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How about powering it with a 6V lead battery?

Does this sound better than a Rega Apollo?

My Marantz CD DVD player only has RCA and HDMI outputs I dont know how to connect it to this DAC.

I have also experienced the same. My SMSL SU-1 sounds the best via optical output. My source is a Wiim Pro powered with a LPS (which also powers the SU-1). I already was using optical and recently I tried coaxial, but the sound is better via optical; it sounds more open and holographic. However, with my SMSL D300 it is the other way around: it gets the best sound via coaxial.

Hello. What kind of power can be supplied to SMSL - SU1? 6 volts 2 or is it possible?

is there a usb to coaxial converter or connector. please specify the model

The best CD player (in the 1990`s) in my mind was the Electrocompaniet ECM MK1, (1998) still today it plays excellent!, and can stil be purchased as an MK5 version:-)

thanks for this overview. does your 70s system co-habitate with your new system or is it in its own room? just curious on how folks run two systems in their home.

у меня был в свое время meridian 206 version delta sigma CS, мне он больше чем proceed mrc-100 понравился. хотелось бы сравнить meridian 206 delta sigma и meridian 206 tda 1547

Some of the early CD player DACs really were decades ahead of their time sonically. I still fondly remember buying my first CD player, a Philips CD150 in 1985. It was based around the CDM2 mechanism and had dual 14-bit DACs with 4x oversampling. The specs on paper weren't all that impressive by today's standards, but it totally blew away my brother's 16-bit Philips CD player that cost over twice as much at the time in double blind tests playing back identical time-synced CDs with the outputs level-matched to within 0.1dB. The CD150 sounded far cleaner than its specs would have had me believe, and there were no giveaways that I was listening to a digital source. To this day, it remains the most analogue sounding CD player I've ever heard in person and, although it's not used a great deal nowadays, it still takes pride of place on my shelf of audio antiquities in the bedroom along with a fully refurbished 1977 JVC KD-720 slope-loading cassette deck, and a host of other old goodies that I just can't bring myself to part with.

Buyer beware .... If you are using this DAC on USB from a Windows computer, it will shut down the Windows onscreen volume control and the media buttons on your keyboard. Everything will be running at full maximum volume. If you use the volume control in your media player to manage the volume... other Windows sounds and programs will still operate a full volume, complete with the surprises you can expect from that.

If the converter collects EMI and RFI does it feed into the preoptical signal. This option was found to be the best… so just wondering.

Can we connect an ordinary CD player that can play normal audio CDs? Or does it support only mqa cds ?

Some people will think it’s great some won’t,that’s the way it is

Nice set up! Great video!

I'm sorry, what kind of noise are your isolating/shielding from in a digital signal ?

I use toslink from my Imac playing .flac via Foobar. Sound is nice without any distortions or dropouts. A big influence seems to have the USB to 5V power supply. From SMSL I go directly into a active Dali Zensor via 3.5 mm stereo jack plug. Parallel I listen to an old Onkyo DV 503 CD-Player which uses directly toslink. This sounds not so good...more flat and less dynamically.

Great set up. I've had my 590 for a couple of years now. I use a PL 518x and it sounds fantastic. But because of the 20 WPC I feel limited to what speakers I can use. I'm currently set up using a Chinese pair of Castle Knight 4s and they're surprisingly very well suited, but I'd like to invest in better floor standers if you can recommend any? Thanks

This takes me back.😊I remember listening to 1 and loving it but buying a Karik/ Numerik simply because the rest of my system was Linn. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Thanks for your opinion in concurred with mine. BTW a 2mm spacer will put it at the ideal height on Rega turntables.

IMO THE BOTTOM PF THE LINE NAGAOKA M110, sounds better than anything be low the blue most grades and all but the MC AUDIO TECHNIC

If you were around then, as I was...Meridian got tons of hype as digital leaders into the 2000's.

Firstly, the SU-1 needs a 5V audiophile power supply, like the Ifi Xpower. Secondly the optical cable has the advantage of electrically shielding it from the other equipment. These two factors is all that is needed to make the SU-1 really shine.

I’m doing a/b listening tests with an SMSL SU-1 and the new SMSL PS200. The PS200 has a new ESS9039Q2M dac chip. The SU-1 has an AKM4493S chip. So far I’m favoring the PS200. Just as punchy as the SU-1 but a little clearer up top w/o sibilance.

