Problem: SMSL Q5 Pro USB input not working with Intel NUC 8i7 & Windows 10

[Xulonn]

SMSL support? Earlier this week, I requested support via email for solving the problem of the failure of my SMSL Q5 Pro DAC/Amp to connect to my Windows 10 Intel NUC8i7PC via its USB port, but no response yet. (The Q5 Pro is sold listing its micro-USB port as an input option.)

Windows 10 doesn't even detect that a device is plugged via any of the four NUC USB ports using 5 different USB cables. OTOH, my SMSL Sanskrit 6th "backup" DAC works perfectly with those same NUC USB ports. So for now, I use the line-level output from the DAC to connect to the Q5 Pro Aux input.

 

[restorer-john]

Does it auto-select the inputs or do you have to tell it which input you are using?

 

[Xulonn]

The power switch is dual function - press quickly to change input, hold to power off.

 

[Xulonn]

I am giving up on SMSL and the Q5Pro - a product that does not work as advertised. I am moving on to try yet another budget DAC/Amp from an obscure company.

It is fun and not too expensive - but still wasteful - to play with these mini-components. I am beginning to think I would have been better off replacing my dead (after a nearby lightning strike) old Teac AH01 DAC/Abletec amp with another used one. Instead I have purchased:

• An SMSL Sanskrit DAC which still works. ($106)
• A 32v-powered Topping PA3 amp ($92) to pair with it, but it died in less than a year , and I bought a used one on Amazon for $65 to replace it, but that one died within a few months.
• A 19v-powered SMSL Q5ProDAC/amp which still works, but I don't like the 3.5mm stereo audio line-in jack and the micro-USB input (which doesn't work - and SMSL won't answer my emails about it). Windows 10 doesn't see that a USB device has been connected. So I am using the Q5Pro only as an amp with line-level imput from the Sanskrit 6th DAC. I use the Sanskrit 6th DAC and Q5 Pro as my desktop DAC/AMP.

I also have a 12+ years old, 12v-powered Trends 10.1 T-amp which cost $180 at the time. It still works great, but I dropped it at the weekly market where I sell arts and crafts, and broke off the volume control shaft. I am now using a 12v, $25 Lepai 2020 instead. It has bass and treble controls, but the treble control is scratchy. But my little old Yamaha NSA-325 speakers sound much better with more power driving them, so I won't bother fixing the Trends amp.

Since I now have two "surplus" Topping 32v SMPS bricks from the two dead PA3 amplifiers, I just ordered an I.AM.D v200 (no bluetooth, no power supply) DAC/Amp for $100 (with shipping to the U.S.) from AliExpress. This unit was popular with a few members at DIYAudio, and was sold in the past by Audiophonics, where it received good reviews. It comes with no power supply, and no Bluetooth - it only has what I want, including a Type B USB port. The I.AM.D DAC/Amp will be my new, small, single box solution for my desktop to use with my Intel NUC8i7 Windows 10 PC. I hope it works and lasts for a while.

 

[amirm]

Amplifiers as a category have much higher potential for failure than DACs and other low power devices. So I would try to buy a better supported product in that category.

 

[Xulonn]

Amplifiers as a category have much higher potential for failure than DACs and other low power devices. So I would try to buy a better supported product in that category.

Condsidering the problems I have had with Topping (dead amplifiers that are throwaways - too cheap to consider repairing) and SMSL products (no support for a USB input failure on a DAC/Amp), I don't have much faith in any of the $100-range amplifiers. Because of my remote location in the mountains of Western Panama, I've come to treat them as not much more than toys - desktop audio disposable products that I would not ever consider using in my main system.

It just makes me appreciate my big old 25+ y/o used Classé 70wpc Class AB amp which is in great working cndition after all of those years.