The SMSL iDEA is an extremely compact and powerful USB DAC and headphone amplifier. It will be the perfect companion for OTG and iOS compatible mobile listening. Whether on a tablet, Android smartphone, iOS smartphone or iPad, the iDEA SMSL guarantees high fidelity and high definition with sampling rates up to 32bit 384kHz in PCM and DSD512, thanks to the ES9018Q2C conversion chip.

The headphone amplifier is directly integrated into this ES9018Q2C, DAC conversion chip designed by ESS specifically for mobile and portable applications. It accepts headphones with an impedance between 300Ω and 16Ω. The Micro USB input is directly linked to an XMOS XCore U208 interface, a real strength to ensure high transmission quality while also supporting very high sampling rates, in accordance with the performance of the conversion chip.

The iDEA SMSL is Plug & Play and therefore does not require any driver to operate, except when used in USB DAC mode with a Windows computer. In the latter case, you will need to download the corresponding XMOS driver available in the Download tab of this product sheet.

SMSL iDEA review by Audio Science Review

" The SMSL iDEA is a very well engineered DAC and headphone amp with very low noise floor and ample power to drive what normally would require desktop amplifier. "