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I've been listening to this DAC for the past couple of days, and I have to say - it grows on me every time I listen to it. It is a great DAC. Srajan Ebajen was right in his review.
The DACs I also have on hand are MSB DAC IV Signature with Galaxy Femto Clock option installed, dCS Scarlatti and Berkeley Alpha 2 DAC and Alpha USB combo.
TotalDACs strongest suit seems to be its great, dense tonality. The sound is full, natural and extremely fluid. Woodwinds and vocal aficionados will simply love this DAC. The DAC is the antithesis of cold, analitycal, threadbare or etched - the terms that are often applied to digital.
Because of the way it reprocuces instrumental timbres, many would probably describe this DAC as 'tubelike'. While I can understand why some people may feel that way, it is not an accurate description. It does many things that tubes do right, but at the same time - it doesn't seem to have their limitations.
The DAC has an amazing timbre and sounds extremely fluid, but doesn't sound overy soft. The edges are not rounded off, the microdynamics is not diminished. It just sounds natural to me. The bass is also suprisingly fast and agile - there is no excessive tube bloom (but no SS dryness either).
In terms of resolutiuon, top end smoothnes, image layering, low level details and soundstage depth it is very good, but not really groundbreaking. Here the MSB DAC IV Signature with Galaxy Femto Clock option installed is an undisputed champ - by a wide marigin. Nonetheless, the TotalDAC almost approches what the Scarlatti DAC is capable of in that regard - which means it is still pretty damn good (at least when the Scarlatti is used as a stand alone DAC, without the external clock; adding a superior clock would eclipse the TotalDAC in areas mentioned, but at the same time, the price would almost double; the Scarlatti DAC alone is $24k, way more than the TotalDAC).
Interestingly, in my system (Magico S5 driven by MSB S200 poweramp), almost half of the listeners preffered the TotalDAC to MSB DAC IV. MSB had bigger soundstage, better layering, more apparent resolution and transparency, but somehow, TotalDAC sounded 'more like real music' to them. And after we switched to Spectral DMA-260, the balance had almost entirely shifted to TotalDAC favor, as it seem to add some midrange magic and color saturation to the Spectral house sound. I can definately understand why dallasjustice likes this DAC so much on his Soulution and Krell amps !
Personally, I think that the MSB is still a superior DAC (at $32k, it rather should be !) but at that particular system configuration, I think I prefer the TotalDAC to all DACs I have on hand.
I have only two problems with this DAC:
1. The quality of packaging. The DAC was sent in a big carton box, wrapped in a bubble foil. While definately safe for shipping, I do belive that at this level, the manufacturer should invest in some 'proper', custom made foams and box.
2. I have experienced some poping noises after each sample rate change. Those noises went away after 5-10s of listening. Not a big problem, but kind of annoying. Not sure it that is design related (probably some input receiver / PLL problem) or just a random issue in my sample.
The DACs I also have on hand are MSB DAC IV Signature with Galaxy Femto Clock option installed, dCS Scarlatti and Berkeley Alpha 2 DAC and Alpha USB combo.
TotalDACs strongest suit seems to be its great, dense tonality. The sound is full, natural and extremely fluid. Woodwinds and vocal aficionados will simply love this DAC. The DAC is the antithesis of cold, analitycal, threadbare or etched - the terms that are often applied to digital.
Because of the way it reprocuces instrumental timbres, many would probably describe this DAC as 'tubelike'. While I can understand why some people may feel that way, it is not an accurate description. It does many things that tubes do right, but at the same time - it doesn't seem to have their limitations.
The DAC has an amazing timbre and sounds extremely fluid, but doesn't sound overy soft. The edges are not rounded off, the microdynamics is not diminished. It just sounds natural to me. The bass is also suprisingly fast and agile - there is no excessive tube bloom (but no SS dryness either).
In terms of resolutiuon, top end smoothnes, image layering, low level details and soundstage depth it is very good, but not really groundbreaking. Here the MSB DAC IV Signature with Galaxy Femto Clock option installed is an undisputed champ - by a wide marigin. Nonetheless, the TotalDAC almost approches what the Scarlatti DAC is capable of in that regard - which means it is still pretty damn good (at least when the Scarlatti is used as a stand alone DAC, without the external clock; adding a superior clock would eclipse the TotalDAC in areas mentioned, but at the same time, the price would almost double; the Scarlatti DAC alone is $24k, way more than the TotalDAC).
Interestingly, in my system (Magico S5 driven by MSB S200 poweramp), almost half of the listeners preffered the TotalDAC to MSB DAC IV. MSB had bigger soundstage, better layering, more apparent resolution and transparency, but somehow, TotalDAC sounded 'more like real music' to them. And after we switched to Spectral DMA-260, the balance had almost entirely shifted to TotalDAC favor, as it seem to add some midrange magic and color saturation to the Spectral house sound. I can definately understand why dallasjustice likes this DAC so much on his Soulution and Krell amps !
Personally, I think that the MSB is still a superior DAC (at $32k, it rather should be !) but at that particular system configuration, I think I prefer the TotalDAC to all DACs I have on hand.
I have only two problems with this DAC:
1. The quality of packaging. The DAC was sent in a big carton box, wrapped in a bubble foil. While definately safe for shipping, I do belive that at this level, the manufacturer should invest in some 'proper', custom made foams and box.
2. I have experienced some poping noises after each sample rate change. Those noises went away after 5-10s of listening. Not a big problem, but kind of annoying. Not sure it that is design related (probably some input receiver / PLL problem) or just a random issue in my sample.
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