SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II DAC Review

[MalinYamato]

It is on the forum somewhere. I had issues with stability, not picking the correct settings, etc. I don't remember the exact details, but search and you should find them. One had a huge noise spike. They have all kinds of features like data and bit rates supporting non-existent source material. For me, it is all about sound quality, not how many zeros in the spec. or features you can't use. I was very disappointed as I have several SMSL SAD-01 amps that are just fine. What really burned my was the tech response from one of them. Basically the answerer was "up yours, return it" Which one I do not recall. Who needs 768 Khz? A TV puts out AC-3 or 16/48 stereo I think. The OP would need to check their TV on the TOSLINK output options. They may need to get a different kind of box from someone like Monoprice to do AC3 to stereo.

I picked the Asgard as it was an all-in-one box where the JDS would be two smaller boxes. The Schiit did jump in price quite a bit. For my TV, I do need a remote and I run a full Anthem AVR as it is a big 5.1 system.

A feature I do not have is remote control. I use mine for my music only system and wanted a plain old knob.

As mentioned above, the micro USB connections of various types are not as reliable as plain old A & B, or Toslink as the OP I think is looking for. I have had issues on two phones with them. Almost as bad as the HDMI connector which has to be the biggest disaster ever invented.

agree, 768 Khz is insanely overkilled. with my picky musical ears, above 96 kHz makes no sense. My SMSL M500 has a USB B and it never breaks.

 

[zepplock]

above 96 kHz makes no sense

did you mean above 44.1khz?

 

[MalinYamato]

did you mean above 44.1khz?

well, listening to 96 khz gives me peace of mind because I think I am listening to songs with better quality even though I may not notice the diff.

 

[MarkWinston]

Which filter is the most accurate and true to source?

 

[wla]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II. It has been upgraded from AKM AK4490 to AK4493 DAC chip. It was kindly sent to me by the company a few weeks ago. I see it on Amazon for US 109 with free but not Prime shipping. I will be calling it SK10 from here on.

The SK10 has the familiar SMSL look with a small LED display:

View attachment 55214​

A remote control is provided which makes navigation easy although you still have to deal with "In1" and such for input names as opposed to "USB," etc. It is workable though.

The back panel also follows previous SMSL small DAC products:

View attachment 55215​

I am not a big fan of the micro-USB connectors but they work. When I tested the Toslink input, my cable got stuck there and took fair amount of force to pull it out. So there is a bit of tolerance issue there.

Really, I am nitpicking here as these products are easy to use and you can adapt to their ins and outs.

DAC Audio Measurements
As usual, we start with our dashboard of a pure 1 kHz digital tone and see what analog output the DAC generates:

View attachment 55216

Wow, SINAD of 115 dB is impressive. Distortion products are well under -120 dB which are provably inaudible. There is some noise which mimics more or less of the last DAC I tested with AK4493. One channel is more susceptible to it though. Playing with grounding did not help. Going with what we have, the ranking is still superb for such a budget product:

View attachment 55217

These "pocket DACs" used to be in the green section but have now comfortably moved up the bracket, narrowing the gap with state of the art DACs at much higher cost.

IMD test shows very good performance with respect to distortion and noise:

View attachment 55218

Multitone is bit less perfect than I like:

View attachment 55219

We can see the same rising noise/distortion in THD+N versus frequency:
View attachment 55220

Jitter performance with USB is very good:

View attachment 55221

Switching to either Toslink or Coax input brings fair bit of jitter with it though:

View attachment 55222

Linearity is near perfect:
View attachment 55223

The filters are the usual types:

View attachment 55224

Conclusions
These mini "pocket" DACs are changing the game with their excellent performance and budget prices. There is really no excuse to use sub-par DACs or spend orders of magnitude for boutique DACs with far worse performance.

I am happy to put SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II DAC on my recommended list.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

A new law was passed today in US providing extra protection for pink animals. I am now required to get them full respirators to keep them from catching the new virus. This is because pink animals are so rare and the government wants to do everything to protect them. Problem is, they are not giving me any money to do that so I have to look to you all to donate some using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Hi there,
Based on the data presented in the Forum I got SMSL Sanskrit 10th MKII from Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085ZMC82W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Here is what I got as THD at 1kHz, rather pathetic!!!
The second picture shows the THD of my 10 years old DAC.
Funny, huh?
The third picture shows the back of what I got from Amazon.
BTW, the sound is BAD, really BAD.
Did you measure a sample sent from the manufacturer or unit which you got from Amazon?

 

[LTig]

View attachment 171541

Which filter is the most accurate and true to source?

