SMSL RAW-MDA 1

I decided I want a new DAC. Had my Creative AE9 long enough, and by modern standards, it isn’t such a good DAC anyway.
Main benefit of an external DAC is that you don’t need to find a PCI-E slot or mess with power supply cables, as nowadays, the only acceptable power consumer in a PC is a GPU. The main disadvantage is that now it takes another socket.
I was picking between SMSL RAW MDA-1 and Topping DX5 II. Started with SMSL RAW MDA-1, because I didn’t need the XLR output Topping DX5 II provides. But when I tried to connect it over USB-C, it acted strangely, then Windows stopped detecting it entirely. After a lot of head scratching turned out that USB-C wasn’t soldered properly, and it just came off the motherboard and rattling somewhere inside. So SMSL had to be sent back.

Unfortunately, I bought it in the US, and had to return it from the UK. But after pestering Amazon for hours, I managed to secure DHL shipping back for free.