TotalDAC USB cable/filter - Teardown

[H-713]

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.

It's not professional builders who do this kind of thing - it's typically students, or engineers who rarely do surface mount work and have to build a test board.

All hand-soldered SMD boards look awful if you don't wash the flux off. This board also has some ugly joints on it (they didn't use any external flux, and the flux from the solder wire boils off almost instantly on an 0805 package), but the photos posted don't make it easy to see. As much as the flux looks awful, it's relatively harmless. This particular device is almost certainly built in some person's basement, and is likely very low volume, so it's hand-soldered. Depending on how steady the person's hands are, how good their vision is and what equipment they have, this may not be an unreasonable outcome to expect.

Now the strain relief on the cables, that's a different issue entirely and is completely unacceptable.

Also, have you seen the quality of a typical high-school project these days?

 

[audio2design]

Hand soldered SMT joints will never be as reliable as IR or hot air reflow. This was a customer's unit. At the resale hand soldering is not acceptable. They could manual pick and place and oven it inexpensively.

 

[aj625]

Maybe there is a better SE (“Special Edition”) model at € 720 where the cable is not horrendously crushed by the edge of the box.

 

[H-713]

Hand soldered SMT joints will never be as reliable as IR or hot air reflow. This was a customer's unit. At the resale hand soldering is not acceptable. They could manual pick and place and oven it inexpensively.

No, but for parts of this scale the reliability can be adequate - certainly better than through-hole parts on a single-sided board, which was how almost everything was built for a good 30 years. This is a low-volume product that lives a relatively easy life (sitting on a desk and not getting hot) and doesn't pose a safety hazard if it fails. Done well, hand-soldering is fine for something like this. In all honesty, it's fine for most things as long as it's done well and inspected.

Of course, this isn't done particularly well, so who knows what reliability is like.

The main issue with hand soldering SMD parts is that it takes absolutely forever. Hand-soldering my discrete op-amps takes about half an hour each (if I do a batch of six at a time). From a reliability standpoint, I wouldn't have any problem selling my hand-soldered surface mount stuff. From a standpoint of profits and my sanity, it would never work. If the design is known to work, and if I have to make a significant number of them, hand-soldering is a no-go.

Of course, the site that sells this thing says that they are reflow soldered, so it's possible that this one was an early one before the builder got sick of doing them all by hand. Still doesn't change the fact that the cables are crushed (which is a much bigger issue than the SMD soldering) and it really doesn't change the fact that it's a useless product.

 

[diddley]

I bet Hans Beekhuizen still hears the difference

 

[pavuol]

well the cable entries alone for this price are spit in buyers face lol..

 

[noel_fs]

its honestly temping to make some bullshit audiophile product

 

[Vict0r]

It's a scam...but there's no consequence. The people buying this aren't the people reading this.

 

[xthechar]

its honestly temping to make some bullshit audiophile product

Seriously... I don't want to be evil, but damn, it just seems so easy. I wonder how many people buy some of these things.

Popular Products at Bybee Technologies

At Bybee Technologies, we have also upgraded various products for audio lovers that require no skill in installation. The popular Quantum Signal Enhancers and iQSE have become some of the most popular products, with thousands of units sold to satisfied customers globally. Explore all our products.

bybeetech.com

Look at the "BYBEE Quantum Clarifier". It's literally a 2in block of wood with a magnet attached to it (as far as I can tell) for $100. Okay, according to this review, maybe there's some rocks in there too:

As Jim Croce reminded us back in 1972, "You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger" yet I couldn't help but wonder what was inside the Quantum Clarifier which appears to be just a smaller version of the iQSE that is intended to be placed inside electrical components. At two inches square and maybe 3/8" thick, it is made from a solid piece of wood with a compartment routed out that I suspect contains some special crystals. (Don't ask me how I know.) This is then sealed over with a layer of magnetic material that serves to attach the Clarifier to the driver. After installing both sets inside my speakers I realized I missed the opportunity to try them inside my tuner. I'll have to request a review sample. I also noticed what looked like ERS paper sandwiched between the wood and the magnetic backing, but from my experience with ERS, such a small piece is not likely to have such a large effect as the Clarifiers had on my speakers.

LMFAO!

 

[Frgirard]

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.

I am ashamed to be an audiophile like you

 

[Fidji]

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.

