S.M.S.L M500 DAC Headphone Amplifier Supports MQA Decoding ES9038PRO D/A Chip USB Uses XMOS XU-216 with Remote Control (Black)

Great sounding bit of kit. Remote control can be a bit temperamental at times. Worth investing in a decent power cable

Spent sometime with this dac and and avoided initial impressions. It does have a fast sounding bass which is great for well recorded electronic music. However, it fares less well with other musical genres and sounds a little dry in the mid bass and midrange which makes it sound edgy. To me it has a distinctly digital sound signature which is what I wanted to avoid at all costs, so had to send it back. Its a clean, bright and clear sound, but somehow the emotion of a good recording is missing. The filters are also unnecessary as they have very little effect to the overall sound. Seems a well made product though with good inputs and remote, just doesn't live up to the review hype for me.

Baby Element X

I was may aware of this DAC on the Audio Science Review review website, which found it to measure incredibly well with very low signal to noise ratio and distortion. Its physical shape is a little out of the norm, but it actually works really well for a PC desktop setup.I've owned multiple USB DACs (AudioQuest Dragonfly, Meridian Explorer2, Schitt Fulla 2 and NAD D 7050) and this blows them all away. Sound wise it's clear, realistic and full of detail and makes it easy to do things like distinguish between First Aid Kit's Kara's and Johanna's vocals when they are harmonising, or pick up background instruments clearly. Listing to heavily layered albums, like Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy on this DAC is a revelation.It sounds great when driving my Beyerdynamic DT 770 250 ohm headphones or my budget M-Audio AV40 powered monitor speakers, though I plan to upgrade the latter to take advantage of the DAC's balanced outputs.

I got it for the DAC mostly to replace a Asus Xonar Essence which I had for 7-8 years which was starting to have problems switching sources. Im very pleased with the upgrade the new DAC doesn't disappoint in any department with any of the FLAC, Wav, DTS files in my music collection connected to a Little Dot MK3 tube amp with upgraded tubes and Beyerdynamic Amiron home headphones.MQA music sounds amazing!I also use the headphone amp with the TV via optical, when I want to keep the noise down at night and don't want to add hours onto the tubes on my other amp while watching TV and movies etc. it drives my headphones with no issues and sounds pretty great even with music, I could see a lot of people being very happy with the sound quality with this DAC and 1/2 decent headphones.A very sold upgrade from the Asus DAC highly recommended.

I probably will not pay £420 for it but I get this for £290 and for that is worth every penny. It can play anything you can throw at it and can drive 300 ohm hd600 no problem. Sound is clear no noise even on IEM-s . Mostly I use that with Audeze LCD-2c… great DAC but bit to expensive