S.M.S.L SU-1 MQA MQA-CD Audio Decoder AK4493S XU316 768kHz/32Bit DSD512 Hi-Res DAC

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Your Sales Price $84.99 - $79.99

A quick rundown of this product’s key features:

USB supports MQA:1.Clean up the recording 2.Encapsulate the sound
Support MQA CD:CD Player + MQA- Enabled DAC,Your CD player’s digital output (optical or coaxial) can be fed to an MQA de coder. The MQA decoder can restore the original high-resolution signal heard in the studio and confirm it, using the authentication signature.SMSL SU-1 support MQA CD.
AKM AK4493S :SU-1 utilizes the latest AKM DAC chip,AK4493S, for achieving a distortion lower than 0.00013%
USB In:Compatible with Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11 (driver is required),Mac 0S X10.6+, Linux(driverless), Android, i0s

Our Top Reviews

Reviewer: AG
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The perfect Mac Studio m2 DAC!
Review: I am officially amazed. I am playing it side by side with do300ex and in a desktop setup (Mac Studio M 2 + kef q150 ) it’s audibly better on my ears. Stage separation and all. Of course on the big floor stands things turn around but who cares. I got it specifically for the desktop setup.Also it puts to shame the much praised es9118k2m inside my peach tree nova 150 integrated amp. Just night and day. Makes me regret I ever bought integrated amps. I did not yet hear clicking noise some reviewers complain about.I enabled Apple Music lossless and could not stop listening. Classical (best of Mozart playlist) came out especially exceptional. Amplifier choice on a lower volume (desktop setup duh) didn’t seem to matter in my case. Tried nad 214, nova 150, Marantz nr1603, aiyma a80 and they all sounded more or less the same.Another observation of mine is, it helped me to re-discover the q150. Up till now I had the opinion they are grossly overhyped. Now I feel the nova 150 dac was the bottleneck. The kefs literally opened up with the su-1.So, my conclusion/advise is: get this little gem, pair it with any leftover amp you have laying around add a pair of high quality speakers and enjoy.The only cons to me is it’s only USB powered. When connected to my workstation it’s no biggie but I am frustrated I can’t, let’s say, connect my phone for a bit. I am buying a usb c separator and hope it works.UPDATE 05/20/25Yes you can use a phone. If your phone can charge (as my iPhone does) you can connect it directly to the dac and it will power it and play beautifully. Drawback is you discharge your phone in the process.I found this product: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CB3M46Y5?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1which worked. Below is the (only) setup that worked.- connect the combined end to the phone- connect the data end to the SU-1 dac- connect the power end to a USB power supplyThis way you power the dac, charge your phone and play music.

