SMSL

SMSL makes compact digital converters and amplifiers. Its desktop equipment appears in a venue’s rotating headphone setup.

Signal processing

Website ↗

Design & approach

SMSL develops DACs, headphone amplifiers and power amplifiers with its own research, manufacturing and marketing teams. Its company account dates the business to 2009. These compact electronics can occupy different roles in a listening venue, including a private headphone chain rather than the public room system.

Maker background & design sources ↗

Equipment index

Products in the rooms

Browse all SMSL equipment

Venue equipment records, including their original model uncertainties. Shared-system entries retain the full recorded context.

Models rotate; exact units not specified
Headphones · Shared record: Cambridge Audio / SMSL / Beyerdynamic
Rotating headphone bar: Cambridge Audio, SMSL and Beyerdynamic models, not a fixed chain. @cambridgeaudio is the best-documented of the three.
Bar Ton

Hear it in the rooms.

Equipment, commissions and collaborations.

Bucharest / Romania

Bar Ton ↗

Equipment in use

Bar Ton lists SMSL in its source / playback setup. The equipment details below reflect the venue record.

Booth electronics / headphones: Models rotate; exact units not specified (Cambridge Audio / SMSL / Beyerdynamic)

Inside the system

Large active Genelec 1039A and 1038BC monitors anchor BAR•TON’s studio-derived system. A room-within-a-room approach integrates acoustic treatment into the construction, making the enclosure around the listeners part of the installation. Technics SL-1200 MK4 turntables and two restored Akai GX-F71 cassette decks provide analogue sources. Headphone electronics rotate among Cambridge Audio, SMSL and Beyerdynamic, with Canare shielded copper cabling. The emphasis is on monitor-based playback and several ways to hear physical media.

Read the system story ↗

SMSL

Design & approach

Products in the rooms

Hear it in the rooms.

Bar Ton ↗

Further reading