SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II DAC Review

[tvrgeek]

So the suggestion is you need a driver for higher bit depth and sample rates. Not my problem. I guess everyone makes a turd occasionally and I got theirs. Of course subjective " sounds great" is not the same as measuring the distortion and artifacts on the bench.

We were not talking a small difference. We are talking about an order of magnitude or more and spikes that should not be there at all and were not on the unit that was reviewed.

FWIW, I run my Muse on a linear supply, but it had a phones output which requires considerably more power. Todays project is actually putting the monster 2A wall wart into a diecast box with a power switch and fuse. A lot less "klunky" and easier to plug into my power strip/line filter that I am converting to USB controlled so when my PC comes on, so does the entire system. But no parasitic loads when off.

Again, if this unit required different drivers and requires an external power supply to meet spec, then it is still their fault for not saying so! No excuses for that. My Scarlett 2i2 came with a CD and INSTRUCTIONS. My MUSE does not require any.

 

[3dcnc]

understood! i think it will work fine without the linear power supply if you use the usb. I think the drivers are unfortunately necessary to get the most out of the unit - my opinion. I don't really care about measurements - more important , does it sound good!

 

[3dcnc]

I think the xmos chip is more to do with noise than bit rate. "Xmos u208. 0 to I2S DSD SPDIF Output. 2. USB module owns I2S isolation to isolate noise coming from computer and other usb source devices " . installing the driver for noise reduction is worth it in my opnion. Its annoying but not that big a deal in the scheme of things.

 

[tvrgeek]

So, what we need is objective testing with and without a clean external supply, and with or without their secret custom driver. To work without, one has to remain @ 16 bits, 48K or 44K although I think Windows knows about 96K.

From their WEB:
"Built-in high-performance power filtering system, so that it can achieve the best performance using only one USB interface for power supply ! "

I don't know what MQA is, but it sounds like by the time I get around to trying this again, it might be a good feature. I gather some new loss-less ( as in less loss, not none?) file format for high bit depth and rate sources. I would suspect this would not work with current host based processing.

 

[3dcnc]

I actually don't think you need linear power with this unit if using USB input. Unfortunately Xmos the chip maker , tries to control who can use their chip U208 - with a paid licence no doubt. There is not a universal windows driver. I would be surprised if the DAC was tested on this site without the driver installed. If you look around , quite a few "good" Chinese DACs use this chip and probably some driver.

I use a French company's Hecate Lt usb to coaxial unit for one of my DACs. It also uses the Xmos chip and custom driver. http://armature.audio/hecate-interface-usb/

 

[Eddie_Vanjovi]

I'm pretty sure the OP only used power over USB (no external PSU).

 

[BDWoody]

I don't know what MQA is, but it sounds like by the time I get around to trying this again, it might be a good feature. I gather some new loss-less ( as in less loss, not none?) file format for high bit depth and rate sources.

No, it's more lossy, not less. It's a money grab wrapped in audiophile nonsense.

 

[tvrgeek]

Ah, OK thanks. I am new to streaming and it seems all too complicated compared to just dragging albums into the play list on my media player. Very little of what I listen to is less than 10 years old, so latest and greatest artists I have never heard of.

Most blatant money grab was when Sony announced they would replace CDs in 10 years so you would have to buy all new again. They ate some crow for that.

DAC worked out of the box on my Windows 10 without any special driver, but I only played 16 bit 44K files. Loopback @ 48. My test software does not do 96K even though my IO box can. I can only guess, the driver is needed for higher data rates. I am looking for a higher performance IO box, but it seems the next step adds two zeros to the price. Maybe looking in the wrong place.

Yes, only used a USB-3 port. See post 245.

Re-boxing my MUSE linear power supply to be a box, not a wall wort. ( 12V, 2A) Increasing the capacitance from 600uF to 47K, increasing the diode current ratings, ( undersized, surprised they survived) fuse, switch, etc. I may play with a snubber on the transformer, but that seems to be a bit of a difficult task to get right without building a dedicated transformer test fixture. You would think with the FCC and international rules on spurious radiation, the manufactures would provide reference values for each of their products. Won't help the DAC performance of course; that is not what they do. I doubt to see/hear any difference other than cleaner install in my cabinet. If it cleans up some LF noise, fine, but it is down in the -130 already.

 

[tvrgeek]

Been doing a bit of research. A comment was made on cable quality. I can see this as a possible issue as some cheap cables do not have a consistent impedance and the signal pair is not even twisted. Some information suggests USB3 cables will be of higher quality as they have to have a better bandwidth. Makes sense by the laws of physics. ( Zip cord still has not been surpassed as speaker cable and 75 Ohm stranded Belden for interconnects IM-ns-HO . Tripp Lite is among the brands mentioned.

I was unaware that Windows does not natively support asynchronous audio over USB or AEC. That explains the questions of jitter. Silly me assumed modern equipment would buffer and clock. I gather it does with USB profile 2, but that requires the DAC supplier drivers. ( Shame on SMSL for not saying so! So it stands to some logical conclusion, my test with native Window driver woudl read a little higher distortion due to jitter. Cable and power supply still do not explain the two big spikes.

My Focusrite does seem to correctly detect ( or communicate) to set between 16/44 and 24/96K. I consider 24 bit to be useless in playback, but will further download and test higher bit rates. I do understand some of the issues with filtering. How audible is a question in my mind, but I wil keep it open.

