[aleniola76]

Mine arrived last Friday, 5 days wait. Nice pair with the SU9:

 

[shenzhenaudio]

Mine arrived last Friday, 5 days wait. Nice pair with the SU9:

Dope!!! Looks enticing!

 

[jarvincassidy]

Headfonics just published their review for the SMSL SH-9, and it's complete with comparisons to the Schiit Magnius and the Topping L30. looks interesting...

SMSL SH-9 Review | Headfonics Audio Reviews

 

[corgifall]

Review up for the SH-9! I really like this little toasty headphone amp!

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/smsl-sh-9.24823/reviews#item-review-24909

 

[NexusOne]

Does it make sense to buy the more expensive SP-400 for the Focal Clear? Is the sound quality better compared to the Sh-9? I think the Clear dosn't need a lot of power so the SH-9 is good enough and the chance is big to hear no difference. Is that right?

 

[corgifall]

Does it make sense to buy the more expensive SP-400 for the Focal Clear? Is the sound quality better compared to the Sh-9? I think the Clear dosn't need a lot of power so the SH-9 is good enough and the chance is big to hear no difference. Is that right?

I think the biggest difference will be that the SP-400 is truly balanced and has a bigger power supply. I have no issues with the SH-9 but I will be picking up the SP-400 hopefully next month to test the two.

 

[corgifall]

The SP400 should be on the way. Will compare the two once it arrives. Hopefully the shipping is quick.

 

[corgifall]

Well....... The SP400 is huge haha it makes the SU-9 and SH-9 look tiny haha.

 

[NexusOne]

I actually use the SH-9 and would like to know why it is so powerless? I use the Jubilee on 70/99 and a AKG - Headphone on 80 /99 on the highest stage. My Ifi Ican SE was much stronger than this amplifier and the Ican SE has 4 Watt. Does the SH-9 really has 6 Watt? I think it is very good but it hasn't got a lot of power. I think it could be not enough for high impendance - headphones .

 

[corgifall]

I’ve yet to run anything power hungry that maxed out the volume. Most of the power hungry stuff does run in the upper 70 volume for me. I thought XLR inputs had a higher gain over RCA but I can’t find the info I thought existed.

 

[Ultrainferno]

Our SMSL SH-9 article, now on Headfonia!

https://www.headfonia.com/smsl-sh-9-review/

 

[dwc]

Question: Is there a sweet spot for the balance between max gain and minimum distortion? Is it fine to run the SH-9 at 99 on the volume level, or is there measurably less distortion at 90 or 80?

Why asking?
I received my SH-9 and am using unbalanced inputs, into a pair of HD600s. Gain setting is on high. The source is my preamp, which is the same preamp I use into my speaker system. Getting the volume level in the headphones that I want (with the preamp volume left where it was for a speaker listening session) requires running the amp volume at 99. I don't want to have to reset preamp volume levels very much when I switch between speakers and headphones - to avoid the risk of me (having cranked the preamp up for a headphone listening session) blasting too loud into the speaker system by mistake.

My concern is that I may be causing distortion by running AH-9 at 99. So is there significant less distortion if I were to run the SH-9 at volume 90 or 80 for example? Does anyone have insight into whether the distortion increases with volume level on the SH-9 as we approach max volume?