Which is true. There are other QC issues too. My first unit had an error in the balanced headphone out. It would work with some plugs, not with others, so I sent it back. They replaced it with a new one, which worked better. Until the USB-C input failed, so it went back. Three times a charm? Nah, my third unit has been with me for two weeks now and yesterday, I noticed bluetooth has developed an issue. It worked fine when I got it, no background noise whatsoever. Now, I have a disturbing amount of static when I feed it over BT. I tried isolating the DL200 and switching off all mobile and other devices anywhere in the house, only to conclude that the issue is an internal DL200 one. So now, I will send this third one back too. No more SMSL products for me! PS when it works it's a nice bit of kit for the money.
The small volume knob that doubles as the input for all the functions (press it to switch between them, then rotate to select the desired option) is a bit wonky. That said, it is one of the things that never failed me on the units I had. Besides, once you select the settings, you hardly need it. I only ever really switched between USB and BT in and LO - HO after i set it. Well, not quite, I also switched to high gain for a pair of high impedance headphones every once in a blue moon. Come to think of it, the interface was not too bad on the DL200. I liked the fact that I could set the display to just go dark automatically 3 seconds after the last input. It's a bit of you get what you pay for though. While not super budget, the DL200 sits well towards the entry level DACs available. If not for the aforementioned issues, I would have been pleased with it.
That sucks, I hope with the above reply that this issue was resolved with a second rev!
To get the auto shutoff feature, the JDS Atom 2 amp/DAC stack has it, and even more power, the DL200 doesn't. The only downside is the slight pop when it changes bit rates. I don't mind since all music is 44.1khz/16 bit FLAC and I play Destiny 2 at 48khz so it's pretty rare. Same power on both connectors, and the 1.5 watt at 32ohm is a lot more power than most people think since it's also a 5 volt DAC, so there's current behind it. Advantage of being able to fit any full size amplifier like a Topping A90 or A70Pro right on top of it, same exact dimensions. On the Sennheiser HD650 or Hifiman HE5xx I never need high gain, but on the HE-560 I do, just to give a real world idea of power.
