SMSL SU-2 DAC Review (NTTY)

[john61ct]

Does anyone know of a TPA3255 based fully balanced digital integrated amplifier with optical, coax, USB inputs, analog volume control (stepped or conventional) & remote control for input selection & volume?

Create a new thread, they are free!

This thread has been so derailed not just for that, but really this excellent new topic deserves its own new thread.

 

[Roland68]

Does anyone know of a TPA3255 based fully balanced digital integrated amplifier with optical, coax, USB inputs, analog volume control (stepped or conventional) & remote control for input selection & volume?

You really ought to start a new thread for that.
And the TPA3255/51 are analog, not digital.

 

[NTTY]

Hi everyone,

It is frequent that people mention ripping CD as the best solution, for different reasons, cost, ease, bit perfect playback, … but it is not. I’m writing this short message and will reference it as many times as I see the too frequent "just rip it" advice.

If it works well for a casual collection of 500-1000 mainstream albums, it falls apart when scaled up to a bigger, more specialized library that some of us have.

I have a collection of roughly 6,000 CDs (still growing), focused on rare electronic music (house, techno, trance, drum and bass, and their subcategories) many released in rare batches, alongside more standard pop/rock, lots of classical music and Jazz, world music…
For a library of this size and nature, ripping is neither "simple" nor "cost-effective" for several reasons.

I tried to rip it many years ago, and saw myself becoming an IT manager to play music, and that simply made no sense to me. Just on the metada, properly tagging and taking pictures of the cover took me ages, and I guess I contributed a lot to some online databases at the time, much more than I thought I’d have to. And I just stopped it all after I realized one more time that the hardware and software I selected would not scale to the size of my library. I really got bored and angry about me not spending more valuable of my personal time simply listening to my music.

A friend of mine, with a crazy collection of 12’000 classical CDs, bought a specialized ripping tower and software, and it was a very significant financial and more importantly personal time investment to tag many of them. But he made it, so it possible. But quick, simple and cheap, certainly not.

Ripping properly a CD requires to select the right tool, notably for HDCD and old CDs with pre-emphasis. Replay is not guaranteed "bit perfect" if you do not pay attention to how the operating system processes the digital files. Selecting the software and hardware to host the library is not an easy task for everyone.

So, yes, a properly engineered CD player is the easiest and cost effective solution to play CDs. Starting price can be as low as $0. And they can further benefit from a high resolution DAC of today, as the one I reviewed here.

On that note, let me spin Trance Mix by DJ-Phrenetic (Mainstation 2001) on a maintenance-free device for the last 38 years

 

[Roland68]

Hi everyone,

It is frequent that people mention ripping CD as the best solution, for different reasons, cost, ease, bit perfect playback, … but it is not. I’m writing this short message and will reference it as many times as I see the too frequent "just rip it" advice.

If it works well for a casual collection of 500-1000 mainstream albums, it falls apart when scaled up to a bigger, more specialized library that some of us have.

I have a collection of roughly 6,000 CDs (still growing), focused on rare electronic music (house, techno, trance, drum and bass, and their subcategories) many released in rare batches, alongside more standard pop/rock, lots of classical music and Jazz, world music…
For a library of this size and nature, ripping is neither "simple" nor "cost-effective" for several reasons.

I tried to rip it many years ago, and saw myself becoming an IT manager to play music, and that simply made no sense to me. Just on the metada, properly tagging and taking pictures of the cover took me ages, and I guess I contributed a lot to some online databases at the time, much more than I thought I’d have to. And I just stopped it all after I realized one more time that the hardware and software I selected would not scale to the size of my library. I really got bored and angry about me not spending more valuable of my personal time simply listening to my music.

A friend of mine, with a crazy collection of 12’000 classical CDs, bought a specialized ripping tower and software, and it was a very significant financial and more importantly personal time investment to tag many of them. But he made it, so it possible. But quick, simple and cheap, certainly not.