I read up a little on MQA. Having a background in communication, I understand some of compression methods and error correction. ( Heck, I learned on 9-track GCR stuff) The methods developed for MODEMS are incredible even if they are making statically guesses on the bit in question. Synchronous is hard, but once asynchronous, we can send video from Pluto to earth with 5W.

Probably going to buy a E30 if for no other reason than itching for a new bit of hardware. My old Muse is be definition USB profile one. I finally found specs for it, and it no longer meets original performance. Not by much though.

When I change DACs, my Muse linear supply will be a great raw supply for a nice 5V USB supply.

 

[RPP117]

I just got the unit in hand. Sound is nice and really transparent.

However, I notice some popping issue... it’s appearing randomly while playing back (keep popping like every 10-15 sec.) . They are small one but noticeable and audible. Pretty annoying noise I mean.

My set up is a MacBookPro running Audirvana 3.5 connect to the Sanskrit via USB then to an amplifier. Most play back flies are flac or streaming via Tidal.
I have tried changing cables. With or with out power supply to the dac. And it’s still popping.

Do I need to change the setup in my laptop or install a firmware or a driver? I can’t find it in its website. Any suggestions here would be please.

Regards,

 

[tvrgeek]

Apple has better drivers than Windows, but looking at the different USB profile specs, you still need to install a driver on your Mac if using USB. If PCM I have not a clue.
There is a link to drivers on the SMSL WEB, but I did not follow it.
https://www.smsl-audio.com/portal/product/downlist/id/11.html Links to a RAR file.
https://www.smsl-audio.com/portal/product/support.html

As I am barely understand the issues in DACs, it does seem possible a pop could be a driver/transport problem epically if in a synchronous mode.

E30 on order. I notice Topping makes a very nice 5V supply for a reasonable price. By the time one sources parts, DIY could cost more.

 

[RPP117]

Thanks for your reply. I have already downloaded the driver form the SMSL website, RAR file. But I think the driver is only for Windows as it is the .EXE file.

With window 8 running Foobar2000 using Wasapi and the Xmos driver installed. I’m barely notice the pop.

With my MacBook running Audirvana, it’s still pop. Edit: I can even notice some pops from TV using optical SPDIF cable ...** No pops here ** ...

Anyone running Mac, please share. Thank you,

 

[tvrgeek]

Wow. That eliminated the USB connection. There are few times I am glad I have Windows. Anyway to contact SMSL?

 

[Tips]

no dynamic range measured?

 

[tvrgeek]

Dynamic range is defined by the bit depth. 16 bit is 96 dB, 24 bit is 144 dB. Of course, you subtract the noise floor. I suppose a really poor linear output stage could reduce it but we are not talking $16 e-bay DACs.

 

[railthe]

Anyone tried this with Raspberry Pi? There are posts about Topping E30 having standby issues with RPi, cause RPi keeps feeding it power through USB. (https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-e30-dac-review.12119/page-39) I would like to use it the same way with auto standby, so I dont have to keep turning it on/off manually. Thanks

 

[Sukie]

Anyone tried this with Raspberry Pi? There are posts about Topping E30 having standby issues with RPi, cause RPi keeps feeding it power through USB. (https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-e30-dac-review.12119/page-39) I would like to use it the same way with auto standby, so I dont have to keep turning it on/off manually. Thanks

I don't have either the Sanskrit 10th MkII or the E30, but do use an RPi4 with D50s and D10s. I'm afraid that I can't give an exact answer to your question, but can advise that you may need to find a work-around solution. There are lots of variables when using an RPi and you won't know how things work with your chosen DAC until you play around with it.

If the DAC won't go into standby you can do one of the following:

1. Leave the thing on 24/7.
2. Switch to a different input and see if that activates standby.
3. Use a USB switch to manually sever the RPi-DAC connection.
4. Get an on/off switch for the RPi and, at the end of the day/listening session, turn the RPi off.

I manually switch my D50s off and that works fine. The D10s is powered by the USB connection to the RPi and so I employ option 4. There'll be a solution, but you might have to work it out for yourself.

 

[Horse]

Please guys i need your help! What to choose Sanskrit 10th MKII or M100 MKII?

 

[Pablovi77]

Hi, this is my first post here. I got my unit today, but I think it’s defective. It plays great with mi RPi and Volumio. Or LMS server and player. But I just touch it a bit ok the top side and it will crash, it disconnects it from Volumio and gives a message on the led d-8. I have to reboot Volumio for it work again. With just a tiny touch.

EDIT: Nevermind, something must be creating static where I placed it. I plugged it to the Computer and it doesn’t happen. I just moved it to behind my system and won’t touch it.

 

[Pablovi77]

Can anybody verify that the MK2 version supports DSD512 and 768Khz PCM?

I just bought mine. The box has red v2 with black background, the red PCM logo has 768khz in it. I've opened it and it has AK4493 chip. But 768kHz option does not appear in the Windows setting. Even the manual says it is only 384kHz and DSD256. Was I scammed or there is a third version halfway between the original and the MK2?
View attachment 86408View attachment 86409View attachment 86410View attachment 86411

Did you retuned it? Mine also came with a V2 sticker, but it does show 768Khz, at least on Audirvana, I have a MAC so, don’t know how to get that info on the OS. And when ti boots up it says on the led screen that it’s version 2.

But I have a big problem with static, it builds up static on the external metal case, and if you touch it, it will disc range and crash the Unit, this will happen when it’s connected to a RPi, in even minutes or seconds. I couldn’t replicate it connected to a computer though. Maybe if I leave it plugged a longer time.

i couldn’t open up mine, don’t have the necessary star screwdriver.