Finally, an affordable class-A amplifier for the masses. SMSL VMV A1 amplifier & VMV D1SE DAC review

today we are going to talk about the vmv-1 a1 class a amplifier and i will start the video by saying if you have efficient speakers you should seriously consider one now you might not be familiar with the vmv-1 brand think of it as the smsl premium line usually when we talk about class a we think of big expensive heavy amplifiers that runs hot enough to heat your home during winter in fact a common i see all the time is you can cook an egg on a class a am you know what actually i was planning to try to cook an egg on the amp for today's video but i'm too busy to do it else i would have tried it too bad it would have been fun because this unit does get hot now there's a temperature indicator in front and mine runs around 45 degrees celsius all the time not as hard as the wilson r-800i that's a tube integrated m that one you can burn an egg on the transformer that's a class a amp over the years i did get a chance to try a few class amps but as i mentioned they're big expensive and they do get really hot for example i had to pass lab x 30.5 at one point now that amp was over five thousand dollars big weights 32 kilogram that's about 80 cans of coke and it does get pretty warm so i thought it was a joke when hi-fi express sent me this vmv a1 and call it a class am first of all it's not heavy only 2 kilogram so that translates to about 5 cans of coke instead of 80 cans not expensive about 650 usd not big the size of a regular smsl deck but it does get hot well at least it has that characteristic of a class am where it gets hot so why did i start the video telling you to seriously consider it that is because this unit is surprisingly good and today let's talk about it [Music] now before we begin a bit thank you to hifi express for sending me this unit now apparently smsl is a big shareholder of this online store i guess that is why i was able to get a bit more information on this unit that is not listed anywhere online for example is this amp truly class a or like the azure class a ish also i notice if you look at the official smsl website the only link to this online store so if you would like to give this unit a try consider ordering from them now in the interest of being transparent i am not getting paid for this video nor would there be any affiliated links but they are not getting this smsl a1 back so let's go over specs quickly this is rated at 10 watts into 8 ohm and 15 watts into 4 ohm now this does not sound like much but it drove most of my speakers okay some would consider it an integrated app because it has a digital volume control now what people might not know since it is not published anywhere and i had to ask hifi express is that this amp goes into pure amp mode if you set the volume to 66 67 or 68 once in pure amp mode the sound stage should improve now i had my audio buddies mr vintage and luig tried that and they confirmed that it does sound it does sound different in their system when they put the a1 into amp mode and mr vintage system his experience told me that the singer is more upfront from the instruments and the image is more solid in amp mode next the circuit is class a the bias current is very high so it is close to class a but not exactly class a the problem is heat but there's a potential meter inside that allows you to adjust to 100 class a so i was thinking hey man if i'm good at diy and i can build a chassis that has a big big heat sink i can in theory take the module out of this vmb a1 and put it in my diy chassis and bias it to pure class a regardless the point is that it is bias high enough to have the class a sound and once again this information i got from hifi express because they have a direct connection to smsl so how does it sound now it does have that class 8 sound characteristic now i know a lot of you think that class a is the best sound or might think okay a for the best d for the worst class d is the devil but i would guess myself most people would prefer the class a b sound over the class a sound in fact my audio buddies mr vintage and mr quad have told me in the past they are not a big fan of class a sound now mr quad loves the class a mid-range but not the bass you see class a sound for me is overall lean you don't have that bloated fat base the mid-range has a clean lean has a certain leanness but it has body so for those of you who are not used to this kind of presentation you might find it thin as i said it is not thin because there's a lot of body but you have to keep that in mind classy overall presentation is usually on the lean side what is nice about class a sound and the reason i enjoyed it is because there is a certain linearity to the mid-range life-like that is a bit different than a typical class abm okay guys i am generalizing here and that this is also just my experience so this amp does have a nice linear mid range with body i remember the first day when i tried it i swapped it out with my yamaha wx850 class d integrated amp the first second i noticed right away is the mid-range it's more forward unlike the class dm that is a bit recessed the vmb a1 top end although overall it's not bright it can however be at times attached sharp it sparkles enough that it does not feel veil like there's a veil in front of it bass is surprisingly strong for an amp rated at 10 watt and i do get surprised from time to time on how much bass i get from it it is actually fast enough to handle some of the more complex tracks i throw at it the key here is bass is adequate sound stage is surprisingly big not big enough and it has okay depth for me class ams are not