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SMSL SU-8 Version 2 Balanced DAC

Loftrocket said:
Hello community!
Does it still going strong in 20024? Wanna upgrade my old SMSL M3, that i use with Android phone to listen flacs via vintage amp and speakers, also through small Xduoo 602 HP amp.
Looking at this SMSL SU-8 and SU-1. Will be there a noticeable difference / worthy upgrade? And which one is definitely a better choice?
Click to expand...

Why not the SMSL M300-SE?

hifi-express.com

SMSL Upgraded M300SE MQA Audio DAC CS43131*2 with 6.35/4.4mm Headphone

SMSL M300SE MQA Audio DAC CS43131*2 with 6.35/4.4mm Headphone AMP used Cirrus Logic's latest audio decoder chip CS43131, with carefully designed circuitry, achieves an unprecedented 0.00013% (-117dB) distortion performance! The new third generation XMOS XU-316, PCM support up to 32bit /768kHz...
hifi-express.com hifi-express.com

Price is very low, XLR outputs (and RCA) and also 2 headphones output, better screen than the SU8, a button for volume and settings, Bt...
 
renaudrenaud said:
Why not the SMSL M300-SE?

hifi-express.com

SMSL Upgraded M300SE MQA Audio DAC CS43131*2 with 6.35/4.4mm Headphone

SMSL M300SE MQA Audio DAC CS43131*2 with 6.35/4.4mm Headphone AMP used Cirrus Logic's latest audio decoder chip CS43131, with carefully designed circuitry, achieves an unprecedented 0.00013% (-117dB) distortion performance! The new third generation XMOS XU-316, PCM support up to 32bit /768kHz...
hifi-express.com hifi-express.com

Price is very low, XLR outputs (and RCA) and also 2 headphones output, better screen than the SU8, a button for volume and settings, Bt...
Click to expand...
Well, i'll take a look at it too! Thanks.
 
JRG123 said:
Exactly, maybe you'll notice an improvement by upgrading other components like Amplifiers or Headphones
Click to expand...
At this moment i need just slight upgrade to my current setup. After big repairing of my future living place there will be different toys. Well, i guess i'll try one, 80 Euri is not that money to regret. And it's Amazon, i can return it. :)
Is SU-1 the best sounding device in this price range?
 
Last edited:
Loftrocket said:
At this moment i need just slight upgrade to my current setup. After big repairing of my future living place there will be different toys. Well, i guess i'll try one, 80 Euri is not that money to regret. And it's Amazon, i can return it. :)
Is SU-1 the best sounding device in this price range?
Click to expand...
SU-1 is a DAC with excelent measurements and you'd probably won't need to buy a DAC anymore, for that price is a steal. But like I implied before, I don't think DAC's sound different, SU-1 and SU-8 are both transparent enough and with great features, you just need to look for the ones you really need :)
 
unicore said:
After a few hours of testing, I have noticed that the loudest (most frequent) popping/sound cuts accores while playing YouTube videos and lower quality music files from harddisk (44100hz/16bit). When playing higher quality music fiiles (96000hz/24bit) from harddisk there is almost no popping and zero sound cuts, which is very werid. Same results are present while using real-time kernel on Debian. While USB PC output/DAC input are active, all sources are perfectly clean, no issues at all. I know that it sounds like i'm crazy, but I checked with various songs. :) There are some reported kernel bugs while using HDA Intel PCH (what I use), but all of them are very old and solved.


I'm using MPD for movies, but sure I will check out MPDroid, it sounds like a nice and useful feature. Also tried to play some music with MPD, but same result as with DeadBeeF.
Click to expand...
Hello,

I have an SMSL SU-8 that i’ve used for 5 years for an annual recital from my laptop to my PA system.

Historically i use a windows laptop. However I have a quad core Intel core i5 miniPC I have running Debian 12 Bookworm (which rocks) and gnome gui.
The tech rehearsal is tomorrow (today now) and of course I thought a fun last minute challenge would be to try running things through DeadbeeF on Bookworm

Have you tried the SU-8 on Bookworm?
Do you think the latest linux default kernel that installs with Bookworm is good enough? I saw you all talking about some custom/real time kernel. I’m not probably advanced enough for that.
I saw some previous commentary about pulse-audio (puke) which is apparently now replaced by Pipewire.

