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JerryC
25
Aug 15, 2019
checkVerified Buyer
Love the sound, but oh the usability to get dsd256 working
I feel that the sounds from SU-8 are improved compared to my first PC setup with D1 + JDS Atom. I am rather new to the whole "audiophile" so setting up USB ASIO, WASAPI, and other little details were beyond me. I did finally get it to work but what a frustration! If using straight USB ASIO driver downloaded from SMSL website, you must give foobar exclusive access. Sure enough the free dsd256 sample tracks I gathered sounded great. The display showing what sample rate helped to see what was going on too. User Experience Done listening to music? Alas there was the problem because if you want to switch over to some other player or watch movies then it won't even run due to inability to access audio I assume. What to do, reboot the PC? That is horrible! Luckily I found a thread that suggested to add the foo_out_wasapi and used the shared mode. At least this allowed me to bounce between the Playback Output from "DSD : ASIO : USB DAC ASIO" to "WASAPI (shared) : Speakers (SMSL USB DAC)" to do something else with audio. In addition, SACD currently set to DSD+PCM with DoP for Converter checked. Update (2019-08-25): Another added step to get unlocked from exclusive audio to shared wasapi is to bounce around the mode from usb to optical to coaxial then back to usb. This has been the cleanest way for me to get things unstuck in other applications seeking audio. May be this will help another newcomer to the scene or an expert can point out a better solution. This is what I gathered so far and feels like this is how we all live with it. Shipping There was no issue with shipping and it transferred over to US distribution smoothly. Build First thing I noticed was that this thing is heavy compared to the black plastic D1. The remote did not come with batteries but that is OK since I have a pile of AAA. The only thing I need a remote for I found was to manage the volume and change some of the sound color setting (e.g. apodization but I stuck with standard). The USB and power cable were quite short which I barely got it to where I needed as my SU-1 sits on my desk and goes down to my PC and power directly underneath. I have not tested with XLR yet but hope to do so soon. Sound As others have noted there is a larger sound stage compared to some other DACs. This was the first thing I noticed and for me transferring form my old D1 was a major improvement. It included going from 24/96 to 32/384 (over WASAPI) and dsd256 was even better but it will be a challenge to start building that library up after the free samples. Input and Gaming (12/15/2019) I play some older games from like TF2 and things off GoG and it turns out that there would be no sound or the game would crash. I looked around for a solution and did not see anything except "cold" remarks from the gaming community. It made me realize most people probably don't watch movies, play music, and game on the same PC system using a DAC like SMSL. After thinking about the configuration a bit more (device drivers being not supplied by Windows) and comments from other DAC companies giving up on USB, I decided to add a second input with the optical/TOS onto the SU-8 and my games started playing again. Yes, it drops from 384k to 96k but it is easy to bounce between the two by pressing the single front-facing square between gaming.
(Edited)
Recommends this product? Yes
BenSikat
75
Sep 8, 2019
JerryCDo you also have this issue - My PC is connected to SU-8 via USB. When the PC wakes-up from "Sleep", there is no sound out of the SU-8. I have to toggle INPUT MODE from usb to optical to coaxial then back to usb to get it to work again. Is this just a driver issue or a hardware issue ?
JerryC
25
Sep 8, 2019
BenSikatSorry, I don't use PC sleep so to experiment I only tried it manually and after a minute or two wake it back up. The audio that I left on shared wasapi comes back without having to toggle INPUT MODE button. The driver downloaded from SMSL Windows 10 is showing up as version 4.59.0
BenSikat
75
Sep 9, 2019
JerryCThanks ! I have downgraded the driver from 4.67. to 4.59. The issue is resolved .
CeeElKay
0
Sep 19, 2019
BenSikatIf it's a Mac, check out this article https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/resolving-audio-interface-issues-on-mac/

Sleepy computers To save power, Macs will sleep their hard drive(s) when not in use. When this happens, the operating system unmounts audio and MIDI drivers. It’s sort of like the OS kicks everyone out before it puts the drive(s) to bed. Unfortunately, when it wakes up, the drivers are gone, and you have to restart your Mac to reconnect them. That’s why we recommend disabling the features below in System Preferences > Energy Saver.
Brewbs
1
Jan 25, 2020
JerryCIf you are set on using such absurd sample rates I hope you have done some intermodulation tests. I also would have doubts about the processing quality at the upper limits of such a cheap DAC. I mean, I wouldn't go over 24/96 in the studio... Don't get me wrong - I am intending to grab one of these for my own second setup, but unlikely to run above 24/96 and predominantly 16/44.1. I don't mind giving Shannon-Nyquist some extra breathing room where possible, but not going to lose my head. :)
JerryC
25
Jan 25, 2020
BrewbsCuriosity got the best of me and I got a few DSD albums which really sounds awful without XMOS onUSB. Anyway at the time, I was jumping between TF2 and foorbar/AmazonMusic that there was a noticeable enough dip that I had to toggle from optical back to usb. For me, the default display is set on "sampling rate" so I had 96k for optical and 384k for usb to indicate what I am currently set at. When I see this it makes me question it especially on another friend's mac setup showing 768k with ifi black label; not apples to apples as the all devices are different except for these displayed numbers. Yes, I will try not lose sleep over the sample rate differences. In the end, I just want to play my legacy games, listen to music and watch movies at the best configuration with what I have.
(Edited)
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