Hardware/Audio/DAC
Today I received from Amazon the new SMSL C200 Bluetooth DAC/Amplifier that I ordered taking advantage of the Black Friday discount to replace my old SMSL M3.
SMSL C200 has a balanced output that I can use with the 4.4mm Audio Jack headphone cable supplied with my Sony MDR-1AM2.
Unlike the M3 which could also work via USB (and shut down with the PC) the C200 has an internal power supply which produces some heat during normal use and when the PC is off. It is therefore better to turn it off after each use, even using the supplied remote control.
Options are entirely on a simple small display and access to them is a bit complicated, perhaps this is the only defect of this DAC which offers excellent general quality.
It is possible to select outputs, gain level and various PCM filters audio curves.
The supplied USB and power cables are shorter than that of the M3 model, I could then replace them to enter my setup more easily.
Metal body gives a premium product feel and the supplied remote control is also nice.
Full specifications:
- Mini size design, very suitable for desktop use
- CNC integrated milling process, simple and stylish
- ESS Technology high-end D/A chip ES9038Q2M
- Qualcomm latest Bluetooth chip supports LDAC 24bit/96kHz, APTX/HD, SBC, AAC
- 4x high-end dual op amp OPA1612 and a large number of audio grade components
- The 2nd generation XMOS solution supports DoP64 and native DSD512, and PCM supports up to 32bit/768kHz
- Audio clock processing circuit, greatly reducing the clock jitter
- Input ports (except Bluetooth) support DSD transmission, coaxial and optical supports DoP64;
- Built-in specially designed low-noise switching power supply
- Built-in discrete component linear power supply and multiple low-noise power supplies for analog circuit
- High-quality gold-plated input and output connection terminals
- Japan Audio Association (JAS) Hi-Res certification
- Equipped with full-function remote control
SMSL C200 on Linux (PipeWire)
I spent some time figuring out why in my Arch Linux setup the Sample Rate displayed was always the same 48 even though I was playing flac at 96000.
I discovered that to dynamically vary the Sample Rate of my new DAC it is necessary to act on the pipewire.conf file, update and uncomment the options that allow a selection of the sample rates.
This file is not correctly set by default due to some still unsolved bugs that could occur when connecting via bluetooth.
These are the changes to be made to the file:
~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf
default.clock.rate = 96000
default.clock.allowed-rates = [ 44100 48000 88200 96000 ]
#default.clock.quantum = 1024
default.clock.min-quantum = 16
#default.clock.max-quantum = 2048
#default.clock.quantum-limit = 1024
#default.video.width = 640
#default.video.height = 480
#default.video.rate.num = 25
#default.video.rate.denom = 1For even higher playback quality, edit the files as well:
~/.config/pipewire/client.conf
~/.config/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf
stream.properties = {
#node.latency = 1024/48000
#node.autoconnect = true
resample.quality = 10
#channelmix.normalize = false
#channelmix.mix-lfe = false
#channelmix.upmix = trueAfter making the changes, log out or restart PipeWire with:
$ systemctl restart --user pipewire.service
$ systemctl restart --user pipewire-pulse.service
This is the PipeWire config official reference guide:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/wikis/Config-PipeWire
There is also the pipewire-config tool which allows you to make on-the-fly parameter changes via a simple GUI.
SMSL C200 on Linux (PulseAudio)
I don’t use PulseAudio anymore and I can’t test it but on forum.manjaro.org there is an excellent guide explaining how to best set it up for a DAC:
I have two Linux machines both running Fedora 40. One one the C200 is detected as an option for USB Audio Output, the other it is not.
I would suggest adding these steps:
`mkdir -p ~/.config/pipewire`
`cp /usr/share/pipewire/pipewire.conf ~/.config/pipewire/`
That should create the file with the template. Now it needs to be edited as above. Use a text editor such as `nano` to edit the .conf file.
`nano ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf `
—————–
I have a question for the author, do both files:
~/.config/client.conf
~/.config/pipewire-pulse.conf
have to be populated with this:
“`stream.properties = {
#node.latency = 1024/48000
#node.autoconnect = true
resample.quality = 10
#channelmix.normalize = false
#channelmix.mix-lfe = false
#channelmix.upmix = true“`
Sorry… i missed a subdir:
~/.config/pipewire/client.conf
~/.config/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf
Post edited