I dont use the streamer part and cant realy compare to others in the same price range. I like it, but ite a shit ton of money and i just have no idea how it actualy stacks up for the price unfortunately 
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Thanks
Gotcha, so you connect your computer to the box to use the reclocker function, then output to the DAC?
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Correct
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I have been digging around and the streamer board looks to be based off a Cubox which fits the metal enclosure on the left side of this pic:
And the I/O is the same except upside down:
Cubox:
Not familiar with this, imagine it is something like a Rpi, obviously there is more to the overall build than just this box like software and other components used to run the streamer functionality, might explain why there is a need to use a USB cable on the exterior to connect?
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There probably isnāt that much more to it. Thatās a full blown PC not a Pi and the shield and external USB is to minimize noise inside. The second best way to keep noise from getting inside is to shield the hell out of it if it needs to be inside. Looking at that pic, thatās 90% reclocker and 10% streamer!
Definitely would LOVE to hear your thoughts on it when you get it!
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So I got a chance to get the d1-twelve-mk3 and d1-streamer-mk2 measured this weekend. Not as bad as I expected in terms of sinad (I had requested we fudge the numbers to get 69dB cause Iām a child but we were too far off), but I did find that my two channels were out of phase (amount changed every time sample rate did, but stayed around 8-9 microseconds with the right channel behind regardless of sample rate of frequency). I emailed vincent to see if he has any ideas, but I do wonder if its the clock sync cable. Also found out that the streamer was pretty good at rejecting jitter but worse in terms of phase noise which I found interesting (wonder if that contributes to the more natural stage maybe?). Also got to check the OI and found out that its 2000 ohms which is pretty wild and absolutely explains the amp pickiness.
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Well thatās a definite answer to say itās direct out without an output stage lol
Thatās what I would have figured as well, somewhere 70s
Could be why the clock cable could be drastic sound changes in some cases
IIRC we were at ~83 dB (ill get the report later and post it here) which is right about where a WD edition is at. This is also only with 48 hours or so of warm up.
Yah, ill see what Vincent says. TBH Iāve had issues with my left ear being more fatigue sensitive than my right for a while now and while I do think it started before TD, I am now second guessing myself on that one. Ill try swapping left and right channels in software and then swapping the cables so that everything is right way around and see if the sensitivity moves to my right ear once I get it all set back up tomorrow.
As for the clock cable, I am using what I am fairly sure is the stock cable, but its like 8" long which ive always been a little concerned by. Ill try some other ones for sure, but apparently I dont realy know what to listen for to identify the phase shift so Iāll have to play around a bit.
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Oh thatās better than Iād have expected then
Would be very interesting if that was the culprit
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Seems like a largish discrepancy, itās < 1 audio sample at most frequencies, but Iād expect better.
Iād assume youād get some phase difference but it ought to be less than one clock of the external clock, and thatās closer to 100 clock ticks assuming itās a 10MHz world clock.
I mean it ought to be able to manage that sort of discrepancy if the external clock was entirely disconnected, and it was just sharing a SPDIF cable.
Could be a bad cable.
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Is Usb good with Total dacs compared to their Aes? Also SE and Xlr.
I thought the built in streamer in mine which connects via USB was good.
Better than the AES sources I currently have, pi2AES, I donāt have a really good AES source lying around anymore, but I know @M0N preferred his via AES.
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I use both the USB and AES inputs on mine. For full transparency, they are sourced from two completely different devices.
USB < FTA Sinope < Sonore UltraRendu < Cat6A ethernet < Intel NUC w/ROCK
AES < Tara Labs RSC Prime M < Singxer SU-6 < AQ Forest USB < PC
The USB is my input for when I want to just listen to music. Iāve used the AES input, and there is a quality drop-off that comes from the lower quality front-end. Unfortunately, I donāt really have a way to test both the USB and AES from a quality source. But using the USB isnāt something I would be worried about.
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Fwiw, a dealer I know uses AES on his totl TD system back when he had it (now sold).
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Without similar sources and cables this is really hard to answer
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AES is the best input on all td DACs, according to Vincent. From my experience I can verify this too. I also have the built in streamer card feeding its USB with the Uber-expensive gigaUSB cable and AES beat it out without a sweat. This is coming from a Pi2AES too!
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Itās not just the input. The AES output of the source has a lot to do with it IMO. I recall when I had the Pi2AES that was clearly better on AES out. I think some DACs may be equal in input comparing Coax SPDI and AES but the source can lean it one way or another.
Itās also rare when people have the opportunity to test apples to apples cables. Usually when making comparisons people have different flavor cables so as @orrman itās hard to answer anything like this definitively. Iād tend to go by the vendorās experience and recommendation.
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Thatās why I have a testing kit - Audioquest Carbon I2S, USB and AES cables lol
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Well I got your counter-argument ready to go, I have identical Boomslang digital cable in AES and Coax, so both were fed simultaneously from the Pi2AES. Though that has no impact on the original question posed by @M.J
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Hi Totaldac fanboys 
Even I thought I stop the DAC-battle, I couldnt resist, because many Totaldac owners here in EU are currently selling for really good deals.
I just purchased my TotalDAC Twelve mk-I +bassboost for my second hifi chainā¦letās see, finally an R2R in my house.
Curious if anyone here has the older model and upgraded to mkII/mkII.
THX for sharing!
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