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SMSL 400 AKM 4499 DAC, new toy.

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Soncoz SGD1: ESS 9038 chips.

I feels somewhat like I'm going over old ground here as both of these machines have been heavily reviewed of late. But both of them are on my purchasing radar and they both deliver SOTA numbers.

In terms of connectivity they both come very close, the Soncoz manages OPT, USB C /B, SPDIF and AES as wired inputs and has bluetooth, with an internal aerial. It also does SPDIF out as well. It's only really missing I2S

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The SMSL 400 is a little different, with USB B, SPDIF, I2s and TOSlink as the wired connections and blutooth, via an external aerial.

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On inputs that makes it a simple choice SMSL 400 if you have to have I2S and the Soncoz SGD1 DAC if you have to have AES, SPDIF out or are too lazy to find a USB B cable.

Round the front it's pretty much all business with multi-function control buttons being backed up by remote control. The SMSL400 features a full-colour display with drop down menu system. It's bright, legible-ish from a few meters away, certain volume level is super easy to discern, which is pretty much all you'll use from your seat anyway.

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The Soncoz SGD1 does it differently replacing the numeric display of the SMSL 400 with a warm LED lit pictogram display of the selected settings. The volume is surrorunded by an illuminmated ring that indicates the current volume setting and moves as you turn the dial or tap the remote.

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In use there's nothing really to tell the volume controls apart other than fact that the SMSL xlr output level is seriously hot, there is output level to burn here. Personally I'd prefer it if I wasn't constantly listenign at -30-40db on the volume pot. I know the maths is good and that we're not throwing away any resolution with modern digital volume controls, but still, it's pointless and it irks me, and it means I can't run the SMSL direct into my power amps as I'd be doing all my listening in the first 8db of the volume level- where we are throwing away bits.

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There is a significant price differential between them, with the Soncoz being almost £300 cheaper from UK suppliers.

How do they sound?

Well actually they both sound pretty much sublime. My current dac stack is a rpi, fifopi reclocker with top spec Crystek clocks, ESS 9039 pro QM dual chip dac board and a Lundahl output stage. It has pretty much every voltage rail separated out and supplied either by offboard LDO or Lifepo batery supply, it's certainly tricked out and stands me at a bunch of man hours and about £1200 including SSD. And it sounds shit compared to these two. Ok, shit is a bit much, it's not as good, the bass isn't anything like as well resolved and textured, the mids are pretty much perfect on it but the top end has some modest digital glare and the whole thing looks like a science experiement- which it is. It's actually bloody good in isolation, but it's not anywhere as good as these two.

I loaded my 1k sine wave file to my laptop and level matched them as best I could with my scope, less than a DB either way.

I then spent several hours going back and forth, all sighted mind you, listen, note, swap, repeat until bored. It was an afternoon of thinking I'd spotted a difference only to find it dissapear on another switch over, nebulous differences evaporated all afternoon. They are both so good it's not worth spliting hairs over. If I had to be drawn to an opinion I'd opine that the SMSL 400 is a little more etheral at the top while the Soncoz does a better job of resolving the bass fundamentals. But you know what, i could feel completely different about it the next time I plug them in.

I should note that the SMSL remote control has given up the goat (sorry Paul), other than that they werre both fine with my selection of PCM music at various data rates, I didn't try MQA or DSD.

Ultimately I'll choose one based on the sockets on the back and how my wallet is feeling on the day, £469 for the Soncoz SGD1 vs £765 for the SMSL 400. Both of them offer state of the art performnace that simply wasn't on offer a few short years ago they are both essentially blameless. Choose the one that mathces your preferred price and feature set, they are both stunning.


Thanks to Keith @ purite for the kind loaner of the Soncoz.
 
Great and exhaustive comparison, thanks Simon, If I could just amend the price the Soncoz is £400 inc vat and next day delivery.
Keith
 
That is a very useful write up Simon. Almost impossible to even guess...but do you have any suspicion that the preamp section of the A22 would bring benefit for those feeding directly into a power amp. Not sure how you could give a view really...just a forlorn hope.
 
The SMSL was $ 809.99, I chose a bad day exchange rate wise, and the difference between the online exchange rate and the Paypal rate plus their fee was £30 !. Total paid by me was £ 692, though looking today at Paypals exchange rate it is £ 620. Delivered next day inclusive.

I used it at full output less a couple of dB into my BPBPre and the volume control was only slightly less than with the Ian stack.

I was looking forward to trying i2S input, but my Allo USBridge Sig does not have i2S out on the HDMI, nor does my TV.
I could try it by hacking the GPIO out from the Sig.
 
My guess is the The Topping will be on par with the two reviewed here. You pays your money and takes your choice.
Nice write up there Simon.
 
All the data on audiosciencereview suggests that you should choose between all these high performance dacs on features and aesthetics, there aren't going to be any audible differences unless you have problems with ground loops from using with a non Class ii PC, where there seem to be some different susceptibilities between manufacturers.
 
Soncoz looks like a great potential M-Dac upgrade. I currently run two toslink inputs (AEX and TV) into the M-Dac, is there any way to do something similar with the Soncoz?
 
I see the Soncoz is designed by the same guy that did the Khadas Tone Board, which I have in a drawer waiting to be set up with a Pi. Even more keen now to hear what it does.
 
Simon, did you level match the two devices via their volume controls to use two different settings on your preamp? Ie did you run the two devices as DACs at full-chat or DAC/Pre? It likely doesn't make much difference but I'm trying to get a sense of whether the two units sounding the same will carry over to using them straight into a power amp.
 
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