SMSL SU-10 and SD-9
Contents
SMSL is a newcomer to the Dutch Hi-Fi market. It is a Chinese brand that is rapidly making a name for itself. Reason enough to take a serious look at it!
Mixed…
In the standard settings (brickwall filter), the SMSL honestly sounds very unpleasant. The reproduction is harsh, glassy and rough. It is really out of tune in this field. We hear a lot of ringing on the vibraphone and Nina Simone’s voice is way too bright and harsh. It almost scares us.
But: a reader points us to another filter. We set the SMSL to Minimum Phase and yes… then a lot falls into place. Boy: what an incredible difference that is! We strongly recommend you take that into account; it transforms the SMSL from a mediocre dac to a very capable converter!
The streaming bridge supports UPnP and Airplay. That will be enough for many, but we really miss ROON and possibly Chromecast. Because, fact is: there is not really a fine proprietary app to be found for the SMSL streamer. BubbleUPnP works flawlessly with the SMSL, but let’s face it: Bubble is not a user-friendly app. It is, however, the only decent way to use Tidal and Qobuz on UPnP streamers that do not support these services.
Measurements SMSL SU-10
We can only say the SMSL duo measures pretty nice. Noise floor is low and quiet. Linearity is neat, distortion is low and dynamic range is good. Especially in this class, that’s just an excellent score.
Measurements SMSL SD-9
The streaming bridge shows the same pattern. Technically it’s all just fine. We don’t see anything crazy. Noise on the coax output is pretty low – few small legs in low frequency – and noise on the Ethernet cable and power supply is very well controlled. Great work.
Specifications SMSL SU-10 and SD-9
| Model and type | SMSL combo: SD9 streamer SU-10 dac |
| DAC Chip | 2 x ESS 9038PRO |
| Outputs | XLR Single Ended / AES, Coax, optical, USB, I2S |
| Digital in | AES, I2S, BT, Coax, Optical, USB-C, USB-B – LAN / Wifi |
| Analog in | No |
| Own app | No (HiBy?) / UPnP / Airplay |
| Pre-amp | Yes, analog controlled |
| Price | 420 999,95 |
Ifi Neo stream , the optical network connection generates more noise!!!! How is that possible?
The optical should disappear noise not introduce it? Why didn’t you try with a better power supply?
The power supply is the issue. And we test as-is. This is how you buy the streamer.
So the provided power x is for the neo stream only and the small usb ps causes all the problem?
Yes
Since the noise is generated in the eth to optical box shouldn’t be eliminated during the optical transfer to the streamer?
Apparently not… I measured multiple times…
So is it safe to assume that optical connection isn’t the holly grail for noise isolation? Or the measured noise might appear from another source?
I guess the implementation is just badly done… I never measured issues with other streamers.
In this instance the noise is probably injected in the signal before conversion to light. On the other end, the signal is simply converted back, including the noise.
No, optical isn’t a/the holy grail. If it would be, we all would use Toslink.
In case of this iFi streamer: just hook it up with a regular Ethernet cable, put a switch before it (one we tested adequate) and the result is good.
That…
Kind of ironic that an iFi product introduces noise with a supplied power supply, don’t you think?
Question, what are your settings for the dScope III? I typically use 100K input impedance, sample rate 192K, 32K FFT Prism-7 window and average over 8 samples. Your low end measurements look a little off. One thing you also have to remember is the VBUS/GND is tied to the internal supply and therefore you can get ground loops really easy when testing.
Thanks,
Gordon
Interesting test! Thank you. Going above 1000 eur by a coupld hundred the Eversolo Master version should do even better on the jitter front due to the femto clock and op amps. Would be interesting to measuer that one also.
We will test it as well