Toward the end of last year there was a growing gap between my vinyl and digital systems, so I decided to upgrade from a totaldac d1-seven to the d1-twelve dac. I’ve been listening to the system now for 4 months, so I thought I would share my experience.
First some historical perspective. For years I had been an analog guy, finding digital audio to be harsh and fatiguing, until I discovered totaldac. I was impressed that others who found digital fatiguing did not find that to be the case with totaldac dacs, and hoped that that would also be the case for me, so I initially purchased a d1-six dac.
For the first time I found digital sound to be non-fatiguing and immensely enjoyable. I went from rarely listening to digital, to predominantly listening to digital. Quite a change! I later upgraded to the totaldac d1-seven dac, added a d1-server, and purchased a d1-core dac for my second system.
My experience has been that all totaldac dacs have a family sound: musical, non-fatiguing, and detailed without being analytical. Having listened to all 3 dacs in the same system, I found it interesting that each time I moved up the totaldac product chain, there was a consistent pattern. There were never one or two aspects of the sound that were dramatically better than the lower model. Instead, each upgrade resulted in noticeable improvement across the board in virtually everything, which together added up to significant increases in musical enjoyment.
At that point, there was clearly room for improvement in my analog system! I had not made the same kind of investments in my analog system as I had with my digital system, so I eventually purchased a Constellation Andromeda phonostage, and later a Synergistic Research Galileo SX phono cable. All I can say is “WOW”. HUGE soundstage. Incredible separation of individual instruments from a complex mix. Stable images. Detailed but not analytical. BLACK backgrounds. Just amazing, engaging, musical, enjoyable sound.
So now the tables had again turned with a large gap that I wanted to narrow. I decided to upgrade from the totaldac d1-server and d1-seven dac to the d1-player, d1-streamer and d1-twelve dac. To power the streamer and dacs, I also purchased the totaldac Live Power power supply. The d1-twelve can be used with or without a buffer. All my listening was without engaging the additional buffer gain.
My experience with upgrading to the d1-twelve (and d1-player/d1-streamer) was unlike my previous experiences with moving from the d1-core to d1-six to d1-seven dacs. With those upgrades, it took me awhile to notice all of the areas of improvement, which were many. This time, it was easy to immediately notice HUGE differences across the board. One of the more striking improvements was that images were much more 3D with a real sense that live performers were in the room.
There was such a staggering degree of improvement, that I decided that if I really wanted to understand what the d1-twelve was capable of, I also needed to upgrade the stock cables which really are quite good. Addition of Synergistic Research Galileo SX ethernet and clock cables made further easily and immediately noticeable improvements. Addition of Synergistic Research Galileo SX XLR digital cables further elevated the performance but not to the degree of the ethernet cable.
At that point I felt that my digital system was now very competitive with my analog system, so I wanted to compare recordings for which I had both analog and digital versions. Doing this made me believe that my analog system has a coloration. It’s very slightly warm (which I like). The d1-twelve is more dead-center neutral. It never makes a recording sound bad but it doesn’t impose euphonic colorations, either. It has every bit of the natural detail, huge sound staging, instrument separation and most importantly, musical engagement of my analog system but in a slightly more neutral way.
I wouldn’t claim that the d1-twelve is “the best”. Musical taste varies and I haven’t heard every dac. But to me, the d1-twelve is stunning in many ways. Stunningly musical. Stunningly detailed. Stunningly engaging. Stunningly able to put 3D images in the room. I have to congratulate Vincent Brient: the totaldac d1-twelve dac, d1-player and d1-streamer are stunning accomplishments that have greatly exceeded my all my expectations.
