TotalDAC USB cable/filter - Teardown

[kopczas]

Monkey would solder better.

 

[Addicted to music]

390/360 Euro’s for this staggering!

99% audiophile tax

 

[audio2design]

That crap all looks hand soldered even the SMT. Who the heck does that.

Controlled impedance? We don't need no stinking controlled impedance.

 

[Addicted to music]

9

That crap all looks hand soldered even the SMT. Who the heck does that.

Me, on the grounds of personal R &D, but I would never market or sell my constructions

 

[audio2design]

9

Me, on the grounds of personal R &D, but I would never market or sell my constructions

A stainless steel paste screen is $25 unframed for this size. Upgrade your own toaster oven or buy one. Even diyers are more sophisticated than this.

 

[forma]

Don't buy this, people, wait for the Goop branded cable. Much better life energy gains on that one, I've heard.

 

[Larry B. Larabee]

Let's say I'm walking down the street and I see some dog shit on the sidewalk. I know what it is and every passerby sees it and knows what it is. But, for some reason someone comes along and isn't quite convinced and needs further proof because someone else said to him (tongue-in-cheek) 'I don't think that's dog shit'. So, the guy picks it up, smells it, squishes it in his hands, and even tastes it. Now he is convinced of what was obvious to everyone else but now he has empirical evidence and can sleep at night with the assurance that he went the extra mile to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

[Addicted to music]

A stainless steel paste screen is $25 unframed for this size. Upgrade your own toaster oven or buy one. Even diyers are more sophisticated than this.

I don’t have any of that sophistication, all I have is a typical hand held soldering iron……and it works very well! But in saying that, there are some who do point to point without a circuit pcb with components floating in mid air……and sell there craft to audiophools that are into that stuff!

 

[Addicted to music]

Let's say I'm walking down the street and I see some dog shit on the sidewalk. I know what it is and every passerby sees it and knows what it is. But, for some reason someone comes along and isn't quite convinced and needs further proof because someone else said to him (tongue-in-cheek) 'I don't think that's dog shit'. So, the guy picks it up, smells it, squishes it in his hands, and even tastes it. Now he is convinced of what was obvious to everyone else but now he has empirical evidence and can sleep at night with the assurance that he went the extra mile to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

I actually read some threads for laughs, audiograde ethernet cables and digital switches where they pay thousands for that are rejigged standard products from Netgear etc etc with similar filters and linear PSU, as one saids, if you believe and convinced you hear the difference you will!

 

[VintageFlanker]

I am ashamed to be an European citizen seeing this. Sorry rest of the world. My god my wife has a French car is it really that bad with French products.

Damned, you're a touch easy on shortcuts, don't you think?

 

[phoenixdogfan]

390/360 Euro’s for this staggering!

It continues to be the best of times and the worst of times in audio. You could take the $450 this thing costs and just buy it , or you could take that money and put it toward a nice pair of powered monitors like JBL 308's or Adan T5V's, or if you want to just double it a pair of Kali IN-8v2's which are slick looking, great sounding package for around $750-800.

If you do the latter, you'll have a great little sound system that will give you years of enjoyment. If you do the former, you'll have bupkis.

 

[Jim Shaw]

Is this in time to be some reviewer's "Accessory Of The Year"?

 

[xthechar]

Check out the text at the bottom of the prices page:

SMD joint guarantee​

The DAC SMD components are placed by robots and soldered in a ROHS reflow oven by a sub-contractor specialised in very professional electronic boards such as telecommunication equipments.

 

[Madjalapeno]

Well here is their guarantee:

During and after the guarantee period the products are repaired by the designer, on the measurement and listening equipment which was used during the DAC development.

 

[Madjalapeno]

And they sell Ethernet cables!

The RJ45 ethernet filter/cable is a Totaldac exclusivity which improves the sound of any DAC or music server using an ethernet link.
The filtering of high frequency pollutions improves the soundstage and makes the sound more natural.

The ethernet LAN cable/filter is compatible with ethernet under Windows, MAC ou Linux. It is obviously bit perfect.

 

[soekris]

It even violates the USB spec for downstream capacitance, the spec says max 10 uF and I can see what looks like two 820 uF capacitors....

What looks like flux might be some missguided attempt at conformal coating....

 

[audio2design]

It even violates the USB spec for downstream capacitance, the spec says max 10 uF and I can see what looks like two 820 uF capacitors....

What looks like flux might be some missguided attempt at conformal coating....

Good catch!

 

[audio2design]

It even violates the USB spec for downstream capacitance, the spec says max 10 uF and I can see what looks like two 820 uF capacitors....

What looks like flux might be some missguided attempt at conformal coating....

They don't look soldered with a paste mask though. It's very inconsistent.

 

[H-713]

Soldering is pretty mediocre. I do a fair bit of hand-soldering of SMD parts, and there's nothing inherently wrong with doing so if you're good at it. My guess is that the flux is leftover from the solder wire they used. They probably would have done a better job if they added liquid flux - it helps a lot for joints of this sort.

Believe it or not, I've seen people do much, much worse with hand soldering of SMD parts. This is ugly, but at least the parts are sort of aligned and probably won't fall off.

The bigger issue I have is that this whole thing is more or less useless.

 

[Spkrdctr]

Soldering is pretty mediocre. I do a fair bit of hand-soldering of SMD parts, and there's nothing inherently wrong with doing so if you're good at it. My guess is that the flux is leftover from the solder wire they used. They probably would have done a better job if they added liquid flux - it helps a lot for joints of this sort.

Believe it or not, I've seen people do much, much worse with hand soldering of SMD parts. This is ugly, but at least the parts are sort of aligned and probably won't fall off.

The bigger issue I have is that this whole thing is more or less useless.

You must have connections with some seriously shady electronics builders. I have never seen anything of this extremely low, less than high school project quality. I had no idea something like this could even exist with todays production techniques.