 Meestal een jaar geleden, de originele SMS200 Ultra maakte me extreem enthousiast. Verder ik in Sharp posteerde, wauw, ik heb je nooit zo gezien. De Ultra bracht een toekomstige eind dichter de voordelheid. En nu, SOTM komt met een probleem Neo versie. Echt? SOTM beschrijft de Neo als volgst. De SMS200 Ultra Neo is een nieuw versie van de originele SMS200 Ultra. En veranderde de muzikale nuances van de originele SMS200 Ultra. Het heeft een betere middeling en een betere base versie, compared met de originele SMS200 Ultra. En de originele SMS200 presenteert meer dynamiek en bracht geluid dan de SMS200 Ultra Neo. Dus met zo'n verandering, de overal balans van de SMS200 Ultra Neo wordt richer en brengt muzikale inspiratie. Dus het is volgens een betere middeling en een betere base versie. Maar ook minder dynamiek en minder bracht geluid. Interessant. Twee jaar geleden heb ik de basic SMS200 veranderd die de edition Ultra leek. En ik liep het veel. Het geeft een kwaliteerd digitale signaal ontenoemd voor mij dan. Bijna een jaar later was de Ultra versie geïntroduceerd. De originele SMS200 heeft eigenlijk een precies klokboord geëerd. Als je deze producten niet weet, geef ik je te bekijken om deze video's te kijken. De linken zijn in de commentaar onder deze video op YouTube. Maar laat ik me brief explainen wat ze zijn. Voor functioneer zijn ze identiek. Ze bekijken audio bits over internet, je hoofdnetwerk. En konfert ze naar een USB2 Audio Class 2 signaal dat kan feeden op DAC's die dezelfde commo USB interface gebruiken. De streaming protocols die je kunt gebruiken voor dit zijn Rune Advanced Audio Transport, Squeezebox, NPD, DLNA, HQP, Airplay en Spotify. Je moet selecten wat protocol je wilt gebruiken en hebben de reis software installeerd in je computer natuurlijk. Bekijk de andere video's. Beide SMS200 en SMS200 Ultra zijn nu available als NEO versie. Ik reis alleen de Ultra NEO hier en sinds al het gezegd over de functioneleerheid in de video's geïntroduceerd, geef ik naar de luisteringsexperiënten daaruit. Zoals altijd met digital audio, de NEO nodig het tijd om in te burnen. Straight out of the box, sibilance control and stereo imaging were poor while the mid-range sounded nasal, as is usual with digital players right out of the box. After a week things were quite different, very different. And now I understand what was meant by the diplomatic description by SOtM. Let's start with the mids. Compared to the NEO, the original Ultra has a slightly edgy voice reproduction. Think of it as the sharpness or edge enhancement control on your TV. It tries to mimic sharpness by accentuating the contours of objects on the screen. The same way the original Ultra has those contours around voices. It mimics resolution but when you hear the real resolution as from the NEO you will understand immediately what I mean. By the way, where on your TV you can switch it off, on the original Ultra it's a feature. It's not only voices. Playing string quartets make the slightly grainy sound of the bow with the Ultra change in what becomes very close to what I know from live music. Raz also improves in a comparable way. Another improvement is the sound of the bass instruments. Wether it's a double bass or a bass guitar. It's more open, more accurate and even has slightly deeper bass. But there's a note to make. The problem with describing these levels of refinement is that they easily are over-exaggerated. If not by me, then perhaps by the viewer. And before you know, forums are filling up with postings stating that the SMS-200 Ultra sounds rough and has sharp edges like TV sound. Postings made by people that never saw the product up close, let alone listened to it. Let me state clearly that the original SMS-200 Ultra still is a marvelous sounding device. Earlier this year I took it to a colleague reviewer, together with my Mitek Brooklyn to compare it to a Meridian 808 V3 that cost almost three times the money. He was shocked how good the SOtM Mitek combo, both S-booster powered, sounded. We jointly agreed that both were of about equal high quality and only differ in character. We both preferred my combo over the Meridian sound-wise, but that was a matter of taste and of course practicality. Instead of just one centrally controlled digital preamp and streaming DAC, my setup was comprised of the SMS-200 Ultra, the Mitek Brooklyn, two S-booster power supplies and a bunch of wires that might get unplugged during dusting. No problem for me, but not always appreciated by the family. To get back to the sound. Yes, the Neo is an improvement over the original, sound-wise. To what degree you will experience this the same, depends on your stereo system and on your auditory system. And then there is another thing that needs to be addressed. There are people that argument that USB audio class 2 is an asynchronous connection, so the digital signal is reclocked inside the DAC. Therefore timing problems early in the signal part have no impact on the sound. But if this were true, how come myself and others hear a clear difference when changes are made in the signal part prior to the DAC? Time is of the essence in digital audio en even more than we thought ten years ago. Hence the phantom clocks we find in current quality equipment doing sub one picosecond precision. Those crystals plus ancillary circuits needed to perform this well are expensive. And manufacturers try to avoid expensive where possible. But as I said, time is of the essence. Let's see what roughly happens in a DAC connected to over USB. When the original signal enters the DAC, a receiver chip, often by XMOS, reads the signal and converges in the format used inside the DAC, normally I2S. The XMOS also does some buffering followed by a small V-photo compensates for the differences in clock frequency ahead and after the decouple core. This decouple core decouples the clock on the primary side from that on the secondary side of the XMOS chip. Then the signal goes to a microprocessor for things like upsampling and digital filtering. That signal is sent to the DAC that outputs the analog current that is then converted into a voltage filtered and sent to the analog output of the DAC. So you should say there is sufficient provision to catch up with input problems. But more and more I hear designers say that this is not sufficient. If an incoming digital signal is late the subsequent functions have to work harder draining more power. This will usually vary the voltage rail unless very fast and stable regulator and buffering is present. This not only goes for the processor cores but also for the buffer. Furthermore it is known that reading a buffer generates noise. These things all lead to jitter and although it might all be minute apparently it is audible in critical applications. I can't prove this by measurement. Remember I'm a tech journalist not a designer. Designers often like to explain a part of their secrets but not all. Since I hear the difference for now I accept their explanation. The Neo version indeed is an improvement in sound quality. Although refinement might not be to everybody's taste. Is the difference big enough for an SMS200 Ultra owner to switch to the Neo? Again that's up to you. I have bought the Neo but it's my profession so there are some tax advantages in it for me. And my setup one has been perfected over the past 40 years of reviewing equipment and would set me back almost 25K if I had to buy it now. In my 4000 euro setup two, difference are smaller although not inaudible. Another matter is the power supply. Both the original version and the Neo come with a simple switching mode power supply in the shape of a wall ward. Using an audiophile power supply does further improve the sound quality. I reviewed the Neo using the no longer available sBooster BOTW Eco and yes, a review of the sBooster MK2 version will follow soon. So if you are interested subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media. If you like this video please consider supporting the channel through Patreon or Paypal. Any financial support is much appreciated. The links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. Help me to help even more people enjoy music at home by telling your friends on the web about this channel. I'm Hans Beekhuyzen. Thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.