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Atoll DAC200 Signature - Review & Measurements (DAC)

renaudrenaud

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Yeah, this seems like a product designed for the way things were 20 years ago. Sure, some people still need a lot of legacy (toslink, etc) inputs, but most people would be better served by at least one HDMI input (or 5 at this price point). Shameful that any company produces products in this day and age with no apparent awareness that sites like this WILL check their equipment against published specs. Especially so at this price point. Absolute garbage.
I guess there is nobody in the company able to measure. @VintageFlanker should propose them some measurement services...

For me they assembled some parts with little knowledge, I mean they even did not read the spec for the 9028... They build a lego DAC with an Ikea assembly guide. "Ok, it is power on", yeah, ear precision test is Ok, congrats, let's go for some 2000€...
 
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ObjectiveSubjectivist

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Harmonic distortion is one thing which sometimes I don't mind. If they want to add that and call it euphoric or tube like that's okay by me.

But what the fuck is happening here. Those spurious tones, mains leakage (?) Are just horrendous. Completely broken design.

Ps. Those symmetrical spurious tones around 1khz are caused by jitter aren't they?
 

JSmith

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But what the fuck is happening here.
Yeah there is some serious IMD going on... surely will be audible.

These test results should be sent to Atoll for comment;

ATOLL ELECTRONIQUE
Boulevard des Merisiers
50370 Brecey
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone number: +33 2 33 48 44 06


JSmith
 

horias2000

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This makes me feel better about the DAC I designed a while ago. It uses 2x WM8740 in hardware mode and an CM6631A USB to i2s interface (I also tested with an AMANERO interface board with slightly better results). It has a THD of about -104dB and THD+N around -90dB. It's miles better than the ATOLL :D. Wonder if I can sell my design for half the price of the ATOLL since the WM8740 is considered almost an vintage DAC chip and it has some fan base :D
 

Talisman

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@VintageFlanker Even if it has nothing to do with this product, I was wondering if you plan to measure something advance acoustic, they look very nice products but I'm afraid they may follow the Atoll philosophy
 

Blumlein 88

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This makes me feel better about the DAC I designed a while ago. It uses 2x WM8740 in hardware mode and an CM6631A USB to i2s interface (I also tested with an AMANERO interface board with slightly better results). It has a THD of about -104dB and THD+N around -90dB. It's miles better than the ATOLL :D. Wonder if I can sell my design for half the price of the ATOLL since the WM8740 is considered almost an vintage DAC chip and it has some fan base :D
I think at some point price is inverse to fidelity. So your design is too good to pay real money to purchase. Maybe you can put a discrete output buffer and get the degradation up to levels worthy of $10k or so. You'll need to invent a nice story about why you do it that way.
 

Geert

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'But did you listen to it' ;)


"everything Atoll makes is done with the greatest care".

"All three of us are quite impressed by this French creation. Especially considering the favorable price tag. Recommended" .
 

Scytales

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Good (load of...) works.

What the measurements show is, IMHO, plain analogue stage non linearity and poor power supplies by modern standards.

No huge surprises considering the obvious use of very simple discret analogue stages where more elaborate circuitry should be mandatory for the tasks of dealing with interfacing DAC ouput with analogue domain.
 
OP
VintageFlanker

VintageFlanker

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These test results should be sent to Atoll for comment;

ATOLL ELECTRONIQUE
Boulevard des Merisiers
50370 Brecey
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone number: +33 2 33 48 44 06
Folks, let's not go for childish harassment. ;) I hope all this to remain kind of diplomatic and that they could gently chime in. Would be shame if they don't, honestly...
 

tktran303

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One look at that brand’s bold typeface, gorgeous casework and product name you just know it not going to do well as an Apple USB-C dac on a cable.

You say “is an extremely (extremely) popular manufacturer here in France”

Really? Do you have numbers of employees: 3-30, 30-300 or 300+, or revenue or sales figures?

I have never seen anything of theirs that measure well (in the English language reviews) eg. Hi-Fi News.

I’m pretty sure they’re of the just plug it in and listen to the special effects class.
 

holbob

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I was going to say it could only be used as a bloody expensive digital switch box, but then I saw that the digital outputs don't work when the usb input is selected. So even that is broken!
 
OP
VintageFlanker

VintageFlanker

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You say “is an extremely (extremely) popular manufacturer here in France”

Really?
Since I happen to live in France, yes, really...
I'm obviously talking about our specific audiophile market (not mainstream like Bose or Sony), which, for the record, remains a niche.
You may find Atoll products to buy in just every Hi-Fi store I went in. And hear about them regularly on French forums. By 2023, I cannot imagine any French audiophile that doesn't know the brand.
Do you have numbers of employees: 3-30, 30-300 or 300+, or revenue or sales figures?
It's 3-30, which is pretty common for a local Hi-Fi manufacturer. Revenue is above 2M€ since 2015 from what I know. Sure, nothing to compare against "giants" like Focal, but, again, Atoll is mostly sold local, while the other is widely distributed and promoted worldwide.
 

Robbo99999

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Nice Investigation, Bad Product!
 
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