Відео

Could you compare Su-1 and ps200 ?

Hi Rick, any update on the repair? Did you get them fixed?

I assume that you can connect a turntable on the dvd input, correct??

Thanks for the review, you cover products that other reviewers miss. This T7 is very intriguing at a low cost, no doubt!

Great review Rick. Good info and analysis. Thx.

If Iota don't help you out, and I expect they will, pop in either the Mundorfs or ANs, both are great capacitors, famed for sounding very good indeed, both are great reliable companies too. Good luck!

The AV 525 remote is heaven! Works wonderful! Very responsive. I definitely made the right choice going with the AV 525 across the board. Believe it or not I keep the bass and treble controls flat 99% of the time. That is impressive to say the least. There is a lot of headroom on these controls if you want it but it is super rare they need tweaking at all. Just saying.

Hey Rick question if ok? This could be a Billy Joel,,,I may Be Wrong I May Be Right moment,,,ha! Anyway, got the other matching sub in so,,,,,,I tried and experiment. I sent 30 hertz into the new AV 525 and using main speakers only. Left volume set at bout 11:00 o'clock on new amp. I had the wife sit in a chair best spot I could find for low freqs given our room. I then turned on one sub and set it at 50 hertz (lowest frequency setting it has but I could still hear 30 hertz coming out of it) I then turned up the sub too high and told the wife,,,, now I am going to turn the volume down on the sub. When you hear the sub disappear tell me when to stop. We did each sub individually (one sub on one off) with the main pair of speakers on. Ok, that's done. Then proceeded to play said music and you do not even notice the subs are on so I am thinking I have them dead on correct frequency and volume level for the pair of main speakers now. At this point the subs sound like my mains and transparent so to speak. Nothing is overbearing but the overall low end is fuller. I did leave the phasing on the powered subwoofers in normal mode being the system is not in a big room. Am I crazy trying this approach? It seems to work. All the music I throw on still seems natural audio wise to me but just a bit fuller sounding. My main speaker pair has 12" woofers in them. The Yamaha powered subs are rated at 70 watts and have a 6.5 " woofer in each.

Looked at this brand and now they have a newer, more powerful integrated available under new management. However, the fact these issues exist and that the company originally designed the VX line for and to be branded as a budget Nakamichi is perplexing. Alot of budget amps have been designed that sound really good, and some not good but most as expected. Those that sound above their price point get alot of attention and initially sales. But customer service, reliability and longevity of product is important. While there are a few amps I am interested in today that fit my needs which include size and weight requirements, I expect some corners to be cut somewhere to meets pricing requirements. However, if these cuts do not affect the attributes of SQ, reliability, etc., I think I would be fine with it. My first real higher end model was a Hegel h160 which served well on the speakers I used. It is overkill for my needs as I use standmount speakers typically easy to drive as well. If I had much more difficult to drive speakers, I would have ended my search for products. Bu I wanted smaller and lighter and while class D can provide this, I still liked the class AB sound at the time. About 4 years ago, I came upon a review of the Keces E40, bought one and have bee pleasantly surprised that it does not embarrass itself against the Hegel in SQ at the SPLs I listen at. The Hegel adds a bit more energy, resolution and realism at times to say piano strikes while the Keces can round a bit off the edges, plays a little warmer but still resolves, provides detail, stage depth, etc., and compared to other integrateds I have had outperforms those in a way that its easy to hear versus when comparing it to the hegel in my system. So, the only issue of concern is longevity, however I have played the little thing straight over much of the last 3 and a half years without a blip. I would be thrilled if it lasted 20 years but at its price, if I got 10 it would be good enough. I take the hegel out on occasion but go back to the Keces as it fits my lifestyle needs. Picked up a second one NIB too at a discounted price and almost bought a third used unit. Small and limited by output power, it does well even with 4 ohm speakers. I have the Dali Opticon 1 on it now with a small sub thru its preouts. Is it the best audiophile experience, no but it all punches above expectations as a functioning whole. The Keces E40 has successfully driven Focal 807Ws, MA Silver 100s, Triangle, Wharedale, and many other speakers well. The ones I kept are the speakers I liked which were the Focal, Triangle Zeta, Cambridge Minx XL and these Dali Opticon 1 MK1 which measure SPL output higher than rated/stated. I did try the Menuet SE on the Keces but found to play it loud enough required alot of its rated output capability which built up alot of heat. It sounded good, just as good as the hegel driving them with far less heat btw but returned them not because I didn't like them as much as I got a preferred sound out of my other speakers at the time. I found them too refined and while resolution was outstanding, they covered up or obscured alot of background as well as detail and texture I was accustomed to hearing with music I am familiar with. Since then I picked up the Opticon 1 and while vinyl wrapped and having a less expensive crossover, it still manages to give good resolution, weight to notes and without obscurring detail. The detail is abit less than my other speakers but exceeds what the SE provided. I thought about giving the SE another chance as a slightly used one came up for sale but I would have to keep the Hegel to drive it and looking at its frequency curve and measured specs, still feel the Opticon 1 is a better option for SQ for me. If you only use it nearfield, aka desktop or in a really small room and like a warmer, smoother presentation and have an amp that can deal with a well under 4 ohm load, it could fit the bill. Also, its for music, not soundtracks as in watching a movie. It just doesn't have the capabilities for a more lively presentation for movies especially at 5 feet away or more. Designed for nearfield. I seem to be drawn to speakers that can do both music and movies well and function well nearfield or further away (say midfield) in a medium sized room. As well as amps and dacs that support this kind of performance. I was concerned that the Keces might have operational issues given it produces heat that needs to be dissipated withkn a smal enclosure but its performed well so far and the aluminum chassis acts as a heatsink by design. It is a well engineered product that fits its price point and sounds better than expected. Made in Taiwan, not the PRC by people known for power conditioners and such so they know how to built a well functioning amp with the right amount of protection built in. The only drawback for me is that the blue led tends to fade (as all led's do) over time. Not really bad as its pretty bright initially and now looks fine. The only issue. If I sell the hegel, I am looking at the V/A CA-1, perhaps the NP-1 and also a few others including small (relatively) tube amps. The only other speakers I am considering if I sell some of my others is the Closer OGY, perhaps the SF Lumina II Amator among a few others but no guarantee that performance will greatly exceed what I have now either. Different for sure but as to outright preference, I don't know. That's the journey so far. And given a brand has certain issues that pop up or demonstrates both capability and reliability, that plays alot in the decision making.

