SMSL AO300 165Wx2 CS43131 DAC Headphone Amplifier, MA5332MS 2.1 Channel Class D Amp, USB/BT/Coax/Opt/HDMI ARC/RCA Input HiFi Power Amplifier for Speakers/Subwoofer/4.4mm/6.35mm Output (Black)

I bought this after reading quite a few favourable reviews and after trying a very cheap digital amplifier and being quite impressed. The AO300 is an attractive little amp and sounds excellent with plenty of detail and space in recordings. Bass is what I'd call dry and firm so my speakers don't boom with excessive bass in the room I have them in yet still have plenty of power and definition. The treble can at times be a bit bright with certain recordings but on good recordings the sound is excellent. But that was the same on my analogue amp. I'm just starting to dabble with the various filters and settings to see what this is capable of. Plenty of power when you need it without distortion unless you go to silly levels but I think you'd physically be in trouble at the 85 watts rms / 8 ohms that the AO300 is capable of. It seems well made and solid with no sign of sockets moving etc. At the moment I have a turntable with preamp into analogue, cd player into digital and server into the usb all with no problems. The banana plugs for the speakers fit snugly as well. I needed to get a longer mains lead as the one supplied wasn't long enough for my eventual use. A minor niggle that might not bother most users. All in all a great little amp that delivers everything you might want at a low price. Just have to download the manual now as the small booklet is more a get you started type. If you like the digital sound then you shouldn't be disappointed with the AO300. If you're not sure then just give it a try against an analogue amplifier. You may prefer analogue but you may be pleasantly surprised with digital.

It is a discrete build but not to small, a favourable size for me personally and probably for many others. Very good build quality all round. The sound quality will and does impress. A nice wide and open soundstage where what speaker you may use will also matter in regards to the soundstage and in my testing I found the AO-300 quite a neutral sound so it’s going to be easy to match with most speakers with a sensitivity of around 86db and upwards. For example I drove a pair of new Cambridge Audio SX-60’s (89db) and Wharfedale 12.2 (88db) with excellent results. The sound is accurate, pin pointing instruments and with ‘accurate air’ so good space for them to breathe and be heard clearly and individually with no smearing or overspill of cymbals or slow ill defined bass etc. A very, very clean sound but certainly not too clinical either and a dark background ie no noise, very well defined bass notes as well as mids and highs and a nice wide soundstage, did I mention the soundstage…it’s great! This amp has a surprising degree of warmth especially for a Class D at this price. I recommend the Nonoversampling filter for a far more natural listening experience. This warmth is comforting to the ears and makes this a very easy amp to listen to for long periods of time. The Cirrus Logic dac chip is an excellent choice here from SMSL and in combination with the amplifier's Infineon chips it produces an excellent sound that has brought a very pleasing result and a big improvement over the previous years where these class d amps are concerned. I added an Topping E50 dac to the Aux to see if I could improve the sound again and there are some subtle differences in regards to detail with the E50 retrieving more which is not surprising given the Topping’s more analytical nature but at times I found the warmer approach of the onboard Cirrus Logic dac preferable which really is an achievement in itself and it is great to have the option of a different sound signature at hand with the same amp. It is a subjective choice in my experience but if you like the sound of the iFi Zen Dac V2 then you will love the natural stock sound of this amplifier from SMSL. There is also plenty of room to tweak the sound with SMSLs EQ set up and filtering system in the settings. For me personally I went straight for the Tone setting and set the Bass to plus 2 and left the Treble at 0. The SDB EQ setting supplies some real weight to the low end and boosts the highs but not in an amateur fashion, it’s well tuned and adds some serious punch to the sound, I can see why SMSL patented this setting. I tinkered with the Filters and found the ‘NonSampling’ filter to preferable so far for streaming from the TV and the Wiim Pro. Spotify sounds great coming from the TV! I like a little extra bass in general but I found this amp out of the box without any tweaking to be very well balanced with no overly coloured frequencies which is very favourable indeed. The vocals are great and if like me you to hear your artists clearly then you will have fun here.So without getting to deep into the stats I will say there is plenty of power here. It is nice to have this kind of power on hand and with and excellent THD…so no noticeable distortion at loud levels.In conclusion a fun, engaging and musical listen. Great technical implementation and performance here from SMSL that will keep you entertained from start to finish and at a price that I can only describe as…sensible. Very pleased indeed and can easily recommend this amplifier to anyone looking for sound quality from a compact all in one solution i.e without having to add an external Dac, just pop in the streamer or and the TV and you are in for a good night! SMSL also release firmware updates on their website for further improvements to the AO300 and its performance so it’s worth checking out the website from time to time.Update: I bought a second this time in silver for another room if that says anything to you reading this review. For me personally this is dac/amp is pretty much a set and forget HiFi set up. No buyers remorse or disappointment and a job well done from me to SMSL.

Got my project turntable in the rca input, via pre amp, cd player in via optical, my TV has Hdmi arc so Xbox, Sony 4k and SACD/blu ray audio player and the TV's own smart functions are all transmitted to the hdmi in on the smsl, I have another cd player connected via the coaxical in, and finally I can connect my iPhone 15 to the usb c input to enjoy hi res streaming. I have bowers and Wilkins speakers connected, and a bowers and Wilkins sub from it's sub out port. If this had a dedicated phono infor turntables it would be the ultimate ampfor this price point. Sound wise? Great, very neutral and powerful for it's size. Drives the B&W's with ease. Love it.

I use it in a desktop setup. It replaces a 20+ year old amp (a linn klassic) which had started to make a whistling sound. For the size, power and connectivity at a very affordable price, I am very pleased with this replacement.

This was actually a leap of faith. I watched a lot of audiophile type YouTube and had settled on the smsl AL200. It really bothered me that it didn't have a sub out. After reading through the comments on one of the videos someone mentioned this smsl ao300. It's basically the same thing but has the added sub out, hdmi arc, and nicer lcd display. It's a lovely sounding unit with plenty of power. I'm running my fluance r81 table and drive Q Acoustics 3030i's. The crazy part is it's cheaper than the AL200 with the 5% off coupon.Anyway, go YouTube the AL200 it's the same internals but actually better Bluetooth. Just an all round better package IMHO.

Functionality is great but I personally found the sound too bright for my taste. Have found this problem with most class D amps I’ve heard. Retuned to Amazon I’m afraid.

I bought this with high expectations as I'd had another SMSL product for five years without trouble. Unfortunately, it kept churning out static noise through my speakers and the the problem persisted through both optical and HDMI TV connections. I swapped speakers, cables, etc and nothing worked.Probably just unlucky it was a faulty unit and in the end had to return to Amazon.

Have it paired up with some kef q150's for a desk setup and am very impressed - plenty of power for this usecase and a very accurate sound. Probably unbeatable for this price!