S.M.S.L SU-9 MQA Full Decoder ES9038PRO DAC XMOS DSD512 PCM768kHz/32Bit Bluetooth 5.0 UAT APTX-HD USB Balanced Decoder

I am not what you would call a full-blown audiophile but I love my music and after buying what I would call an entry-level DAC/AMP I finally decided to 'upgrade' to a 'mid-level audio system. I kept reading about how something in the 500-800 dollar range was considered "mid-level" so I started looking for a 'stack' in that range.I was using an SMSL M100 and an iFi AMP and it was just fine. Sounded decent but as this pandemic was continuing I found myself buried in my music more and more. I also found I was listening to a lot more streaming music looking for new bands and music.Since I enjoyed the SMSL for about a year and a half I looked at SMSL line and noticed they had a new 'stack' (SU-9 and SH-9). I read review after review and watched video after video and thought on it for a while. I also looked at the Topping offering (a tad bit less in money for the stack but not much). I decided to go with the SMSL stack with some premium XLR to XLR cables (this would be my first 'balanced' setup) sorta to see what all this 'balanced' hubbub was about. It was more than I wanted to spend but I was tired of 'cheaping it' and then regret it down the road. I bit the bullet and pulled the trigger.Typical Amazon, two days and it was at my front door. I hooked it all up, installed the driver, plugged in my Fostex headphones, some IEM's I have, and just started to listen.At first, I was like "Really. All this cash and this is what I get?" Well, I kept playing with the sound and making some adjustments to my desktop (enabling HiRes Audio helped a lot), and boom! There's the sound I was looking for.Some have said it takes about an hour for the DAC/AMP 'stack' to settle in and I happen to agree. About an hour, maybe an hour and a half into my listening session, I'm not sure if it's my ears or the stack but everything started to open up and sound very layered and just fuller sounding.Like a lot of you I have a mix of MP3's and FLAC (and a few DSD's but the size...wow!) and they all sound layered and clean (the FLAC's sound better than the MP3's but...hey, it's an MP3). I can honestly say for the money this stack will be here for some time. I am really pleased with the sound, sound stage, volume level to my headphones, and just tone of the music. It's hard to explain. It's one of those things you have to hear. Simply put, everything just sounded warmer, a bit fuller, and overall better sounding.One thing that I really noticed after about 2 hours of listening my ears were not fatigued. I was not pulling my headphones off going "Wow! I need new headphones!" which I was doing after about an hour with my old stack. I had to really crank my old setup to get the volume to drive my 250 Ohm headphones. I did have to enable the high gain for the 250 Ohm Beyerdynamic's on the new stack but for the first time, they actually sounded like I thought they would when I bought them. Kinda cool.I'm very happy with my purchase. The DAC supports Bluetooth, LDAC, MQA, etc. It's a bit future-proof and will last me a good few years (knock on wood).Really nice setup. A little more than I wanted to spend but I am really glad I did. Now it's just time to sit back and listen.One more thing, if you are going to go with this stack go XLR to XLR. The RCA (which I did try) just does not cut it.Oh, and the 'red DAC/amp' in the picture is the new Tone Pro. I use it for my phone. It does not come with the stack. Just wanted to mention that before someone asked me.

TL;DR: A bit expensive, but worth the money. Has plenty of features and it works just fine (with Linux).While the sound quality, crispness or clarity isn't any different than that of my Topping D10, I think that the main selling points of this DAC are its features, and of course its god-tier ESS chip. It's has what pretty much any mid-high end DAC has except for I2S and AES inputs, which aren't that common to be honest.The sound color/filter options barely make any difference in the sound, as far as I can hear, but it's nice to have options. Oh, I almost forgot: this thing supports a myriad codecs. So far I've used Bluetooth+LDAC (from both my phone and laptop) and well, it works pretty well, no hiccups or sound crackling, and MQA on my desktop. MQA is pretty much snake oil but hey, it's good to have support for that.To my surprise this DAC works extremely well under Linux (I use Arch btw). The sampling rate changes just fine depending on the song being played and if you use deadbeef you can play MQA files with no problems.My chain is as follows: Arch Linux laptop -> SMSL SU9 -[balanced]-> Behringer 14-band EQ -[SE] -> Sony AV receiver. The distance between my EQ and this DAC is ~3 meters but the sound is crystal clear with no noise to be heard. There's no noise when used with Bluetooth as well.Personal advice: if you've got the money and need a DAC with ***XLR outputs***, go for it, you won't regret it. I emphasize XLR outputs because if you aren't using balanced then you could get anything from Topping for less money.

Did SMSL send sugar with this DAC because it sounds sweet!!I’ve only listened to it with my audio technicia ath-ad700x open back headphone connected directly into the rca out. I used a rca to headphone jack (female) converter to connect.I’m still waiting for parts for my diy speaker build so I connect this with SMSL da-9 and out to the speakers. So it’s initial review only.So where do I start? … I never owned a dac before. I researched a lot of reviews .. and I came across this on audiosciecereview and I trust their measurements. This dac is very impressive. You can find video about this on cheap audio mans YouTube channel.The sound was amazing. I never heard vocals this good in my life without being there and hearing to someone’s voice.Highs are clear and not fatiguing. It’s got some body to itBass is clear and controlled and rich.Mids are to die for.Overall this is A+. Best dac at its price so says everyone who tried it. The sounds that comes from this dac is not colored or changed one bit. But the details it gets you is awesome.So much better than built in dac in iPhone or laptop or even receivers.

The best sounding DAC I have ever heard! Huge improvement vs the internal dac in my peachtree nova 220se . Night and day difference. Mids and lows are so much more impactful. Highs are warm, not too bright. Tidal MQA files sound amazing, especially 352.8kHZ songs.Negatives -Remote does not work at all. Tried multiple batteries, nothing.Volume control dial is not smooth at all. You feel some resistance after a full turn.Still love the DAC, although I will exchange it with another one to fix the above issues.