Ripping properly a CD requires to select the right tool, notably for HDCD and old CDs with pre-emphasis. Replay is not guaranteed "bit perfect" if you do not pay attention to how the operating system processes the digital files. Selecting the software and hardware to host the library is not an easy task for everyone.

So, yes, a properly engineered CD player is the easiest and cost effective solution to play CDs. Starting price can be as low as $0. And they can further benefit from a high resolution DAC of today, as the one I reviewed here.

You’ve overlooked one very important point regarding this.
A great many people have lost their ripped music because their storage media failed.
The effort required for a reliable data backup system shouldn't be underestimated, and there is no such thing as 100% protection. On top of that, it becomes an ongoing cost factor over the years, as the media need to be replaced periodically.
And that still doesn't cover theft—laptops, computers, and storage devices are frequently taken during break-ins.

 

[Frunse]

Hi everyone,

It is frequent that people mention ripping CD as the best solution, for different reasons, cost, ease, bit perfect playback, … but it is not. I’m writing this short message and will reference it as many times as I see the too frequent "just rip it" advice.

If it works well for a casual collection of 500-1000 mainstream albums, it falls apart when scaled up to a bigger, more specialized library that some of us have.

I have a collection of roughly 6,000 CDs (still growing), focused on rare electronic music (house, techno, trance, drum and bass, and their subcategories) many released in rare batches, alongside more standard pop/rock, lots of classical music and Jazz, world music…
For a library of this size and nature, ripping is neither "simple" nor "cost-effective" for several reasons.

I tried to rip it many years ago, and saw myself becoming an IT manager to play music, and that simply made no sense to me. Just on the metada, properly tagging and taking pictures of the cover took me ages, and I guess I contributed a lot to some online databases at the time, much more than I thought I’d have to. And I just stopped it all after I realized one more time that the hardware and software I selected would not scale to the size of my library. I really got bored and angry about me not spending more valuable of my personal time simply listening to my music.

A friend of mine, with a crazy collection of 12’000 classical CDs, bought a specialized ripping tower and software, and it was a very significant financial and more importantly personal time investment to tag many of them. But he made it, so it possible. But quick, simple and cheap, certainly not.

Ripping properly a CD requires to select the right tool, notably for HDCD and old CDs with pre-emphasis. Replay is not guaranteed "bit perfect" if you do not pay attention to how the operating system processes the digital files. Selecting the software and hardware to host the library is not an easy task for everyone.

So, yes, a properly engineered CD player is the easiest and cost effective solution to play CDs. Starting price can be as low as $0. And they can further benefit from a high resolution DAC of today, as the one I reviewed here.

On that note, let me spin Trance Mix by DJ-Phrenetic (Mainstation 2001) on a no-maintenance device for the last 38 years

View attachment 555194

Hmm i didn't had this problems, doing it now for 20Years i gues, I use 2 NAS (one as Backup (both RAID 6)) and one copy on an SSD, only WAV + Coverart, nothing to editing here.

And don't ask me why no FLAC (Memmory cost nothing (till 2025, now its another Story (F**k KI) ) in relation and i like it this way)

I was lucky it seems, 95% of my Cover art i got from Internet so all my Music (WAV) has 450GB for now so no 12000 CD by sure LOOOL

For the rest i used my Scanner.

Also my NAS don't work 24/7, i switch them on if i need them, over night always goes off at 23:00 if i forget to switch it off, no Internet access!
Most time playing musik from SSD Drive with an PI.