Reviewer: WebDK
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Broke after 10 days of use, but now fixed
Review: Update: March 13, 2024 (previously 1 star rating, now I give it 5 star rating).After several exchange of messages between Leaudio seller and myself, it was suggested that I install SMSL SU-1 driver from smsl-audio.com official website, which I did. To my surprise that fixed my DAC! Now I am finally able listen to music from my PC sent to SU-1 by USB cable, which is connected to my SMSL A300 by RCA. It seems the driver installation to my Windows 10 fixed whatever issue I was having with SU-1 DAC. As result of this, I’m updating the previous 1-star rating to 5 stars. As for the sound quality from SU-1, as stated below, it’s an improvement over my SMSL A300 amplifier by 15 – 20%, but more specifically, it is the sonic clarity and separation that are the most notable. Though a minimal audio improvement over my amplifier’s internal DAC, the sound clarity and instrument separation are noteworthy, and for that I give a 5-star rating. Also, through this DAC, vocals seem to be slightly more forward and clearer.March 6, 2023, initial review, I gave it 1 star rating due to the DAC’s failure after 10 days of use.Bought this SMSL SU-1 DAC in November 2023, but I couldn’t use it since I didn’t have a pair of RCA cables to connect it to my class D SMSL A300 amplifier that I purchased from Amazon at the same time. The DAC was on Black Friday sale, so I figured to try it with my new amplifier.Fast forward to Feb 2024, I finally ordered a pair of CESS 163-4i RCA cables, connected the DAC to my amplifier. The SMSL SU-1 DAC improved the quality by about 15% over my SMSL A300 internal DAC. I used the DAC on and off for about 10 days, then today it simply failed on me. It simply fell dead silent while playing a music file from my PC (PC to USB cable to SMSL SU-1 DAC to RCA cables to SMSL A300 amplifier).I tried another RCA port in the back of my SMSL A300 amplifier, but that too didn’t work. The DAC simply does not work at all. I also tried powering down my amp completely, unplug RCA cables between the DAC and the amp, then powered both up again, and toggled between various input options in the DAC to no avail (USB, coaxile, and optical just in case the internal circuit’s connectivity had glitched and that toggling among input sources might reset it).The source-light LED still functions on the DAC, but I get absolutely no audio signal going into my amplifier. Heck, I even rebooted my PC just to see if that may be causing an issue, but it was futile. After 2 hours of wrestling with the connections and toggling between input sources and settings, I gave up.Now I’m back to connecting my PC directly to my SMSL A300 amplifier by USB cable, which works fine. As far as SMSL SU-1 DAC is concerned, it was a decent DAC for the price (while it worked). However, the unit I got simply failed after about 10 days of usage.I’d instantly return it for a refund, but the Jan 31 deadline return date is closed, so sadly it’s not an option for me. A good-sounding, affordable DAC with a high quality DAC chip, but in my case, I must have received a lemon, so quality control seems questionable. Maybe it’s just bad luck on my part, but I still wouldn’t recommend this DAC to anyone. You’d be better off to spend a bit more money on a high quality DAC with its own power supply built in.Update On March 11, 2024 I emailed with photo attachments of the failed SMSL SU-1 DAC to support@shenzhenaudio.com. According to their site, they’ll honor their product warranty up to 6 months with either a repair, replacement, or refund if their product proves to be defective. Hopefully they’ll reply in a timely manner with a resolution. As others may encounter a product failure after the Amazon’s 30-day free return policy, I’ll post further updates for reference.Update, March 11, 2024, 8 hours later, shenzhenaudio.com support staff replied my to my email, asked for the Amazon purchase invoice and order number. I forwarded them the necessary information.According to their reply, they’ll forward my case to their Amazon Support Team. I hope this will be resolved asap as I’ll need to either get a replacement DAC or get a refund and buy another DAC, so for now I’m stuck in a limbo with 70 bucks tied up in a failed DAC unit. For now I’m stuck to using the internal DAC of my SMSL A300 amplifier, which is quite ok, but I did like the somewhat improved audio fidelity of SMSL SU-1 DAC.Update March 12, 2024. Got a reply from Leaudio requesting detailed info on what’s wrong with my SMSL SU-1 DAC. I forwarded an account of how it simply stopped working while playing music from my laptop connected to it by a USB. Also forwarded 3 photos of the DAC. Hope this matter will be dealt with either a refund, replacement, or repair soon, because at this point, the DAC is useless.

Reviewer: Eiskalt
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: All the DAC Anyone Needs?
Review: Many reviews have been written about this little piece of hi-fi kit. If you are looking for an affordable solution to upgrade audio for your legacy CD player, computer, or audio streamer then this should be your choice. Performs excellently and will be all most people will ever need. You may buy several so that you don’t have to move it around your house to switch between devices. Coax, optical spid-f, and USB inputs give many input options. Plays high bitrate PCM signals as well as DSD/DSF files (SACD). You would have to spend quite a bit more to get any significant upgrade in sound. I A/B tested this against a legacy multibit R2R DAC inside my vintage CD player and it is very tough to tell the difference. This DAC really shines when playing high rate DSD files over USB. Definitely recommend over Schitt Modi DAC. Good build quality and metal casing.

Reviewer: Mike
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: When used with a CD player, audio delay cuts off the first second of the song
Review: This DAC worked and sounded great with my CD transport (which doesn’t include an internal DAC). However, I had to return the transport because it kept putting tiny scratches on my CDs, so that application of the DAC went away.Then I tried it on my two CD players (which do include internal DACs), thinking I could improve the sound by bypassing their lower quality internal DACs. I connected the SU-1 with an optical cable and discovered there was an audio delay that cut off the first second of the songs. It was super annoying. I didn’t want to waste time investigating whether there’s a workaround, so I returned it.It’s inexpensive and sounded great with the CD transport, so I’m not going to slam it with a horrible rating. I gave it four stars because it’s a good DAC – as long as you don’t use it with a CD player…