No need to self flagellate. For every Total Dac there is one Synergistic Research or Nordost.

UEF-Acoustic-Dots

www.synergisticresearch.com

French cars is different topic. Let’s pretend they do not exist an enjoy all that things this great country has given us.

 

[DSJR]

Regarding parts cost to selling price. Ten times to selling price seems average in the high end arena when labour to make it by hand and packaging is taken into account. Is this thing sold directly online or via a dealer chain? - (dealers must make their 40 to 60% margin on accessories you know ). There's a small sector of our industry that laps this kind of thing up and it seems to go deeper than merely being a product to hopefully do a certain job...

 

[BaaM]

(1) Can we tell from the design/implementation what the technical goal was?
(2) What precisely does the design and implementation achieve?
(3) Does the design/implementation achieve the following at any level: "The filter box embeds also a circuit to better protect your DAC from the possible over-voltages coming from the computer."

Thanks. Please understand from a non-technical perspective, there has been discussion regarding its poor implementation but no discussion what the implementation tells us as to integrity of the product/marketing. And for those without technical knowledge, the reveal itself doesn't provide any insight (vs if the box was empty even a non technical person could draw conclusions) which is an important part of ASR for the larger consumer audience.

And, yes, I did not bring up whether the box meets the other purported marketing goals ("more natural, more transparent") b/c we all know the answer to that and the mechanism of USB/digital data transmission is, and has, been addressed extensively elsewhere.

+1000
It's time to share your knowledge folks please! <3

 

[solderdude]

(1) Can we tell from the design/implementation what the technical goal was?

Yes, the technical goal was to 'clean' the +5V rail, make the screen/ground a bit higher impedant (to lower LF ground loops, presumably, but keep RF ground low resistant) and marginally low pass filter the data lines.

(2) What precisely does the design and implementation achieve?

It filters the +5V rail a little bit and alos protects the 5V line from over-voltage/EMC/ESD pulses,
common mode filters the data-lines using a ferrite. No EMC protection on the data-lines though.
Lowers ground loops via the screen for LF a bit.
Can't say how effective nor how desirable this is/will be which depends on several external factors as well.

Cleaning the +5V rail should and in most cases actually will be performed by the connected DAC so is rather pointless.
ESD protection across the 5V is not really needed, ESD protection of the USB signals to actual ground may be more effective but that does not seem to be happening in this 'device'.

(3) Does the design/implementation achieve the following at any level: "The filter box embeds also a circuit to better protect your DAC from the possible over-voltages coming from the computer."

Yes it certainly will, but so will much cheaper USB EMC filters though that can be had for € 18.- (Würth elektronik)

I understand this wasn't measured but perhaps one can draw general conclusions by examining the design/implementation.

yes, it can.. and just did.

And, yes, I did not bring up whether the box meets the other purported marketing goals ("more natural, more transparent") b/c we all know the answer to that and the mechanism of USB/digital data transmission is, and has, been addressed extensively elsewhere.

The subjective mumble is pure nonsense but one must realize that being convinced it makes things sound better it actually does to the believer. Even when there are no technical benefits/changes. All snake-oil 'works' on this principle and it is very effective given how many folks write positive things about just about anything that cannot possible do anything.

 

[BaaM]

Many thanks for these technical explanations, solderdude, it is now much clearer to me!

 

[PuX]

we should collect reviews of these scam products to know which reviewers can be safely ignored.

found one for this product:

6moons audio reviews: TotalDAC D1 USB

www.6moons.com

another:

Totaldac USB cable / filter

Introduction Totaldac is a company based in France that has been creating a lot of buzz lately with its DAC designs. The founder of Totaldac is Mr. Vincent Brient, a professional engineer who has worked in a variety of industries before founding Totaldac. Looking at the hand built R2R circuit...

v2.stereotimes.com

 

[solderdude]

best to ignore everything on 6moons

 

[voodooless]

Isn't ESD protection a mandatory part of the USB spec?

 

[bt3]

Guessing before ASR there were many members here sucked-in by pseudo audio company claims. Come on, 'fess up.

 

[audio2design]

Isn't ESD protection a mandatory part of the USB spec?

I don't think this devices puts much concern into "specs" ... either following them, or being aware of what devices that do follow it would have.