[GChief]

Straight CCA, CCA to FiiO D3, CCA to Aune T1 all to pre. Laptop USB to Aune T1, Laptop to Schitt Fulla both to pre. Have tried both USB and Optical to M8 with laptop and CCA. All the above sounds better than the M8 so far to me.

 

[brocrusher]

For those of you who ordered the smsl m8a from massdrop, how long did it take for you to receive the package after the scheduled massdrop ship date? Also for those of you who are following and want in and have been waiting massdrop is selling it again. https://www.massdrop.com/buy/smsl-m8a-dac

 

[psionicsmaster]

the cable is the one that came with the m8a, so assume it should be able to deliver... anyway my dad has the same dac, with the original cable, and later i checked to see if my cable was the culprit, but no it didn't matter.
when i originally checked on another computer it wasn't with the very same usb cable i've (although its the same model), as i said i used his cable later to see if my cable was defective maybe... anyway, now im suspecting it might be noisy usb connections that cause all of it. BTW, i would rather buy new usb slots to connect to my motherboard, as i've noticed my pc doesn't have coax output, which would require me to buy extra rca output slots to connect to the motherboard that cost 30$. extra usb slots is probably cheaper, although i havent checked yet, no??
edit:never mind what i just said about the price of the extra coax output. i found something cheaper for 10$. will that be good??? https://www.ebay.com/itm/SPDIF-Opti...r-ASUS-Gigabyte-MSI-Motherboard-/251666244729

just a bit of an update:
i've connected the m8a through the coxial connection with the rca cable, and it reaches the same sample rate limit 32depth/192ghz as my usb connection. in addition, there has been an extra development with my fathers's pc (he has the same dac only with higher sample rate - 385ghz instead of 192ghz), and as he installed newer version of this dac's driver, it seemed to have downgraded the sample rate on his pc, to the same one on my own. so im interested to know where somewhere i can still get the previous version, or if somone can upload it to here, because im trying to find out if this is the culprit. and if so, ill email smsl to inform them with this bug. ill appreciate any help.

 

[pasa]

I recently got the M8A through massdrop and I noticed that 705.6khz is not working on my unit. I only get crackles. Every other sample rate works including DSD. Does anyone also have this problem? Is my unit maybe faulty?

I also get static from my computer over the USB cable. If I move my mouse I can hear a high pitched sound and if the GPU is being used there is even more static. Any idea what I can do so I can use the DAC with USB? For now I use the optical input.

I had a similar issue with my SMSL M8 on 352kHz, changing the filter to minimum phase rectified the issue. Hope this helps!

 

[Wamoto]

I had a similar issue with my SMSL M8 on 352kHz, changing the filter to minimum phase rectified the issue. Hope this helps!

Hey thanks for the reply but I do not have the unit anymore. Sent it back to massdrop and got a full refund. I even got my customs later back so I bascially only wasted some time to try out a DAC. I really had nothing against the unit. I think I was just a little bit unlucky. When I had the unit I tried bascially anything possible and that includes what you suggested but thanks anyway.

 

[dxBrian]

The power switch on my unit is stuck. Does anybody know how to take the bottom plate off? I have the screws out, but it won't come off. The tolerances are such that I can't stick anything in there to pry it loose.

 

[Katji]

I have very old dinner knife for that - very thin, and blunt.

 

[Triplefun]

I added an ifi 5v I power with some improvement in clarity and tighter bass. The ifi includes a DC connect that fits the smsl m8a. I upsample to dsd512 using foobar2000 and really pleased with the result. The i5 4670k rarely exceeds 25% load.

 

[DjBobby]

Since the last MacOS update, the M8a keeps disconnecting. Strange that the M8 with its older xmos version works like a charm, so it might be some xmos conflict. After few restarts, M8a started working again normally, but only if plugged alone with no other usb connections.

 

[frogmeat69]

Massdrop has the M8A up again, but now it has the ES9038Q2M chip. First time hearing about this, when did they change it? And shouldn't it be called the M8B, since the M8A had the 9028, after the M8 with the 9018??

 

[DjBobby]

Massdrop has the M8A up again, but now it has the ES9038Q2M chip. First time hearing about this, when did they change it? And shouldn't it be called the M8B, since the M8A had the 9028, after the M8 with the 9018??

Yes, you are right. They've changed the dac chip without much notice, but the model number stayed the same. So we should expect M8C as well with the the next ES9048Q2M.

 

[frogmeat69]

Yes, you are right. They've changed the dac chip without much notice, but the model number stayed the same. So we should expect M8C as well with the the next ES9048Q2M.

Looks like they are using better quality OLED screens from TDK Japan now, too. At least that's what it says on their website.

 

[starcraft2]

Guys,

Anyone tried m8 and m8a?
Is the lastest one 'worse' that the first?

Many thanks.

 

[DjBobby]

Guys,

Anyone tried m8 and m8a?
Is the lastest one 'worse' that the first?

Many thanks.

I have both. Wrote my impressions some times back, didn't change my mind much since. You can read it here: Post #216
Sound improvement is very subtle, but display auto-off function of M8a is much an improvement to save the screen.

 

[wwmhf]

Guys,

Anyone tried m8 and m8a?
Is the lastest one 'worse' that the first?

Many thanks.

I still have both, and M8A is better