Who has has a totaldac DAC?

@vin99 Funny to see you post that thread. I just read it in entirety earlier today...

When I purchased my last dac I demoed a number of different brands/topologies. One of those was the Matrix x-sabre pro that is near the top of ASR's measurement rankings. Unfortunately I really didn't like it and ended up choosing the audio mirror r2r. I will note that I also didn't like the lampizator amber 3 (very energetic, but too hot and bright) or the PS audio directstream dac (sounded kind of unnaturally mixed up to me, maybe there are some strange phase issues I'm sensitive to). I did not volume match and was sighted, but ran a blind session for a friend and he also chose the AM. The experience made me question the reliance on measurements. In some ways ASR was right (I didn't like the poorly measuring Directstream), but in other ways they were wrong (I didn't like the wonderfully measuring Matrix and my friend's blind impressions matched my own).

That said, some of the issues identified with the tested Totaldac were very alarming.

Have been living with the d1-tube for about 5 years and couldn't be happier. I haven't spent time comparing it with other DACs at this price point, but for what it's worth it's hard to imagine anything besting it and I can't imagine wishing to upgrade to an alternative. Their more recent development of amplifiers and speakers also look promising.

Going to Edgars (2nd post) again in a couple of weeks to hear the new version Total Dac 1 he just got, he said is even better. It has less gain he said and believes it’s because now there’s no output buffer and comes off the R2R banks instead??
Cheers George

@thieliste 

 

I had the Total DAC and the Aqua in here and the Totaldac was faaaaar more my preference so I question this person. Not that Aqua isn't good, but they are completely different flavors.