thoughts on Hidizs S8 vs SMSL Sanskrit 10th mkii

[leafygreen]

Spending more time in my living room these days, I decided I wanted to delve further into music and subscribed to Tidal. I was about to buy a dragonfly dac on recommendation from a family member. I thought I would read up a little first to see if I could find any cheaper options and then I stumbled on this site. I've been reading through the reviews and discussions for days and it has been an eye opener - thanks and hats off to the reviewers and commentators here. I had suspicions about some of the creative use of adjectives in equipment reviews out there, but had no idea it was quite so 'chimerical'.

Anyway, based on the excellent DAC comparison tool, I've narrowed down to two cheaper well-rated DACS as captioned. I'm playing from the Tidal app on an iPad, through a 3.5mm->RCA cable, plugged into a nice old NAD amp and B&W speakers. I like a bit of cable length (e.g. 2m) between iPad and amp, for couch control. With the comparable technical ratings in mind, would anyone recommend:

(i) SMSL Sanskrit, with it's own power supply, sitting next to the amp, with a short RCA connecting it to the amp, and a longer (2m) lightning->USB B cable running to my iPad; or

(ii) the more portable HIDIZS S8, plugged in close to my iPad with a short digital connector (as per design) and keeping the longish (2m) 3.5mm->RCA to get it to the amp?

It seems the technical indicators of both DACs are similar and excellent, but I'm wondering if the power and cabling setup as described above might be a factor, or not that important.

 

[ad_fletch]

I've been having similar thoughts and have a similar setup (old Rega amp and speakers a bit like B&W 603).

I would suggest the Sanskrit - now revised it's not only better rated, but likely also had a few kinks worked out. The S8, on the other hand, sounds from reports as though it still has some quirks such as extraneous sounds, pops and clicks etc, and also can be finicky with connections (I get the same issues with my LG Hi-Fi+ DAC).

 

[leafygreen]

Thanks for your reply. In the end I got a tempotec sonata hd pro for about $25 (after coupons etc). Seems it's identical to the hidizs s8 so i figured it would be a very cheap way to experiment. The sound is much clearer than the apple dongle so I'm pretty happy for now. I'll probably delve into a raspberry pi source and a stand alone dac in due course, when i get some more time on my hands again..

 

[IndigoCiel]

Hi. Any windows 7 user? I just bought sonata HD but cant get the audio to work. Windows fail to install driver because some digitally signed failed. Any solution to this?
I have installed setup.exe in 1st and 2nd windows driver folder. Is that the windows 7 driver or there are something else