Both NAS uses 25GB Fiber Ethenet connection on an 25/100 GB Switch also 25GB Nic on my both PC

I use this to switch them on remotly with Phone (Bios seting's "Start" if power recover or anything like this)

https://www.amazon.de/Tapo-P115-Energieverbrauchskontrolle-funktioniert-Sprachsteuerung/dp/B0CKWC8LT9/ref=sr_1_7?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=1TQR87O55WUW2&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.6E0E-ImTJ9_gg_CM2111upRM2t9aV9mqWTVQi8A9BFEf5Z2flAJiCEuQRGzcOmNKJorjTYyHK-2o20Sh4WATv6JfVT4YzF71LDVi-Q8j6HWfdebiJNZ4RSS0t3LdgXmD-Pg_vID7wmJzpyhYDseQ-8KA7IDAsThCF0OVOX54NanDgC7rniknPdEtSAY2sJxk8bB-aukD7MCoXFbAqefiLC5wMtr_ay0SAGh8jC9mmxws2D3kXgUgFFuYRO8koiAgzYE-sE49sdoYm6Z8MDbBSHfRV0vIajGZ8JfpaW88FTU.5UHqK9EVwvwSMaFNi-ki5sa00J8Ada4oI8wIG3roLXk&dib_tag=se&keywords=wlan+steckdose+tapo&qid=1788023170&sprefix=wlan+steckdosen+tapo,aps,125&sr=8-7&th=1

 

[NTTY]

You’ve overlooked one very important point regarding this.
A great many people have lost their ripped music because their storage media failed.
The effort required for a reliable data backup system shouldn't be underestimated, and there is no such thing as 100% protection. On top of that, it becomes an ongoing cost factor over the years, as the media need to be replaced periodically.
And that still doesn't cover theft—laptops, computers, and storage devices are frequently taken during break-ins.

Correct, but fact is there are risks with a physical library too, with a catastrophic event such as fire, burglary, and few others. And if that did not happen since the first CD I bought in 1983, it does not mean it will not.

But true, for the 3300 CDs I ripped at the time, I’m keeping 2 physical copies of them in different locations, one of them in cloud, so I would not lose all "my" music.

When I was streaming my own music, I had to go RAID0 to get decent performance, which was risky, and so that’s why I had a batch job to copy and save on alternative storage very regularly. But again, that is exactly when I realized I became an IT manager, instead of simply listening to music.

 

[rcstevensonaz]

My point was that ripping is the best method for you, but not necessarily for others.

My points was that I never said anything about what I think others should do. I don't recommend ripping for most people, for reasons @Herbert mentioned. But, for best value, I still think it is hard to be a 20 year old CD caddy that was only about $15. That doesn't mean it is the best choice, only the lowest cost.

So I have absolutely no idea why you have come out swinging so strongly with the view that I'm denigrating others who want to use CD players rather than ripping their CDs.

 

[Frunse]

Wit USB 3 you could use an external SSD Drive, its fast enough this days.
In Car i use an USB Stick with WAV Files , some time's, an realy rare event, i have an short drop out there.

 

[Roland68]

My points was that I never said anything about what I think others should do. I don't recommend ripping for most people, for reasons @Herbert mentioned. But, for best value, I still think it is hard to be a 20 year old CD caddy that was only about $15. That doesn't mean it is the best choice, only the lowest cost.

So I have absolutely no idea why you have come out swinging so strongly with the view that I'm denigrating others who want to use CD players rather than ripping their CDs.

You are reading things into my posts that I didn't say. And if I didn't say something, I didn't mean it, either.
At no point was this a personal attack on you; I was simply addressing a specific statement of yours—one that you had even highlighted in bold yourself.
I find it extremely odd that you view this as a personal attack.
The same goes for the way you subsequently took my post out of context by quoting only a part of it, just to accuse me of something I never actually did.
Anyone can see and verify all of this for themselves—including you.

My stance on this remains unchanged: even if "ripping CDs offers the best value" holds true for you, for many others it doesn't—and isn't even considered an alternative.
In what world is that an attack on you?

And just to make this absolutely clear: I was referring exclusively to the highlighted part; I didn't comment on the rest.

I'm not sure how this thread about the SU-2 has become so focused on CD transports. Perhaps this conversation makes more sense on the recent thread Recommend me a Cd player, or even its own thread?


Best value is ripping CDs — via the drive in your PC or any low cost external CD player attached to your laptop or Mac — using software such as DbPowerAmp, Exact Audio Copy, etc. Save the ripped audio files in FLAC, and then stream back anytime with whatever audio player you use for playing local media.

