SMSL DP5
Desktop Hi-Fi MQA network music player and headphone amplifier
The SMSL DP5 is an extremely complete and highly efficient network player that makes the most of high-resolution music files. You can play audio files stored on your USB storage device, remote computer, Micro SD card, smartphone, and even listen to your favourites from your NAS SMB shared folder.
With WiFi connectivity, the DP5 is compatible with DLNA and AirPlay protocols, making it easy to stream music remotely. It also supports many popular file formats such as MP3, WMA, WAV, AIFF, AAC, FLAC, OGG, APE, ALAC, DSF, DFF ...
Extremely versatile, the streamer offers a wide range of connections, covering almost all integration scenarios. The ES9038Pro features a high precision DAC circuitry based on the ES9038Pro chip, and even has a headphone output.
DAC ESS Sabre ES9038PRO
The SMSL DP5 has its own digital-to-analogue converter circuitry. The latter uses an ES9038Pro decoder chip. This version is not only the flagship of ESS, but also one of the best hardware solutions for high-fidelity audio decoding available today.
Thanks to this SABRE chip, the DP5 benefits from the HYPERSTREAM 32 BIT architecture as well as native DSD256 support. The circuit also features advanced reconstruction filters and excellent dithering fineness.
This converter circuit allows the SMSL DP5 to play/receive high resolution digital audio files and play them directly through your headphones/active speakers/preamplifiers or integrated amplifiers. It promotes accurate sound reproduction with sustained dynamics and a wide sound field, achieving excellent performance such as SNR > 130 dB, very low harmonic distortion (0.00015% @ 1kHz) and significantly low jitter (clock jitter).
An intuitive and extremely elegant interface
The DP5 has an excellent screen that displays all the information you need to easily navigate through the (many) options and check the selected functions at a glance.
The screen displays in real time the active source/status of wireless connections, playback data and even allows you to browse between storage devices.
The large panel allows you to access all playback controls: play/pause/navigate the current show, skip to next/previous tracks and turn the device on/off.
The rotary knob makes it easy to navigate through menus (useful for a large list of audio files) and also allows you to control the hardware volume of the DAC chip.
Full connection
With its wide range of analogue and digital connections, the SMSL DP5 is the ideal tool for Hi-res compatible audio systems.
Its two USB 2.0 ports and micro-SD card reader make it the ideal media for reading high-resolution files from storage devices.
Its USB-B port (OTG compatible) can be connected directly to computers/smartphones/tablets to use the DP5 as a USB DAC.
Its network connectivity (LAN + WiFi 2.4/5G) facilitates compatibility with a wide range of sources (AirPlay, DLNA, Samba).
The DP5 can also be controlled via HiBy Link (bluetooth).
On the digital output side, it can be connected to any audio device via AES/EBU, coaxial SPDIF, optical SPDIF, USB and even I2S (HDMI). This large output connection is found on many external DAC, FDA, DSP devices.
The DP5 has both a symmetrical stereo line output (3-pin XLR) and a conventional stereo line output (RCA). These variable volume outputs allow direct drive of integrated preamplifiers, preamplifiers and electric speakers.
Full MQA decoder
The SMSL DP5 features an MQA decoder (built-in decoder/full decoder). This is the most advanced class of MQA decoder, capable of natively handling the Authentication stream, full reconstruction (Origami Unfold to Core), while integrating compensation into the file platform at the decoding scale. This approach, which is close to FLAC, allows you to listen to detail-rich files while strictly limiting the file size.
It is therefore a very beneficial tool for fans of high-resolution streaming music who can enjoy listening quality similar to FLAC while saving up to 50% of the bandwidth (in resolution and frequency equivalent). This has a number of advantages in terms of loading times, the quality of the network required and the smoothness of the track order.
SMSL DP5 mConnect app usage:
1. Download the mConnect Player – Cast AV app from Google Play or the App Store
2. Within the mConnect app, press "Browser"
3. Select "TIDAL" from the list
4. Log in to your TIDAL account
5. Press "Play To" in the lower right corner, then select SMSL DP5
6. Go back to "Browser" and start playing music
DLNA endpoint
DLNA protocol support allows you to find your streaming and subscriber services to stream their content directly to the DP5 using mobile apps like BubbleUPnP.
This approach allows you to take advantage of both an intuitive mobile interface and a high-definition audio stream. It therefore makes the most of the device's excellent hardware capabilities while ensuring a comfortable user experience.
