First impressions

[hifinet]

Thanks ,jonners for bringing this thread back on topic. In my experience, treble brightness usually means distortion. The Katanas certainly use more expensive and better performing op amps in the output. But your first impression of the SMSL is very impressive, considering their budget price.

[philrandal]

Since this thread is entitled 'First impressions' I thought I would throw my SMSL Sanskrit 10th Mk2 DAC into the mix. It's playing through an Allo USBridge Sig, powered by an Allo Nirvana SMPS (which arrived today :-)
The sound is amazingly good. It's different to my Katana (with separate power supplies to each board) but not obviously worse except that perhaps the treble is a bit bright on some recordings. Since I only paid £75 for the Sanskrit that is very surprising to me. I'll have to do a lot more listening to come up with a preference.

I received my SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II today.

Wow, what a difference from the Allo MiniBoss I'd previously used.  The treble seems a bit bright to me on some stuff too.  I'll play with the filters eventually to see if that tames it.

Phil

[TheOldPresbyope]

Uh, oh. At this price point I might have to bite. I'm happy enough with my Khadas Tone Board (different DAC chip---ESS ES9038; similar price; no case or display) but I have another system to build.

Regards,
Kent

[jonners]

I received my SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II today.

Wow, what a difference from the Allo MiniBoss I'd previously used.  The treble seems a bit bright to me on some stuff too.  I'll play with the filters eventually to see if that tames it.

Phil

I no longer find it bright, so either it has 'burnt in' or my ears have adjusted. Initially I had trouble getting moOde to see it as a USB DAC, but now it all boots up reliably.

[philrandal]

It sounded bright using the optical output from my Sony TV, but that might well be the TV's fault. The TV's analogue output sounds OK normally.

A while back I did some some A/B testing my CD player's DAC (Marantz CD6004) vs the Allo MiniBoss playing a .flac ripped from the same physical CD I was playing, and there was little difference between the two. Nothing to make me sit up and say "wow", anyhow.

Today I've done a brief test feeding the CD6004's coax digital output into the Sanskrit and switching between the two, using some classical, pop, and rock CDs.

To my ears, the Sanskrit sounds better. The CD6004's DAC sounds 'flatter' than the Sanskrit. Individual instruments seem better separated, somehow, on the latter.

Comparing the MiniBoss to the Sanskrit, the former's bass sounds distinctly muddier, less cleanly defined than the Sanskrit's.

[jonners]

The Sanskrit measures much better over USB than via SPDIF or optical, apparently. I have only used USB though.

[efung]

The Sanskrit measures much better over USB than via SPDIF or optical, apparently. I have only used USB though.

I have the Sanskrit too. I have tried all three interfaces. They sound the same to me. The coaxial SPDIF and the decoded digital signals from the optical pulses will be fed into the receiver. The quality of upstream SPDIF signals will affect the quality of sound from this input channels.

[philrandal]

The Sanskrit measures much better over USB than via SPDIF or optical, apparently. I have only used USB though.

I have the Sanskrit too. I have tried all three interfaces. They sound the same to me. The coaxial SPDIF and the decoded digital signals from the optical pulses will be fed into the receiver. The quality of upstream SPDIF signals will affect the quality of sound from this input channels.

I tried optical from the CD6004 and it sounds fine. Same cable as I used from the TV. I'll do some more testing.

Phil