[miwashi]

Any more cheap places to buy this? Mass drop does not carry it anymore.

 

[BenF]

Any more cheap places to buy this? Mass drop does not carry it anymore.

See the end of the first post for a discount on iDea :https://www.head-fi.org/threads/takstar-pro-82-review-impressions-and-discussion-thread.849965/

 

[Miguelbazil]

Just installed Linux Mint on my desktop, to find that the SMSL Idea is not outputting anything. Is there any known permanent solution that won't involve me going around connecting/disconnecting my Idea? While on mobile it's doable, on the Desktop is anything but comfortable.

EDIT:
This was the detection issue, as I expected. The easy solution is to just restart linux once, and it gets detected properly, and will work as expected.

 

[miwashi]

Ok I finally got an Idea and connected it to my PC and Riva Turbo X speakers. I guess the built-in amp is not very powerful because I need to turn it to full volume, and the mixer on my desktop to full volume, and my speakers to full volume to get some sound out.

I was wondering what amps you pair with the SMSL idea to drive some speakers?

 

[miwashi]

I have been thinking of replacing my Idea with a SMSL M3, if that one has a more powerful amp. Has anyone done a comparison of the 2 before?

 

[DjBobby]

I have been thinking of replacing my Idea with a SMSL M3, if that one has a more powerful amp. Has anyone done a comparison of the 2 before?

SMSL M3 goes through USB only up to 96khz and the output impedance is highish 10 ohms. It might not work well with low impedance headphones.

 

[airofu]

Will the SMSL IDEA work ok with my iPhone X using the Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter? Then connecting into a seperate headphone amp via max volume?

I noticed there are two Apple camera cables, both work?

https://www.apple.com/au/shop/product/MD821AM/A/lightning-to-usb-camera-adapter

https://www.apple.com/au/shop/product/MK0W2AM/A/lightning-to-usb-3-camera-adapter

 

[DjBobby]

Will the SMSL IDEA work ok with my iPhone X using the Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter? Then connecting into a seperate headphone amp via max volume?

I noticed there are two Apple camera cables, both work?

https://www.apple.com/au/shop/product/MD821AM/A/lightning-to-usb-camera-adapter

https://www.apple.com/au/shop/product/MK0W2AM/A/lightning-to-usb-3-camera-adapter

Yes, it will work, exactly that way. Max the volume and than connect the iDea to the external HP.
You will need the fist adapter, don't know about the second one.

 

[airofu]

Perfect thanks.

 

[airofu]

I assume the SMSL Idea auto detects the source rate and plays it as it is coded? There is no way to force the sample rate only view it via the coloured LED? (what were the colours and rates?)

 

[DjBobby]

I assume the SMSL Idea auto detects the source rate and plays it as it is coded? There is no way to force the sample rate only view it via the coloured LED? (what were the colours and rates?)

Yes, it autodetects the sampling rate and bit depth.
You can do upsampling through any software. Audirvana offers upsampling which works with any dac.
The led color doesn't change with the rate. Only blue for pcm and red for dsd.

 

[TrantaLocked]

Has really no one else had their Idea be defective? I had one with clicking sounds and the replacement with left channel that completely blew out.

 

[Makahl]

Has really no one else had their Idea be defective? I had one with clicking sounds and the replacement with left channel that completely blew out.

Well, mine still working perfectly fine and it's been connected 24/7 on my laptop. Actually, I was quite surprised that I didn't get any problem on Android too as many reported (if I play the music before connecting it).

One thing that I've noticed this thing gets really warm so if you live in a tropical place it shouldn't be hard to melt something inside and broke it.

 

[Aibo]

I had several iDEAs (and Sabaj Da2s) go through my hands and never had a faulty one. That said, they do become very warm while working - for carrying in it in a pocket with my phone I find it to be unpleasantly warm. Good thing is that's not alarming for the device itself because there aren't any temperature sensitive parts like electrolytic capacitors inside. In general, human hands are very sensitive - to us 40 C is very warm, 50 C already feels very very hot... and for electronics that's just cozy temperature. So no way anything inside will melt or broke because of this.

 

[TrantaLocked]

I had several iDEAs (and Sabaj Da2s) go through my hands and never had a faulty one. That said, they do become very warm while working - for carrying in it in a pocket with my phone I find it to be unpleasantly warm. Good thing is that's not alarming for the device itself because there aren't any temperature sensitive parts like electrolytic capacitors inside. In general, human hands are very sensitive - to us 40 C is very warm, 50 C already feels very very hot... and for electronics that's just cozy temperature. So no way anything inside will melt or broke because of this.

I used a multimeter to find out that the Sabre chip itself went bad. The left channel line blew and seems to have shorted to ground within the Sabre DAC chip, with missing continuity on the pins for the left signal exiting the DAC. When the headphone plug is completely inserted, the left channel is blasted with noise and the driver housing of the headphone heats up within seconds. My other idea had, I believe, power filtering issues, with lots of unwanted clicking and popping. I finally got another replacement after all this time of missing the Idea's sound while using the FiiO K1, and am just hoping the replacement works long term.