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SMSL SU-9n Review (Balanced Stereo DAC)

dmac6419

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Am just very curious. What's your general thought on MQA ?
That's been posted already ,search MQA on the forum, it'll be a lot of reading for you but eventually you'll come across his thoughts, isn't this the non MQA version of this DAC?
 

raif71

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Would it be even better for you if they put this logo on the front?

180507_MQA_CA.jpg

;)



JSmith
With that logo, perhaps some would even pay same price as regular su-9? :p
 

LFC4TUNE

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I would love to know how the 9n and 9 are up against one another.
I also have no Tidal/MQA in my ManCave
 

maxwell3e10

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It would be interesting to see what are the changes in the analog output section compared with SU-9. There is a clear reduction in THD and perhaps some reduction in noise on high frequency side. The second and third harmonic distortions can be compensated by ES9038PRO, but the 5th harmonic is much reduced compared with SU-9 too.
 

sonci99

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Is there some information about ability to update firmware via usb. SU-9 did not have that option and whole story about firmware bug fixing has been real disappointment.
There's no MQA, so probably no bugs, so no need for firmware update..
 

Toku

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Some people seem angry, almost like ANTIFA, against MQA. I can see how they think that buying a DAC which decodes MQA is helping to keep the format alive. However, I don't personally care if a DAC decodes MQA or not. I think the format will fail regardless.
I don't particularly care about the presence or absence of MQA. However, I am very dissatisfied with incorporating the MQA function into the product in an incomplete state.
At this rate, I don't think MQA has a future.
 

MrPotatoHead

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I would like to see testing of the Bluetooth input as I wonder what the SINAD would be. This applies to any Bluetooth capable Dacs as the use of Bluetooth is quite popular.
Me too. I'm considering a BT DAC that I'll use exclusively to stream Qobuz from my phone and wonder what the degradation will be. If I'm using bluetooth exclusively, should I just settle for a lesser DAC since they might potentially sound similar? etc.
 

Toku

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The Software of su9n can be upgrade by customer
What does this mean?
Does this mean that the user can update not only the USB firmware but also the firmware of the system part such as the MCU?
 

Lambda

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@SMSL-Mandy
Has SMSL Plans to publish Firmware open source? If not maybe think about it. there is hardly any interesting IP in the firmware but a fully customization software/ firmware as well as community driven Linux / raspberry pi support with integration of volume control from the Operating system would be nice.
Costume Screens and maybe cover art.
Control of the OS via the rotary encoder.

Lots of potential could be unlocked.
 

Selarom

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I just found this review, read it and bought it from Shenzhen Audio. Between this and the D30 Pro I was considering before, it was a no brainer for me given the high SINAD. Should be here in time for Christmas. I am glad I will replace my LH Labs Geek Pulse Infinity DAC. I like it but it's USB connection still glitches from time to time and the screen is also acting up. Now it doesn't want to show sampling rate nor volume level.
 

Eddy H.

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Me too. I'm considering a BT DAC that I'll use exclusively to stream Qobuz from my phone and wonder what the degradation will be. If I'm using bluetooth exclusively, should I just settle for a lesser DAC since they might potentially sound similar? etc.
Get a dac that supports LDAC Codec for the best quality sound.
 

RedCometZero

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Can anyone comment on if the volume ramping from the remote is fast enough to use this as a preamp?
 

celroid

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So this is identical to SMSL SU-9 but without MQA and cheaper? Too bad this wasn't out at the same when I got SU-9.
 

Selarom

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So this is identical to SMSL SU-9 but without MQA and cheaper? Too bad this wasn't out at the same when I got SU-9.
They must have done other things because it also measures better as well.
 
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