Well if they are downloaded files they can be converted fairly easily, but on the fly conversation/decoding is more difficult if it’s from a streaming service
I mean, If i have my Toslink cable in, and music is playing, but i plug in the USB just to plug it in,it will then begin to hiss, even using with optical still selected.
Im actually going to go to home depot and get a heavy duty 6 foot extension cable for my right monitor, i might have made a dumdum somehow and never noticed
So the unit works fine if it’s plugged into the wall and only connected and working with toslink? So if usb or spdif coax is connected the loop starts again?
If usb get’s connected at all to the dac, under any input mode, it will hiss/tweet lightly. My bad, i was using toslink and spdif interchangeably
It’s fine, they are the same standard anyway, only difference is that one’s optically transmitted.
So I’m assuming you have tried all the USB ports on your PC, and if possible have tired this on using another computer?
Edit: isolating the plug of the su-8 to a different outlet from the pc could do something as well. It would be best if it was on a different electrical circuit as the other device, but that’s sometimes not an option
I dont have any other devices I can plug a USB into, and i have tried several USB port’s on my pc and they all produce the same result.
My dac and left monitor are actually on another power strip plugged into another wall outlet, separated from all of my other plug’s. I only just realized it was only my left monitor that buzzes that loudly when usb is used, and that’s the monitor that is plugged into the same outlet as my PC. The left one does buzz a little, but i can only tell when im up close, but because i was behind my desk when i was messing with connection’s so i never noticed one buzzed waaay more than the other. I feel stupid tbh. Either the problem is one of my unit’s is preforming worse than the other, or the extension cord im about to buy to connect to the other side of my room will fix the problem.
I suppose I have nobody to blame but myself for my stupidity.
1 Like
Well hopefully that will fix the issue, if not there are other methods to try. Also it’s probably fine if both speakers are plugged into the same outlet. You just want to separate the thx, su8, and PC with each other
1 Like
Honestly at this point I didn’t want this to fix the hiss, considering Ive spent actual time, and money attempting to fix this. My mistake was both assuming that all of my outlet’s would produce the problem as the two I tried it with, and that somehow I never noticed that only one of the speaker’s hissed and tweeted.
Huh, well thanks for helping me out, guess I just needed to take one last look at it for me to realize the problem. Wish this could have been fixed a year ago, better late than never.
2 Likes
Thanks for posting this. I got in on the first 789 drop in April so hopefully that will be here the end of the month or beginning of next month. I wanted to get a balanced DAC and settled on the SU-8 and was planning on buying one from Amazon just as you did. Obviously my order is in on drop now. I’m also moving from a Modi 2 so it’s also good to know you hear the difference.
Now the waiting game continues…
Just to disclose, I can hear a difference, but it isnt the kind of difference that alot of people would justify spending an additional 200 dollar’s for, but with the PCM filter’s it is more noticeable.
If your already looking for a new dac it’s certainly worth it, just don’t expect like, 30% quality increases or anything, 2-6% is more likely.
Just order mine today and also order a jds labs atom just to start. Will get a better balance amp in the future but for now I’m kinda future proof on the dac side I think. Thanks for posting this drop, I was about to Pay more on Amazon
1 Like
Hey guys I know this thread is a bit old but is anyone having a problem with the SU8 not being recognized after start up? For some reason mine runs just fine until I shut my computer off (Windows 10). After turning it back on it isn’t recognized at all until I turn the unit off and then back on. This happens more often if I leave the dac on and turn my computer off. I’m a bit lost as all my previous dacs were 24/192 that I only used with SPDIF. Any suggestions?
Do you have the drivers installed?
Mine is a little weird with USB. Switched to optical and never looked back.
I believe so. I went to SMSL’s website and downloaded the newest driver which was from 2018. I then updated the xmos driver which is from this year. Not sure if I did something wrong or not?
I completely get that. All of my dacs before this have been optical with no drivers. I figured why not try the new tech. So far it’s a pain in the ass. It does sound good though. I wasn’t expecting it to sound so thin compared to my modi 3, I guess I have to unlearn the akm velvet chip sound (even though i do still think it’s a silly good dac especially for around $100).
Is there a reason you aren’t using optical? I can continue to help troubleshoot the drivers, but the dac should have no problem on optical
I am using USB at the moment to get the “most” out of the dac. Unless I’m mistaken optical can still “only” achieve 24/192, which is great. I have had no problems with that and have enjoyed all of my dacs so far, however I want to try higher bitrate music to see for myself if I can tell the difference. I guess that is my way of justifying getting this dac over the balanced SDAC.
But do you actually have music over 24/192? DSD64 resampled to pcm is only 24 bit 88.2k also
I actually dont stream music at the moment and no right now I only buy good condition/used cds and run flac. However I do want to start trying out higher bitrate stuff so this was my way of “future delaying” my system. I get where your going with that though. I noticed after I turn the unit on it cycles through a few things and says unlocked, I wonder if it locks when I turn the computer off and leave the dac on? I’m just used to leaving my dacs on since I’ve had USB dacs and the modi 3 for a while.