TotalDAC USB cable/filter - Teardown

[audio2design]

Sounds like what I was going on about.

Hand assembly makes sense for small batches, even though its costly Only when the numbers get large are you able to use fully automated assembly and get a large reduction in per unit cost. It's the overhead with the latter that you need to balance out with volume, is what I was saying.

For SMT hand placement makes sense but hand soldering never does for something delivered to a customer they are paying for. Paste screens and prototype ovens are cheap.

If you value your time and place value on the cost and reputation of returns then proper assembly becomes more cost effective at a very low volume. The $100K number had no basis in reality

 

[mansr]

Companies like Eurocircuits and Aisler will do PCB assembly of small runs for very reasonable prices. Hand assembly only makes sense for prototyping or one-off custom jobs.

 

[antcollinet]

Interesting Ambivalence in this forum:
The horrendously bad soldering in the Topping amp is ok Because only the Measured performance matters.

With this Small batch thing (that no one has measured?! ) now everyone complains about the soldering.


This is like pouring water through a sieve and saying you taste no difference.

Topping E30 powersupply/USB noise

Hi everyone, I just want to expose a problem I have with my Topping E30, the way I temporary solved it and where I think I can get better. Plus I want to know your thoughts and opinions. Configuration: I plugged my DAC to 2 USB, obviously 1 for power and 1 for data, on a USB hub that has it's...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Noisy USB ports are a thing and even <100€ DACs are not all immune to it or even isolated.
So if you can't reproduce it how can you test it?

One could Measure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scattering_parameters

Not saying this thing is "worth" what it costs or effektive but it is surely doping something*.
*also not saying what it dose is necessarily good.

I'm not aware of anyone saying bad soldering on the topping is OK. I do remember a lot of people criticising the build standard.

Further - ASR is not a hive mind. Even if one person (or some persons) said it was OK for topping, it needs to be the same person or persons bothered by this bad soldering for there to be hypocrisy (or ambivalence as you called it).

 

[Frgirard]

But why did Total Dac not drown his toy in black resin?

 

[voodooless]

But why did Total Dac not drown his toy in black resin?

Because that costs money. Why do it if you can more profit this way?

 

[Frgirard]

Because that costs money. Why do it if you can more profit this way?

Without mystery, the magic is not total.

 

[JonP]

Hmm...
Small batch audio componentry.
Like bourbon.

Heh.. Hmmm. Could go either way:

1. Small Batch Audio Bourbon Industries, Inc.
Hand builds boards in house. Spends large amounts of thought and effort on design, inspection, and distillation.
A quality product (probably) results.

2. Small Batch Musical Hootch, and Sons.
Makes boards right here on our back woods. Gets whatever will work, figures out how save more money from there. Uses old brake lines from junkyard for the still.
A (probably) low quality product.

YMMV.

Disclaimer: No bits were poisoned in the writing of this post. (I hope)

 

[mhardy6647]

2. Small Batch Musical Hootch, and Sons.
Makes boards right here on our back woods. Gets whatever will work, figures out how save more money from there. Uses old brake lines from junkyard for the still.
A (probably) low quality product.

YMMV.

At the risk of providing more insight into my psyche than prudence would dictate it seems strangely apt to follow that comment with this vantage vintage Gary Larson cartoon.

Disclaimer: No bits were poisoned in the writing of this post. (I hope)

Proud to use only 100% recycled bits for all of my posts on teh webz.

 

[JonP]

Proud to use only 100% recycled bits for all of my posts on teh webz.

Awesome!

"Now, let's analyze the corporate chacter and engineering skills of this venture by looking at the components we can see in this pic...."

 

[Stokdoof]

That's impossible, they only produce Citroens/Renaults/Peugeots. Real cars are produced by BMW and Porsche.

sorry yes : “High maintenance motorised transportation device”