S.M.S.L SU-1 MQA MQA-CD Audio Decoder AK4493S XU316 768kHz/32Bit DSD512 Hi-Res DAC

Bought this is on review recommendations. Just had an 1990s DAT player refurbished, brought back from the dead after it had spent thirty years in the garage, now it plays perfectly but it had a somewhat compressed sound. This DAC has one of the very latest/best chip sets usually found in units at ten times the price, the DAC in the DAT is thirty years old so could benefit from the latest tech to give it a boost. Some people think all DACs are the same but they are clearly not, a listening test shows this very clearly, just as all headphones don’t sound alike. I have six DACs, some are good, some are not so good and it does not always relate to cost. A have a Fosi which is ok as a headphone DAC and pre amp which is ok, warm sounding but lacking clarity, a Beyerdynamic slightly better but not enough for the additional cost, a Chord Mojo which is very good used between an ipad and twin rca cables to an amp, a Prozor for 5.1 sound from a modern tv to ancient analogue cinema amp which was very cheap but sounds great and now this which sounds brilliant, better than the Chord but at about a fifth of the price. A good DAC puts air and soundstage into the music, separates the instruments and gives clarity to bass and treble. This one has opened up the sound of this DAT player, giving a clearer sound, very pleased with the result for such a low cost item. Also as the DAT is optical cable and the CD player, also from the 90s, is coaxial digital, this unit can take both items and you can switch between them using the button on the front.

Like most people, my interest in sound devices and recordings is simply about getting as close as possible to the sound of a great performance of the music to which I listen. Bach, Bacharach, Basie, whatever. And this super little sound device constitutes very siginificant progress in that quest. Connected by USB to my PC it takes PCM and DSD files, converts them and sends an analogue signal to my desktop amp (Douk Audio T6). I listen to the output on Sony MDR 1 headphones. Like everyone with good new equipment I hear things differently and more clearly on recordings I have loved for years. Dynamics, attack and decay of notes, balance within ensembles, tonal nuance and so on. The S.M.S.L. SU-1 makes it all possible. Set up and operation are simplicity itself and the Roon music library/player connected immediately. (The only advisory I offer is to ensure you download and install the relevant driver to facilitate ASIO again easily done from the SMSL website) All this for a derisory price compared to regular hifi equipment. The only regret I have is that I now won't be trying out anything else for some time to come.

Fantastic little DAC and considering the price it's worth every penny sounds clear and detailed would work great for a beginner just getting into this audio hobby great full sound and just does it's job RECOMMEND

Generally flawless DAC although I find I need some bass EQ compared to other converters. So silent and with such high resolution that digital volume control can be used with absolutely zero subjective loss in quality. The issue with the XMOS USB controller is that it goes into a standby mode after 5 seconds of no signal, apparently a default intended for when the chip is used in dongles for mobile devices (i.e. phones) to save a watt or so of power draw (silly for desktop and general hifi applications), and when it 'wakes up' it misses the first half second or so of playback which can get REALLY annoying if you're browsing files. It can be fixed in Windows by installing an XMOS USB driver from the SMSL website (the DAC is otherwise plug-and-play with the default, fairly recent Windows driver), but you then have to edit an XML configuration file to enable "Always On" as an option in its control panel (it's fixed to "On When Needed" otherwise). Search for "XMOS driver settings for no cutoff/delay" on the Audio Science Review forum. *** Edit Dec. 2024 *** the latest XMOS driver from SMSL's site (released in the last month or two) now allows 'Always On' available in the control panel (it might even be the default, I can't remember if I had to change it ), so my criticism above no longer applies. ETA 2 - A general tip - this little box draws practically no power, maybe a watt or two - leave it powered on 24/7 and it will last. If you keep switching it on and off (power cycling it) there's a much higher chance it will fail.