usually sweet sounding it is lean and clean which you will find with the a1 also class a am for me are not warm sounding now i had a discussion with my audio buddy russ about this okay because sometimes we might confuse warm sounding where the upper base is a bit slightly tilted up versus full body sounding where i defined it as not thin has a bit of weight and not recessed so this is how i would overall summarize how the a1 sounds so before i move on to why you should buy this unit let me go over a few things that you should be aware of before buying it like like the negatives right first you need to use good interconnects with this amp now i was hearing some static from the speakers near field in the beginning with the smsl tababuya speakers i confirmed this with smsl and they were able to reproduce this problem the solution turns out that i needed to use good shielded interconnects very interesting because this is the first time i come across a problem like this second the thing gets kind of hot so we don't know how that impacts long-term reliability third the binding posts are so close together that it can be annoying for some of you finally which is the most important is the sound you see remember this is not a fat sounding amp so the problem with any lean sounding amp is it can get a bit shouty when you push the volume especially if you don't have warm sounding speakers or maybe your speakers are known to be on the bright side now i'm not saying it will but there is that danger dac and preamp pairing is so so important with this m you see i'm really sensitive to listening fatigue now although this is not a bright amp because its mid-range is not recessed i notice with certain speakers and that pairing the upper mids can sound a bit string when i push the volume sometimes there is a hint of harshness there now this really depends on the deck and speaker you pair it with for me to get the best sound i had to pair it with the freya 2m now the one i have is the first generation with new old stock tubes but probably any good preamp will do if you connect the a1 directly to the dac it can get a bit bright depending on the dac for example when i paired it with the totem sky tower smsl d1se dac with standard settings and i connected it directly to the bmv a1m i noticed yeah that combo is a bit too bright for my case especially once i push it past a 70db volume so you might encounter this issue with your setup depending on your dac and speakers now you can get smoother and more musical performance if you paired it with the smsl m400 or the i5 i think it's the nano deck i find it well one of the i5 deck i have now i like adding a tube preamp because it rounds off the rough edges and for me that brings the performance to the next level remember i mentioned there can be a slight string or glare in the upper mids while it is completely eliminated by adding a tube preamp in the chain so why should you consider this amp for one it gives you a taste of class the class a sound without needing you to take a loan from the bank sure you can get a chip and like the inexpensive right song a12 to integrate the m to experience the class a sound heck i will even argue the mids on the a12 is probably smoother than this vmv a1 however with the a1 well you don't have to deal with tubes the a1 is more refined more powerful and more dynamic you can play louder and you can drive a lot more different speakers with it and finally you have more authority in the base with this a1 when i use the vmba1 of the shed freya the performance does elevate beyond the rhizome a12 level but of course you know that combo is a lot more expensive sure this a1 might not have the fluidity of my 4 000 m but you would never guess it is a 650 amp if i did not tell you so let me tell you a story you see i lent this a1 to all my audio buddies i remember my audio buddy mr jazz okay he emailed me all excited about this amp and he said i quote the sms lm is wow a big wow how can a small box like this sound so good i compared it with my five thousand dollar tube integrated amp that uses two one one tubes and it makes my amp sounds dull and uninteresting i need to spend more time with it thanks for sharing with me okay now keep in mind he is not saying it is better than his five thousand dollar integrated m because later when we chat about it he said despite his 2m not having the clarity of the vmv a1 his 2m is smoother more powerful and have more headroom now what i found interesting with him in this case he did not know the price of the a1 and he was shocked when i told him okay also but please keep in mind his experience is on a super efficient 96 db plus 6 000 speaker so his experience might not be yours another reason why you should consider it is because it has good detail perhaps of the linear nature of the class am information is more balanced so it is easy for me to hear each instrument and make out what they are imaging might not be top-notch with the a1 okay but instrument separation is pretty good sound stage is also no joke with this amp so let's move on to another reason why you should consider this even with speakers that are not easy to drive it can still sound pretty good as long as you don't push the volume now that i did not expect from a 10 watt m right 10 watt i guess class 810 watt feels different than class d 10 watt who knows ideally with speakers that are not efficient i found them okay around maybe or below 72 db if i push it higher i may hear that slight harshness or string in the upper mid especially when i don't have it to pre-amp in the chain now i did try with a few speakers to see how well it performed so with the clip 600 