to work, but it's not how it should sound. Just a thought... 

[satshanti]

3 minutes ago, bogi said:

@satshanti You could try to play a second of 48k content with PCM output set to let DAC to switch the clock to 48k family and then to switch output to DSD. With oldest Topping E30 that helped. I prepared a script to automate it. With D300 of @mrba that did not help. He measured 918Hz when playing 1k at 48x DSD rates.

 

Currently I have confirmed 48k DSD to work on D300 only with my oldest MCU fw version 1.0.

Well, I finally got around to testing my DAC with the SMSL ASIO drivers and found the same result as @mrba, HQP shows 48x rates, SMSL driver status screen shows 48x rates, but DAC plays everything at a slightly lower frequency, so unfortunately, at least with our newest firmware, it's not working. Strange that your 1.0 firmware works fine. Why would they remove the feature when they update firmware? Anyway, we gave it a try. :-) 

[satshanti]

4 minutes ago, bogi said:

... D300 sound is very nice for the price.  D300 sound is a bit wider, more detail is provided in more effortless manner.

After the Topping E30 (and the Cayin RU7 I tried briefly) the D300 is a significant step up for me. It may not be as "lively" or "sparkling", but that means it's also not sharp, shrill or chafing on the ears. The mids and highs are natural, organic, some might say "laid back", still with plenty of detail. On the speakers I've had for quite a while now, the EB Acoustics EB1 with REL sub, I really enjoyed the sound.

 

In fact, it boosted my enthusiasm for this hobby higher and I decided that the speakers were now the ones holding me back, so I managed to score a set of Magnepan SMGa panel speakers for £400 on eBay. For the last two days I've been testing them out, still without room correction convolution filters, and still experimenting with placement, which is very important with these beauties. The result so far is even more than I imagined. The mids and highs on these speakers are out of this world. I remember the sound from my earlier life as a high-end HiFi salesman, and I've got it now in my own living room.

 

And I already figured out I'll have to completely revisit the modulators and filters. Yesterday I played around with the 4 combinations of super/light (fs 512) and was hard pressed to find a favorite. They all sounded so damned good in their own right. And the filters: I remember Miska made a remark recently that gauss-xla is the most accurate, and to be honest I very much doubted this, as I had many others that sounded better, in my old system that is. Not so now. At the end of my session yesterday I played a tune through different filters, and it's as if everything was upside-down now. Sinc-medium, which was my favorite for violins (probably because it took the edge of the harshness on my system) now sounded sluggish and muddled. Many others sounded more real. At the end I ran gauss-xla and realised that Miska had been right all along. What a sound: sharp and edgy, like a violin should be, but never shrill or harsh in the wrong way.

 

My conclusion: the D300 and the Maggies wonderfully complement each other and the result is maybe not very detailed, not highly resolving, but create immense realism together in the frequencies that matter most. And the bass of the panels isn't bad by all means, maybe not as punchy as the EB1s but more textured. And for the ultra low bass I've got the REL.

 

Now I'm going to tinker and tweak, take some room measurements once I've got the placement right, and the sky's the limit! :-)