This might be of interest to some of you… “Totaldac offers an expertise in home-theater, to enjoy your films, series or concerts. Totaldac also offers an exclusive solution to merge a home theater to your high end stereo system. This allows you to both re-use your stereo hifi system for your home theater and improve drastically the sound quality for movies and concerts. Truly transparent sound is so often missing in standard home theater.”
Totaldac can supply all necessary equipment for the best of hifi + home theater, including the picture, with a real demo of a really finalized system. In this demo room you can watch a full movie if you like, in an optimum environment.
Here you don’t have to imagine what the demo would be if the set-up weaknesses were solved, no, everything is ready, just enjoy the final result before you decide what to buy.
The demo room
You should absolutely come and see the result if you want to go for a high end home theater, and maybe compare to other home theater suppliers.
The demo room is based on a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos or DTS-X speaker set-up added to a stereo hifi system.
This room is optimized both for stereo hifi and for multichannel home theater.
Here is the speaker configuration:
-2 front speakers (and no center speaker)
-1 subwoofer in the front of the room
-1 subwoofer in the rear of the room
This system is optimized first for stereo hifi. The amplifiers for the subwoofer take the signal from the terminal of the main speakers.
A standard Totaldac stereo system feeds these speakers: stereo DAC + d1-driver preamp + Amp-1 power amp.
The audio part specific to home theater is added to the above stereo system. The home theater audio is based on a home theater preamp which receives the HDMI audio/video signal from a bluray disc or a multimedia video player.
This preamp is very specific because it needs to have digital outputs for the front left/right speakers. The surround output are simply analog outputs.
This way we accept using the internal DACs of this preamp for the surround speakers (and in some cases the subwoofer as well), but we will use a Totaldac DAC for the front left/right speakers.
The Totaldac DAC or streamer receives this digital signal from the home theater preamp and you have just to select this input for home theater use, and select the other input (for example USB) to return in stereo hifi mode.
So the home theater system is completely disconnected in stereo hifi mode.
For the surround speakers, we just use the standard analog outputs from the preamp, feeding the power amplifier which drives the surround speakers. This is just the normal use for this home theater preamp.
It is also possible to use the preamp subwoofer ouput, if needed, to drive a subwoofer which would be dedicated to the home theater.
View of the front of the room, the main speakers are behind the acoustically transparent screen:
View of the front speakers before the screen installation. Of couse it is possible to use smaller speakers.
Home theater preamp with embedded Totaldac reclocker
The chosen preamp is a Marantz AV7705.
Like all other home theater preamps it has no digital output for the left/right front speakers.
The Totaldac exclusivity consists in installing a Totaldac reclocker in the preamp. This way it adds an AES-EBU output (or coax output) for the front left/right speakers.
This digital output embeds a volume control, made in the relocker with its recognized quality, and this volume is automatically synchronized to the home theater preamp main volume.
This way, once you have adjusted the level of each speaker in the preamp interface, you have just to use the preamp main volume using the preamp front panel button or the preamp handset to ajust the volume of both the surround speakers and the front left/right speakers (possibly also the subwoofer, if applicable).
So we have now a system using a Totaldac DAC for the main speakers instead of the internal DAC of the home theater preamp.
The system keeps the usual functionalities of a home theater preamp, specifically:
-the mix of the center channel to the left and right front speakers. To do that, just indicate to the preamp interface that there is no center speaker.
-the mix of the bass LFE channel to the left and right front speakers. To do that, just indicate to the preamp interface that there is no subwoofer connected the the subwoofer output.
The downmix coax output of a bluray player would not at all do the same thing because:
-the bass LFE channel would not be mixed to the front left/right speakers. So some bass would be missing.
-the night mode (strong compression) would be systematically applied in Dolby Digital mode, strongly limiting the dynamic.
-its volume would not be synchronized to the surround volume
This Totaldac exclusivity is the key point to merge a high end stereo system and a home theater system, for concerts or films, with or without center speaker, with or without surround speakers, with or without subwoofer.
Marantz 7705 with embedded Totaldac custom reclocker + AES-EBU cable: 4490€ incl VAT
Video projector and 4K bluray player
A Sony VPL-VW870ES 4K laser projector is used for a IMAX 3.22m wide screen. It is possible to make this room fully back, even in the middle of the day.
A Sony UBP-X1100ES 4K Blu-ray is also available for demo.
The whole Sony pro range is available for sale, Totaldac being an official demo center.
Screen
Totaldac has chosen an Xtremscreen Absolute Perfect White Super Acoustic 0.95 K nano-woven 16K for its acoustic transparancy and its picture quality.
It is possible to take down a traditional micro-perforated white plastic screen to show the big difference in term of sound and picture.
The screen in this room is 3.22m wide, in IMAX ratio. The chassis is a “Zero Frame”.
All Xtremscreen products are available for sale at Totaldac.
surround speakers
Some very dynamic and 99dB efficient speakers have been designed as home theater surround sound (incl Atmos). They are available in case of a full home theater set-up purchase.
Subwoofer
Many subwoofers can be offered, depending on the need. To be discussed.
An example is the bass section of the d150-anniversary speaker:
amplifier for the main speakers
The Totaldac Amp-1 amplifier is ideal for the double use (stereo hifi + home theater) because its sound gives realistic timbres, a natural and airy sound, a large dynamic and an exceptional bass control.
amplifier for the surround speakers
A 4 or 8 channel amplifier should be soon offered for the surround speakers.
4K HDR Media Center
Totaladc has chosen the Zappiti Audiocom Cinema Edition as video file player, with 2 embedded SSD discs. It is permanently on demo and available for sale.
Power distributor/filter
Totaldac uses Shunyata Denali power distributor/filters, for both the stereo hifi part and the home theater art.
All Shunyata products are available for sale. Price on demand.
Other available products
Speakers from different manufacturers, large choice of cables.