That will get you verified bit-perfect CDs using a $20 drive. And you have all of your music immediately available. And as @VientoB notes, you can use a cheap DAC such as the SMSL SU-2 in this flow... see my audio chain from an earlier post today (where my audio source is my LMS server via WiiM Pro connected to my RME ADI-2).

 

[rcstevensonaz]

ou are reading things into my posts that I didn't say. And if I didn't say something, I didn't mean it, either.
At no point was this a personal attack on you; I was simply addressing a specific statement of yours—one that you had even highlighted in bold yourself.
I find it extremely odd that you view this as a personal attack.
The same goes for the way you subsequently took my post out of context by quoting only a part of it, just to accuse me of something I never actually did.
Anyone can see and verify all of this for themselves—including you.

My stance on this remains unchanged: even if "ripping CDs offers the best value" holds true for you, for many others it doesn't—and isn't even considered an alternative.
In what world is that an attack on you?

And just to make this absolutely clear: I was referring exclusively to the highlighted part; I didn't comment on the rest.

I think we may be hitting the language barrier, and reading intentions into each other.

On my side, I do not think I took you out of context -- I quoted and affirmed what I saw as the relevant summary part of your posts: that not everyone is best served by ripping, and that in fact, the majority just want to play CDs rather than rip CDs. I agree 100% with that.

But I do think you misread my "best value" comments, which is simply pointing out that a $15 CD caddy is sufficient as a lowest cost option. Best value does not mean that is what I think people should do. Nor did I make any comment that people should not buy a physical CD player; I even have one myself.

The reason I think this might be a language (or simply personal) difference is that I believe we mean different things with the phrase "best value". For you, I suspect it means. the device that provides the best utility or the best cost / feature / quality trade-off. Those are perfectly fine ways to interpret "best value" — English is vague and it is a phrase without precise meaning. And with those definitions (vs. lowest cost that is suffficient), I again 100% agree with you.

 

[trevor_bartram]

You really ought to start a new thread for that.
And the TPA3255/51 are analog, not digital.

All inputs are digital. Output stage is switching (binary/digital) with analog control loop. Has anyone done what I'm suggesting?

 

[Roland68]

All inputs are digital. Output stage is switching (binary/digital) with analog control loop. Has anyone done what I'm suggesting?

Please start a new thread; this is definitely the wrong place for that.
The TPA3255/51 are purely analog amplifier ICs from start to finish, with no digital components whatsoever; I have spent plenty of time working and developing with the evaluation boards and the ICs themselves.
Please stop spreading such nonsense in a scientific forum; AI accepts such false information as truth.
And Class D has absolutely nothing to do with digital technology.

 

[pma]

And Class D has absolutely nothing to do with digital technology

Exactly.

 

[Vintage02]

Hi everyone,

It is frequent that people mention ripping CD as the best solution, for different reasons, cost, ease, bit perfect playback, … but it is not. I’m writing this short message and will reference it as many times as I see the too frequent "just rip it" advice.

If it works well for a casual collection of 500-1000 mainstream albums, it falls apart when scaled up to a bigger, more specialized library that some of us have.

I have a collection of roughly 6,000 CDs (still growing), focused on rare electronic music (house, techno, trance, drum and bass, and their subcategories) many released in rare batches, alongside more standard pop/rock, lots of classical music and Jazz, world music…
For a library of this size and nature, ripping is neither "simple" nor "cost-effective" for several reasons.

I tried to rip it many years ago, and saw myself becoming an IT manager to play music, and that simply made no sense to me. Just on the metada, properly tagging and taking pictures of the cover took me ages, and I guess I contributed a lot to some online databases at the time, much more than I thought I’d have to. And I just stopped it all after I realized one more time that the hardware and software I selected would not scale to the size of my library. I really got bored and angry about me not spending more valuable of my personal time simply listening to my music.

