Review on 🎧 S.M.S.L Sanskrit 10th MK II High-End DAC USB Optical Coaxial Input (Black) - A Premium DAC with Enhanced Connectivity for Improved Audio Performance by Jim Ball

First impressions: Unboxing - well packaged and the red one I chose wasn't as ugly as the pictures show. I can warm up and even experiment with orientation like in the pictures. The remote control is a plus. I like that I can turn the display off as I feel I don't have a lot of really "high definition" sources and that "44" is boring to watch; Blue dot is better. I also like that when streaming audio via Chromecast, the optical option in SMSL allows me to control the volume with a regular remote instead of having to get up to go to my preamp (no remote) or grab a tablet etc. ( Changed from my Haitink CD "Götterdämmerung" to "Spotify/Police" "Ghost in The Machine" is now "48" (similar to another opera) The device is not heavy I like the hard sound But it works I like things that work and I would really like the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic 100 which I returned because it didn't work all that often and just turned off randomly But as for this review SMSL sounds good enough. Less than half the cost of a Cambridge without much sacrifice in sound quality, if any. Clean, decent vocals, operatic and orchestral material with a decent sense of soundstage/depth. Maybe not so sc nice as Peachtree, but after the hack I will still use it on a less demanding system. I will only be using the digital coax and optical inputs (the SPIDF I used was the output from an old Denon DVD player I bought at a used electronics store. I can't wait to try the $8 Salvation Trying army player - that piece of shit So far saves the audio!) I didn't give it enough time on day/night 1 to really learn more, how am I going to suffer from listening fatigue? Old gear and vinyl like mine can. or used hence the interest in the DAC at a reasonable price. As another reviewer said, I'm not sure about the bass yet. Maybe a little fluffy, indefinitely. But everything has its compromises. It immediately has such a sound that I want to listen to my music and not my stereo. Maybe later, after more varied music, something else will be added.