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SMSL SU-8 Version 2 Balanced DAC

mikeburns

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I don't use any driver with my SU-8 and windows 10. Just plug into usb and it works fine... pretty sure the drivers are native in windows 10?
 

lethe

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I don't use any driver with my SU-8 and windows 10. Just plug into usb and it works fine... pretty sure the drivers are native in windows 10?

Do you get cut out? Or have any issue with connection? I will be listening and then all of the sudden the sound stops.

The PC says that it is connected to SMSL USB AUDIO and then it will say USB device not recognized. If I then turn off and on until it is recognized again then it will work.
 

mikeburns

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Do you get cut out? Or have any issue with connection? I will be listening and then all of the sudden the sound stops.

The PC says that it is connected to SMSL USB AUDIO and then it will say USB device not recognized. If I then turn off and on until it is recognized again then it will work.
I have never had cut out with a windows device, though it can sometimes take a few seconds to reconnect after I cycle from the USB input to something else. Interestingly I had a minor issue yesterday with my RPi4 plugged into the usb connection, where the sound would cut out, despite moode audio still showing that the music was playing. It turns out the SU8 has a hot usb plug which according to the guy that designed moode audio is likely the issue and he has seen other issues with raspbian, rpi4 and usb plugs with this design. Apparently it was not such an issue with rpi3? All I had to do was restart the pi with the su8 turned on (and with the usb as chosen input) and it resolved the issue. That might be the same for you and your windows device?
 

detlev24

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You might have to temporarily disable driver signature enforcement [Option Two]. Furthermore, you might require to run the file(s) with administrator privileges.

In any case, do uninstall the "defective" driver package before you give those steps a try.
If this does not help, try to update Windows to its latest release.

In case of Windows 10, this means to install version 2004, build 19041 = May 2020 update [you might be required to apply the described "... Force ..." method].

[ EDIT ]
Always make sure, that USB power saving is disabled [4.5. Energy Options].
 
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maxp779

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May 25, 2020
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Does the SMSL SU8 have an OLED screen or a regular LCD? I tend to avoid things with OLED due to burn in.
 

Paperdragons

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Can someone explain why harmonic distortion sounds "warm" (if this is true)? Should it not sound brighter than without it? I mean distortions/sounds are added higher up in the frequency range so to speak, not lower down, right?

Distortion tends to affect very high and very low frequencies the most. Most everyone can hear down to 20ish hz but most everyone over 25 has issues above 16k without significant roll off or having to crank the volume. So my thinking is that if the lows are more distorted it could make them sound fuller with a slower attack and delay with some fuzziness/hum. That said, tubes could definitely make the signature more fatiguing across the board. I'm more in the transparency camp despite preferring a warm signature most of the time. I'd prefer the speaker and my own EQ achieve the signature over expensive and unpredictable effects. I think tubes are a bit like vinyl. I like vinyl and my turntable/album collection but I can tell it sounds quite a bit worse than my similarly priced dac and amp. LP quality is also hard to determine before buying and many corners are cut from what I've read in modern LPs.
 

tades

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Hello !
Does any one use it with Audirvana?
My question : do you know if SU-8 version 2 "by default" applies any upsampling?
Behind this, my question is that if SU-8 applies an upsampling (eg from 44kHz to lets say 384 kHz, or to some DSD stream) it may be usefull to do it in Audirvana :
the upsampled signal would be calculated by a more powerfull shipset and stored in the RAM of my PC before to be transfered to DAC, and DAC load would be much lighter

Any clue? (Hope my english is understandable)
Best Regards
Tades
 

renaudrenaud

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Hello !
Does any one use it with Audirvana?
My question : do you know if SU-8 version 2 "by default" applies any upsampling?
Behind this, my question is that if SU-8 applies an upsampling (eg from 44kHz to lets say 384 kHz, or to some DSD stream) it may be usefull to do it in Audirvana :
the upsampled signal would be calculated by a more powerfull shipset and stored in the RAM of my PC before to be transfered to DAC, and DAC load would be much lighter

Any clue? (Hope my english is understandable)
Best Regards
Tades
Non upsampling applied by the SU8.
 

renaudrenaud

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There is an oversampling filter though ;)
Maybe I do not have understood. For me the question was to know if the SU8 was doing some upsampling. And as far as I know, if you want upsampling, you have to process it before the SU8. That's what I do. But English is not my natural language and also I only have a limited comprehension of what is done in the SU8.
 

tades

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Maybe I do not have understood. For me the question was to know if the SU8 was doing some upsampling. And as far as I know, if you want upsampling, you have to process it before the SU8. That's what I do. But English is not my natural language and also I only have a limited comprehension of what is done in the SU8.

Hello, Between French natives we share the same "International English": Your answer fits exactly what my question was asking for. Thanks a lot.
Frankly I'm not a supporter of upsampling, but I thought that if SU8 was doing it it was worth trying to do it before, with a more powerfull processor.
SU8 doesn't, I will avoid this purely mathematical feature, bringing very often additianal coldness.
 

renaudrenaud

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Hello, Between French natives we share the same "International English": Your answer fits exactly what my question was asking for. Thanks a lot.
Frankly I'm not a supporter of upsampling, but I thought that if SU8 was doing it it was worth trying to do it before, with a more powerfull processor.
SU8 doesn't, I will avoid this purely mathematical feature, bringing very often additianal coldness.
Thanks. I would had, to my comprehension the SU8 has no processor in the box. I believe there is a micro controller for the input, the xmos U208. Datasheet is here. One micro controller and two DACs.

There is some documentation in French Here.
 

dewdude

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Nov 22, 2019
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Came home today to find my SU-8 had died. It's not being detected by any PC I plug it in to.

It's out of warranty and I'm very very angry about this. On one hand I want to buy another; on the other I've read of this problem and I'm not sure if I trust SMSL at this point. I didn't even get a year out of it.
 

dewdude

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Nov 22, 2019
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Don't you want to open it and try to find the fuse?

It's clearly not the fuse since the unit powers up. The USB is dead. Several Linux machines reported nothing when it's plugged in. It shows "unlock", but AFAIK that just means the XMOS has no sync.

If I dont see any presence of it on the USB bus, something is hosed. The port it was hooked up to on the hub didn't want to accept a USB device until it was rebooted, and it still has issues. I saw what looked like component damage. Could be flux...but the lack of that anywhere else on the board makes me think the components let out the magic smoke. Two SMD resistors crumbled when I attempted to clean the board to get a better look.

None of my other USB devices have problems.
 

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dewdude

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I dropped the DAC off with a friend who has the microscope to do SMD stuff. He said it look like a small transistor on the board decided to go and it took out two resistors and possibly the XMOS chip; but he doesn't know anything about audio gear so he couldn't say for sure.

I think it was a cascading failure in a USB hub. The port the SMSL was hooked up to didn't want to work and it's having issues pushing speed.

So i decided to take a risk and get another since most of the other offerings in that price range run off 5V; and I'm not using something that runs off just 5V. Call me old school; but I dislike 5v amplifiers. I plugged my sabaj da3 up and, holy cow is that harsh sounding.
 

mng

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I've just bought one of these in the UK from Amazon, to supplement my Cyrus CDi to Monolith 887, I can confirm the version as V1.6 and it's better than the dac in the CDi, a cheap upgrade and very pleased with it considering it's an old design ( I wanted the balanced out and non usb powered) I'm old school and still only listen to CD's, but I do have over 2600
 
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