Great review! Thank you very much.♥

Hey Rick. Unrelated. Check out Linux MX 23.2 "Libretto" a PC operating system and the Brave Browser. Thank me later. You do not work on it. 25 seconds to boot it and you are up and running. Updates take only minutes. Your done. Closing statements regarding Rick,,,,,, anyone wondering about this channel, he has been super helpful. Just saying. 10 Stars

Super clean records 1950's Harry James Orchestra is heaven to listen to.

So far still loving the AV 525 and the T3 Plus phono pre-amp.

I just spent over 3 hours trying to find a distortion issue in my system. Turns out it was a bad new 4 week old stylus that had gone south in the right channel on my AR XA. Glad that's all it was. The Shure Obstacle Course Record was a life saver figuring out this problem. Ordered another exacting same Yamaha sub for my system thanks to you Rick.

Have you ever compared this streamer to the IFI zen streamer?

A true owner of HTA200, and I can tell that this amp can drive a very good speakers with power. I set the tone controls @ 12 o'clock. HTA200 is a very good amp with little cost.

nice🎉🎉

A friend of mine bought one and shipped it back after 2 days. Nowhere near rated output and the volume was far from linear, not much happening until halfway point. Also discrepancy in the tone. Parts Express was cool with the return, so kudos to them.

Quick question. Is there any harm on the AV 525 running a Y adapter cable out of the single subwoofer RCA out jack to run 2 powered subwoofers? Thanks ahead of time. Let me know please. Seems a lot of people do this with amps and have no issues what so ever.

Nice detailed review keep up the great work Subscribed, hope you reach the 1000 mark soon you have a lot of great content 🙂

Thank you! Great review with all the neccessary info!

I found a pair of those and turned them unrecognizable. Idk I can't send you a picture. Started by opening them up and bracing them spraying the inside with flex seal and then glued down carpet pad. I got flooring adhesive and troweled it on the outside, then covered with oak hardwood flooring and sanded it down so you can't see any seams. I bought a budget woofer and tweeter and designed a quick crossover. But the cabinet came out so nice that I decided to make them really nice. So I got Dayton reference paper cone woofers and a Dayton reference silk tweeter. Then I designed a 3 rd order crossover on xsim crossed at 1400 to avoid beaming. I used ofc wire, lead free silver solder and ported it through the bottom that I designed on winisd. I used tung oil and poly on the cabinet. I routered the sides and tops and outlined the edges with gold leaf paint. I made the tops and bottoms 3" thick and put big rubber heavy duty feet on the bottom. The speakers look totally different and sound awesome. All my measurements, waterfall, distortion is flawless. They were thrift store trash and I can put them up against against a High end speaker and you wouldn't ever know. I just wish I could show you a picture

Great review! I'll be in the market soon and this helps!! ❤

great review. i'm a big fan of topping dac's and have been running an e50 for a while now. might be upgrading soon to something a little higher end. any recommendations under $400?

