Review and Measurements of Totaldac d1-six DAC

[Indien29]

Along these lines, I am most impressed by our French and French speaking members. I thought for sure some aspect of nationalism would get them to defend the company but the opposite has been true. Both here and on the French forum, people have stuck to facts and cool heads as opposed to defending a native company. It was surprising and a positive thing to discover!

Thank you Amirm for these measures, your thread on ASR also allows to talk about the subjects of objectivism and subjectivism on HCFR which is the biggest French forum. I am French and participate in this forum which is very nice.

Totaldac is not the representative HiFi of France, nor of the French vision of HiFi.
It is not so much the measures that shock French forumers, but the nature of the answers.
It was simple for Totaldac to say, "I consider that listening and measurements are not correlated, my products only follow a development by intuition, based on listening"
I translate: to design a neutral device is not essential, for me, some collorations bring more pleasure to the listening .... a little like the retouching of the photo of Mont Saint Michel, each these tastes!

We could understand this approach.
In this case, let's not talk anymore about measures, invite people to listen and do not dispute the scientific measures that are made by competent technicians, be it those of ASR or other ...
The approach remains honest and whoever wants to tune the sound of his HiFi chain by burning his money is free to adopt this approach ...

Many in France do not have the technical background and consider that the listening is not correlated with the measure, it is complicated to make it clear that it is the opposite, those who try suffer sometimes!

 

[Soniclife]

Many in France do not have the technical background and consider that the listening is not correlated with the measure, it is complicated to make it clear that it is the opposite, those who try suffer sometimes!

I don't see any of this whole mess as being French specific at all, and the quote above applies to all countries equally as far as I can tell. If we made a snake oil top ten by country I'm not sure France would be in it.

I find myself coming at this from the opposite side from Amir, rather than being impressed the French have responded well to this I think their response was to be expected, and normal. It's the opposite approach where nationalism is brought into hi-fi that surprises me, fortunately we only have one member here that likes to play that game, and it does not play well.

 

[graz_lag]

... If we made a snake oil top ten by country I'm not sure France would be in it ...

That could indeed be a nice new thread to start!

 

[zalive]

That's essentially what I did when building a new bedroom based system some months ago, and it sounds as great as the measurements suggested it would...

P. S. I didn't even audition the gear first before purchasing it, as I had that much confidence in the measurements. I then made some very minor EQ adjustments, to account for my room and taste, and off I went as happy as can be.

If you use EQ (and have bit lower expectations, criteria or a personal ability to discern when it comes to the verity of the sound) then you can basically buy whatever and EQ it, you don't even need measurements. You can make a pie for your taste out of anything.

 

[edechamps]

If you use EQ (and have bit lower expectations when it comes to verity of the sound) then you can basically buy whatever and EQ it, you don't even need measurements.

Not true. EQ cannot fix non-linear distortion. It also cannot fix the radiation pattern of a loudspeaker.

Also, EQ'ing without measurements is likely to do more harm than good, because you're basically fumbling in the dark if you don't have clear data to EQ against and know what you're doing.

 

[BillG]

then you can basically buy whatever and EQ it, you don't even need measurements. You can make a pie for your taste out of anything.

You can take that approach, if it suits you. I, however, prefer to obtain the most audible transparent equipment I can afford, and adjust its output according to the acoustics of the space they'll be utilized in; which is, quite frankly, what anyone with an engineering background would do to optimize their listening experience. It's called Room Correction/Equalization, by the way; I suggest you look into in the future.

I'm not sure why you even bothered to comment with such nonsense given the nature of this forum, because quite frankly, it's pretty amateurish...

 

[zalive]

Maybe instead of compromising the DAC for “euphonic colouration” for “perfect sound”, get better recorded music instead?

It's devastating when quality of recording becomes the main criteria for the personal choice of music, instead of quality of music itself.

 

[zalive]

Not true. EQ cannot fix non-linear distortion. It also cannot fix the radiation pattern of a loudspeaker.

Also, EQ'ing without measurements is likely to do more harm than good, because you're basically fumbling in the dark if you don't have clear data to EQ against and know what you're doing.

I agree on everything, but some folks may simply have lower criteria.
When somebody states he's thrilled with his sound, it doesn't imply I'd be thrilled with his sound. I don't know his criteria or his sound.

 

[Patatorz]

Nobody is reading anymore Mr Lavorgna reviews ? This is the reason why since this thread has been opened this great professional is spending most of his time on his Facebook to publish posts on measures, objectivism, jokes...

 

[BDWoody]

Nationality has nothing to do with this topic. It is all about spirit of criticism, capacity to build its own judgment. As I mentioned to a French « friend » on this forum, it is not about criticizing a French company but pointing to the discrepancies, gaps and forging my own belief which is not true. With ASR I’m less subjectivist and more objectivist but still learning on this journey. People can like TotalDac and its sound and it is great. I owned one in my younger times and I sold it for different reasons (including the streamer) but the main one was that i realized that its sound was not fitting my taste (very objectivist a very « contemplative » listening ). This thread highlighted strong question marks and I really appreciated to discover ASR and pushing me to think different whatever I’m french..or not I don’t know what would be the end of the journey but I know that it would trigger very interesting discussions with friends.

