S.M.S.L. Amps......wow!

[WaynerN]

I just picked up the 98E (160wpc) and received it yesterday. Today I hooked my Focals to it and my $1 DVD player to its inputs. Holy crap! this thing is really nice sounding, seems to be plenty of power

Almost perfect for a small listening room or ideal for a noob. Just add a cheap input switcher and you can have a nice little system. Even a TT if you have a separate phono preamp.





'ner

 

[KeninDC]

S.M.S.L. is a good company. I have one of their amps and one of their Bluetooth receiver/DAC things. Solid stuff. Not giant killers, but their products work as advertised with the addition of working extremely well.

 

[GChief]

I have one of their AD18’s hooked up to some Klipsch R-51M’s. It gets juke box use, I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[nj pheonix]

I don't consider myself a #s snob.
I like tubes, even SE amps.
10-12% distortion sounds like a lot to me.
I'm guessing that's at full rated output and realistic listening levels it's a good deal lower than that.
I was pleasantly surprised by the sound quality of 3116 based chip amp so I'm guessing the #s don't tell the whole story and it does sound better than it has a right to.
Thanks for the observation and sharing

 

[45rpmspinner]

(160wpc)

That's at 4ohms with 12% distortion.
It's rated at 60wpc into 8ohms at 10% THD.

So, most likely a clean 40 watts per channel into 8ohms....maybe 80 into 4 ohms.
Sounds about right given that the included power supply is 180 watts total.

 

[WaynerN]

I think as the power usage goes up, so does the distortion. At the volumes that I have used, its nice and clean. The power supply that came with is bigger then the amp itself, physically. It's a 5 amp, 36 volt supply.

The Focals may make the amp shine better then it deserves. For my $78, I am more then pleased.

 

[GChief]

I don't consider myself a #s snob.

I’m not even sure how much distortion mine has, didn’t even look. Guess that make me a not a numbers snob as well. I quit chasing numbers early in this hobby. That being said it sounds good with the Klipsch BS speakers and KG4’s. I have noticed it gets annoying at around 93ish dB measured about 8 ft away. It’s only back ground so it rarely goes that loud. Right now it on the deck outside with the R-51Ms pretending it’s a boom box streaming Tidal.

 

[45rpmspinner]

Checking THD vs power output figures on Class D amps doesn't make you a snob.....more like, just realistic.
All amps will distort if overdriven. It's that these "car audio" type output figures aren't very helpful if your interested in clean sound.
And Class D will absolutely do "clean sound" as long as you don't expect them to perform beyond their limits.

To use a figure like 160wpc into 4 ohms at 12% THD to describe this amp is ridiculous.
Whereas 80 wpc into 4 ohms at 0.1 THD might actually mean something.
And that's very close to what the amp actually does. I checked the data sheet.

TDA7498E, used in this amp, is a bit long in the tooth at this point.
They aren't nearly as distortion free as the newer TPA 32xx's, but I'd never presume to say amps built with them don't sound good based on that info alone.

 

[zebra03]

I just picked up the 98E (160wpc) and received it yesterday. Today I hooked my Focals to it and my $1 DVD player to its inputs. Holy crap! this thing is really nice sounding, seems to be plenty of power

Almost perfect for a small listening room or ideal for a noob. Just add a cheap input switcher and you can have a nice little system. Even a TT if you have a separate phono preamp.

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'ner

Where is the best place to buy a SMSL ?

 

[WaynerN]

I got mine from the auction site.

 

[Frank Sol]

Almost perfect for a small listening room or ideal for a noob. Just add a cheap input switcher and you can have a nice little system. Even a TT if you have a separate phono preamp.

add one of these suckers... TC-754 w/phono

then would have a decent start on a system

 

[Akustic]

The Chinese manufacturing boom is giving us the opportunity to listen to really good gear at insanely reasonable prices ...
Bring it on .. I say !! Why listen to tired old caps in out of spec gear .....
Hook it up and happy tunes !!

 

[Old Guy8]

Thanks for posting your experience.
I'm very pleased with couple SMSL Sanskrit 6th DACs I have, for their cost.