I am currently using the Cambridge Audio CXC CD transport into the SU-1 dac. Very happy with the sound. That Meridian looks amazing!!

Meh. Obviously you have better sound using DDC between laptop and DAC. It is not Toslink that good, rather DDC clean up all the noise from laptop and (maybe) reclock. If your CD player had usb output you could hear even better sound passing it thru your DoukAudio DDC, regardless of used DAC input....

Very interesting. Just more proof of the overall improvements in toslink connections. Typically, coax would win hands down in the past. Early optical wasnt that great, but im glad optical has caught up and in some cases surpassed coax...😊

I found the same with the SU 1 DAC. Optical was generally better sounding than coax. Thanks again for a most informative video.

I use optical for my SMSL SU-1 from my Bluesound Node (N130). I used coax initially but got random dropouts with it; the dropouts stopped when I switched to optical. FWIW.

Can anyone tell me if I can use my iPhone with this?

What a well considered, probative and informative video! Thank you sir.

So what is the conclusion ? That a DAC released in 2022, the very well regarded AK4493S is only marginally better than a DAC from ~35 years ago ?

One of these turntables is coming up in Piers Motley Auction s Sale ( Exmouth) . Lot 1317. 10th September..

Very informative. Thanks

I had this CD player and the 508.24. One thing you want to keep in mind with these older players, is the early 90's was a time when they finding out what the effects of jitter were, and they weren't sure what to do about it. This is when the Genesis Time Lens came out and Sonic Frontiers & Audio Alchemy had they're jitter reduction devices, as well. They were all very popular. However, back then, the best way to deal with jitter, was to use a single box CD player over separates. So, if you are going to use one of these as a CD player, I would say that's fine, but if you just want it for a transport, I wouldn't do it. I would buy something newer. I know the transport itself is made better than most of what's currently out there, but they didn't have the connections sorted out until later on. Wadia came up with their clock link system, dCS has their system, etc.... I would be looking for something more modern to use with a separate dac.

Thanks for the good info )

The meridian 208 24bit cd player was even better than 206.

I power my SU-1 with the Ifi iPowerX, and optical sound from my laptop trough a 3,5mm minijack toslink plug. This give me the best sonic performance and I truly love it! Thank you for pointing out the importance of a good power supply for the SU-1, it is really the key to make it shine.

I connect this dac to my receiver in optical. But the optical light in the dac is always blinking.

Brings me memories back in the days. I also remember Meridien made digital speakers.

Why does anybody bother with a CD transport these days? Modern DACs have USB and will operate in 'pull' mode, using the clock in the DAC. This will be much less jitter prone than using coax or toslink and doing clock recovery, and if you are concerned about the ground and power lines transmitting noise then an isolator is not hard to find. Ripping software is pretty good, FLAC is lossless, playback is way more convenient than swapping disks, and the ripped data will outlive the silver and plastic.

Good review but a note of caution. When buying a used player ask the seller how much use it's had. I've had high end Denon & NAD CD players that lasted ten years, at approx 1000 discs/year usage, that eventually started skipping due to a weak laser, fair enough. Replacement mechanisms may no longer be available & finding a competant repair shop is difficult & expensive. I've had a couple of less expensive players that only lasted a couple of years due to their cheap Chinese mechanisms. I presently use a Panasonic A110 DVDA player that is >25 years old, sounds really nice & I bought a used A110 as backup in case of failure, cheap insurance. Good luck & cheers!

What is the minimum watts recommended. I have two, a 100 RMS WPC and a 250 RMS WPC setup?

Those speakers are beasts and that's a hell of a system. Obviously the monobloc amps are superfluous to requirements now. Is he going to sell them?

I love ATC speakers, but prefer their active models.

try Nagaoka MP-500

How about LVB 250? Is it worth the price difference between the 2m black? Thanks

Great video. I love these units. Restored a few CD207 units which are very similar.

I modified and upgraded the clock in my thirty years old CDP.........NO SS , directly into a triode and opt.........far better music from CD and more analog sounding than many so called very nexpensive high end ....and no longer listening fatigue...... The 206 was the first CDP I could listen to without wanting to run out of the room........

Boring.