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SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II DAC Review

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amirm

amirm

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So just as a frame of reference, how long does the 1 million points test take versus the 32K variant when you conduct the test itself?
You can do the math yourself. Sample rate is 44100/second. You need 1 million or about 23 seconds just to capture the data. Then a bit of time to process it.
 

Tks

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You can do the math yourself. Sample rate is 44100/second. You need 1 million or about 23 seconds just to capture the data. Then a bit of time to process it.

Oh I mean't in terms of the software you use to eventually spit out the result in a graph and format you find to satisfaction. Didn't mean literally running it >_< Sorry
 

JohnYang1997

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Oh I mean't in terms of the software you use to eventually spit out the result in a graph and format you find to satisfaction. Didn't mean literally running it >_< Sorry
A few seconds? You can save directly from the software.
 
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amirm

amirm

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Oh I mean't in terms of the software you use to eventually spit out the result in a graph and format you find to satisfaction. Didn't mean literally running it >_< Sorry
Computers are so fast these days so that part happens instantly.
 

zepplock

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Another great DAC at a budget price. It seems that DAC market has really exploded in the last 2 years. All the sudden there are all these near-perfect DAC's at $200 and less....

DACs are really the easiest components out of the whole chain. Amps have power and heating, speakers have moving parts and resonances, TTs have spinning parts, motor and very low output to deal with. With DACs, once people learned how to deal with power separation and HF rolloff filters, it's now a done game.
 

JohnYang1997

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DACs are really the easiest components out of the whole chain. Amps have power and heating, speakers have moving parts and resonances, TTs have spinning parts, motor and very low output to deal with. With DACs, once people learned how to deal with power separation and HF rolloff filters, it's now a done game.
That depends on what kind of performance you want and what type of chip you choose.
 

AudioTodd

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Thanks for testing Toslink, a lot of setups can't use USB so its interesting to see how Toslink performs. think Coax is less common, so you could drop that test imo.
I use Bluesound devices for my streaming and mostly use coax out from them and have to use coax when I configure my Benchmark DACs to also pass through the selected digital source to coax out regardless of what it is. So I really like seeing coax measurements to be sure that input isn’t broken. My audio gluttony leads me to have multiple DACs connected this way, if for no other reason than to prove to myself I cannot tell a difference between them.
 

kouki_monster

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It looks like there are 3 very good budget options at the moment: Topping D10, SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II and Topping E30. Did I miss anything? I myself got a used D10 with shipping for $60 what is a total steal in Europe. With how much I can spend on the speakers, there is really no point going for the other 2 better-performing options. Hopefully, Amir finds something similar to JBL 305P MkII, it can be even more pricy, but without the infamous hiss.

Schiit Modi 3
Topping D30
(D10, while nice, is USB in only which to me takes it off of this list..)
 

Herbert

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Ooops, correct, red is SPDIF blue seems to be USB. But Amir states in the graph that Toslink measures better than coax. In earlier times,(speaking of 80‘s and 90‘s, when 5V was common as supply voltage) „unbalanced“ SPDIF (as far as I remember 1V) had to be stepped up to 5V signal using a logic chip or transformer. Optical Toslink receivers did generate 5V anyway. No clue about today but can a weak coax signal produce more jitter, though the edges might be well defined...?
 

JohnYang1997

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Ooops, correct, red is SPDIF blue seems to be USB. But Amir states in the graph that Toslink measures better than coax. In earlier times,(speaking of 80‘s and 90‘s, when 5V was common as supply voltage) „unbalanced“ SPDIF (as far as I remember 1V) had to be stepped up to 5V signal using a logic chip or transformer. Optical Toslink receivers did generate 5V anyway. No clue about today but can a weak coax signal produce more jitter, though the edges might be well defined...?
I'm not sure about that but in my tests and from my colleagues, toslink has always been a little worse than coax when it comes to solely jitter. Using better interfaces also PLL or asynchronous clock systems will drastically reduce jitter.
In terms of voltage, you always need to interface the level of voltage that the output is in the correct range of the down stream logic levels.
 

LTig

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In earlier times,(speaking of 80‘s and 90‘s, when 5V was common as supply voltage) „unbalanced“ SPDIF (as far as I remember 1V) had to be stepped up to 5V signal using a logic chip or transformer.
Coax is 0.5V if I remember correctly. A typical input stage in the early times was a transformer followed by a specific type of logic inverter (74HCU04 in Arcam BB3) misused as kind of analog amplifier with a feedback resistor. Might have been a clever engineered solution but I'm not happy using electronic devices out of their recommended environment. So for my DIY digital patch bay I used dedicated line receivers (MC3486) behind a transformer.
 

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So, considering that so many people are interested to use Toslink / SPDIF / Coax input, how about always adding a SINAD measurement optical inputs to the big SINAD ranking chart? :)

I myself am interested to find a good, very cheap optical DAC for TVs. Just have friends who use built in TV speakers, so I want to recommend a dirt-cheap, but good DAC/powered-speaker combo to blow up their minds without asking for money they would never spend on audio :)
 

confucius_zero

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wait so... this or the e30?
 

kouki_monster

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I'd say you can't go wrong with either. Pick the one you like based upon aesthetics / tiny details, or go for the SK10II simply because it's cheaper.. Or pay a little more for the E30's warranty / after sales support.
 

clemenules

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wait so... this or the e30?

Where I'd buy them in Europe, it's
EUR 110 for the SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II
EUR 130 for the Topping E30.

So probably the SMSL unit as it's ~20% cheaper? Don't care too much about the looks. Similar connectivity.
 
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amirm

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So, considering that so many people are interested to use Toslink / SPDIF / Coax input, how about always adding a SINAD measurement optical inputs to the big SINAD ranking chart? :)
The SINAD doesn't change with inputs. It only makes an impact in Jitter test. There are exceptions once in a great while but not common enough to test/add them to the chart.
 

Labjr

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Where I'd buy them in Europe, it's
EUR 110 for the SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II
EUR 130 for the Topping E30.

So probably the SMSL unit as it's ~20% cheaper? Don't care too much about the looks. Similar connectivity.
The black color doesn't look bad. I don't like the idea of Micro USB power because those connectors break too easily.
 

estuardo4

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Amir, thank you for taking the time to continue testing DACs and amps. I guess you should be tempted to test more and more speakers because they take more space to store.

My question is: Why do the E30 has the golf Pink Panther and this DAC only the Meh Panther? Both are on the same blue section and have almost the same score. Your panthers do matter to a lot of visitors. It matters to my OCD :)
 
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amirm

amirm

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This is not the Meh Panther. It is the "I like it Panther." On SINAD they are close but on multitone they are not. And jitter on Coax is fair bit worse. Based on SINDA test alone, I was about to give it the top mark but then lose a bit of enthusiasm toward the end.
 

confucius_zero

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On SINAD they are close but on multitone they are not. And jitter on Coax is fair bit worse.
There you have it folks. E30 FTW :D
 
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