This is a decoder (DAC) and pre-amp, of the best audio quality. Actually, it's astonishing. Technically there are better DACs, but you can probably only measure the difference with professional equipment. Audio Science Review concludes "SMSL cuts the functionality to the minimum many need, to have high quality conversion of digital to analog for multiple inputs. Performance is superb for the cost, as it provides full transparency to the source. It proves that performance requires great engineering skill, and not a ton of money. A lesson that I hope one day high-end audio companies and their customers appreciate." I have it linked to a Pi2Aes (re-clocker linked to a Pi NAS music server) for my digital music catalogue and Web Radio, including MQA tracks. There's no volume control, which I rather miss, but that is available from the next stage (amp), so it outputs a good 2v. I'd prefer balanced inputs/outputs, but with this performance, who cares? This replaced a much larger DAC with multiple inputs, with greater functionality and lower cost. Did I mention how small it was? Astonishing.

The SMSL SU 1 is a well made and featured DAC. However, if you have a detailed system already this DAC can prove a bit too forward in the mid and upper frequencies. The bass is there but a bit on the lean side. So much so I have reverted back to my Khdas tone board that gives a lovely level presentation, detail, image and bass. I use my DAC via coax to spdif of my CD player.

Update: March 13, 2024 (previously 1 star rating, now I give it 5 star rating). After several exchange of messages between Leaudio seller and myself, it was suggested that I install SMSL SU-1 driver from smsl-audio.com official website, which I did. To my surprise that fixed my DAC! Now I am finally able listen to music from my PC sent to SU-1 by USB cable, which is connected to my SMSL A300 by RCA. It seems the driver installation to my Windows 10 fixed whatever issue I was having with SU-1 DAC. As result of this, I'm updating the previous 1-star rating to 5 stars. As for the sound quality from SU-1, as stated below, it's an improvement over my SMSL A300 amplifier by 15 - 20%, but more specifically, it is the sonic clarity and separation that are the most notable. Though a minimal audio improvement over my amplifier's internal DAC, the sound clarity and instrument separation are noteworthy, and for that I give a 5-star rating. Also, through this DAC, vocals seem to be slightly more forward and clearer. March 6, 2023, initial review, I gave it 1 star rating due to the DAC's failure after 10 days of use. Bought this SMSL SU-1 DAC in November 2023, but I couldn't use it since I didn't have a pair of RCA cables to connect it to my class D SMSL A300 amplifier that I purchased from Amazon at the same time. The DAC was on Black Friday sale, so I figured to try it with my new amplifier. Fast forward to Feb 2024, I finally ordered a pair of CESS 163-4i RCA cables, connected the DAC to my amplifier. The SMSL SU-1 DAC improved the quality by about 15% over my SMSL A300 internal DAC. I used the DAC on and off for about 10 days, then today it simply failed on me. It simply fell dead silent while playing a music file from my PC (PC to USB cable to SMSL SU-1 DAC to RCA cables to SMSL A300 amplifier). I tried another RCA port in the back of my SMSL A300 amplifier, but that too didn't work. The DAC simply does not work at all. I also tried powering down my amp completely, unplug RCA cables between the DAC and the amp, then powered both up again, and toggled between various input options in the DAC to no avail (USB, coaxile, and optical just in case the internal circuit's connectivity had glitched and that toggling among input sources might reset it). The source-light LED still functions on the DAC, but I get absolutely no audio signal going into my amplifier. Heck, I even rebooted my PC just to see if that may be causing an issue, but it was futile. After 2 hours of wrestling with the connections and toggling between input sources and settings, I gave up. Now I'm back to connecting my PC directly to my SMSL A300 amplifier by USB cable, which works fine. As far as SMSL SU-1 DAC is concerned, it was a decent DAC for the price (while it worked). However, the unit I got simply failed after about 10 days of usage. I'd instantly return it for a refund, but the Jan 31 deadline return date is closed, so sadly it's not an option for me. A good-sounding, affordable DAC with a high quality DAC chip, but in my case, I must have received a lemon, so quality control seems questionable. Maybe it's just bad luck on my part, but I still wouldn't recommend this DAC to anyone. You'd be better off to spend a bit more money on a high quality DAC with its own power supply built in. Update On March 11, 2024 I emailed with photo attachments of the failed SMSL SU-1 DAC to [email protected]. According to their site, they'll honor their product warranty up to 6 months with either a repair, replacement, or refund if their product proves to be defective. Hopefully they'll reply in a timely manner with a resolution. As others may encounter a product failure after the Amazon's 30-day free return policy, I'll post further updates for reference. Update, March 11, 2024, 8 hours later, shenzhenaudio.com support staff replied my to my email, asked for the Amazon purchase invoice and order number. I forwarded them the necessary information. According to their reply, they'll forward my case to their Amazon Support Team. I hope this will be resolved asap as I'll need to either get a replacement DAC or get a refund and buy another DAC, so for now I'm stuck in a limbo with 70 bucks tied up in a failed DAC unit. For now I'm stuck to using the internal DAC of my SMSL A300 amplifier, which is quite ok, but I did like the somewhat improved audio fidelity of SMSL SU-1 DAC. Update March 12, 2024. Got a reply from Leaudio requesting detailed info on what's wrong with my SMSL SU-1 DAC. I forwarded an account of how it simply stopped working while playing music from my laptop connected to it by a USB. Also forwarded 3 photos of the DAC. Hope this matter will be dealt with either a refund, replacement, or repair soon, because at this point, the DAC is useless.

