The M500 MKIII is equipped with an ESS ES9038Pro digital/analog conversion chip and takes advantage of the 8 channels available. This excellent DAC is furthermore combined with an ES9311 chip and thus has an independent power supply, ensuring very low power noise. This combination allows the M500 MKIII to reveal a precise and neutral sound.

The M500 MKIII embeds the new CK-03 clock circuit of the brand. This one allows a significant reduction of the level of jitter for a restitution always clearer.

The USB input of the M500 MKIII uses a second generation 32bit XMOS XU316 interface, combined with a custom driver allowing the transmission of high resolution streams up to 32bit 768kHz PCM, DSD512 and DoP256.

MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) is an award-winning British technology that restores the sound of the original recording. The MQA Master file is authenticated by the artists, producers or rights holders. These files are light enough to stream or download.

The M500 MKIII is dressed in a beautiful anodized aluminum alloy case, machined with great precision using a CNC. The front panel features a tempered glass window that allows for excellent light emission from the beautiful 1.9" IPS display, while effectively protecting it from scratches.

The headphone amplifier stage uses a brand new PLFC circuit, allowing it to have a substantial power reserve of 2x2W under 16Ω, with distortion below -120dB. The gain of the headphone amplifier can be adjusted to suit all types of headphones. The circuit also incorporates a separate protection circuit for the left and right channels.

The volume of the headphone output and the preamplifier are completely independent and therefore cannot interfere with each other. Moreover, the volume levels are kept in memory by the M500 MKIII.

In this MKIII version, the M500 incorporates a Bluetooth 5.0 receiver, making it easy to stream music remotely, for example from a smartphone or tablet. The M500 MKIII supports the aptX HD and LDAC transmission codecs, ensuring excellent wireless sound quality.

Specification

• Product type  DAC and headphone amplifier
• Inputs
  • Bluetooth
  • 1x USB-B
  • 1x Optical Toslink
  • 1x Coaxial
• Outputs
  • 1x Single-ended stereo RCA
  • 1x Balanced stereo XLR
  • 1x Jack 6.35mm headphone output
  • 1x Jack 4.4mm headphone output
• DAC Chip  ESS ES9038Pro
• USB interface  XMOS XU316
• THD+N  0.00006% (-123.5dB) (UN-WTD)
• Headphone amplifier THD+N   0.0001% (-120dB) (UN-WTD)
• Headphone amplifier output power  2x2W @ 16Ω | 2x1W @ 32Ω
• Headphone amplifier gain  Low: 0dB | High: +9dB
• Dynamic range
  • XLR : 133dB
  • RCA : 126dB
  • SNR  XLR : 133dB
  • RCA : 126dB
• USB compatibility  Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10
• Mac OSX10.6 or later
• Linux
• MQA decoding  USB / Optical / Coaxial
• MQA-CD decoding  Optical / Coaxial
• DoP Decoding  USB / Optical / Coaxial
• Supported sampling rates  USB : PCM up to 32bit 768kHz, Native DSD up to DSD512, DSD DoP up to DSD256
• Optical / Coaxial : PCM up to 24bit 192kHz, DSD DoP up to DSD64
• Supported Bluetooth codecs  AAC, SBC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC

General

• Supply voltage: 100-240VAC 50/60Hz
• Consumption: 5W
• Standby consumption: < 0.5W
• Dimensions: 85 x 88 x 197mm
• Weight: 0.9kg
• Color: Black

Package

• 1x SMSL M500 MKIII
• 1x Remote control
• 1x Power cable
• 1x USB Cable