I wish SMSL would first fix the existing AK4191+AK4499EX DACs to work correctly before introducing pile of new products. Topping goes to the same category.
4 Likes
Would be great but I think they just move all staff resources onto new products. So they can fill more spots in the top 20 on ASR SINAD rankings 
You can’t fill more spots on the ranking if staff keep working on ‘old’ products (which are not really old)
This new DAC might actually be working correctly but no way to know for sure until in one of our hands
3 Likes
Yup
After a year with the A26 I moved to the May kte
3 Likes
Someone develop a DAC inspired on @jussi_laako open source project
【淘宝】http://e.tb.cn/h.TbG3l0zgBl7SkJ5?tk=ROiF3rvLHif CZ3458 「弦韵DSD501HIFI发烧纯DSD解码器HQPlayer开源线路4498NB芯片非R2R」
点击链接直接打开 或者 淘宝搜索直接打开
I wonder if it is just manufacture of my design, or if it has been modified in some way?
1 Like
Looks promising in a way that they have indeed modified the design by adding some conversion elements and making it balanced. So now it is now balanced with two banks of 48 elements, 96 in total.
3 Likes
Looks pretty nice, and the price is decent. It actually looks pretty interesting device I’d like to try!
7 Likes
You would like to think he might give you a big discount for an honest opinion 
2 Likes
Nice retro look. I hope you get one. 
2 Likes
Tell the guy you are the original designer of the board and ask them to send a sample to you for measurements and feedbacks 
2 Likes
Interested in this but it appears that the lowest price for this item is now ¥9848 which is 1360USD.
2 Likes
Roughly Cyan2 price. Fair price for such a specialised build
2 Likes
I agree. In the meantime I have tried to get information from the seller about a manual in English, voltage options and shipping with no success.
1 Like
Agreed price is not unreasonable, considering putting everything together in a fancy case, a nice display, with tonnes of customization added to the board - a akm module to convert pcm to dsd, balance circuitry, additional digital input options …
Currently own the diy built of a dsc2 and a dsc3, both are true balanced as well. So happy with them I have now sold my Holo Cyan 2 and the ifi pro idsd.
Wait, what?
I thought this was Jussi’s design.
On the webpage, it stated there is a AKM module to convert PCM to DSD. That is an add-on module for people don’t use HQplayer so they can simply feed pcm to the dac and the AKM module will convert PCM to DSD before feeding to the DAC.
If you use hqplayer to convert everything first to DSD, then you won’t be using that AKM module to convert.
1 Like
Any transformers on the outputs stages?
As noted on web site:
Four transformers are designed, two for analog left and right channels, and two for digital isolation.