I downloaded a .rar from the smsl site. Did you need to install drivers from that?

Thanks for anyone who uses Debian and might respond.
 
Caesar_Naykid said:
Hello,

I have an SMSL SU-8 that i’ve used for 5 years for an annual recital from my laptop to my PA system.

Historically i use a windows laptop. However I have a quad core Intel core i5 miniPC I have running Debian 12 Bookworm (which rocks) and gnome gui.
The tech rehearsal is tomorrow (today now) and of course I thought a fun last minute challenge would be to try running things through DeadbeeF on Bookworm

Have you tried the SU-8 on Bookworm?
Do you think the latest linux default kernel that installs with Bookworm is good enough? I saw you all talking about some custom/real time kernel. I’m not probably advanced enough for that.
I saw some previous commentary about pulse-audio (puke) which is apparently now replaced by Pipewire.

I downloaded a .rar from the smsl site. Did you need to install drivers from that?

Thanks for anyone who uses Debian and might respond.
Click to expand...
I use so many different version of Debian on so many different computers... Nothing to add, except it works on AMD64 and ARM64 architectures. No "drivers" to install.
 
Last edited:
Hello,

I still rock this DAC from when it came out, and I'm soon getting a PS5 and want to know if connecting the PS5 to this DAC over USB will work or not? Anyone still have this DAC and a PS5 and can check?

Thanks!
 
Wallboy said:
Hello,

I still rock this DAC from when it came out, and I'm soon getting a PS5 and want to know if connecting the PS5 to this DAC over USB will work or not? Anyone still have this DAC and a PS5 and can check?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I don't think that the PS5 has an XMOS driver, but if there is a mode for normal USB operation, like USB 2 audio it should work.
 
Wallboy said:
Hello,

I still rock this DAC from when it came out, and I'm soon getting a PS5 and want to know if connecting the PS5 to this DAC over USB will work or not? Anyone still have this DAC and a PS5 and can check?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Pretty sure you can't connect USB DACs to PS5s. You need to take the audio out from the TV it's connected to. For stereo to your DAC the TV probably has an optical (Toslink) connection you can use.
 
Ultrasonic said:
Pretty sure you can't connect USB DACs to PS5s. You need to take the audio out from the TV it's connected to. For stereo to your DAC the TV probably has an optical (Toslink) connection you can use.
Click to expand...

Apparently it's possible, but the PS5 only uses UAC version 1 for USB, and the DAC needs to support that mode. I'm just not sure if the SMSL SU8 does. Was hoping someone with this DAC and a PS5 could check if it works.

If it does great, I can just plug the PS5 USB directly into the SU8. If not, the cheapest solution people seem to use is to get a PCM2704 bare board for like $5 which supports the PS5 UAC version and then outputs to SPDIF or Coaxial, which would then go into the SU8.

I'll probably go that route if the SU8 won't work directly plugged into the PS5.
 
Does your TV not have an optical digital output? Most do and that would then be the cheapest/simplest USB alternative I'd have thought.
 
Ultrasonic said:
Does your TV not have an optical digital output? Most do and that would then be the cheapest/simplest USB alternative I'd have thought.
Click to expand...

I should have mentioned the PS5 will be plugged into my computer monitor. And no, the monitor does not have a digital output itself.
 
 
 
PoorishDecision said:
there is a 4k version, hard to say if that'd restrict your refresh rate though.
Click to expand...
It says 4k 60 Hz in your link so I think it is the 4k one. PS5 always outputs a 4k image (not native at high frame rates but not relevant at this point), so I think it would prevent 120 Hz game modes being used. Which may or may not be of interest to the OP.
 
I know about the HDMI Audio Extractors, and I have one that I've used on my older 1080p consoles (PS4, etc).

I just don't see the need for one, or to spend the kind of money they cost if all I'm needing it for is strictly audio extraction to get into the SMSL SU8 DAC. Hence why I'm looking at going the PCM2704 route if the SU8 wouldn't directly accept the PS5 USB audio.
 
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