rp600m the qr acoustic concept 500 and the triangle pro 3 it sounded good now i did wish it was thus bright with the bro 3 but the pro 3 the triangle pro 3 pro 3 i got is brand new so it was not broken in yet now as long as i don't push the volume too high with the bro 3 it sounded okay with the smsl taba booyah speaker which i have revealed a near view has no problem driving it despite being only rated at 88 db now with easier speakers to drive this is where the bmb a1 starts to shine and opens up now with my 93 db silverline sonata it sounded fantastic i also tried it on my exam player single driver 96 db plus speaker it sounded excellent now this was a bit surprising for me because that exam player speaker is not easy to match i struggle a bit with matching my two amps with it so i was kind of surprised that they paired well with this vmv a1 with the freyja since i mentioned gear matching to get the best sound i did ask smsl for a preamp to go with the a1 the reason i asked is because toppings sent me the pre-90 preamp and i was hoping smsl had a preamp too now they don't have one but they sent me their new that called the d1se this is part of the vmb line so it is their premium product now instead of making a dedicated video on this deck i'm just gonna mention about this stack in this video because these days man there are too many videos on dax these days all the decks i get performed really well not to mention all these stacks you know they measure like the life depended on it every deck from asia wins the next best measure dag award so to get a good deck from asia is an expectation these days right i expect good detail good sound stage bass speed and so forth and this d1 sc yeah it did deliver now behind the scene i have my audio buddy mr quan create this excel file comparing all the dac's we have if we score this d1se objectively the final score that we got is really not much different than our own reference four thousand dollar deck from yesterday so whether you would choose this d1se or not it's really a question of taste i borrow the older smsl m400 dac to just quickly compare how it is with this new dac now in short compared to the m400 the new d1se deck is more revealing cleaner sharper and more detailed it has good timing and there are a lot of customization options for example on top of able to choose the different curves that comes with the ess9038 dac chip i can fine tune the color of the sound with the dsp of the dac i notice it is possible to get this deck to sound like a bit softer and more musical by playing with the settings so in short i would choose this stack if i want maximum clarity and detail while having the ability to to fine tune or customize the sound to a certain degree as mr quad put it this stack is excellent regardless of price so let's end today's video the combo d1 sedan and the a1m will give you a really forward sound so speaker matching is important ideally i would recommend pairing a tube preamp with it now i've recorded some demo so you can judge for yourself so for this video i lend this bmv a126 of my audio buddies including me five of us found it amazing two of us found it ah just okay now mr counter found it just okay but the problem is none of his speakers are easy to drive now he did get a chance to try on the sound rt6 sound artist sc65 and he thought it was okay russ who owns efficient speakers like omega zul and klitsch thought it was good sounding but it was he was not blown away by it because he said you know at this price there are other class d alternatives that you can look into that has better value you know those class dm usually comes with a dac now keep in mind though russ only owns class a amps so he didn't get a chance to do like to a b test this a1 against a class d amp now i will finish the video with lowix story now lowick probably was the most surprised and excited he tried it on the tekton 210 speakers and for him even when running in integrated amp mode it is the clear winner compared to all the budget integrated apps i've lent him for him the smsl a1 is tight defined and not aggressive sure there are times with certain recordings it can be attached sharp but when it compares to the azure that he had the smsl is a step up for him especially when he paired it with a good two preamp he was shocked at the special air refuel of the sound stage and this is very surprising coming from an amp the size of a manga book now before you should as your owner start throwing eggs at me i have not heard the smsl like with their side by side so i don't know which one is better regardless of what low x assessment is i think we can at least assume that the azure and a1 given both our bias heavily into class a are performing at least in the same ballpark now this is good news for us because it means we have more choices right especially for those of you super efficient speakers like zoo tecton klitsch man this is a no-brainer this is one of the most surprising gear i've tested this year and i think uh it's definitely worth for a lot of you to give it a try you see most of us well i shouldn't say most of it us i says if some of you who only have listened to class abm all your life and you want something different right you want a change this is a change okay so with that said i'll see you next time [Music] is [Music] for you come and join me [Music] uh [Music] i've been lost [Music] is oh you kiss me [Music] come and show me [Music] uh

Channel: Thomas & Stereo

Views: 47,962

Rating: 4.858736 out of 5

Keywords: integrated amp, hifi, audiophile, stereo

Id: Ql6wna4FLgc

Length: 23min 44sec (1424 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 09 2021