SMSL T2 Vacuum Tube Mini Stereo Headphone Amplifier,chip JRC5532DD,Tube 6J9-J, NO ON/OFF noise,protect headphone

OK so lets get one thing straight... I am no audiophile but I can appreciate quality and tend to purchase good quality hi-fi, tvs etc, not your no make brands but good but affordable items from companies such as Denon, Panasonic, AKG, Sennheiser KEF and so on. I had not heard of SMSL until a few months ago but knew that I needed more volume from my numerous headphones, tired of the low volume, even at max output, that fed the sound to my ears from the front output of my Creative Gigaworks T40 speakers attached to my pc. I also wanted to, on a relatively tight budget, experience something of the tube sound that I had read so much about. Now, I appreciate that the stock tubes that ship with this amp are not the best but for the cost the whole package has blown me away. For the last three days I have been feeding myself copious doses of Indie, Classical, Blues and so on and the sound stage has opened up no end. Listening to Miles Davis it is hard to believe he is not in the room. You can hear things that you have never heard before, layers of sound or even a single note that has escaped you even though you may have heard the song hundreds of times before. Together in Electric Dreams by the Human League stunned me last night with the clarity and depth of sound. My father is 87 and was and still is a huge fan of Sammy Davis Jnr and Frank Sinatra. He has been a proper audiophile in his time often spending a fortune on separates and speakers and he was amazed at how good some of his favourites sounded. My brother in law has moved with my sister to France this very morning and they have been living here for the last week as they had sold their house a week ago. Last night he was in here listening to his beloved blues and he is very hard to please. The Cheshire cat smile that dissected his face was something to behold and he immediately wanted all the details so that once settled across the water he could plumb one of these in. With this amp connected to the pc I would say that the volume is 2-3 times higher than it was before and yet creates no distortion at all. Now I can not have it turned up more than 60% if I want to keep my eardrums intact.In short, considering the cost this little beauty retails at, although I dare say not as good as other more expensive models at £100-150, it is a no brainer purchase. The Little Dot at twice the price might sound better, although I have never heard it so cannot comment, but is twice at much as this brushed aluminium box of tricks. I am now going to buy a pair of Soundmagic HP200 headphones and will be in heaven.

Here's the short version covering the key elements in this amp:Pros:- Slight increase in sound stage- Slightly more refined sound which makes it slightly more immersive- Clean Sound- And of course, it sounds warm(Potential) Cons:- Blue LED on the tubes can't be turned off- Inputs are at the front instead of the back- Takes roughly about 35 seconds to warm up- May not be powerful enough amp for headphones that have a high impedance- Doesn't give a strong "tube" soundPro or Con (depending on taste):- Slight bass boostNow the slightly longer review:The price to performance ratio is great for this little hybrid tube amp! Before I start the review, my initial rig was Hifiman HE400i paired with SMSL M3USB DAC/AMP. Since the HE400i are well known to be a cool and analytical headphone, I needed something warm to make it sound more "pleasant". I am no means an audiophile since my rig is nowhere near that standard.Initial thoughts when powered on the first time:The sound sounded compressed, suffocated and quite "muddy". This effected the drums, where the kick drum doesn't sound as tight and controlled which made it sound "muddy" and the female vocals where being held back by sounding suffocated. This may be due to slight bass boost, where the bass is not as controlled which can effect the whole imaging of the song. However, the "warm" sound is definitely prevalent and can be heard or felt. Of course, these are just relatively small things that can be picked up, nothing too serious.Thoughts after a week:WOW! THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!!! Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration but the sound definitely sounded better. Sound stage has slightly increased, making the sound more open and instruments sound more refined making it slightly more immersive, making it sound more natural. I had to use EQ to tame the bass boost as it was the only factor that caused a bit of annoyance to me. I would recommend this amp for ideally for headphones that have 50 or below impedance and maybe headphones between 50-100 ohms. Anything higher can result in the headphones to not be powered efficiently.All in all, this hybrid tube amp is great place to start if you want to start investing into tube amps!

I cannot say a bad thing about it. This has become almost my favourite bit of kit full stop. For it's price it performs wonderfully, doing a great job with a pair of GRADO SR60E's and various speakers.Excellent product, would buy again definitely.

Superb, solid, amazing sounding little amp. Paired with Fiio E17K and Fostex T20 and T50rp headphones I can just get lost for hours in its warmth and clarity.Well worth a try.

I have tried this on various inputs and seriously cannot attest to any significant change in sound or volume. I’m not sure what I was expecting but something more than I got...maybe a tad warmer sound, maybe a little louder...maybe I’m just trying to convince myself. I have tried a rage of headphones including some serious AKG, Bose and Denon’s; I have tried PC Cards too, same thing. Underwhelmed is the word I would use. Don’t get me wrong, for this price I wasn’t expecting a huge difference in sound but at least some decent volume...ah well.

I replaced my existing valve amp with this as the main selling point was no feedback. The feedback was the exact same as the unit I replaced. I've kept it as it is a lovely looking thing and I drown out the feedback with drum and bass ;)

The sound is fantastic with my Beyer dt990. And it looks really cool. Super value for the price. I bought two.