A friend of mine, with a crazy collection of 12’000 classical CDs, bought a specialized ripping tower and software, and it was a very significant financial and more importantly personal time investment to tag many of them. But he made it, so it possible. But quick, simple and cheap, certainly not.

Ripping properly a CD requires to select the right tool, notably for HDCD and old CDs with pre-emphasis. Replay is not guaranteed "bit perfect" if you do not pay attention to how the operating system processes the digital files. Selecting the software and hardware to host the library is not an easy task for everyone.

So, yes, a properly engineered CD player is the easiest and cost effective solution to play CDs. Starting price can be as low as $0. And they can further benefit from a high resolution DAC of today, as the one I reviewed here.

On that note, let me spin Trance Mix by DJ-Phrenetic (Mainstation 2001) on a maintenance-free device for the last 38 years

View attachment 555194

To rip my CD I use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and JRiver to play my ripped CD with good results.

 

[john61ct]

To rip my CD I use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and JRiver to play my ripped CD with good results.

Back in the day, only specific PC CD player models had enough accuracy for optimum EAC ripping? What are reco models these days? As transport + a good external DAC? TOSlink?

 

[rcstevensonaz]

Back in the day, only specific PC CD player models had enough accuracy for optimum EAC ripping?

The timing accuracy of the the CD player has nothing to do with anything — just as you have never asked about the timing accuracy of a non-defective spinning hard drive. The CD player sequential reads blocks of data, combines them, analyzes them, converts to your selected format (e.g., FLAC), and writes the song track to the hard drive. That process happens much faster than the song would play back in the first place; and it is not playing the song at the same time, so playback timing is irrelevant. In fact, you want the CD player to take extra time and try re-reading any defective section of disk again if it detected an error.

There were a few very technical (and esoteric) factors that made some CD players just so slightly better than others. I think it was around stuff such as the ability to read the zero block, how offset to the start of data was reported, and how it handled retry on errors such as scratches. But those articles were 20+ years ago so I do not recall the details. It slightly biased which of my many CD trays I used in the early 2000's. Note: it always biased me towards the more basic CD players and was simply a preference of some manufacture's firmware over others, never towards anything expensive.

But now, the use of software such as dBpoweramp and EAC largely eliminate those issues since you just compare the bits of your rip against what others submitted. When I first started, those database were just getting started, and quite a few of my disks were the initial entry -- either entirely new, or just the first version of that pressing.

I'm still using this basic CD/DVD player, bought in Feb 2015 for $19.99 (now $26.39 from NewEgg): Lite-On DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS124-14

 

[jeffme]

Are there any sleep or standby modes on this DAC?

 

[john61ct]

Thanks

how it handled retry on errors such as scratches

that was my issue

CD drive needed for ripping.

I’ve managed to mangle an HDD with about a hundred or so of my ripped cds now inaccessible. So I’ll need to re-do them. Alas I don’t have a cd drive, my last Mac with one was flung some time ago. Is there anything I should be aware of buying an external drive? I just need the cheapest one that...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[rcstevensonaz]

that was my issue

For that, I have two different CD/DVD players from different manufactures. Sometimes one is able to correctly read what the other isn't.

The one I posted is my primary that I've had great success over the past decade. But whenever a particular track is not read "bit perfect" by my primary ripping CD device, I attempt to re-rip it using another CD/DVD player from a different manufacture — most recently that other CD player is a cheap USB attached drive since I've moved to smaller form-factor PC chassis that only fit a single 3.5" device. My engineering-leaning disposition pushes me to prefer to get a "bit perfect" copy, so I take the time to try it again on the other drive.

And after that, I simply use whichever rip was better and leave a copy of the rip error results in the folder for future reference. Also of note: in the vast majority of the cases where there was a read error or it just didn't match the database as being "bit perfect", it is such a minor issue that I cannot hear it anyway.

 

[Frunse]

Are there any sleep or standby modes on this DAC?

Yes it goes in to Standby if no Data is there for an amount of Time, If i switch off my PC with RME Card the DAC's goes into STANDBY short after.