General/Packaging/Build
SMSL is well known for its lineup of dac amps. The lineup consists of budget models all the way to high end models. For those who are not familiar with SMLS, here’s a brief introduction of who they are and what they do from the
official site. This is my 2nd time reviewing SMSL’s product, i have reviewed the SU-1 DAC previously and I like it a lot, it offers a lot of value for the asking price, i have the M300SE today and let’s see how it performs against the competition. The packaging is fairly straightforward and the unit is well protected, i’m surprised it came with a remote control and I actually find it very good and convenient to have a remote, Fiio K11 on the other hand which costs slightly higher doesn’t come with a remote.
Build quality of M300SE is solid, buttons have good tactile feel to it, the body is made out of aluminium, with an OLED front panel, 6.35mm and 4.4mm headphone out is located on the front panel.
Specifications
- Inputs:USB / Optical / Coaxial / Bluetooth
- Output Level:RCA 2.0Vrms XLR 4.0Vrms
- THD+N(UN-WTD):0.00013% (-117dB)
- Dynamic range (UN-WTD):RCA 120dB XLR 132dB
- SNR (UN-WTD):131dB
- Bluetooth:BT 5.0 ( support SBC)
- USB transmission:Asynchronous
- USB compatibility:Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 Mac OS X10.6 or Later / Linux
- Bit depth: USB:1bit ~ 32bit
- Optical/coaxial:16bit ~ 24bit
- Sampling rate: USB:44.1 ~ 768kHz DSD64, DSD128, DSD256, DSD512
- Optical/coaxial:32 ~ 192kHz
- Power Consumption:3W
- Standby power:＜0.1W
- Size:70x73x165mm (WxHxD)
- Weight:0.54Kg
Gears used for this review
- iPhone 15
- Macbook Air M2
- SMSL M300SE
- Fiio K11
- 7Hz Legato
- Sennheiser HD660S
- Hifiman Sundara
Foreword
My review is solely based on what I hear via my equipment and I never consider my reviews to be objective in any way rather a subjective approach. Do take into consideration that everyone’s ear anatomy is not the same, so the psychoacoustics perception might be different as well, but i believe it will not stray too far
Driving Power
- Despite the claimed power out from the specification, 148mw per channel, it’s not being specified whether the output is from SE or BAL, but based on my own testing from the 4.4 headphone out, it certainly has no problem powering my Sundara and HD660s to its potential without maxing out the volume, at just 20/40 volume step, for both HD660s and Hifiman Sundara
Features
- Low power consumption, does not need an external power supply, it can be powered solely by my Macbook Air M2’s USB port, even straight from my iPhone 15 via USB C, not an issue as well
- As a Tidal user myself, full MQA decoding is definitely a welcoming feature for me
Sound Impression
Tonality wise, BHD Pro doesn’t add much coloration to the signature, i would say it is quite neutral with a slight hint of warmth for the signature. I have tested several dongles and dac/amp with CS41313, it does seem like they have this signature where it sounds quite airy and a slight boost on the lows
Listening Impression with the following gears
Sennheiser HD660S
- Bass is punchy and tight, mid bass especially
- Sub bass has slightly better extension, although still lacking due to it being an open back
- Mids has a bit more body
- Slightly bigger soundstage
- Male vocal has slightly thicker texture and sounds fuller
- Female vocal is full sounding as well
- Not so much changes in terms of detail retrieval
- Overall, a very good synergy pairing the HD660s with M300SE
7Hz Legato
- Legato is a bassy and warm IEM, aimed at delivering analog-ish speaker sound
- The mids are slightly recessed, but when paired with M300SE, the mids doesn’t sound that recessed anymore and it sounded a little bit more forward, both male and female vocal also have better texture and body to it
- Bass on the other hand sounds a little tame when paired with M300SE, the sub bass doesn’t rumble that much, but mid bass is still punchy, a very refreshing experience if you ask me, still very fun sounding
- Not much changes on the detail retrieval as well
- Soundstage is slightly better in terms of better height,depth and width perception
- Legato is not hard to drive, but M300SE definitely have more than enough power to push it hard as Legato scales really well with power and source
Hifiman Sundara on 4.4
- Sundara is a Planar headphone from Hifiman that requires quite a bit of power in order to perform at its best, M300SE does have the capability to drive it to optimum performance with a 4VRMS voltage swing on balanced output
- Sundara on its own is quite neutral sounding with a slight hint of brightness in terms of tonality, pairing it with the M300SE seems to be a good choice where the overall presentation has a bit more body to it
- The low end is slightly elevated due to the added warmth, treble is smoother yet it doesn’t compromise in terms of resolution, not to mention the soundstage is also slightly bigger
Comparison (Fiio K11)
- In terms of sound, K11’s sound signature is leaning towards the “clean” sounding kind of tonality, uncolored and quite neutral to my ears, less musical compared to M300SE
- Soundstage is slightly smaller and less air compared to M300SE
- Packs some serious punch in terms of output power, up to 1.4w on Balanced
- Gain selection, Low, Mid and High
- Although sporting different DAC, the differences are actually very minimal, the 43131 on M300SE is a DAC chip with built in amp section, where as on the Fiio’s 43198, it is a DAC only setup and the amp section is designed/implemented separately
- On paper, it may seem like K11 is a better choice, but depending on your own use case and sound signature preference, i would put K11 as a more clean sounding dac/amp, whereas M300SE a more musical one, not to mention, it also sports a full balanced circuit with the ability to do dual XLR out to an external amp for more power
Final Thoughts
Having tested and daily driving the M300SE for several weeks, rotating between my IEMs, headphones and various dac/amp, it’s safe to say M300SE definitely earned a spot on my desk and without any doubt, i will recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a musical sounding dac/amp that is loaded with features yet it won’t break their bank. Highly recommended!
*A big thanks to SMSL for sending this over for the purpose of this review. I thank them for their support and opportunity
Head over to their official webstore if you are interested in getting one:
SMSL M300SE - Non affiliated
