S.M.S.L SU-9n ES9038PRO XMOS XU208 Bluetooth 5.0 SMSL DSD512 RCA/XLR LDAC APTX/HD Decoder High Resolution Audio DAC

I've been living with an "emergency" DAC purchase (Schiit Audio Modi Gen 1) for many years after my very high end unit gave up on me prematurely. At the time, I was shifting as an audiophile that was chasing that "last 5%" to demanding serious bang for my buck. I had intended on upgrading to the Schiit Bifrost eventually, but the Modi served my system reasonably well enough.I've been paying attention to the DAC market as it has hit that "sweet spot" where the technology pretty much at the peak of perfection these days. It felt like the right time to upgrade. I seriously considered the Schiit Bifrost2, but again that "value seeker" in me urged me towards this recently introduced SMSL SU-9n. The spec's and measurements were absolutely stunning, putting it squarely in the top 10 DAC's available in the world at the time of my purchase. For sub $400, I just couldn't seriously consider anything else.My 2 channel HiFi system is fairly decent. I'm rocking a 1978 pair of Klispch LaScala's, overhauled with ALK Engineering crossovers. I run a Schiit Audio Freya preamp into a Bel Canto S300 amplifier using balanced connections. I run all my audio through either Bluetooth or a media PC these days, don't even have a CD player anymore. This DAC upgrade finally allowed me to get signal 100% balanced from input to output.Let's talk impact! It was a notable and distinguished upgrade for me. Light years beyond the Modi and that was a pretty good DAC. I get an excellent soundstage on the Klipsch's, wide and with excellent separation of instruments. Imaging is excellent, it's super exciting to close my eyes and just envision the soundstage. Demanding tracks seriously push my Klipsch horns harder and with greater clarity than I've ever heard them. I don't like to describe DAC's as being "warm" as it's a poor term for digital to analog conversion, but this DAC is neither overly shrill or lacking in detail. I have also noticed a marked improvement in the "tightness" and general response in the low end. Both of these aural extremes can present problems with legacy Klipsch speakers and this DAC seems to fit reasonably well, sonically.I would describe the sound as trending towards analytical, but with good "punch and forwardness" that balances musicality fairly well. This DAC definitely likes electronic music a lot, but is no slouch with traditional forms of music either. This DAC really shines in highly dynamic and suddenly silent passages, it's outright exciting when it gets dead quiet. I don't find myself longing for any more clarity, I think I've finally hit the limit of what the Klipsch LaScalas can do with this upgrade.I am not bedazzled by all the new audio formats (e.g. DSD, MQA) being pushed out there. In particular, I could be considered "anti-MQA" as my research into the format and company has really turned me off. For that ultra high-end audio itch, the age-old 24bit/88Khz tech still suits me just fine. I was really happy to see SMSL offer this non-MQA version of the SU-9, it was a selling point for me. There are a few, minor differences between this unit and the MQA version of the SU-9...but not anything major that would detract from the experience. Most notably, Bluetooth UAT is missing in the SU-9n, but when I want high end, it's going over a wire.Drawbacks? This unit is not aesthetically pleasing to me, at all. I'd opt a silver chassis myself and would prefer if it didn't look like it just fell out of a tree. (That "just slightly" off-center display irks me.) While the display is improved over older SMSL DAC's, I'm just not in love with the look overall. (I do like having a display, it's nice to see what the DAC is actually doing.) There's lots of knobs and dials I've yet to play with, but for the most part I'm uninterested in a DAC filtering audio for me. If I wanted those dials, I'd have an EQ...and I don't have an EQ. (I do attenuate my LaScala's tweeters by -3db via my crossovers, though.)Overall, I don't think it's a bad decision at all to settle on this DAC. You can chase that "last 5%" at immense cost, but I'm not that audiophile anymore. For the bucks, this DAC presents a massive value to the HiFi purist. That's pretty much my system these days...excellent gear getting me 95% of the way there. And I couldn't be happier. For now.

Nice sounding DAC. Very detailed without harshness. Black background against sound makes it three dimensional. Use it in my second studio stereo system and it handedly beats everything I had before in it, including Audio gd Master 7 DAC. Did not try it in the main one just yet which still uses old KRELL. In fact SMSL DAC is so good have to stop myself from buying second unit just for TV stereo setup. It already employing RMI so probably not gonna do it, but very tempting.Changed review to 0 stars. The unit does not work anymore. As I read google posts it is not just mine. Garbled sound.

I use the DAC to play hi res music files, which sounds amazing. Detailed, smooth and very easy to listen to with no sense of uneasiness or tiredness which you sometimes experience with digital music. I would say it’s a sound very similar to a vinyl sound.I also use the DAC for my Linn Ikemi cd player through an optical connection. Again, this sounds beautiful.All in all this DAC is a keeper and an absolute bargain without the MQA nonsense!Thanks to Amirm of Audio Science Review for his reviews that put me on this path of discovery.

I had the 9n for at least a week. I had Plug into optical directly to my TV and receiving the signal back to my PS5. But I would say at least 3 mins apart, the audio would cut out and cut back in. I tried different bandwidth to fix the issue but it would always cut off about 3 mins in. It was extremely annoying when playing FPS or watching movies. I eventually decided to connected to Bluetooth but PS5 couldn't support. I move the Bluetooth signal to the TV which fixed the issue but caused a huge sound delay. Just overall experience was not great which I decided to return it.

Worked and sounded flawless for right about 2 years, then the USB input went to pot, sound cutting out continually until literally nothing was ouput. No amount of resets, cable changes, source changes or driver updates/re installs would get it to work longer than a couple of minutes. I was hoping to get a few more years out of it, but oh well, time to move on.

I'm coming from a topping e30 which I thought was pretty good.I was really worried I wouldn't really be able to tell the difference between the e30 and this one... you can. You really really can. It's a revalation. With the e30 women's voices have a lot of grit to them the su9n smooths them out alot.The sound stage isn't even comparable. I've heard orbitals, halcyon on an on, maybe a billion times. Aparently I've never really heard it at all. There is so much happening in the sound stage of that song that it almost wears you out it's so busy.Xambassaders, renegades. The song started and I thought something was wrong because it was pushed heavy to the left. Then the right comes in then the center followed by a couple more positions.The rest of my system is an aiyima a07 amp. Infinity primus 362 floorstanding speakers and sometimes polk csi300 floorstanders. Source is just a desktop running amazon ultra through USBMake sure you check the different sound filters. They really do change the sound of the dac.

Setup was super easy, and the sound performance is excellent. A high end DAC at a low end price..

It worked pretty nice while it lasted. I used it maybe 10 hours total over the 6 months I owned it. It was plugged in and turned on all the time as it is recommended by the manual but I did not use it much at all. Today I tried to listen to music through it and first it was some horrible static sound so I restarted it, there is no sound now after the restart. Tried all the inputs, none of them seems to be working.