Dac seems to built well. It feels like a quality item in hand. The recent reviews on Amazon are spectacular. For me it didn’t work. No sound. When I tried to download the drivers for my device listed on the SMSL page they would not install? There is no customer service no. Thank goodness for amazons easy return policy. As a footnote when adding a third party dac into an existing audio environment a lot can go wrong. From wiring to software conflicts and so forth. When searching online for other buyers with similar problems I found very few posts as SMSLs products seem to work pretty well out of the box.

Trochę nie wierzyłem, że tak tanie urządzenie może coś poprawić. U mnie jakość dźwięku z podstawowego streamera (TagaHarmony) zdecydowanie się poprawiła - dzięki głębszym basom i większej selektywności.

Très bon. Bons timbres, très dynamique et clair. Bonne profondeur de scène sonore. Il a remplacé un Topping E30 et est nettement meilleur. L'avantage est qu'il n'y a pas de filtres, ni de suréchantillonnage avec une lecture CD. Comme on dit en anglais, "Less is More". Il a de bonnes basses, bien tenues, mais pas extra profondes. Il manque un peu de medium. J'ai essayé ensuite le D6s qui avait un son dur dans les aigues et artificiel sur mon installation. Donc, je garde le SU-1, qui est imbattable en rapport qualité prix. Il faut lui associer une bonne alimentation linéaire et de bons câbles pour en tirer le maximum. La puce AK produit des sons très naturels. Je n'ai pas du tout aimé le son de la puce ESS sur le D6s.

今までは、ノートパソコンからREIYINのDAC、中華アンプ、小型ブックシェルフスピーカーと繋いでいたのてすがもっと音が良くなるかなぁーと思いこちらを購入しました。音だししたらイキナリの爆音！かなり出力が高いです。今までのDACは、ボリュームが付いて出力が調整出来ましたがこれは、入って来る音そのままに出てきます。アンプのボリューム絞りました。間にヘッドホンアンプ入れる場合も気をつけてください。後、パソコンでビットレートは、32bit.384kに設定しました。さすがに4000円のDACよりかなりや良い音です。特に音の分離感が素晴らしい。回路に余計な物を付与していないので尚更です。尚、SMSLのDACは、もう少し高いのも使っているんだが出だしの音は、少しシャリツキますが鳴らし込みでスッキリ澄んだ音になっていきます。ボディーもコンパクトで場所も取りません。欠点は、小さいので固いケーブルを使うとボディーが浮いてしまうことかな。