Review and Measurements of Totaldac d1-six DAC

[daftcombo]

What an overpriced piece of junk.
Ok I couldn't make it myself, but still...
I feel for the buyer... wait! he's probably richer than me!...

Very funny review, like a gag. Thanks!
At least we have one more proof that all DACs, even crappy, sound the same or close.

 

[daftcombo]

Many my friend, I live and work in France, I can tell you it is very popular around here within the audio-homeopathy society ...

And look @ this if you have time : https://www.audiostream.com/content/totaldac-d1-direct-dac-review

What a wanker review!
I also live in France and never heard of Totaldac btw.

 

[Soniclife]

audio-homeopathy society

Where they water down listening tests until they contain no trace of accuracy .

 

[chosen_too]

Holy crap!

 

[Snafu]

 

[Blumlein 88]

Forgot to post the 19+20 kHz IMD test:
View attachment 30071

Looks to me like this shows the value of a DAC like this. Twice the sound output for the input. No other DAC you've tested can do this. Twice the sound has to equal twice the sound quality, twice the detail, twice the timing accuracy just everything is twice as good. Twice, twice, twice enough times and this DAC becomes some sort of a bargain at that price.

 

[gvl]

Looks like FIR Off is NOS?

 

[amirm]

Fall of the Wall : How have the audiophile forums changed since the collapse of the Wall?


https://www.audiostream.com/content/totaldac-d1-direct-dac-review

Hey, he is being truthful:

It indeed creates new sounds. They are distortion products not in the original music....

 

[q3cpma]

(Typo on the IMD spectrum graph: spurrios)
That back sheet folding makes the cheapest Yamaha look like a beauty. God it's awful.

 

[amirm]

Looks like FIR Off is NOS?

As far I can tell, it is just an EQ and it is NOS either way:

But I can double-check later.

 

[soekris]

Looks like FIR Off is NOS?

The TotalDAC is a NOS (Non Over Sampling) DAC, which per definition have a small high frequency roll-off. The FIR filter is there to compensate for that roll-off, apparently not doing a good job....

 

[daftcombo]

The TotalDAC is a NOS (Non Over Sampling) DAC, which per definition have a small high frequency roll-off. The FIR filter is there to compensate for that roll-off, apparently not doing a good job....

The FIR itself, efficient or not, is probably responsible for half the price - whereas any laptop with Rephase + EqualizerAPO would allow you to do the treble correction for free.

 

[rajapruk]

I feel bad for the owner who sent it to you.

 

[gvl]

As far I can tell, it is just an EQ and it is NOS either way:

View attachment 30081

But I can double-check later.

Curious, looking at the FR plot, NOS should have about 3dB droop at 20k at 44.1kHz due to sinc. Are you sure you weren't running @48kHz?

 

[Zog]

I feel bad for the owner who sent it to you.

Well yes, from the point of view that a lot of money has been spent on what appears to be a mid / poor product. However if I was the owner I would I would be happy because, thanks to Amir and his thorough regime, I can look forward to getting better sound from my Hi-Fi. And, as a kicker, it will not necessarily cost a lost of dosh.

 

[gvl]

One has to wonder what a report like this can do to resale values of such equipment... However I don't think all Schitt bashing on ASR, deserved or otherwise, made a big dent in used Yggdrasil value looking at head-fi and ebay sales, which could indicate that audiophile community is immune to common sense.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Is the stamped sheet metal case steel or a non-magnetic metal? Just curious. Wouldn't bother to ask if not for so many other oddities.

 

[Blumlein 88]

From manufacturers page:

http://www.totaldac.com/D1-six-en.htm

"The noise floor is very low (even lower than with the d1-dual)."

Spectrum of a 1KHz waveform, same FFT reference as for the d1-dual for a direct noise floor comparison:

Did this DAC have tubes ??

I always love these kinds of plots. Is the noise floor low? They hope most people are saying, "wow the noise floor is way down there, -160 db!". But without knowing the size of the FFT you don't know what this translates into. Amir's test makes it look like maybe -110 db or -115 db.

 

[Icarus]

Curious if you used HQplayer's filters and dither feeding the dac 705/768khz x16 rates if you would eliminate all the issues? I bet you would get better performance? But would that be worth 13k I think not? You could get phasure NOS dac which is well than less than half the price of totaldac and get his xxhighend software and custom pc. I have not heard this either but along the same in comparison I would imagine?

 

[gvl]

So it is a NOS DAC. Can we get some plots at higher sampling rates (176.4kHz?) to see if it may respond well to external digital filtering?