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Sound Quality
Sound General
The SMSL DO200 PRO delivers a neutral sound with a slight brightness, maintaining a flat and uncoloured presentation. This approach allows your other equipment to add colour and character to the sound, making it a versatile source for various setups.
Tonally, the DO200 PRO leans towards a thinner sound, reminiscent of a studio or mastering environment rather than a more musical or lush presentation. The dynamic range is somewhat limited compared to higher-end DACs, resulting in a more one-dimensional and less engaging experience. However, considering its price of $399, this is a reasonable trade-off and aligns with expectations for this price range.
The DAC excels in maintaining a pitch-black background, providing excellent clarity across all inputs. Whether connected via Bluetooth or other sources, it delivers a clean, noise-free signal. Additionally, the DO200 PRO offers impressive pace, rhythm, and timing (PRaT) with fast decay and rapid transients, contributing to a precise and responsive sound performance.
Sound Classics
The bass performance of the DO200 Pro is well-controlled and subtly present, avoiding overwhelming prominence. It allows your other components to introduce colouration while remaining true to the original sound. The bass exhibits good resolution and impact, though it lacks the richest texture. Midbass is more emphasized than sub-bass, and the transition from lows to mids is smooth, demonstrating effective separation in this range.
A standout aspect of the DO200 Pro is its exceptionally dark background, which enhances the separation of musical elements and provides a clean, focused delivery. This feature significantly boosts mid-range clarity, making it a strong choice for listeners who value mid-range performance. The mids are engaging, lively, and organic, though they could benefit from a bit more musicality and fullness to further enrich the listening experience.
In terms of treble, the DO200 Pro maintains a balanced profile and is generally not overly aggressive. However, bright or aggressive headphones and speakers may cause some discomfort, especially for those accustomed to the smoother treble of flagship R2R DACs. The DO200 Pro’s treble is not excessively analytical but rather transparent and honest, revealing the true character of your audio equipment. This can lead to a slightly sibilant sound with very bright gear, as it does not mask any part of the sound signature. Overall, the DO200 Pro is a neutral and transparent source device, providing an accurate representation of your audio system.
Technical Performance
The DO200 Pro offers an impressive soundstage, delivering a wide and deep listening experience with ideal spatial qualities. The room and depth of the soundstage are well-balanced, providing a satisfying sense of space. One of the device’s most notable attributes is its good separation and background performance, which stands out as particularly commendable.
In terms of tonality, the mid-range is somewhat lean, lacking an overly full-bodied presentation. However, the DAC excels in resolution, offering well-separated and clearly defined elements with good refinement. The sound signature is notably colourless and flat, allowing the dynamics and energy of the music to come through without any added colouration.
The neutrality of the DO200 Pro enables it to serve as a versatile and transparent source device. It doesn’t impose any specific sound characteristics, allowing you to layer the unique qualities of your headphones or speakers over its flat signature. This makes it an excellent choice for those who prefer a neutral source that allows their other equipment to define the final sound profile.
However, this trait can be a downside as well, particularly if you seek an R2R type of DAC presentation where you get great texture, musicality, organic tonality and a certain character that the DO200 Pro lacks.
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Page 3: Comparisons, Conclusion
Gary Mccabe
Well, and I know some are going to sigh at this, I use it connected to a series 20 NAD 3020 that I have lying around (using it as a pre amp) connecting to the new Fosi mono blocks for power and Dali Spektor 2 as speakers, very small room, neighbours and not a place for big, bone shaking bass.
So, what I have noticed is RCA into NAD gives warmer, deeper “middle” at a small loss of sound stage, use balanced straight into mono blocks and you get a wider, shallower depth in the middle with less mid-range and a more “clinical” sound (which I, as an editor sometimes enjoy). I think with a more modern, “better” stereo preamp that adds warmth while retaining staging you could be on to a real winner for the price.