Review and Measurements of Totaldac d1-six DAC

[BillG]

What I can tell with confidence is that acquiring an audio equipment based on measurements alone is just plain stupid.

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.

 

[amirm]

Actually, I agree with you completely - TotalDAC does not represent the French people, and ASR is indeed an international forum - one of my favorite things about it.

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!

 

[Xulonn]

After 59+ pages in this thread the thing that is most shocking to me is that:

Yes, but at least Mr. Srajan Ebaen of 6Moons was not afraid to expose himself via the reflective front of the TotalDAC, unlike that cowardly proprietor of ASR, who manipulated the image to hide the reflections!

/snark

 

[Xulonn]

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!

Indeed Amir, I am pleasantly surprised to see the reason and objectivity that we practice and promote here at ASR being received so well, not only by our French participants in this case, but in general. (Ironic that my lame attempt at humor brought up this subject. )

I am but one of many members of this "open to all" forum, and I am proud to be a small part of a popular movement back towards reason in audio. I got into audio about 1957 with my first monaural HiFi system - the year before stereo went commercial. I watched - and even got sucked n a little bit - as the the world of esoteric high-end audiophilia was born and evolved, becoming a significant niche business sector in recent decades.

I will always say "let them spend their money and have their fun - if they can afford it" - but expect resistance when you promote it as a reality and try to sell snake oil to uninformed "victims" and fleece them.

 

[Thomas savage]

View attachment 30558

Yes, but at least Mr. Srajan Ebaen of 6Moons was not afraid to expose himself via the reflective front of the TotalDAC, unlike that cowardly proprietor of ASR, who manipulated the image to hide the reflections!

/snark

At least something about the Total'Art'DAC is approaching transparent.


Oh and..,

Vive la France

 

[THW]

The goal of obtaining audio devices 100% neutral with respect to sound reproduction leads to the last consequence that each device is indistinguishable from the other, as no one impacts on the final sound quality. Once this is achieved, we obtained the perfect translation of what is stored in the medium or transmitted via streaming to sound waves (note: not the perfect sound). It remains to work eventually only on the listening room. But at this point, where's the fun?

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

Or if you want your own colouration, use EQ or DSP instead of spending thousands of dollars on badly engineered equipment?

 

[amirm]

Yes, but at least Mr. Srajan Ebaen of 6Moons was not afraid to expose himself via the reflective front of the TotalDAC, unlike that cowardly proprietor of ASR, who manipulated the image to hide the reflections!

I actually cloned out the reflections of the blue sky in my shot of the unit!!!

 

[jparvio]

wat

how does an audibly transparent device colour the sound, this does not make sense

Well like it or not, amps are not all alike. Or like people here like to express it, amps are flawed.

 

[thehun]

doesn't mean that many of those flaws are actually audible, that is when subjective "fables " comes into play, positive and negative depending on the fabulist's bias.

 

[jparvio]

doesn't mean that many of those flaws are actually audible, that is when subjective "fables " comes into play, positive and negative depending on the fabulist's bias.

No amp is ”pure water”. Whatever Your methodology, eventually You have to choose an amp, one of many alternatives and accept it as a compromise.

 

[MC_RME]

Of course they made the review when Atkinson was on holiday and so without measurement, otherwise they wouldn't have dared being happy.

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

 

[THW]

No amp is ”pure water”. Whatever Your methodology, eventually You have to choose an amp, one of many alternatives and accept it as a compromise.

technically most amps introduce distortion and noise, this still doesn’t mean we go for more distortion rather than less.

oh and some have levels of distortion and noise so low it may as well be audibly transparent for all intents and purposes since there’s no chance in hell you’re going to hear any unwanted artefacts anyway.

look, keep going on and on about how your listening experience doesn’t correlate with measurements, but we don’t care, because general consensus is that measurements correlate well with actual sound quality.

 

[PaulD]

Yes, measurements correlate extremely well with sound quality, and the more transparent the whole system, the more that is true.

However:
1. Sometimes there is a problem with a component (eg room or speaker would be rather common) and a limitation in another component masks the problem, so it may sound better. Thus we rely on measurements.

2. Some people prefer a coloured sound. Nothing wrong with that, but best do not tell people it's better just because it's a personal preference. It is provably inferior due to the measurements being poor.

 

[daftcombo]

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

Thanks!
Seing all that garbage on the graphs makes me feel unconfortable actually.

 

[bunkbail]

Thanks!
Seing all that garbage on the graphs makes me feel unconfortable actually.

