S.M.S.L SU-1 MQA MQA-CD Audio Decoder AK4493S XU316 768kHz/32Bit DSD512 Hi-Res DAC

I am not typically impressed with modern audio gear. It just doesn’t seem to compare with the great sound that we get from the vintage audio gear. That said, audio chip designers are coming up with some interesting products. And audio component designers are taking advantage.I wanted to improve the audio system connected to my multimedia workstation. The systems already has a pair of vintage RCA Minimus 7 speakers and more modern Lepai LP-2020A Class T amp. These are far from audiophile quality but, for their modest price and demur size, they do a credible job. Sadly, the same can’t said for my DAC. It doesn’t sound great and has become intermittent. It was time for a replacement.I read reviews of the S.M.S.L SU-1 MQA MQA-CD Audio Decoder. Reviewers and osers described it as “amazing." Since it sells for a very reasonable $85, it was worth the gamble so I bought it.After connecting it up to my PC and audio system I tested it with a number of high def audio files. It sounded quite good. Then, just for fun, I fed a DSD file into it. I expected noise because few DACs can handle DSD files. What I got instead was a DSD decode from the device. Apparently, the designers included DSD decode into the chip that runs the S.M.S.L SU-1 MQA MQA-CD Audio Decoder. Amazing!What was more amazing was what I heard when a started listening to “Billy Jean” on the Michael Jackson “Thriller” album. It is a DSD file mixed from the original master tape. The drum beats at the beginning of the song were so sharp, so clear that it literally startled me!Hats off to the designers of this inexpensive, amazing DAC!

Short versionIf you are in the market for a high end DAC with clean, rich, spatially balanced sound, and thought you had to spend enough to buy a used car, look seriously at this unit.Long versionI wanted a high quality DAC to bring lossless source to an older but very high quality sound system. I did not want to spend over $2K on another DAC, as i had to many years ago. So researching various options in the $200-600 range, i stumbled across this little beauty. All i want is a DAC, no silly controls to "adjust" the sound, no amp, not multiple channels, and most definitely no Bluetooth (who needs more EMF radiation in their home ?)So i read the reviews, and decided to try it, if it was not up to the job, then it would go back. The specs seemed too good to be true for the price, but let's see anyway.Open the box, take it out, plug it in, set the USB interface to the clock speed of choice and let it rip. Wow ! very impressive. Sound is rich, spatial positioning is incredible, at points i can actually hear the piano keys being pressed spatially at different points across the keyboard. You can hear the string of a bass voile linger after the note, you can hear the damper touching the piano strings, this is 95-98% as good as my older and far too expensive DAC i have. Overall sound balance it excellent. I ran jazz, orchestral, chamber, solo instrumental, and solo vocal source material through it, all come out just the way they should and completely as well as my expensive DAC, you could swear you were in the studio during the recordings.For me this is everything i wanted in a DAC, simple to use, easy setup, incredible full rich sound, no widgets and dongles i don't need, no need for external power, no extra systems to go wrong. For others who want to fiddle with the sound, or play with widgets this will not be so fulfilling. This unit is small, has one tiny white LED to show the current source, so it fits right into a low key equipment environment. If you like your sound system to have lots of lights and cascading displays, this will disappoint, if you like clean simple interfaces, where the only important thing is the actual sound, you should find this DAC completely satisfying. Oh and other reviewers are right, let it run for some hours, and it will get richer.

I purchased the SMSL SU1 external dac to upgrade my old JVC XV70 CD/DVD player. This is on my audio 2channel set up with an Onkyo TX8220 receiver and Polk XT20 speakers. The internal dac on the JVC was okay, but nothing special. Reviews of SMSL SU1 were very promising and the $80 price on Amazon made it even more appealing. I jumped on this one.Wow ... just wow. Is this external dac terrific! Installation with coax to the JVC and RCA cables to the receiver was quick and easy.And the sound is wonderful. Clear, yet warm up and down the scale. The Polk speakers are now hitting every note. The sound stage is broad and deep. Your set up will vary, of course, but this addition has made all the difference in the world to mine. It elevates the old CD/DVD player. Well worth the cost.I give this 5 stars. I would love to give it 10!

It just blow me out of water when I switched it with my 10 years old external sound card. I thought my old sound card is already decent enough but comparing to this DAC, they are definitely not in the same league. The first thing I noticed is the clarity/detail comes from this little thing. I have DROP AAA 789 + HD650 setup, and use Apple Music Lossless as music source, I feel this DAC really brings the best of the two. Aside from that, the low becomes deeper with no compromise in quality. It makes my whole setup really addictive!However, all the good stuff comes with one caveat, that's the driver if you are using Windows. I noticed a non-stopable clipping sound when I launched Chrome browser, the only way to stop that is to close the browser or launch Apple music before launching Chrome. It's not a big deal but I just can't give it a 5 star rating.Overall this is a great DAC for the price!