Switching between two recent SMSL XMOS USB DACS on a Windows PC - reliably

[Mark S.]

SMSL SU-1 (for headphone amp) and Sanskrit MkIII (for speaker amp), the same XMOS driver for both.

Managed to have both available/selectable as default Windows outputs (and visible/configurable in the XMOS USB control panel) for a while, but eventually, when trying to switch back from one to the other, the latter will have disappeared (from the XMOS control panel and Windows devices) and no amount of powering up/down, disconnecting/reconnecting USB leads and rebooting will get Windows to see the missing one again.

So far it's happened twice (in the 5 days since I added the Sanskrit III) and I've had to uninstall/reinstall the XMOS driver to get them back.

Is there a reliable 'procedure' for switching back and forth between them?

 

[staticV3]

I'd try uninstalling the Xmos driver and using them with Microsoft's generic device driver instead.

Also check in the device manager that they use unique VID and PID values.

 

[unpluggged]

So far it's happened twice (in the 5 days since I added the Sanskrit III) and I've had to uninstall/reinstall the XMOS driver to get them back.

Why do you switch them in the driver control panel? You mean you use both devices with the same driver? Is it at all supported?

Install the devices separately (and I would also ditch the XMOS custom driver, Windows 10 has native UAC 2.0 support since version 1703), switch between output devices in the system tray. Optionally you can use AudioSwitch to instantly switch with a hotkey.

 

[Mark S.]

I have a shortcut to Windows 'Sound' on the desktop I use. I've just found and installed a late '24 XMOS driver (on the SMSL website), I've been using the early '23 one. fingers crossed.

I guess I could use the Windows driver, although the XMOS one was needed to enable the SU-1's controller to be 'Always On' and fix the issue of its going into standby after 3 seconds of no data and then muting the first second of play (with a couple of soft but annoying pops) waking up (haven't checked whether that's also the case with the Sanskrit). Maybe see if I can use the XMOS driver for the SU-1 and Windows for the Sanskrit (does it allow feeding native DSD?).

 

[staticV3]

Maybe see if I can use the XMOS driver for the SU-1 and Windows for the Sanskrit (does it allow feeding native DSD?).

It does not

 

[unpluggged]

I guess I could use the Windows driver, although the XMOS one was needed to enable the SU-1's controller to be 'Always On' and fix the issue of its going into standby after 3 seconds of no data and then muting the first second of play

Ah, makes sense; I'm aware of the issue.

Maybe see if I can use the XMOS driver for the SU-1 and Windows for the Sanskrit (does it allow feeding native DSD?).

The Windows USB audio class driver does not support DSD output.

I'm still puzzled why the XMOS/SMSL driver does not load separate instances for each of your DACs...

 

[Mark S.]

"I'm still puzzled why the XMOS/SMSL driver does not load separate instances for each of your DACs..."

It does, for a while, with both of them available in 'Sound' and the XMOS control panel. Then if, say, I've been listening on cans for a while via the SU-1, go to switch back to the Sanskrit and it's gone from both. To reiterate, this has happened twice in 6 days so far, so maybe switching back and forth 10 times? It might be something to do with powering one or other off at the wrong moment, I can't remember what sequence I was doing things in when it happened.

 

[Mark S.]

Reporting in after another few days since installing the more recent XMOS driver (late '24 replacing the early/mid '23 version), the issue hasn't repeated itself in that time, the SU-1 and Sanskrit III have been reliably present and configurable in Windoze 'Sound' and XMOS control panel after several switches from one to the other, and a few reboots.

It might be that the uninstall/reinstall fixed things rather than the driver update.

Whatever, the newer driver defaults to enabling the 'Always On' option which is worth the update on its own.

 

[Rotel75]

I use Squeezelite-X client for Lyrion Music Server on Windows 10. I configured it to use the ASIO output.
When I start the client I can see that it checks all possible output options (xxxkHz quickly flashing in xmos driver app).
But if I close the client and re-open one or two times, the SU1 USB device just disappears.
I then have to the cycle through USB/Coax/Opt input one or two times to make the USB device appear again. Massively annoying !