SMSL SU-9 Balanced DAC Review

[Doodski]

I would like to think so but after some back and forth they have gone silent on me even after not providing any solution to try and help me out like a post paid envelope they just offered to look at it as soon as it arrived so i ordered another one which took 2 weeks to arive so i would not be without a dac, the above faulty unit actually still worked but since then phone calls emails vot messages have all gone unanswered and i have struggled not to open it to find out what caused it due to warranty issues, to say i am pissed off is an understatement

Do we have the SMSL rep here from time to time commenting? If we do I don't know his/her chat name.

 

[JSmith]

Upon inspection of the DAC it had blown a hole straight through the aluminium bottom plate at what looks like one of the pin locations on the IEC power connector

Fuck... that is really not good!

... and here was me thinking that CE logo meant anything;

"affirms its conformity with health, safety, and environmental protection standards"

Do we have the SMSL rep here from time to time commenting? If we do I don't know his/her chat name.

@SMSL-Mandy @SMSL_Liu



JSmith

 

[Massimo]

I got rid of this piece of junk months ago. I'm surprised to see that people are still buying anything from SMSL.

 

[ceausuc]

Did you read the thread on the X16? This one too has issues. How serious they are depends on your expectations and what you're listening to. The X16 seems to have problems with some DSD files. There is a fix, but that requires disassembly of the unit and a (cheap) device to flash the EEPROM.

the problems with dsd files aren't fixed? (since you buy a new unit)...
soncoz seems pretty well engineered too.

 

[Magnifico]

Hi, need help with my SU-9s (they have been returned by HiFiGo after the SW update - more on that later).

Basically I have installed the latest USB driver in my Windows 10 PC but I am hearing a lot of pops and clicks during playback... regardless of the sample rate and on both PCM and DSD. Attaching a screen shot of my ASIO buffer from the driver control panel. Any ideas what the solution might be for this issue and has anyone else also faced this. As I recall this issue was there even before the SW update my HiFiGo... pretty sure it's for something to do with the buffer settings but don't know what.

PS. I am using Roon in ASIO mode to play music via USB to the SU-9. ThanksView attachment 146836

DEINSTALL the drivers and download the latest new ones from SMSL! 5.12 is what I have.
2048 is the MAX I could even choose and too large buffers always cause things to mess up.
Remember to reboot between steps.

 

[muslhead]

Holy mother of god
And I thought SMSL couldn't top their recent problems. They pale in comparison
If this doesnt (combined with all their other problems) provide enough evidence to avoid them, i dont know what will.

 

[Magnifico]

ah....come on......one failure like this and you are like burning hair.....
Much more disturbing is the behaviour of the dealer....the user should say which dealer it is so other could avoid that "service".
In this case SMSL can do nothing about it. Of they could but that is usual habit of any maufacturert these days.

User > dealer > manufacturer

that´s the way....always!!!
Anything other than this is pure friendlyness by SMSL.

 

[Shoaibexpert]

DEINSTALL the drivers and download the latest new ones from SMSL! 5.12 is what I have.
2048 is the MAX I could even choose and too large buffers always cause things to mess up.
Remember to reboot between steps.

Hi, I tried to reinstall....thing is even if I deselect the Safe Mode, the Sample goes to 32K automatically. I have noticed that deselecting the Safe Mode helps get rid of these pops and clicks temporarily. But as soon as the PC restarts etc. It's all back to those pops and clicks.

Is reinstalling the driver all we can do? Is anyone is similar predicament?

This didn't use to happen with my M500 or my SU-8 (Yeah I've been burned many times by SMSL... stubborn, not learning!).

 

[Magnifico]

Your windows is broken!!!
In safe mode there sould only most neccesary driver be loaded.
Sound is non of those.

Did you check if drivers are gone after a reboot ?

 

[Shoaibexpert]

Your windows is broken!!!
In safe mode there sould only most neccesary driver be loaded.
Sound is non of those.

Did you check if drivers are gone after a reboot ?

I meant the Safe mode on XMOS driver control panel.

 

[Magnifico]

that is enabled by default.

Ah ok....Buffersize is in relation to the played format.

this is when playing DSD128.

That said...there seems nothing to be wrong with the driver.
I´m using foobar to playback my files.
Possibly the whole playback chain is messing up ?!
My SU-9 does not pop most of the time. occaisionally there is a low noise pop but could be due to the music played.

 

[robertospeed]

For the SU-9 I made the return, now I have a D10s topping, but the software is almost all the same and they all look like, I'm listening to a DSD64 and how you can see from the software I'm listening to the DSD natively with foobar2000 .

 

[Magnifico]

how about you use the dispay ?

 

[Veri]

For the SU-9 I made the return, now I have a D10s topping, but the software is almost all the same and they all look like, I'm listening to a DSD64 and how you can see from the software I'm listening to the DSD natively with foobar2000 .

View attachment 146929

Yeah it's all the same licensed driver/software. Basically. Firmware and programming can differ / be proprietary though, of course.

 

[Shoaibexpert]

I am going to change my laptop to see if this gets resolved. Strange...very strange!

 

[cecelo01]

Installed new bases on my SU9

 

[Magnifico]

looks weird to me

 

[NYfan2]

Short update
I sent my SU-9 to Audiophonics for the software update to solve the 3rd Harmonic issue. It took exactly 2 weeks between the day I sent it and the day it returned. Great service from Audiophonics (I didn't buy my SU-9 there).
It cost me € 10,- to ship to France from the Netherlands.

 

[mario_rouge]

is it true that the SU9 uses only two channels of the 8 available of the ess9038pro?

 

[Esss]

@Shoaibexpert - I have been thinking of your crackling sound and it reminded of something I had a while back with Roon. It failed to work out of the blue, but worked fine on a different laptop. It turned out Nero has a Wifi transfer app that interfered with the same port Roon was using. I uninstalled the Nero app and Roon started working fine again. I think you may want to test this by connecting a different laptop to the DAC and see if it will do the same, if it doesn't do it in a different machine, then the chances are there is software on your machine that is not playing nice with the DAC. Go to your startup and disable it (if it is one of those that start as you boot up. All the best.