[550591]

Well, the ROHM chip alone costs $100 on its own and is used in the Luxman D-10x which retails for $16,000. Im not saying this dac is up there with the Luxman but its pretty cool to think the ROHM chip is good enough for a TOTL dac in a 16K unit.

All a DAC needs to be is transparent. And the D300 is more than good enough there.
Beats R2R DACs with 90s technology easily. No need to waste money on audiophile nonsense

 

[Flm09]

I agree! I unfortunately dabbled into R2R and Chord Qutest. But now here to tell everyone that if you have an open unbiased mind that this relatively inexpensive DAC is same level meaning resolution as Chord Qutest while sounding a little sweeter and a wee bit less digital!

 

[Nellie75]

All a DAC needs to be is transparent. And the D300 is more than good enough there.
Beats R2R DACs with 90s technology easily. No need to waste money on audiophile nonsense

I agree but I also think there is some synergy to be found with DACs and amps. Some dacs do sound different.

 

[Takeanidea]

Late to the party but mine is due to arrive today. I have a D200. I also have a Lampizator DAC4 which uses an R2R chip. We'll see what the D300 can do compared....

 

[povidlo]

I have d/s sources with flaship chips from AKM, CS, and ESE. In terms of r2r and multibit, I have Hifiman Hymalaya, Cayin ru6, as well as old school multi-bit dac with Phillips and BurrBrown chips. Really wanted to get this to try the Rohm chip which I haven't heard.

Got D300 for work office set up as alternative to neutral-cold E50. Very busy there, so got a chance to listen to it briefly for just about an hour through LDAC. Very first impressions are positive. Tonality is neutral-warm, out of traditional d/s chips it's generally closer to AKM's velvet sound. Specifically though, I found D300 to sound somewhat similar to RCA output of TA-ZH1ES and its proprietary Sony s-master dac based on my recollection. Smooth treble, great sense of ambience in the low end, and enough color in the mids to keep them musical but clean. In terms of r2r similarity, I heard greater emphasis on micro-dynamics than macro-dynamics. D/s chips typically have opposite focus from my experience.

Not sure if it makes a difference yet, but HCP Mode was set to OFF. Based on manual OFF gives better low and mids performance, while ON gives cleaner treble.

 

[califmike33]

Probably not the best DAC to pair with a tube amp if it's already warm?

 

[povidlo]

It leans warm but so far to me it's still neutral-warm. It's not pissy warm humid. Don't forget SMSL has to please ASR crowd so it's very clean sounding. They probably could've made it even more analog sounding but it wouldn't measure as well as it did and could give Amir a bad stomach ache. I had it in the chain with tube preamp and warm Cavalli amp, outcome was enjoyable. To your point about balancing, I've had neutral-cold E50 in this chain originally but on first listen I think I liked D300 in it better.

 

[califmike33]

Interesting thank you for your opinion on that I may go ahead and purchase it.

 

[califmike33]

Well I pulled the trigger I got one off of eBay for $300 see how I like it.

 

[califmike33]

Got a question for you guys I picked up this amp and it has a little remote control but when I hit the volume on the remote control it doesn't do anything can I control my amplifier through this dac with the volume?

 

[povidlo]

Got a question for you guys I picked up this amp and it has a little remote control but when I hit the volume on the remote control it doesn't do anything can I control my amplifier through this dac with the volume?

Volume control works when variable line output is selected in settings.

 

[califmike33]

where in the settings ? i found output but it only says rca, all, xlr. Also why does my screen always show 44hz, it never changes with 96, 192 etc ?

 

[povidlo]

where in the settings ? i found output but it only says rca, all, xlr.

It's under PRE MODE. You might find it useful to read the manual.

 

[califmike33]

Found it thanks. Still cant get screen to stay on full time and show what res file im playing ?

 

[povidlo]

Screen settings are under DIMMER in the manual, 60 secs max unless used.

Have you downloaded usb driver for D300? https://www.smsl-audio.com/portal/product/downlist/id/11.html