Holo Spring actually did quite OK compared to the other 2 DACs shown. IIRC the unit tested by JA had some issues with one of the channels impacting the jitter measurements (I think someone at Computer Audiophile measured another unit that doesn't exhibit the same behavior at jitter).

 

[VintageFlanker]

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!

Thanks, @amirm. Obviously, I'm not at all nationalist but I may be proud (or ashamed in this case) about French audio manufacturers.
Serious speakers companies like Focal, Atohm and Triangle come to mind. But there is many more to mention.
I would also be curious to see how 3D Lab or YBA and Atoll DACs and amps measure.

On the other hand, Esprit is a snake oil manufacturer which sale cables without any specs provided and the best of the best: the Manta box... A simple box that you plug close to your system to "improve the sound". Needless to say, Totaldac seems affiliated with Esprit to build their stupidly overpriced cables.

 

[q3cpma]

I'm very conflicted about Focal. They seem to make some good even if overpriced products like the Shape or SM9, but their marketing is entirely devoid of measurements and they handled pretty badly problems with some stuff like their Spirit headband cracking like some old Shures.
I never tried their monitors because you can simply get better for cheaper or the same price (Yamaha HS7 > Alpha 65, Genelec 8030/Neumann KH 120A > Shape 50), but they seem interesting.

 

[sweetsounds]

Actually, this DAC is not even snake oil, it is poison.
It poisons the music with artificial tones. (Spikes above -50dB can be audible)

@amirm's graph of the 10.05kHz tone would be a Violation of a typical DAC's SNR spec. This could be legal grounds for owners of a TotalDAC to return their part as defective (European product liability laws).

But different from the SMSL DAC and many other suppliers: TotalDAC doesn't even provide a THD+N/SNR spec on their webpage.
Could an owner check, if it is mentioned in the manual?

Every consumer should make a wise choice. There is a big difference between doesn't do anything and does harm. Read the spec before you buy.
This is why listening and measuring are both important. It might even sound different, but isn't it an artificial improvement?
TotalDAC could be an audiophile version of Bose.


For your reference: http://www.smsl-audio.com/productshow.asp?id=153

 

[BDWoody]

I don't mind linking to it. People need to read what yarn these people spin: https://twitteringmachines.com/why-i-hate-measurements-i-dont/

View attachment 30553

1. What nonsense. I have tested 150+ DACs. Nowhere in all of to measurements any edict to buy certain gear. Indeed the opposite is true in subjectivist reviews where they will praise this and that product as the best they have heard and hence, the owner needs to save up pennies forever to buy them.

2. We don't at all. Enjoyment however comes from great recordings and music. If it is based on false evaluation of gear where more than the ear is involved in how it performs, then that is a false god the person is worshipping. They best not come here trying to convert us to said religion. But they are welcome to live in that illusion otherwise.

Note that this is no different than the intolerance Michael is showing toward us. How about our enjoyment and experience being dismissed out of hand? That is fair but not the other way around?

3. What nonsense. We all listen to music because we love music first and foremost. This is common to both camps. What we say though is that buy transparent gear so that you can hear what is great about your content. Save money by buying high performance gear and put that toward more music or other enjoyments in life.

4. We don't tell people to buy what we own. High-end subjectivists tend to do that a lot more. We tell people to buy products that are engineered well to be transparent to the source.

That what we find to be cheaper is an asset. Per above, it allows you to put more money toward buying content, not hardware that either does nothing to improve your sound, or make it sound worse.

Only in audio do people complain if there is a way to save money!

5. We just got condemned by him as a group and he lectures us in the reverse??? At least we have decades of audio research and science behind what we say in addition to real, hard, repeatable, objective data. What does he have on his side? Word salad that is uses to describe everything expensive?

And oh, we are NOT measurement first. Let me repeat: we are NOT measurement first. We love to put listening tests first but that data is harder to come by so we opt for objective measurement, engineering and design principles, and years of audio research to base our opinion on. I am sure if Michael get sick, he goes to a doctor who performs objective measurements of his to decide what is wrong with him. Why does he think audio science is any different? After all, there is large overlap between our analysis of sound and medical interest in one's hearing.

How clever of him to co-opt a common term and try to turn it into something self serving.

'Let’s redefine high fidelity as being faithful to the passion for and discovery of music. This means that the best hi-fi is the one that perpetually fans the flame of this passion.'

Wow...i guess since you can't actually meet the literal meaning of the term, you just want to hammer that square peg into that round hole.

What a joke. And they take themselves so seriously...

 

[Patatorz]

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!

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.