Short Follow up
Any hesitation I had over the timbre of some instruments, has resolved itself at this point, I no longer hear it, so I’ve either gotten used to it, or it was a process of the burn in/warm up process, or the USB cable swap I did resolved it.
The DAC just seems livelier today, to the point I had to go back and relisten to some of the recordings I listened to at first to make sure it wasn’t just what I happened to be listening to today.
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I gotta say, this is realy pushing me to want to upgrade my dual. Raw incision is basicaly my only real complaint on the dual so if I can tighten that up I’d be stoked tbh
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I can’t compare it to the older totalDAC’s, but the improvement in the macro dynamics seems to be a theme on the feedback I’ve seen on What’s Best.
The macro/leading edge dynamics were surprisingly present out of the box, but it still managed to sound somewhat “relaxed” (exactly how it managed that I have no idea, seems like a contradiction to me). But today, I think relaxed is the wrong word for it, it’s a still very full bodied presentation, but positively lively.
Still very impressed with the technicalities side, specifically how resolving it is, I think this contributes a lot to it’s ability to convey the “feel” of tracks, I hate the term PRAT, so I’m going to call it rhythmic.
It still has the natural treble roll off you get from NOS DAC’s, and your never going to mistake it for say a Chord Dave (though from what I remember it’s probably at a similar or higher technical level), but I have no desire today to play with the FIR filter.
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My feeling is that the general presentation on these is just so balanced that it easily draws you in. Combine that with it doing very little overtly ‘wrong” and its hard not to get caught up in it. Im going through a lot of old music that I thought was flawed in some way and realizing it wasnt flawed, just presented poorly by my old DAC.
And thats just my impression with the entry level model - Id very much Iike to hear a higher level model but this one will serve me fine.
I wonder if thats just the nature of the TD house sound? If you are going for balance/ease/relaxed you may never get the true wow factor of notes striking like lightning. Ive found my TD to be better than I thought with the leading edge but its a background element that you dont really notice until you listen for it.
Im still wowed by microdynamics of this thing.
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I do think that the higher you move up the less and less you get this issue, with things like the direct and twelve with output stage bypassed you get an insane levels of directness where this is isn’t as apparent as you go down. The core has that issue a bit, but I think it goes away as you move up
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Any big upgrades are a ways down the road and the core does well for me with my headphone only set up but its nice to know that this could be addressed within the product line.
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@Polygonhell how’s the streamer card performing for you? Any impressions compared to higher end dedicated devices?
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I haven’t had a chance to test it yet, I will, it’s on the list of things to try, but while my impressions are changing as much as they are, it’s going to be difficult to get a good read, maybe next week.
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My understanding is that this is less of a TD house sound as much as it is a trait of the lower end ones. Reading reviews, it seems like direct/twelve + drivers basicaly fixes this issue entierly
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So I just realized I dont have live power…
Honestly, that alone may explain some of my issues with the tightness and image separation of the dac. Talking with Vincent about uprgades currently, so that will certainly be added to the docket. May mean I dont have the funds to do a full upgrade to the sublime spec reclocker unfortunately though.
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Curious to pick your guys’ brains on the reclocker upgrade.
the plan was to upgrade from the d1-digital mk1 (which I currently have) to the mk2 for ~1300 USD. Vincent also has a new “sublime” tier reclocker that is 7100 EUR (~4000 USD for the upgrade). I think the upgrade to the mk2 is a fairly no-brainer upgrade, but I’m not sure if the jump to sublime would be better spent elsewhere tbh.
Just to be honest, I am not entirely convinced by the reclocker as is. I need to do some playing when I get it back, but if I’m looking at 6.5k+ total investment into the reclocker alone I could move to an auralic sirius or even stack in a innuos pheonix with money for upgraded cables as well. That money could also go to upgrading to a proper power plant or even just getting me into ~1k of upgrading all the way to the triunity (if i trade in the reclocker and the dual).
Currently upgrade cost is looking as follows:
- dual → unity + live power - 3700 USD
- digital mk1 → digital mk2 + live power - 2200 USD
- digital mk1 → digital sublime + live power - 4900 USD
EDIT: Just to be clear, the dac upgrade is happening regardless of the other stuff. The only thing that may change about that is the tier of that upgrade.
