SMSL A300 Power Amplifier Review – Rum, Sodomy And The Lash
I don’t really follow NCAA basketball, but I spitefully decided to bet a few hundo against Alabama, who blithely ignore the fact that two of their star players recently participated in a drive-by shooting. Dutifully, I plowed my winning into SMSL’s latest, the diminutive Class D A300, which specifies 85w x 2@8 Ohm, bridgeable to 330w in BTL (mono) mode.
Though marketed as a power amp, the A300 is actually a full-featured integrated, with remote volume, a USB DAC, Bluetooth, a sub out and a host of EQ/DSP effects. As a standalone integrated, the A300 was quirky as best; its preamp section presented a lot of detail and weighty note texture, but sounded artificially bright (almost shrill) at the high end and quite boomy at the low end.
Tweaking the various EQ settings did mitigate (but not eliminate) the low end bloom. As a Bluetooth streamer, the SA300 was somewhat lacking in delicacy and compressed-sounding (apparently only the lower rez AAC codec is supported), while its USB DAC (no chip is specified) was serviceable—punchy and clean-sounding, but not necessarily better than the soundcard in my Dell PC.
The A300 functions best as a dedicated power amp, and for the most part I tested it in a desktop rig consisting of a passive Schiit Sys preamp, SMSL’s SU-6 DAC, a Sony 5400ES CD transport and either PSB Synchrony One B or the Energy Connoisseur C-1 bookshelf speakers.
The A300 amp has two noticeable virtues. First, its output is every bit as powerful as specified—the (92db) Energy positively roared even at low volume, while the PSB (which have average sensitivity but low impedance and require some current) likewise sounded full-bodied and loud; both sets of speakers remained undistorted at higher volumes.
Second, the A300 presents a very wide soundstage, with notably crisp, well-extended high-end and a lot of air between instruments. Attack transients on percussion are very fast. Low end is voluminous and deep but not especially well-controlled; both sets of speakers sounded bassier but more billowy than in other formulations.
For all that, the SSL is not an uncolored or neutral sounding piece—it has a bright tonality which can sound slightly metallic/aggressive. A lot of information is presented, but there’s an unnatural forwardness which places instruments closer than they were recorded; the overall effect is exciting but ultimately exhausting.
Compared to its predecessors in my rig, the (conventional A/B) 50w/ch Adcom 5200 and the 75w/ch Curl-designed Parasound HCA 750A, the SMSL sounded louder, considerably ballsier and more transparent at the high end, while the warmer Adcom and esp. the Parasound had significantly tauter bass and a less airy, more recessed stage.
The difference between the Class D SMSL and the traditional designs was, for lack of a better analogy, sorta like CD vs. vinyl, which is to say that the latter have less dynamic range and a more rounded, smoothed-over timbre which avoids the analytical, somewhat jagged quality of the SMSL.
The A300 packs a lot of features and impressive power for the <$200 tariff, and most would find it a good, compact centerpiece for low-volume desktop listening, especially with harder-to-drive speakers. However, its tonality is just a little off and for critical music listening you’re probably best served looking elsewhere.
Non-disclaimer: bought this myself.
Specifications SMSL A300
