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SMSL SU-2 DAC Review (NTTY)

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    Votes: 19 23.2%

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    Votes: 62 75.6%
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    82
Roland68 said:
That surprises me, because mine have it (both are first pressings).
Many modern DACs can't do that.
That’s why I have a Cambridge Audio DacMagic 1 (the first version by John Westlake) in my system. The nice thing is that it indicates both when the de-emphasis bit is set and the presence of copy protection.
Click to expand...
Mine not, as the difference is less audible than the Vollenweider. Also a relais in my Sony CDP-101 clicks when Emphasis is on. Another example from that era, "Live in Montreux" from Darrol Anger and Barbara Highby. Sounds heavily "Emphasized", but no flag in the signal.
Offtopic, this was also the times when I pilgered to your hometown, as "Saturn" had every CD and Vinyl available in the world and garanteed the lowest price in Germany. Got my Toshiba XR-Z70 there. And at "Underdog" and "Pin-up" nearby you could shop used CDs and Vinyl. I once wanted to reissue "Vor der Flut", recorded at the empty Wasserspeicher Severin in Winter 1984/85. But the producer stored the 1" tapes in a humid cellar, they were all rotten...
 
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Lucky you! They are normally sold for much more. BUT: I am pretty sure, an photo of a copy of this CD circulated in the net as an example of CD-rot, years ago. But I never found this posting/image later and my copy is still perfect. I think, it was also not CD rot - none of my CDs has it - but a problen with aggressive dyes.

Still listen to it today! Unfortunalely, the second piece in the youtube video and some others - and with them some great artists, like Jana Haimson - are not on the CD.
This why I wanted to re-release it with additional material, as they jammed down there for at least two weeks. And it had some impact on the musicians. Pauline Olivieros, trailblazer in Post war Avantgarde and electronic music made some recordings in empty cisterns herself, in one piece, William Smith, Dave Brubeck's clarinettist, joined them.
But the producer of "Vor der Flut" was not interested at all, even though I proposed a crowdfunding campaign to restore the eight-track tapes and that I would do the complete work. A rather vain fellow who still practises overtone singing as a hobby and lives off the rent from his properties...
There were two other CDs released from this recording session:
Offtopic off.
I will try to send my send my two SMSL SU-2 back, but the seller wants a restocking fee...
 
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The last two albums are not my Cup off Tea ;)

I would call it Experimental Brass and Bass Music ....... with absence off Groove ;)
 
Then wait until you hear "Bötz" on "Vor der Flut". Does anyone have ever dealt with the SMSL SU-2 seller "The Hifi Cat"?
They want restocking fees even for broken devices - which I assume is not only against EU Law.
 
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Herbert said:
Then wait until you hear "Bötz" on "Vor der Flut". Does anyone have ever dealt with the SMSL SU-2 seller "The Hifi Cat"?
They want restocking fees even for broken devices.
Click to expand...
I heared it already before but still not my cup off Tea, Music kind.

Something you play before an Animal Hunt i guess LOOOL

But it its on the "Vor der Flut" so i have it already there so don't need to buy the "Flüchtiges Glück"

Only Bötz i had already as an WAV for Testing Speaker, got it from an Friend didn't know where it comes from ;)
 
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Frunse said:
Only Bötz i had already as an WAV for Testing Speaker, got it from an Friend didn't know where it comes from ;)
Click to expand...
Well – you only really discover good music after listening to it a lot. Public Broadcasters in Germany used to have good equipment (listen to "Hamburg'72" by Keith Jarrett) and Johannes Wohlleben at Tonstudio Bauer, who did the mastering, is a wizard. The recorder was a Fostex B16, brandnew back then: https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/fostex-b16-tape-recorder/2799
But now back to topic?
 
Frunse said:
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.
Click to expand...
My unit does not go into standby. I even physically disconnected the power to both input sources (WiiM, TOPPING DAC) and even set the selector to "AES" which doesn't have anyhing physically connected to it. Yet the the SU-2 still had white LEDs lit and the "locked" LED was still flashing (meaning no signal) even after sitting all evening and overnight.
 
Could it be that the Standby-function can only work without input transformers? Are there any?
As De-Emphasis playback is not working, I am trying to send my two SU-2s back, but the seller HiFi-Cat is playing games.
When you try to ship back defective items on their platform - driven by Shopify -
still a restocking fee is demanded and cannot be changed, which is against consumer law.
 
Need to test this De-Empphasis stuff on my RME Card it has an De-Emphasis Button on Driver but not sure what comes from AES Outs to the SU-2 DAC then, may be converted into PCM or so not sure for now.
 
AES/EBU, SPDIF, Toslink are all exactly the same datastream. Emphasis is part of that.
Missing De-Emphasis It is a design flaw of the SU-2, as Ess-Tech has tossed De-Emphasis with the ES9039Q2M.
The ES9038Q2M, still active btw, provides De-Emphasis.
 
MY chain looks like this :

RPI5 Player (HDMI Out) or Blurayplayer --> HDMI to AES Extractor --> RME HDASPe AES (CamillaDSP X-OVER) --> SU-2

SO if the RME Card do the Emphasis in Driver may be the DAC don't need to do it, not sure how it works that way never think about DE Empphasis before loool may be i have one or two older CD with Emphasis need to check it....
 
rcstevensonaz said:
This might be also useful as its own topic rather than just buried deep in a thread on a basic balanced DAC.
Click to expand...
I agree, and anyone who wants to (has more interest in BR than me) should!

Personally I can't even imagine wanting to run audio signals over HDMI LOL
 
And this pops up in my feed

Extron DTP2 T 212, 4x HDMI Switcher
4K/60 at 4:4:4 chroma subsampling with data rates up to 18 Gbps, including Dolby Digital, DTS, or LPCM / HD lossless audio / stereo SE analog input injected via 3.5mm

**over 100m** via CAT QTP cabling


the receivers just as cheap, can passthrough the HDMI audio to AV gear or an audio extractor

so bizarre, Google tickling my fancy...
 
a pity the SU2 does not address pre-emphasis, the Technics CD player I have recovered and was thinking to partner with the SU2, does deal with pre-emphasis CDs but only when the output is sent through the RCA analogic output... when using the optical out it does not!...
I could (also) send the Technics RCA analogic out to one of the amp's line in, and use it (through the Technics MASH dac) in the rare case I listen to a pre-emphasized CD... :rolleyes:
 
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sansenri said:
a pity the SU2 does not address pre-emphasis, the Technics CD player I have recovered and was thinking to partner with the SU2, does deal with pre-emphasis CDs but only when the output is sent through the RCA analogic output... when using the optical out it does not!...
I could (also) send the Technics RCA analogic out to one of the amp's line in, and use it (though the Technics MASH dac) in the rare case I listen to a pre-emphasized CD... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
When you refer to the player only, the pre-emphasis flag is part of the toslink datastream. But the Dac has to be capable to de-emphasize, analogically using a low pass filter oder digitally
 
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