It was simply a matter of time.
My history with France’s totaldac stretches back to 2012 and I’ve reviewed and owned a number of Vincent Brient’s non-oversampling R2R digital to analog converters (I’ll get into the nitty gritty in the review). The current Barn resident DAC is the d1-unity (review), one of three new models in the company’s lineup.
From totaldac:
The “unity” architecture allows a better clock distribution, a lower jitter, a lower R2R power supply rail impedance and a lower noise in the digital section.
The output stage is also fully new, in term of components and in term of schematics, and using discrete components exclusively.
This new output stage produced a 3.5V unbalanced signal and a 7V balanced signal with low impedance for the best versatility, to be connected to all preamps, all integrated amps and also directly to all power amps.
The three models in ascending price order: d1-unity, d1-triunity, and the d1-sublime. The main difference between these models is number of R2R DACs inside—d1-unity employs 1 R2R DAC per side (100 Vishay Foil Resistors), the d1-triunity ups that to 3 R2R DACs per side (300 Vishay Foil Resistors), and the d1-sublime tops out at 6 R2r DACs per side (600 Vishay Foil Resistors). In my totaldac experience, more R2R DACs equates to finer grained resolution and greater resolving power but my ears shall remain unbiased and ready for listening.
I’ll be using the d1-trunity’s AES input, fed from the Barn resident Auralic ARIES G1.1, and its RCA outputs to feed a number of systems during the d1-triunity’s Barn stay. The matching external power supply and remote are not shown.
The d1-triunity looks exactly like the d1-unity and I prefer to have the display turned off when in use. The review unit came with the optional totaldac damping feet (about $445 USD) and I’m itching to hear the entire package play. Itching.
totaldac d1-triunity DAC
Price: 24000euros incl VAT in Europe, 22000euros excl VAT out of Europe (about $23,600 USD)
Company Website: totaldac
Specifications
- 192KHz asynchronous Xmos USB, 192KHz coax RCA, 192KHz AES-EBU, 96KHz optical, selected from a remote control.
- 44.1KHz, 48KHz, 88.2KHz, 96KHz, 176.4KHz and 192KHz, 16 to 24 bit formats supported.
- as an option, DSD (DoP standard) supported on coax, AES-EBU and USB inputs.
- embedded custom clock with anti-jitter FIFO memory.
- 3.5Vrms max RCA, 7Vrms max XLR analog output.
- volume control, adjusted by a remote control and an OLED display, works for all inputs.
- phase polarity selected by remote control.
- non-oversampling DAC compensation filter activated or disactivated by remote control.
- display switched off by remote control.
- R2R DAC technology using 300 pieces of 0.01% VAR Bulk Metal® Foil resistors Vishay Foil Resistors.
- class A discrete transistor output stage.
- external power supply to minimize the noise on the embedded preamp.
- aluminium and PMMA enclosure with massive pure copper antivibration plate.
- power consumption 14.2W @44.1KHz, 16.5W @192KHz.
- DAC dimensions: height 110mm, width 360mm, depth 290mm.
- power supply dimensions: height 65mm, width 122mm, depth 180mm.
- weight: 7kg.
