Under the aluminum heatsink you speak of is the two clocks not the rohm chip. The rohm dac chip is located to the right side above the blue blocks. I was hoping to hear your take on the audio qualities of the unit more.

The reason the antenna is outside is because the metal becomes a faraday cage, and the Bluetooth wouldn't work. Also, the power supply is actually better than a torroloidal power supply because it is a switching power supply to clean up the noise floor. Which is why it feels so cheap. As for the Rohm chip that's just to protect the ic from dust and static charges

Yesterday I stabilized the rickety top cover a little. Basically only the top slot is in the front cover into which the top cover is inserted is too wide. I pushed a very thin sheet of cedar wood into the gap and simply snapped it off. E Voila: nothing rattles anymore. Simple, effective and cheap. Cedar Wood? Ask your local cigar Dealer.👍

1. Small blue= MOVs ( prevents power surge) 2. That is a RF shield over the ROHM chip. 3.Not sure about the blue rectangle(s) update Inductors OP-AMP are needed to send analogs to the last step. 4.The Luxman DAC-CD with that chip is in the thousands (luxman D-10x $10,000) Thanks for the UPLOAD that DAC is on my short list

I have received great service from mine. Thanks for your time and effort to review this DAC.

you don't need a heat sink for a dac lol. That's an RF shield.

It is not a heatsink. It is a radio wave shield. See it is soldered to the ground wire.

The only thing that does justice to the price is the sound. And just because I bought it used on Ebay for 215 euros, the casing is like a Paper for a Portion Fish and Chips. I'm a bit surprised that ROHM has their chip installed there.

pretty standard layout for a dac at it's price point. it measures about as good as an su-8v2 which is positively ancient, probably get one for way less to boot.

That black power supply module which is marked as + - 12v at 1A is actually a deception. My DAC burned out, used the chance to do some autopsy. That module outputs -12v only as DC. The +12v is formed on the main PCB via the rectifier and nearby zener, you can see near the module. The zener diode is prone to early failure in their designs. This topology is used in most of SMSL DACs. Don't like it! Furthermore, there is no galvanic isolation between the digital and analog sections of the DAC, which is absolutely wrong, a must which is ignored by most of the budget DAC makers, especially by brands like SMSL and likes. That power supply module marked as 1A, can hardly handle 0.5A. Lots of deception and intentional designs flaws, together with poor component quality make the price of these china made brands / devices which have fluded the market unfortunately.

The D300 is the (budget) DAC with the Rohm chipset.

No instructions In box on how to actually use it !!! What a fkn joke

In Russia SMSL D300 have price 250 $.

I don;t think that;s the ROHM chip with the heatsink , the Rohm chip is the one next to the 2 rectangular capacitors

Good review if one wants a sleep aid.

What type is the USB input?