SMSL PL100 CD Player Review – New Adventures In Polycarbonate
I am hearing all over that vinyl is fading and CDs are rising, which is no surprise since vinyl rigs are a pain to set up and maintain and greedy vendors have pushed record prices to the stratosphere, whereas CD gear is fuss-free and CDs are cheap and ubiquitous.
Predictably, the ever-industrious elves of Guangdong have begun cranking out small-form, technologically advanced CDPs in earnest. Jurgen has reviewed and (liked) a couple from Moondrop and Fiio (both compared here) and was kind enough to snag me a copy of SML’s budget entrant, the $106 PL100.
The paperback book-sized PL100 is a player/transport with a 3.5mm headphone out; unlike the Fiio and Moondrop units it is not portable and requires power through the 5V power input. Note that SMSL has also released a fancier, $670 CDP, the PL200, which also acts a BT streamer and a USB DAC and has balanced outs and MQA decoding (in case anyone still cares).
Specifications SMSL PL100
| Decoder Chip | CS43132 |
| Outputs | RCA/3.5 mm headphone/Optial/Coaxial |
| CD Types | CD/CD-R/CD-RW/MP3 CD |
| Headphone Output Power | 60 mW (@ 32 ohm) |
| THD+N | 0.001% |
| SNR | 110 dB |
| Power Consumption | 4 W |
| Standby Power | 0.1 W |
| Weight | 1.2 kg/2.64 lBs |
| Product Page | SMSL Audio |
| Purchase Link | SHENZENHNAUDIO |
Faceplate design is polarizing–I sorta like it; aluminum body feels well-built. The plastic remote looks identical to the one used for every other SMSL device; it isn’t very intuitive and includes a lot of buttons which have no function, but will serve its purpose if you read the manual.
The PL100 uses a slit-loading mechanism instead of the customary (and potentially noisy/problematic) drawer; its operation is smooth and silent. I expected the ultra light weight of the PL100 to introduce vibration and body resonances, but I couldn’t hear any such artifacts.
I first tested the PL100 as a player through its RCA outs and compared it to a couple of my standbys, the Oppo BDP 105 and the Pioneer Elite DV-79. As a player, the PL100 has its considerable virtues—it’s very transparent and revealing and showed excellent bass control. It is also quite neutral tonally and doesn’t impart any audible coloration to the proceedings.
| In the box… |
|---|
| PL100 * 1 Remote control * 1 USB cable * 1 |
However, in contrast to the brighter, punchier Oppo and the warmer, fuller-sounding (also less detailed) Pioneer, the SMSL comes across as somewhat flat and thin-sounding, with a lean note texture and less-than-dramatic dynamic contrasts.
As a transport, however (utilizing it’s SPDIF outputs into my new fave SMSL Raw 1 DAC), the PL100 was more than fine—it took on more of the rowdy character of the DAC while still presenting a very accurate, well-timed performance; it also reigned in the somewhat loose bass quality of the Raw 1.
In contrast, the Pioneer was still fuller-sounding, with thicker note texture, but also rounder and less etched/transparent; broadly speaking the Pioneer sounded better with MP3 and other lower-quality recordings while the SMSL sounded better with very good recordings. The Oppo (used as a transport in the same setup) had comparable detail to the PL100 but a little more body; the Oppo is the better-sounding piece but only incrementally so, and the PL100 reads and plays discs quicker.
The headphone out of the unit is touted as “high-power”, but in fact only outputs a very modest 60mW@32oHm; by way of comparison my cheap JDS 02 (review here) puts out 613mW. The presentation is very clean (no background noise) and detail retrieval is good with the PL100, but unexpectedly it struggled a bit with some fairly benign loads like the Koss KSC and the recent TRN VX, both of which sounded tubby in the bass.
The much less efficient Sennheiser HD 650 sounded a bit closed-in and lacking in sizzle and low-end impact. Overall, the PL100 will do in a pinch but unless desk space is an issue I would opt for a standalone head amp like the aforesaid JDS or SMSL’s SH-9.
So, clean-sounding if not class-leading as a CDP; adequate but improvable as a head amp; really good as a transport. Doesn’t take up much desk space and costs less than a sushi dinner. Seems like a no-brainer; for me it’s a keeper.
Disclaimer: provided for review purposes by Shenzenaudio.com and can be purchased here: https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/s-m-s-l-vmv-pl100-cs43131-cd-player
Comparison of Features: SMSL PL100, FiiO DM13 BT, and Moondrop CD Players
| FEATURES | FiiO DM13 BT | Moondrop DISCDREAM 2 Ultra | Moondrop DISCDREAM 2 | Moondrop DISCDREAM | SMSL VMV PL100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $179.99 | $289.99 | $149.99 | $199.99 | $105.99 |
| Battery | yes | yes | yes | yes | — |
| 3.5 mm SE Output | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| 4.4 mm BAL Output | yes | yes | — | — | — |
| 3.5 mm Line Out | yes | yes | yes | yes | — |
| 4.4 mm Line Out | yes | — | — | — | — |
| Optical Out | yes | yes | yes | — | yes |
| Coaxial Out | yes | — | — | — | yes |
| USB Out | yes | — | — | — | — |
| USB In | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| RCA Out | — | — | — | — | yes |
| Bluetooth 5.4 | yes | — | — | — | — |
| SD Card Slot | — | — | — | yes | — |
| USB Desktop Function | — | yes | yes | yes | — |
| Desktop Mode (Battery Bypass) | yes | — | — | — | NA |
| CD Ripping | yes | — | — | — | — |
| Audio Formats | flac, wav, wma, aac, mp3 | wav, mp3, ??? | wav, mp3 | flac, wav, mp3, wma, aac, ogg, flac, ape (SD card) | CD/CD-R/CD-RW/MP3 CD |
| Gapless Play | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Shock Protection | yes | ? | ? | ? | — |
| Remote | — | — | — | — | yes |
| Weight | 450 g | 700 g | ? | 500 g | 1.2 kg |
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