SOtM sMS-200 Neo

Thinking about purchasing a SOtM sMS-200 Neo to replace my SONOS Connect on my main rig and I was wondering what peoples thoughts are both on the product and on the company.
While I do plan on using Roon for a good long time, in the situation that I leave, can I stream Tidal to the sMS-200 Neo fairly seamlessly or do I need to have all sorts of different apps in order to make that work?

Hi there. I havenā€™t visited in a long time, and am just seeing your post. I own the SOtM ā€œtrifecta,ā€ which includes the SMS-200ultra Neo. Itā€™s an amazing value, in my opinion.

Support from SOtM has been excellent, but you do have to manage expectations on timeliness due to the time difference between South Korea and wherever you are located.

I have Tidal enabled in roon and it works seamlessly. All I had to do was log in when I first became a Tidal user, and have never touched a setting since.

One other consideration you didnā€™t ask about but is noteworthy: like all streamers lacking a built-in power supply, the quality of the power supply affects the sound quality significantly. I donā€™t pretend to understand why, but I have used five different power supplies with my SMS-200ultra over the three years Iā€™ve owned it, and the sound clearly changes with each PS change. How significant? Significant enough that my wife, who hates audio so much she actively tries not to hear differences, has commented on the difference three of the four times Iā€™ve changed power supplies (the first power supply was with the unit, so her comment went to the difference between the prior streamer and the 200ultra.)

Good luck!
HC

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Hi HC

keen to know what power supplies you have tried and how you rate them. I just got Sotm 500 but have not had it in the system yet.
Thanks
Sean

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I have had the SMS-200ultra neo, tx-USBultra and SPS-500 for about 6 months now and have been nothing but happy with it. I did not buy all three units at once but did so in pretty quick succession, so I did notice improvements with each module added. I originally had them powered off of a small LPS (from a well regarded company) but the SMS-500 sounds better in my opinion. It is just absolutely silent. I recently had a couple of questions so I sent them an e-mail and they responded very quickly. They then tested their unit in a similar set up to mine for a few days just so they could answer my questions best as possible. My experience with them has been nothing but good so far.

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Hi sorry if this a dumb question but Iā€™m running the sms 200 neo with sms 500 power supply and Iā€™m unclear on whether I should leave power supply and renderer powered on when not in use. Same question re my DAC. Well my DAC actually has a standby modeā€¦ I tend to power everything down when not in use.

Just leave everything on.
Unless youā€™re away for like a week or soā€¦
The only thing I power down is my tube headphone amp. I leave everything else turned on and ready to go.

I too got the sotm 200 ultra neo first followed by the tx ultra usb and the sms 500. Using the sms 500 power supply for each of the units. Also extremely happy with the sound. I turn off the ultra neo and power down to standby the power supply to both of these units. So far no issues. I keep the sotm switch and linksys router switched on all the time though and both of these are also powered by sotm 500s individually.

From an equipment standpoint, it ā€˜s always better to leave devices powered up. Turning off/on is more ā€˜taxingā€™ to various electrical components.

Canā€™t remember the last time.my DAC was off, for any reason.

I have a tubed pre-amp that I do turn off, out of superstition, but I know others who donā€™t even do that and without any seeming decrease in tube life.

OTOH, probably not a very eco-conscious way to act.

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I have the sMS-200 Neo powered by the sBooster. I leave it on so itā€™s ready to play when I turn on my Pre-Amp. However, the sMS-200 Neo needs a reboot sometimes because itā€™s disappeared on the network. I also have the newest Sonore MicroRendu v1.5 and have never needed a reboot. It always shows up on my network.

iā€™m powering my sms200 with the sbooster 12v. i went with the 12v version because you could use the sbooster ultra as an additional upgrade. did anyone tried it? is it worth the upgrade? (sbooster ultra. you donā€™t have this option with the 9v sbooster.

Hi,
I ordered the Ultra for my SMS200 Ultra Neo. I will report on any improvements.

So the Ultra got here yesterday and I can hear an improvement in my system.
Not night and day, but worth the investment. The Ultra stays.
I would say it improves a bit on focus and separation of instruments.

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thank you! i will consider it!

Hi, I have the SMS-200 Neo and the SPS-500 power supply. I see that SOtM do a couple of upgrade DC cables for use between the two units, and just wondered if any of you guys in this thread (or anybody else reading)have any experiences to share about these cables listed below?

  • Stranded 7N UPOCC silver cable :
  • Stranded 7N UPOCC Copper cable

Thanks

Nobody any experience of these DC cables then? @aggielaw @Sean_Flynn @AnimalOnDrums @David_Friedman @Hari_Krishnan @HTH - be interested to hear if you guys use either of these upgrade cables, and if so is it worth forking out the extra outlay on them? I must admit the 200-Neo/SPS-500 combo sounds terrific with the stock DC cable, but if either of the upgrade cables would take it up a level Iā€™d seriously look into purchasing.

Thanks

Hi ,

Iā€™m
Not sure the DC cables will do much, in theory the silver will be more detailed brighter but Iā€™d say itā€™s marginal

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Cheers Sean.

If the silver adds brightness Iā€™m not interested in that. Not a fan of brightness when it comes to sound tbh.

Anybody ever came across a situation where the SMS-200-NEO is detected by Roon and can play back music but cannot get it to play back using Airplay on other music services such as Apple Music and other services that use Airplay? I am sure I have read before that Roon can almost ā€œlockā€ certain streamers so wonder if that is what is happening here. I have stopped Roon, rebooted my Core. I have rebooted the SMS 200, I have restarted my router, have restarted my iPad and Macbook , restarted amp that SMS-200 is connected to all to no avail. Any ideas? Thanks.

Edit - sorted, another router reboot seemed to fix.