SMSL introduces the $80 MQA capable SU-1 32/768 DAC

[Cheeyuan777]

Using a WiiM mini, connected to the SU-1 via optical seems to work well.

 

[sejarzo]

Using a WiiM mini, connected to the SU-1 via optical seems to work well.

Is a remote included? I ask because I see no window on the face for an IR receiver. Thanks!

 

[HarmonyGroupie]

View attachment 278800Using a WiiM mini, connected to the SU-1 via optical seems to work well.

Thank you, just got my WIIM Pro yesterday and was wondering how this would pair with it. As you continue to listen, please keep us posted on how it works/sounds. If you have any tips on the quickest way to get this in the US, let us know.

 

[Cheeyuan777]

Is a remote included? I ask because I see no window on the face for an IR receiver. Thanks!

There is no remote.

 

[theREALdotnet]

There is no remote.

So, the product description at Shenzhen Audio is lying? Perhaps they took a ”features” pic from another DAC. That would be an easy mistake to make, given how interchangeable these devices are nowadays…

 

[jhaider]

maybe perhaps buy something with more features that suits your needs

This seems like just the right number of features for a DAC to me. Most “features” on current DACs are stupid and counter to fidelity.

Volume? Maybe an attenuator pot on the back (where it won’t be messed with).

Display? Who cares?

Remote? Why?

Headphone jack? Stupid, unless they include at least decent PEQ as well.

Streamer? Stupid, unless they include PEQ and bass management as well.

Balanced outs? Ok, would be nice.

 

[sejarzo]

This seems like just the right number of features for a DAC to me. Most “features” on current DACs are stupid and counter to fidelity.

Volume? Maybe an attenuator pot on the back (where it won’t be messed with).

Display? Who cares?

Remote? Why?

Headphone jack? Stupid, unless they include at least decent PEQ as well.

Streamer? Stupid, unless they include PEQ and bass management as well.

Balanced outs? Ok, would be nice.

Volume and remote are quite useful for a minimal system using powered monitors or straight up power amps with passive speakers. A pot on the back would be useless.

IMHO, discrete preamps fall into that "stupid and counter to fidelity" category....unless they incorporate a DAC.

 

[JktHifi]

View attachment 278800Using a WiiM mini, connected to the SU-1 via optical seems to work well.

How is the USB C input? Working well?

 

[Trell]

This seems like just the right number of features for a DAC to me. Most “features” on current DACs are stupid and counter to fidelity.

Volume? Maybe an attenuator pot on the back (where it won’t be messed with).

Display? Who cares?

Remote? Why?

Headphone jack? Stupid, unless they include at least decent PEQ as well.

Streamer? Stupid, unless they include PEQ and bass management as well.

Balanced outs? Ok, would be nice.

You’ve been a member of ASR long enough to know there are several uses for an external DAC, along with various preferences that you don’t need to share.

 

[TonyJZX]

of course i always think getting more features for less is great but obviously the more you add the more it costs

again i say the next model up is $110 and it comes with BT + remote + display + volume so is that functionality worth $30? I would probably say so.

 

[Cheeyuan777]

How is the USB C input? Working well?

Yes, works well on an android tablet with usb player pro. However, I couldn’t get it to work on a iPhone to stream tidal.

How is the USB C input? Working well?

 

[jhaider]

Volume and remote are quite useful for a minimal system using powered monitors or straight up power amps with passive speakers.

You just described a low-fi background music system.

A system intended to reproduce music with high fidelity must have some means of addressing the transducers’ interaction with the room - or, in the case of headphones, the performance of the transducers themselves.

A separate DAC is really a very special use component. It’s only really useful in a system fronted by a digital controller/processor (eg miniDSP SHD Studio.) So the feature set required is minimal, and furthermore feature creep is vice not virtue, to the extent it limits one’s ability to add and apply useful signal processing efficiently. Adding shit just adds opportunities to easily screw things up after the system is set up.

A pot on the back would be useless.

It’s far better than the idiocy of a big volume knob up front! The point of level pots in back per channel is, you set the output level in the course of setting up the system, and then do not touch it thereafter.

I guess a knob in front is ok, if it can be used adjust the level of each channel individually and then be locked down. But that’s a worse UI than two simple screw-pots on the back.

IMHO, discrete preamps fall into that "stupid and counter to fidelity" category....unless they incorporate a DAC.

I guess that depends on what you mean by “discrete preamp.”

 

[JktHifi]

Yes, works well on an android tablet with usb player pro. However, I couldn’t get it to work on a iPhone to stream tidal.

Use USB C AV Adapter so you can push the power through the USB C input and send audio signal via USB A.
It also happen to SMSL PO100 AK. I use iPad Pro can direct USB C to C but my iPhone cannot because not enough power so I use the Adapter.

 

[bavlf]

Up-to-date components.
An excellent competitor to the excellent Topping DX1, very good for those who appreciate minimalism.
I have the DX1 but this SMSL interests me a lot precisely because it has no volume control which is too much on my DX1.

 

[sejarzo]

You just described a low-fi background music system.

A system intended to reproduce music with high fidelity must have some means of addressing the transducers’ interaction with the room - or, in the case of headphones, the performance of the transducers themselves.

Sure...but that's why folks like me use products like Dirac or other software based room correction for speaker rigs and a convolver plug-in in the DSP stack in playback software on our computer-based headphone rigs to implement EQ. Obviously, a remote volume control incorporated in a DAC is of less value on a headphone rig but works quite well in a system with full range speakers and software based correction.

I owned a couple of different Schiit headamps that were inexpensive yet proven to be transparent here, and had more than ample power to drive my headphones, but the cheap volume pots were noisy. The only way I could use them was with a Topping DAC that had a digital volume control.

 

[Cheeyuan777]

Use USB C AV Adapter so you can push the power through the USB C input and send audio signal via USB A.
It also happen to SMSL PO100 AK. I use iPad Pro can direct USB C to C but my iPhone cannot because not enough power so I use the Adapter.

I may have to try it out. SU-1 looks like the PO100AK but in a larger desktop package. Currently, using the SU-1 with A300 to power my LS50 Metas. I must say Im really impressed and ready to upgrade to a proper DAC. 80USD is definitely worth trying out as I was on a tight budget and a beginner.

 

[JktHifi]

I may have to try it out. SU-1 looks like the PO100AK but in a larger desktop package. Currently, using the SU-1 with A300 to power my LS50 Metas. I must say Im really impressed and ready to upgrade to a proper DAC. 80USD is definitely worth trying out as I was on a tight budget and a beginner.

SU-1 is digital inputs while PO100 is digital outputs. Both have 1 analog out.

 

[Bleib]

View attachment 278800Using a WiiM mini, connected to the SU-1 via optical seems to work well.

How bright are the LEDs?

 

[HappyMetalGuy]

Strange that it says everywhere that a full feature remote is included (not that for me is nedded, but that's odd). If this as a good FR, I want one. We need measurements!!! from the SU-1 and C100.

 

[doodlebro]

Good enough to replace my Atom DAC, which is going into the garage now. Can't wait to see how it measures.