SMSL AD18

I really wanted to love this little amp. The sound is great, and it drove my Polk Audio floor speakers quite well. Bluetooth, USB, optical outputs all sounded awesome. And the size is perfect. The downside? It would spontaneously stop driving the speakers. Sometimes, it would randomly stop playing, ...

I bought an SMSL:AD-18 amp, this little unit is fantastic, better than i expected from watching all the youtube reviews. Shipping was faster than advertised. I am very happy with my purchase. I would definitely consider APOS for future needs. Thanks guys !

* Speaker Amp: SMSL AD18. Finally my first (but probably not last) audio setup is complete! The sundara is my first set of pro-consumer grade headphones and I am loving the sound so far. To my untrained ears, the audio I am getting is just so much richer and fuller in comparison to what I was using before.

3V. This would mean the AD18 can drive big headphones at ease, so I’ll have to confirm. For the classical speakers output, a TAS5508C from Texas is used, both for DSP processing and pre-amp

This amp does what it says on the tin. It gets plenty loud driving a pair of 8Ω speakers, and has enough volume to drive a pair of Sennheiser HD600s. The USB DAC works well and plays nicely with Linux/PulseAudio. I like that the screen shows me the current sample rate, and I like the detented volume...

So far the Klipsch are connected to the SMSL AD18 which also powers a Monoprice SSW-10 slim sub behind the cabinet. I'd say 99% of the time I run spotify through a Chromecast audio hooked up to the optical input, today however I'm testing Tidal Masters through an IPad and USB input. I'd say a definitely notable improvement.

My unit worked a couple months then stopped functioning properly. I contacted SMSL, and this was their reply: --- On Dec 10, 2018, at 1:54 AM, kelly@smsl-audio.com wrote: Hi Pete, Kindly contact with the store where you buy from. Asking for repair or replacement,they will deal with it. If they do no...

Staff are great

The unit has a lot more power than I would have predicted

Excellent value great sound

I actually bought one to replace my smsl ad18 as well after seeing the Audio Science review and after side by side testing it couldn't displace my ad18. My setup is a near field desktop setup. Usb in, out to a pair of Jamo s803's. Unless you don't have one or your current dac/amp is on the way out I can't see "upgrading" to this at the price.

Unit itself fuctions correctly in terms of switching sources and responding to the remote (which took a while to pair), but the audio consistently pops 5 separate times each time the input is switched. Once the 5 pops complete, the audio is generally stable. It's a super strange issue, and I've trou...