SMSL DO200 Pro Balanced DAC

I just got one of these today, shipped by Fedex from Aoshida-US and bought myself for $399 on Amazon. It's so new they shipped it direct from their factory, but should be in Amazon warehouses shortly. I have an audio equipment business, and have plenty of other high end ones to compare it to. First impressions on the Topping A70 Pro and A90D Discrete used for testing is that's it's as flawless as any DAC costing 3-4 times as much I've had. It runs cool (unlike the Gustard X26Pro which will heat up a room with it's two 9038Pro chips running in current mode) and the color display is really nice. Also it's similar to the DO300EX and DO400 I've got, that it makes no pop/tick noise when switching bit rates like the DL200 and D-6s does. It's good they have that fixed for their mid and high range models.
It uses the medium form factor (189 x 45 x 186mm), larger than a D-6s but smaller than the SMSL SP400/M400 stack I have. It fits on top of the A70Pro and A90D but not underneath it. I recently had the H400 that SMSL took to a recent Can-Jam and it reminded me a lot of the Topping A30Pro. I have a Topping D30 Pro currently with it's 4 Cirrus Logic processors, and this feels like the SMSL answer to it with twelve CS43131 chips on it. It's the DAC equivalent to a five blade razor.

Features:
They didn't include the color options found on their other models, the filters available are:
Fast+Latency
Fast+PHComp
Slow+Latency
Slow+PHComp
Non-Sampling


It's has USB 1.0 (24 bit/96khz) by default and 2.0 (32 bit and all the hi-res bit rates) selectable off the menu which requires a Windows driver (the current SMSL driver works great). Linux Mint found it and no problems there.
Bluetooth 5.1 which worked great with the Google Pixel and a 5.1 adapter I keep for testing. SBC,AAC,aptX,aptX HD,LDAC The new antenna works well, in a 2 story townhouse I left the phone downstairs and it was still smooth as glass.

All the file formats like DSF played smoothly and even though I don't use MQA files, I keep a couple for testing. The indicator on the screen shows the logo so it's easy to tell if the track supports it. It's not just some little dot like on other models. I'm of the school that all DACs with the same SINAD above audible distortion, and using a similar filter are going to sound the same. The 5.2 volts help get the noise floor down and it's just you and the music. Pair it with an amplifier that has a low noise floor and doesn't clip in high gain and it's the last DAC you might need until more models come out with onboard parametric equalizers.



SMSL really went all out to offer the same performance as a Topping D90 5 volt models for half the price. The form factor is the only caveat since many good amplifiers will have to be run side by side due to it's size. I use 15" monitor risers with removable feet to lower them and fit large stacks which could help placement if desk space isn't unlimited.

After spending a few days using it, I didn't encounter any problems and it's just complete transparency. The extra push of 5.2 volts helped with the Hifiman HE6se when equalizing with a -6.9db preamp reduction. Without eq at loud volume levels on the A70Pro there's still 17db left for headroom to work with in high gain mode. For cables I have the Worlds Best XLR, Monoprice Stage Right star quad, and the Amazon Basics star quad work and sound just as good if you want the 3ft length (the new black design they have look nice too). Doing a DAC review is a bit of a trick. They just turn a digital file into analog without adding distortion. Load up some 16/44.1khz FLAC files and it's as good as it gets on a high quality amplifier. If the form factor fits your setup and it has all the connectivity you need, you can't go wrong. For Topping to compete with their D90 III costing twice as much, they're going to have to up their game with more models with a built in parametric equalizer like the D50 III. I'm kind of stuck in my ways with APO/Peace so not in a rush for it. Technically we've hit the limit with DACs like this one. I just wish they would put it in a bigger form factor like the DL200, so full size amplifiers can fit on top of it.