Considering changing my Emm Labs DAC2 to SMSL SU-9(n).

[AxOfficial]

Hi, I'm pretty new to the forum but I'm following Amir on Youtube from quite a few months and I really appreciate the work he's doing bringing facts to us people.

Looking at the reviews of some DACs on this forum, I was wondering if buying the SMSL SU-9 (or the 9n version) would be an upgrade to my Emm Labs DAC2.
It has PCM support up to 96kHz and DSD support through UBS connection (that I'm not actually using because I've got a Bluesound Node 2i that goes to the Emm Labs via coax that I'm planning to change with a fanless mini-PC).
Here's the manual of the DAC2 if you want to look at the specifications: https://www.emmlabs.com/images/legacy/Manuals/DAC2_Manual.pdf

I would appreciate if anyone could help me in this. Thank you very much

 

[RandomEar]

I checked the EMM Labs manual and website. There doesn't seem to be much actual info about your DAC, except for weight, power consumption and output voltage levels. The rest is marketing gibberish. I also could find no review with actual measurements of the device - just subjective reports. Therefore, it will be difficult to give you a fact-based recommendation on switching to another DAC.

From what I gathered about the company and reviews of their other products, they appear to be a somewhat boutique style manufacturer, but with quite well perfoming products. My guess would be, that your DAC2 will be "good enough" and there won't be any audible improvement from moving to the SU-9(n). You would lose some inputs (AES/EBU and the second Toslink) and gain a bluetooth input. Don't know if that is relevant for you. You would also "shed" about 11 kg of weight and 45 of the 50 W of power consumption. That would absolutely be an argument to switch for me, but your priorities might be different.

 

[Purité Audio]

Speakers and room speakers and room speakers and room…
If you are looking for an actual improvement in SQ.
Keith

 

[sq225917]

That's an old dac, hard to find full specs for it but Emm labs have always had good numbers.

I'd expect the smsl to be about 10db better in every measurement. But is it audible?