S.M.S.L Sanskrit 10th MK II High-end DAC USB Optical Coaxial Input (Black)

Necessity is the mother of invention. I needed a DAC for my bedroom audio video setup. Yes everything is pretty bunched here. My MOTU USB interface mixer decided USB was not working so I verified it truly was faulty. 100 % proven. I needed a DAC and the usual suspect I would pick would be a pain to get and I wanted something different and new to me. Being in audio for allot of years, being jaded by overly expensive jewels of unobtainium was not it. However, I knew of the SMSL Sanskrit before and was curious.Setup and associated gear.Lenovo i7 Windows 10 computer and Sony Blue Ray 800 series. And still MOTU Ultralite mk.4 as mixer in this case only. Anthem AVM-30 processor Preamplifier and Crown XLS-1202 power amplifier and Elac 6.2 speakers and SVS 10 inch Subwoofer PB-1000. Aiwa AD-F660 Cassette Deck. Modest cabling nothing special.Windows 10 drivers and XMOS.I had no challenges at all with the driver from the website. Picked the right one and installed and off to the races.Remote control operation. Press the C key 1st!The remote is fine with operation for filters toggling and volume up and down input select and so on. Real easy. Have some AAA batteries handy for the remote control. Remote is plastic with buttons easy to use. You got a remote for your TV right? Same deal here.Hook up and things.Connected USB aux power at first but don’t need never plan to run my mobiles on this. It is USB Buss powered with your favorite compliant power adapter. Instructions vague on that point. Coaxial digital to my Sony Blueray player. Computer USB of course. Maxed out advanced to 32 bit 384Khz because I can.Listening.Pick your input 1 2 3. Each is for USB and Optical Toslink, and Coaxial inputs.I don’t have an optical source though.The sound is quite nice. My Schiit Asgard with the AKM4490 module sounds more grander as my Schiit audio Modius DAC neither are in this system. My MOTU is a hair more detailed overall.Particulars sound of the SMSL Sanskrit.It is a smooth operator. I liked the first filter scheme best for me. The bass is well laid out and punchy and has good extension. Midrange is easy going and not as in your face as my MOTU can sometimes be. The MOTU uses ESS Sabre DACs and get a bit pushy at times in the midrange and treble. The SMSL is nice and calm and a cool customer here. I never heard anything that made me want to skip to another song, no. I would play it again. Highs are relatively airy, but as open as my MOTU or Schiit twins but I find for hours I can go on listening just fine. My Elacs never glared at me with this DAC. Nice. Dynamics are well done and the sense of pace and urgency the music has is well conveyed here. Remember this is a reasonably priced DAC and compromises abound and the SMSL is no different here. So on to the closing thoughts.Closing thoughts.The SMSL Sanskrit is a great way to modestly get that computer sounding the way it can and should along with other digital sources you may have. Set your expectations accordingly though. It is an honest product and well done. Operation is easy and the interfacing couldn’t be easier at least for me. Your mileage may vary. No telling how your technology will fare here. You just have to find out. But for me at least. I am a happy customer and the SMSL solves a need and turned it into a desire to do more with my bedroom system rather than just my living room editing station listening place. Pretty darn good job SMSL. Recommended.

sounds good

What a great little DAC!I have been looking for a budget-friendly DAC for oh... about a week now.I was all set to get a much more expensive unit but then I happened across this one. This little guy is for my PC so I don't need a full-blown, professional, $500.00 plus DAC to drive a REALTEK sound card.I read almost all the reviews and was impressed. Of course, reviews can be deceiving (as we all know by now) so I skipped over to YouTube and checked out some videos on the DAC and it got really good reviews. What really got me was the extra micro-USB power I could add to the DAC so it was not struggling when decoding 384 bit. I just plugged in my extra Samsung phone micro-USB charger and walla! Works!I also loved the fact that this has various multi-inputs: USB - Optical - Coax. I use the USB for FLAC files and the optical for Gaming and MP3 files. To top it all off, it has a freaking remote! What sub-100.00 dollar DAC has a remote?Color me impressed.Sound! Ahhhh..... the big question.All I can say is I have paired this with the SMSL SP100 Headphone Amplifier (little dude!) and it sounds really good! I mean really good. I was surprised at how good it sounded. Like...DAMN! That sounds really good. The soundstage is about as good as you are going to get from a PC sound card. Trust me. I have been in IT 25 + years. This is as good as it gets with motherboard sound.Decoding - terrific. You do need a driver from the SMSL website but its, download, install, reboot, set sound settings in Control Panel, done. Like...5 minutes total.Some of you might be asking "Why do I need the amp? I have one already!".Well, Amazonians, here's why: The SMSL AMP has the key piece I personally needed.Like a lot of you, I have a few different pairs of headphones. However, most AMP's only have one output, the headphone jack (Yeah, you could use a splitter but...ugly). The SMSL SP100 Headphone Amplifier has a neat little feature that a lot of the other AMP's I looked at did not. The AMPS Inputs are actually joined internally. One is an Input AND one is an Output. I know, confusing especially with the marking on the back of the unit both saying "Input", but hear me out.Since both the AMP's RCA connectors are "joined: within the unit, the input from the DAC out through the headphone jack allows the SMSL AMP, volume, tube sound, etc...to be heard. The OUTPUT RCA (the second set of RCA jacks on the back of the AMP) is tied to the Input RCA and provides no volume or amplification. Sounds bad, right? Wrong! Since I have multiple headphones this allows me to use a second multi-port AMP connected to the SMSL amp via an RCA to 3.5MM cable and not "double-amp" the sound. It's just a simple passthrough to the 2nd AMP. You can see it in the picture above. It's the black amp, bottom left.So, I now have TWO amps. One I can use for my critical listening (SMSL) and one I can use for my speakers and other headphones. The beauty of this setup is I get the DAC decoding, filtering, and sound to BOTH AMPS!The clarity and sound stage is VERY good. I'm not going to tell you this is the best setup EVER or your head is going to explode because of the sound but for a PC, to me, it's exceptional. I simply do not need anything else. I have the gaming sound (optical), the FLAC\DSD\MP3 sound (USB 384 bit) and the plugs for multiple headphones. Simple!PHEW! What a relief. Great sound across the board to all my headphones and speakers without having to play the "un-plug and plug-in game".I love it.I highly recommend you consider this little guy (and the AMP for that matter). Great, semi-inexpensive (everything, units, cables, etc...under 200.00 total) DAC\AMP combination. Just a great PC setup. Oh, and you can get everything you see in the pictures above right here on good old Amazon.