I have had the SA-98A as well as the SMSL Sanskrit DAC for about a year now. I love the combo. Now I may not be an "audiophile", but for a cheap amp and DAC, I'm impressed. I am not a literary scholar either, but this is the review I sent in to the Canadian dealer I purchased these from:
"I purchased the SMSL SA-98E along with the SMSL Sanskrit 24 Bit/ 192 kHz DAC. I am in the Canadian Military and I always travel with a small music system consisting of an older 2024 T-amp, an older USB DAC and a pair of small Mission 760i speakers. They have always sounded good, but ran out of steam fairly quick as the speakers are not very efficient and the amp only put’s out about 7 clean watts or so. I decided to bump up the power with the SA-98E and get the matching Sanskrit DAC just to get a nice looking combo as well as possibly a few more years of DAC technology to improve the sound.
Was it a worthwhile purchase? Did it improve the sound? Well let me tell you…MY GOD!!! What a HUGE improvement. The extra power from the amp has given the small inefficient speakers some nice kick and they can fill a good sized room with more volume than I can take. The extra power has added a much needed punch to the bass. I couldn’t wait to get this amp back home and try it with my JBL’s. This is also very clean power. When I turned the volume up, it got too loud for me but it was never dirty sound. It was just loud, clean, undistorted music!! I am very impressed with this amp.
So what is the DAC like? Very impressive. Impressive to a fault maybe….at least for me that is. Being in the Military, when we deploy places a lot of us trade our music collections and playlists so we don’t get bored of the same tunes. This DAC has made me VERY aware of how bad some of those recording are. With my old system, I never noticed how bad a 128 kbps MP3 really sounded. The lack of bass and top end makes these tracks almost unlistenable now. My collection is getting smaller and smaller as I delete the bad tunes that I had previously thought were good recordings.
If you are considering one of these amps or DAC’s, seriously look at the combination of both of them. They are very impressive and very good looking. I did buy these to deploy with and use as a desk top system at work, but this just might find a place in my living room and replace my vintage Sansui. That is going to be a very interesting listening comparison. The toughest thing I had to decide on was the Silver or the Black. I chose the Black….but I just might have to get another pair in Silver to keep the “vintage” look in the living room."
I have since returned from the deployment and this combo is now being used for my 2 channel listening with my JBL 4311b's. I am going to get another set in silver because it looks a little more "retro" and I like that better!!