Thank you very much.☺

The feature set of this amp is similar to the NuForce DDA-120 that was offered a while back, but while the NuForce was also using Infineon direct digital amp chips, they were a custom part number for NuForce and they were not even for sale online, and now it looks like Infineon has incorporated a similar product into their Merus series.

Is this better than the Fiio K11?

Excellent test. Let the music play a little longer and put a second track, too.

The smsl ps100 sounds better than the others. Incredible test. I shall listen to it again. Can you tell me how the ps100 is powered???? I don't have a pc. I want to connect it to my blu ray player which has a usb port. Will that work???

No sound comparison???

Ohh thanks, that's what I missed and you've already done it. Sound demos! :D Btw what kind of PSU do you use for Topping?

Can both outputs be used simultaneously? I need one of them for a subwoofer.

I feel zip ties are much better than people hot gluing the parts to the board. I had this idea also on mountings.

Wil you do a D90 III review? It would be great, and put a sound demo to the end of the video is a good idea too. I think you should do that in every review. THX! :)

In the sound demo I hardly hear any differences. There is but very subtle... BTW thanks for the review!

Does this support CEC Volume Control (Consumer audio control) via HDMI ARC input? I need to use my Yamaha HS5 Studio Monitors with my TV. My TV (Hisense 55U6G) supports CEC. But I'm not sure if SMSL PS-100 supports CEC to be able to control the output from the RCA jacks via TV's Remote Control. Can you please let me know. Have you tested if the volume control works?

Anyway Rick hope you are having a nice July 4th. A bit confused if you are based in the U.S.A. or not.

Just got a great deal on a slightly used T4 Pro also with a brand new set of GE JAN 5654 W tubes also. Made in the U.S.A. Now I can swap tubes around and I will have a T4 Pro and a T3 Plus phono pre's to try out! WhooHoo!

Hey Rick what is your opinion on the Douk Audio T3 PLUS Vacuum Tube Preamp? Most people say that you should install the GE Jan 5654 6AK5 tubes right off the bat. Your thoughts? I like that this unit has a small foot print.

These are great but Fiio need to sort their customer service communications skills on the global market. The Firmware updates for these units and others in Fiio range are notoriously hard to implement particularly in Europe with language barriers within the software. I had to return a BTR13 due to the impossibility of implementing a critical firmware update for the EQ.

Sound tests on UA-cam are pretty useless with compresion and all. Sorry, I always find it amusing when people do that. It really doesn't show the sound quality at all. That said, this amp is cheap, and it sounds okay, but just okay. It really doesn't give a good sound image and staging compared to solid state amps of the same price. Sure, you get that slight tube coloration from harmonics, but don't expect an "audiophile" type experience with it, and also don't expect a true tube experience as it is a hybrid style amplifer with a mix of solid state and tubes. The rated "watts" is pretty well marketing garbage, like a lot of the D class amps try to push. The RMS output is a LOT lower. That 20 Watts difference.. No. Not different at all. The hum is very little to do with the transformers, it is to do with filtering. Output transformers don't hum if there is no hum on the signal and quite frankly, from what I can see Daton HTA 200 uses identical output transformers from the same manufacturing factory as Nobsound use. The Daton units are a little higher quality in their build and the do have a phono stage, but I prefer an external phono stage of quality over any integrated one. Overall, sure if you are a beginner looking to experiment, get the Nobsound and be aware it is cheap and of variable quality. If you are looking for better quality sound, don't bother with it. It's cheap and it's cheap for a reason.

I bought this amp. Not here yet. "Just for once" I wish someone would demo any new amp with some Ted Nugent / Scream Dream or at least VanHalen! I hate this weird off the wall music. I do appreciate the review greatly but your demo music needs some Aerosmith or Pink Floyd or even some 1950's jazz would be cool!. Just saying!

You can completely shut up the display through the remote control.

Hello. I put the A70 Pro on the d70 pro octo. After an hour, hour and a half of listening, they become hot. Is this normal? How did you put them in your home? Thanks for your patience.

2000 hours is not for general use. That’s the lifespan of the capacitor at maximum or near maximum temp.

With 2M black on ST would it compare to Alva TT sound quality?

You got peaks of 108 db and that didn’t wake up everyone in the house? I want the number of your insulation contractor.

SU-1 beats high priced dacs the only thing lacking is a level control.

This unit is glitchy as you said. Sound using just thumb drives is fine. I've tried to stream through my android phone using Bluetooth and streaming various UA-cam music. WHEN it connects, it sounds fabulous. BUT lately it just simply won't connect. My phone won't connect to the SD9, even though it "sees" the SD9. So it's hit or miss. I suppose I have to use ethernet but my modem is far from the unit, so not practical! So your review is correct, it is glitchy and not with the features of a modern music streamer/server.

Really want to know your 2 channel speaker system and it's details