Get together with them and do some blind testing together... Good excuse to listen to music!

 

[zalive]

You can take that approach, if it suits you. I, however, prefer to obtain the most audible transparent equipment I can afford, and adjust its output according to the acoustics of the space they'll be utilized in; which is, quite frankly, what anyone with an engineering background would do to optimize their listening experience. It's called Room Correction/Equalization, by the way; I suggest you look into in the future.

I'm not sure why you even bothered to comment with such nonsense given the nature of this forum, because quite frankly, it's pretty amateurish...

Lot of folks simply don't like results of room correction in every aspect. Some folks don't consider results being natural. If you like it enjoy it, but that's you, not necessarily everybody.

 

[Willem]

It is certainly more natural than not using it, in the sense that it gets closer to the sound that was originally recorded. You remove/reduce the unnatural influence of the listening rooms's acoustics.

 

[sonci]

Ok, give this guy a break.. at least he tries to design something by himself and maybe original.
Of course if it was 150€ it would be ok for a nos dac, but cleverly he price it 12k, so it should be special, but still imagine those who make only cables and sell them 1k per meter.
I wonder why these "high end" companies don't use the old Goldmund trick, rebadging a Pioneer dvd player as 15k player.
You can buy some chinese pcb dacs like the Topping or Ayre, put them in a shining enclosure with a heavy power supply, and sell them for 10k..

 

[FrantzM]

How could be explain the extra spikes which appear when the tone frequency is changed just a bit? That is crazy.

No!. Music is about Harmony .. So adding harmonics make the music more .. harmonious ... richer more substantial .. more body

<snip>

Can't wait for a new review of a proper DAC to pop up on the homepage and the picture of this disaster disappear in limbo.

Dream on brother! You’ll wait for a lifetime

It's devastating when quality of recording becomes the main criteria for the personal choice of music, instead of quality of music itself.

Thus the reason to make the music more harmonious by adding that truckload of harmonics ... Stop defending this DAC! Not worth it.

Don't worry, they measure (d ?) stuff like this regularly. The results are stunning, especially at their respective price point. There is a whole 'TotalDac' industry out there...

Aqua Acoustic Quality Aqua Formula xHD D/A processor Measurements | Stereophile.com

HoloAudio Spring "Kitsuné Tuned Edition" Level 3 D/A processor Measurements | Stereophile.com

BorderPatrol Digital to Analogue Converter SE Measurements | Stereophile.com

John Atkison diplomatic skills are extraordinary ... He swooned, swerved a nd giggle not to call thes products by their true name ... "PoS"

ON the other hand the reviewer had this to say about the Aua FOrmula which is by the way $4000 more expensive than the TOtalDAC !!

Thanks to the Formula xHD's ability to smooth over digital's rough edges, I don't hesitate to recommend that it be auditioned by anyone with $17,000 to spare, and whose system suffers from bright or harsh sound, or who values, above all else. the warmth and bloom often ascribed to analog sources.
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content...a-xhd-da-processor-page-2#BBOEFyP38KoGEuRd.99

 

[zalive]

Thus the reason to make the music more harmonious by adding that truckload of harmonics ... Stop defending this DAC! Not worth it.

I can't defend its price. I'm not defending it at all. I can't defend its sound, I never heard it (and likely I will never as well).

 

[FrantzM]

I can't defend its price.

Nor its design or its performance by any objective metrics .. however feel free to love it and to describe its sound with the usual clchés of audiophile lexicon: "full bodied" "organic" etc ...

 

[Willem]

I think the time has come to close this thread. This crap should be condemned to damnatio memoriae.

 

[Herbert]

Anyone out there to lend a 1rst generation digital device?
Like a Sony CDP-101 / PCM-F1, Denon DCD-1800, or Toshiba-XR-Z90, Toshiba XR-Z70, Philips CD-100?
If Amir had the time to measure one of them it would be fun to evaluate how good they hold up towards the TotalCrap.
Besides the Philips all of them are R2R NOS devices from the dawn of digital consumer audio.
To my memory only the Denon DCD-1800 has two DACs, the Burr-Brown PCM53.

 

[FrantzM]

Anyone out there to lend a 1rst generation digital device?
Like a Sony CDP-101 / PCM-F1, Denon DCD-1800, or Toshiba-XR-Z90, Toshiba XR-Z70, Philips CD-100?
If Amir had the time to measure one of them it would be fun to evaluate how good they hold up towards the TotalCrap.
Besides the Philips all of them are R2R NOS devices from the dawn of digital consumer audio.

Don't you start a trend here.. Suddenly these things will become thousand dollars on the used audio sites .. Come on Man!!!

 

[firedog]

Well, it guess it just goes to the show how biased sighted evaluations can be. Or is it collusion?

Or again, it means they like the sound of the distortion (if it is audible). Most of those people don't measure so it doesn't matter to them. They will just say the measurements don't reflect what they hear.