Sonic panache! A champagne for the aural senses? More digital fun and future proofing momentum!? Heck yeah! Yes, the Totaldac-d1 Seven has quickly arrived from Vincent Brient, after sending my d1-Six for the upgrade. First of all, the Totaldac-d1 Seven marks the 7th anniversary of the Totaldac existence. This is quite a jubilee for any high-end audio company in this fast forward world and Vincent Brient has managed to leave quite an impact on the digital audio segment of the high-end industry with his ever-evolving digital products over the years.
Out in the hectic mechanics of our beloved industry, you’ll always have companies, that rely on one product glory and will try to milk the cow to the very end. On the other side, there are the manufacturers that are constantly striving for better performance of their proud creations. Without a doubt, Vincent falls into this latter camp, where usually, 24/7 mindset operating comes as mandatory. Like with many great audio designers, mouvement perpétue happens in the universe of electrons, where the exploring the new ways takes place with the clear goal and quest of bringing music closer to the audiophiles and music lovers.
I’ve been always advocating Totaldac’s value and its important place in the upper echelon of the digital audio plane for many of the already mentioned reasons. This is also why I’m sticking with d-1 series DAC, as I’ve felt, that Vincent is keeping more than just a valuable place within a digital segment of high-end audio with his continuous endeavors and most importantly sonic virtues.
THE SONIC UPGRADE
I’ve had a luxury of spending countless hours of playback on my original Totaldac-d1 Six, so any differences between d1 Six and d1 Seven were expected to be deciphered quickly…
And they were… As usual, I’ve couldn’t keep my enthusiasm bottled and jump straight into the initial listenings. I’ve left d-1 Seven running from early morning and about ten hours later jumped into in-depth listening. Here are few of the very first impressions, that will be followed up with more complete sum up in due time…
So, after running Totaldac d-1 Seven for a whole day and late into the morning hours, what’s the first verdict?
Most importantly, this is not a subtle update and upgrade by any means. Vincent wanted to create something substantial and valuable for the 7th anniversary and it the differences are evident from the very first few notes played.
You’ll have to bear with me as I’m writing this after only a few hours of sleep, but the prolonged early morning hours listening was more than just rewarding. Totaldac d-1 Seven had locked me into a relaxed sonic projecting, that brings a grander portion of spot-on contour to the tone, bigger dynamic impact and more expanded sense of space and atmosphere.
Especially with familiar classical music tracks, d-1 Seven managed to project more vivid spatial distinctions, materializing instruments and performers with much more believable three-dimensional objectivity.
d-1 Six had already operated with a non-opaque nature, but d-1 Seven removes few more layers of a so-called sonic blur. Like with photography, this results in more focused imaging, more believable atmosphere and sense of performers being real persons.
Totaldac d-1 Six was already a mighty performer, but the d-1 Seven delivers refreshing transparency and more dense presentation, that is closer to the intimacy of the real world interaction.
It feels how d-1 Seven is benefiting from some of the very core attributes of the of Totaldac’s flagship d1-twelve. Somehow Vincent managed to trickle some of that technology into the new the d1-seven with the most positive result.
Totaldac d-1 Seven clearly continues and builds upon the legacy of d1-six strong musical leitmotif. d-1 Seven is without a doubt a premium, high-performance one box reference DAC, that cannot be overlooked by any means in the current stream of digital audio progression!
Along with d-1 Seven, Vincent had also sent me the new USB-Gigafilter. I’ll not go into detailed elaboration, but once in the system, the absence creates an instant hankering of plugging it back… And not to forget, there is also new remote control supplied with all d1-seven DAC, shown in the photos attached.
Stay tuned for more…
Matej Isak
PRICE
d1-seven DAC: 19.000 EUR with VAT in Europe, 17.450 EUR without VAT (out of Europe).
USB-Giga filter: 0.6m or 1m or 1.5m: 1750 EUR with VAT in Europe, 1600 EUR without VAT (out of Europe).
TECHNICAL
-192KHz asynchronous Xmos USB, optical, RCA and AES-EBU digital inputs, 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 all inputs.
-embedded custom clock with anti-jitter FIFO memory.
-3.2Vrms max RCA, 6.4Vrms max XLR analog output. The d1-seven has no headphone output by default.
-volume control, adjusted by a remote control and an OLED display, works for all inputs, not only USB.
-phase polarity selected by remote control.
-non-oversampling DAC compensation filter activated or disactivated by remote control.
-display switched off by remote control or automatic.
-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 20W (24W with the server option).
-DAC dimensions: height 110mm, width 360mm, depth 290mm.
-power supply dimensions: height 65mm, width 122mm, depth 180mm.
-weight: 7kg.
Available options:
-server/streamer option. The software is the same as the d1-server, RoonReady certified.
-DSD (DoP) option.
-silver massive aluminium front panel.
-115V power option.
-BNC coaxial digital input instead of RCA.
-2, 3, 4 way active crossover or more, by associating several DAC boxes.
-Bass boost.
-dedicated power supply for server board.
CONTACT
Totaldac
La Saigeais
35140 Saint-Ouen-des-Alleux
France
web: www.totaldac.com
e-mail: totaldac@totaldac.com
office telephone: +33 2 90 02 11 39 (european time zone)
mobile telephone: +33 6 18 03 14 08 (european time zone)