FL1 - it's probably the only one which fulfills the Shannon criterium. The remarks of course are pure BS.

 

[MarkWinston]

FL1 - it's probably the only one which fulfills the Shannon criterium. The remarks of course are pure BS.

So anything that fulfill Shannon criterium is considered more accurate than ones that dont?

 

[wooolf]

View attachment 171541

Which filter is the most accurate and true to source?

Hello, Could anyone explains this picture/ attachement, with simpler words for a foreigner please? it is hard to understand the sifference between natural, traditionnal and original... which one is the closer to the most realistic or true to the original recording please?

 

[Wuzel]

Hello, Could anyone explains this picture/ attachement, with simpler words for a foreigner please? it is hard to understand the sifference between natural, traditionnal and original... which one is the closer to the most realistic or true to the original recording please?

Filter 1&3 are the technically correct working ones.
Choose one of them and all well be fine....

6 is AKM special - a Wolfson type Filter.
It has the most impact of all filters - negative or positive is u choose. It softens the highs a bit and details blured.

 

[guenthi_r]

Hi there,
Based on the data presented in the Forum I got SMSL Sanskrit 10th MKII from Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085ZMC82W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Here is what I got as THD at 1kHz, rather pathetic!!!
The second picture shows the THD of my 10 years old DAC.
Funny, huh?
The third picture shows the back of what I got from Amazon.
BTW, the sound is BAD, really BAD.
Did you measure a sample sent from the manufacturer or unit which you got from Amazon?

How do you measured the SK10? Mine from SMSL measures well, sligtly better than @amirm ´s measurements.

 

[wla]

How do you measured the SK10? Mine from SMSL measures well, sligtly better than @amirm ´s measurements.

Ultra low distortion 1kHz oscillator -> SMSL -> EMU204 (op amps replaced and other small mods, THD+N <122dB), DELL laptop.

The guys from SMSL reacted rather awkwardly, sending me a video showing that "randomly" picked up dac works fine.
Unbelievable customer support!!! Very helpful.

 

[ManuCV]

Hi everyone, I am using the Sanskrit Mk II with a Rpi4/Volumio and it plays fine but stuck to 44.1. Volumio does detect the DAC and identifies it correctly. I have connected a secondary USB cable to a 5V 1A mobile charger, but no change. DSDs also show "44' in the screen.
I used the DAC with my PC and it did change the bitrate according to the played file. I have tried a different couple of USB cables but still getting the same result.
Has anyone been able to make it work with the Rpi4 and Volumio?
Thanks.

 

[Zek]

The settings in the audio player may not be done correctly.

 

[ManuCV]

The settings in the audio player may not be done correctly.

The settings are correct, the DAC is detected and resampling is disabled. The DAC also appears as the mixer (mixer type: hardware; mixer control name: SMSL Sanskrit).

 

[confucius_zero]

Question: if we lower the output gain from 2.2V to 2V, does this possibly improve the measurements?

 

[LangDuTienTu]

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

I don't know if it's late but I still post this for someone who is wondering the same.

I can confirm this DAC can do 768Khz and DSD512 well. Please be noticed that on Foobar you may need to use ASIO+DSD Component instead of ASIO Proxy which only supports up to DSD256.

The information 384Khz and DSD256 support on the manual may belong to the Version 1 and they just forgot updating it. I have the same box as you and the manual says 768Khz and DSD512, of course it's true.

 

[Haze]

The MK2 does do 768Khz and DSD512 the windows mixer just doesn't support anything above 384Khz. Also I believe you have to have their driver installed and use ASIO to get the sample rate that high.

On another issues. Can anyone recommend a micro usb cable that reliably works with this thing? It seems like the slightest jiggle and connection is lost. I take it this is a fit issue?

 

[LangDuTienTu]

The MK2 does do 768Khz and DSD512 the windows mixer just doesn't support anything above 384Khz. Also I believe you have to have their driver installed and use ASIO to get the sample rate that high.

On another issues. Can anyone recommend a micro usb cable that reliably works with this thing? It seems like the slightest jiggle and connection is lost. I take it this is a fit issue?

I had this issue before, pop and connection lost. Mainly because of the cable. I took a Vention one and it works flawlessly.

 

[Diable]

Did SMSL buy up all the 4493 chips before the fire cause this is the only dac with a AKM chip that's still on the market?

 

[staticV3]

It's an old(-ish) product with an awkward form factor. I'm not surprised retailers have trouble getting rid of their stock.
If anything, it's good that consumers aren't jumping on every last AKM chip. Maybe they're learning