Reviewer: Blackleopard75
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Después de un tiempo buscando información sobre Dac’s encontré este y que gran suerte! Con una pequeña inversión optienes un Dac que ofrece una calidad de sonido que soprende por lo pequeño que es el aparatito, eso sí muy bien construido y decodifica la senyal digital y la transforma a analógica por salidas rca a tu amplificador, previo, receptor AV etc. Actualizando y dando una calidad de sonido increíble, con una nitidez y claridad matices sorprendente superando a otros 2 o 3 veces más caros, con un coste inferior pero no en calidad de sonido i acabados.Sí buscas un Dac sin tener que invertir mucho dinero pero con una calidad que sorprende este es tu Dac, no lo dudes. Tu música en streaming mejorará gratamente y solo desde tu smartphone, tablet, pc, eso sí que dispongan de transmisión de archivos de audio a través del Puerto usb-c, yo utilizo un Xioami Mi 9TPro y funciona perfectamente ya que envía audio y alimentación al Dac sin ningún problema, también tengo un Poco X3y perfecto pero tengo un Xiaomi Redmi note 11s y no lo puedo usar hasta el momento, no tengo ni idea porque no alimenta este Dac yo uso la entrada usb-c del Dac, que también es Puerto de alimentación de este para darle alimentación eléctrica tienes que usar un cargador de móvil, yo en mi caso cuando no lo uso a través de mi smartphone como no tengo toma de corriente eléctrica cercana uso una Powerbank y no me da ningún problema funciona perfectamente. También lo puedes usar a través de sus entradas digitales coaxial o óptica como Dac externo de un CD, DVD, streamer mejorando su calidad de sonido, yo lo he conectado con la entrada coaxial con mí CD Pioneer PDR-W839 Multi-CD Changer / CD Recorder y la mejora es notable, igualando a mi CD de referéncia dedicado el Marantz cd-48.En conclusión, por el coste que tiene y la calidad que ofrece no tengo dudas que es una gran compra este Dac, es pequeño pero matón.

Reviewer: honesT
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Performance is TOP quality both in USB and Optical I have not tried the coaxial output…I bought this for home use to my Harmon Kardon amp it is amazing quality don`t buy the over priced DAC`s this will make the difference you are looking for.This is pure and simple less chance of noise from LCD screens and other knobs or buttons.When using optical you need to power the DAC from the USB C port.Not sure about Coaxial port.USB C port works in Windows 11 just plug into your computer and it gets power and plays your audio all from that port.The web site stating it works with android, they should state Tablets only as it will not work with cellphones unless you have external power supply using USB C Splitter, Dual USB C Headphone and Charger Adapter,2-in-1The single end to the dac, Then you will need the Fosi Audio DS1 supplied USB C cable to connect the splitter to your cell I’ve tried other quality 6inch usbc cable but it will not connect to cellphone only works with shorter cable that came with fosi ds1 dac. I even tried a smaller adapter with no cable just USB C males ends and still it will not work only the Fosi Audio DS1 cable will work…Another warning is you have no volume control when using your cellphone so you need to have it playing through something with volume control…. I know this as I used a RCA to AUX cable to use it with headphones so only full volume that way !!!I contacted SMSL customer support on Facebook requesting firmware to be updated but they are not helpful at all very ignorant. I just found the actual link for customer service on there web site and requested a firmware update..Without the splitter and external power supply your cell will state what is below.The SMSL web site states it works with android but when I plug the USB C from my Galaxy A52 without external power supply the screen states very clearly quote :Android systemHigh Power USB device connectedCannot access to this device. Connected device needs external power supply.I also bought the Fosi Audio DS1 USB-C DAC for my cellphone it is also very high quality don`t waste your money on more expensive portable DAC`s both DAC`s will impress.

Reviewer: Patryk
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Działa idealnie z Wiim Mini

Reviewer: Paris, France
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Très bon. Bons timbres, très dynamique et clair. Bonne profondeur de scène sonore. Il a remplacé un Topping E30 et est nettement meilleur. L’avantage est qu’il n’y a pas de filtres, ni de suréchantillonnage avec une lecture CD. Comme on dit en anglais, “Less is More”. Il a de bonnes basses, bien tenues, mais pas extra profondes. Il manque un peu de medium. J’ai essayé ensuite le D6s qui avait un son dur dans les aigues et artificiel sur mon installation. Donc, je garde le SU-1, qui est imbattable en rapport qualité prix. Il faut lui associer une bonne alimentation linéaire et de bons câbles pour en tirer le maximum. La puce AK produit des sons très naturels. Je n’ai pas du tout aimé le son de la puce ESS sur le D6s.

Reviewer: Maurizio
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Buon suono, molto dettagliato

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