The media could not be loaded.  The SMSL T2 is an interesting little headphone amp because it offers good tube audio quality for a relatively low price without skimping on build quality in the slightest.SMSL is a well known company among budget oriented audio fanatics and they continue to pump out impressive products, this one is no different.[Packaging]Upon opening it I noticed it was in a much nicer box with much more protection than my SA50 was. It even comes with the tubes pre-installed. Just plug it in and go! I feel like you could throw the box across the room and it would be fine... which is good since shipping carriers tend to do that anyways -_-[Build]The build quality is amazing. I expected it to sound good, but I didn't expect it to be built so well. To me, it radiates the kind of quality that would come from the likes of Sennheiser or some other audio company of equal reputability. It's solid metal. In fact it sort-of rings like a bell when you flip the switch (which is also metal... I think.)[Sound]Okay, so here is the important part.TL,DR - It sounds great. No noise, and it sounds a little less harsh than solid state.Now for the long version:Upon flipping the power switch you're greeted with a flashing light. It will flash until the tubes are warm. Once the tubes are warm the light will go solid and the amp will un-mute itself. It's a feature to prevent popping, etc from the tubes while warming up. I like that.I can only describe the sound as "pleasant."When I first plugged it in I had prepared my ears for some really warm, distorted sound since this was my first tube-headphone amp. But much to my surprise it sounds much closer to solid state than I expected. I mean that in a good way though. The sound is ever so slightly less harsh in the high end. It's much nicer to listen to music (or anything) like this for me. It eliminated that listening fatigue that you get with cheaper DAC/amps where the high frequencies eventually just make you want to stop listening, or maybe even give you a full fledged headache. The bass is slightly brought up as well, to a pleasant level.There is hardly any noise to be heard. It's extremely clean for a thing that cost $60, much less a Tube amp. It has plenty of power too, of course.You can also replace the included tubes with others, if they are compatible.-------------------So do I recommend this? Yes.SMSL is a company with a good reputation (as far as cheap Chinese audio companies go), and if you're in the market for this kind of thing, It seems like a solid buy.And furthermore, if you don't trust my opinion, there are lots of reviews to go around

Amplicateur de casque de qualité qui apporte un réel plus au niveau du son avec le casque à l'écoute d'une petite radio internet. Comparé à un ampli du même type : un Homya H6 pro, peu de différence dans le son, peut-être un très léger plus analytique, mais c'est peut-être du subjectif. Mais les connecteurs pour brancher le casque et le câble sont beaucoup plus pratique sur le SMSL T2, il n'y a pas ce renfoncement qui peut s'avérer gênant comme sur le HOMYA H6 PRO avec certains embouts de connexion.Avantage de l'HOMYA H6 PRO sur le Smsl T2 en ce qui concerne l'allumage de l'ampli, par contre le transformateur d'alimentation semble de meilleure qualité sur le SMSL T2 et inspire plus confiance sur sa durée à long terme. Par précaution je débranche le transormateur systématiquement après utilisation.J'ai immédiatement changé les lampes chinoises d'origine pour des lampes russes, pour encore plus de douceur et de détail, ça vaut vraiment la peine.

Prodotto oltre che bello esteticamente, costruito con ottimi materiali.Qualità audio degna di altri prodotti di fascia piu' alta, dona al suono calore, potenza e qualità, tutto cio' che ci si aspetta dalle valvole!Lo consiglio inoltre è possibile cambiare le valvole con altre tipologie con lo stesso attacco!OTTIMO DAVVERO!!!!

Quería mejorar el sonido del ordenador y la salida de auriculares. Cuando vi este producto me llamó la atención ya que adquirí de la misma marca el DP 1 y estoy fascinado con el por la calidad de sonido que tiene. Efectivamente esta marca SMSL no defrauda y con este T2 he mejorado el sonido y puedo sacar mas rendimiento, tanto a los altavoces Creative del ordenador como a los auriculares Audio-Technica ATH-M50x. No soy nuevo en este terreno, en mi equipo Hi-Fi, el preamplificador es un Manley a válvulas, una maravilla. Con el T2 se puede apreciar lo típico del sonido valvular, mas cuerpo, calidez, definición, amplitud ....En definitiva un sonido mas analógico, mas natural, que causa menos fatiga auditiva. Está claro que no es mi adorado Manley, también está muy lejos en el precio. Pero para su coste merece la pena, los oídos lo agradecen.Como preamplificador a un ampli de guitarra a transistores, es una pasada, el cambio es muy considerable, se nota una barbaridad sobre todo el sonido distorsionado que es cuando las válvulas sacan todo su potencial dulcificando el sonido.El envío puntual y Amazon muy bienRecomendable 100%Después de reemplazar las válvulas de origen por unas tesla 6688, no demasiado caras, 14 € el par, el sonido ha experimentado otro salto cualitativo, por lo que recomiendo el cambio. Merece la pena por el dinero.