Current chain for reference:
graph TB
subgraph Total
subgraph Power
Wall --> |JPS AC|Furman
Furman --> |JPS AC or DC as needed| Everything
end
subgraph Chain
PC --> |Calisto|digital
digital[d1-digital mk1] --> |UP12 AES|dac
dac[d1-Dual] --> |Worlds best XLR|AIC
AIC[AIC-10] --> |DHC C15|Susvara
end
end
How about dual to unity live power and digital to mk2? Upgrading everything more balanced
So unity + live power makes a ton of sense unless I am looking to jump higher up. TBH I think it increases resale of the dac right along side the cost to upgrade so thats an easy one.
As for the digital mk2, that was my initial plan. I am unsure if it makes sense to do that upgrade without going live power though or not. For example, I think I can conservatively count on netting 1500 if I sell the reclocker. That + the 2200 for the upgrade put me into the range of just under 4k and I wasnt sure if there would be better options for that price range. TBH the reclockers seeming to not hold value very well is whats making me hesitate since im already not super convinced by mine, but I am also entirely unsure how far along stuff has come since the mk1 came out in like 2012.
Also, honestly, the sublime reclocker may even be the right move anyways. I simply dont know since I dont have a ton of experience with digital and have notably other weak areas in my chain (power brick, XLR cables, and maybe power cables/aes as well)
This to me would be the clear choice, I think you’re going to get better ROI there, and I think the totaldac dacs themselves are more unique than their digital products for sure, so you can always go another direction on that front later. Basically dac first, then deal with the digital, and that gives you more flexibility on the digital direction later. You said it yourself that the resale value on the digital gear is lower, that’s something you could use to your advantage to pick up a mk2 or possibly sublime reclocker if those come on market
That would be pretty cool (and worthwhile) lol
Also upping your interconnects is something to look into (after dac), that to me could be a good way to get in some nice performance bump for cheap with used shopping
Sorry. Looks liek I didnt make it clear. The dac upgrade is a given. I just wasnt sure if reclocker upgrade along side it (or which reclocker upgrade) would be worthwhile.
Would it still be worthwhile if it means no digital front end? I could probably grab something like a holo RED in a month or two after that, but couldnt realy go higher than that in the near future
EDIT: Longshot option 3 would be to see if that local guy with the 12 would come down in price or to get that d1-seven for sale in canada, but I think the normal unity makes the most sense over those two options tbh
Ah my bad. I’d say go dac first. And potentially consider the source problem later on. Then again given your situation getting a better reclocker is advantageous if you plan to use the pc setup you have now. I think regardless of if you get it now or down the line, you’ll want a better digital source in the future. The mk1 reclocker I didn’t really hear much positive about and heard that the mk2 was healthy jump, I’ve not heard anything about the sublime reclocker so can’t comment there
Probably, because that’s something you could always get down the line
I do think I’d focus on getting the best dac you can, even if that comes at the cost of the digital source for the time being. Making assumptions once again since I’ve not heard the new totaldac but given how their positioned, I’d rather have a d1-direct over a d1-six or seven + reclocker or streamer (so likely triunity vs unity), when it comes to totaldac. While totaldac do scale for sure with digital sources, they aren’t as make or break level like they can be with some other dacs
I think if you can reasonably upgrade to something of that level I’d honestly do that then never have to care about the dac again lol (since you might get the urge to upgrade once again in the future up the line)
Twelve would be real cool, but I’d rather go for the unity over the seven given what people seem to say
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agreed! 50 lashes to you for having a world’s best in that caliber of a chain!
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I’d definitely go with the Unity upgrade if you can even just for resale value later.
As for the digital, now that I understand what you’re trying to do, I would get something to get you going and see how you feel about the Unity first since you have your doubts on TD. Then when you save some more make a decision if you go for the digital and which, go other direction for DDC, or sell the unity and go other way completely.
My $0.02
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Unfortunately I kind of have to stick with PC as the main source unless I want to go full shuffle box with a server 
And yah. dac first makes a ton of sense. not sure why but I had it real cemented in my head that I should do both at the same time for “one time shipping” but they dont even both fit in the same box anyways…
Not the answer I expected at all tbh.
I think we both know thats not how any of us operate around here 
Only point for the seven would be to get a “higher value trade in” for less money upfront tbh. I dont expect it to be the end point. TBH I think it probably makes sense if im already full commit on the triunity, but im not yet, so it probably doesn’t.
haha. yah… I just seriously don’t want to read about cables to figure out what to get 
Just FWIW, Im far more convinced on the TD dacs than I am on the digital. Like I am confidant that the unity is a sensible upgrade, but I could also see spending 2200 (of which I may get $500 back on resale) on the reclocker for no real benefit to me personaly.
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So it makes even more sense to get the better DAC first. Unless you can find a way to keep the current digital by waiting a bit more? Prices for thr upgrade won’t change