totaldac D1 server

[GuillaumeB]

I can't connect the totaldac to the app ... Could you assist ?

Have you enabled the service?

See image below:



Guillaume

Hi Guillaume, I saw in your picture a Roon dedicated menu. Is the TotalDac server a RoonReady device as of now? Does it work? 

Many thanks

No idea haven't tried it yet! Yes it's RoonReady.

Guillaume

[viriato0811]

Have you enabled the service?

See image below:



Guillaume

Hi Guillaume, I saw in your picture a Roon dedicated menu. Is the TotalDac server a RoonReady device as of now? Does it work? 

Many thanks

No idea haven't tried it yet! Yes it's RoonReady.

Guillaume

Many thanks for confirming. After reading the whole post and considering the various options around (Melco, Aurender and TotalDac server) for streaming to my Devialet 400, I will go for the TotalDac D1 server (which on top of SQ is a RoonReady device).

[GuillaumeB]

Many thanks for confirming. After reading the whole post and considering the various options around (Melco, Aurender and TotalDac server) for streaming to my Devialet 400, I will go for the TotalDac D1 server (which on top of SQ is a RoonReady device).

It's a fantastic bit of kit. Make sure you get a decent AES/EBU to connect to the Devialet. Also the totaldac USB filter to connect the cubox to the reclocker. No doubt Vincent will mention all this when you order.

Guillaume

[viriato0811]

Many thanks Guillaume for sharing your experience and enthusiasm with this device. So helpful as always.

[GuillaumeB]

I recently read this...

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/sourc...-3195.html

It's in French so I will summarise. Essentially Vincent at totaldac has carried out some critical listening of ROON and compared it to MPD, which as some of you know is the preferred method for SQ (and superb it is too!). Whilst there are some differences SQ-wise, these differences are very small indeed. Obviously everything was optimised - so LPS on NAS, switch, PC and decent cabling throughout. Actually he compared ROON via the network to ROON via USB (so connecting a PC directly to the d1 reclocker via USB) and finds ROON streamed over the network using the new RoonReady functionality in the d1 server massively better and very, very close to MPD. To me this is very encouraging!

I have been corresponding with Vincent and I am considering running ROON core on a Surface Pro 4 (or similar Windows tablet), so this would also double up as my control point. I will experiment first using my MacBook AIR to check that my wifi network can handle it and that I am obviously happy with the experience. One issue is that my ROON free trial is long over so I will also need to see if they can let me have another one.

Guillaume

[Hifi_swlon]

….To me this is very encouraging!

Although its a shame Roon wasn't equal or better, bearing in mind that its brand new and was designed with SQ as a priority (among other things).

I wonder what is down to RAAT and what is down to its implementation. I'm assuming the current totaldac implementation (of whatever MPD runs) has had years of tweaks and optimisations, whereas since RAAT is new it hasn't had this luxury - perhaps its still got scope for being improved? I'm guessing also that RAAT will evolve too.

But still, I was hoping for RAAT to be heralded as 'the best'. Will keep watching this space.

I'm sure they'll let you have another trail Guillaume, especially since 1.2 has just come out and it includes RoonReady support for your totaldac.
I personally wouldn't want my core to be wireless, but…..

[Confused]

I agree the TotalDac is looking more and more appealing, Roon Ready, Airplay compatible, decent SQ - I shall watch this one with interest!

[GuillaumeB]

….To me this is very encouraging!

Although its a shame Roon wasn't equal or better, bearing in mind that its brand new and was designed with SQ as a priority (among other things).

I wonder what is down to RAAT and what is down to its implementation.  I'm assuming the current totaldac implementation (of whatever MPD runs) has had years of tweaks and optimisations, whereas since RAAT is new it hasn't had this luxury - perhaps its still got scope for being improved?  I'm guessing also that RAAT will evolve too.

But still, I was hoping for RAAT to be heralded as 'the best'.  Will keep watching this space.

I'm sure they'll let you have another trail Guillaume, especially since 1.2 has just come out and it includes RoonReady support for your totaldac.
I personally wouldn't want my core to be wireless, but…..

I probably didn't explain that well, what he said was that between MPD and RoonReady on the d1 server it was very very close and some will prefer one over the other, in fact for many the choice won't be based on SQ at all... In my books that's a pretty big thumbs up to RoonReady from the maker of the d1 server.

I'm sure it will be improved, this is the first version after all (actually there have been a couple of betas which I didn't try).

Re the core being wireless some of the logic behind this is effective de-coupling of the PC (running the core) from the mains and wired Ethernet network, in addition to this the Surface Pro doubles up as your control point. I am going to at least test the concept first with my MacBook AIR. 

Guillaume

[GuillaumeB]

Bit of an update on my totaldac and ROON journey.

As some of you will recall some time ago I ordered a sonicTransporter (sT), the idea being to run ROON server on a dedicated headless box that is "always on". In the end I opted for the version with 1TB of SSD which was a lot cheaper than the equivalent Mac Mini. I had been thinking about moving away from HDD drives for a while so this felt like I was killing two birds with one stone.

It took absolutely forever to copy my music from my NAS to the sT as I couldn't find a male to male USB cable so had to do the whole thing using OSX Finder, not exactly the most efficient way! But copied it is! 

Moving ROON from my Macbook AIR to the sT couldn't have been any easier really. Everything was done through ROON on my iPad, that is managing all the preferences. the Totaldac d1 turned up in the Audio settings as a ROON ready device, all I had to do was give it a Zone Name. I didn't even have to do any scanning of music since this all happened whilst migrating the data from NAS to sT. When I first setup the MacBook AIR this took ages.

So the important bit! How did it sound? In a word: brilliant!   I'm not sure if this is due to the SSD or RAAT protocol but there did seem to be a marginal improvement in SQ. In any case absolutely as good as AIR 3 and possibly better. If we are to use AIR 3 beta as the new benchmark.

As promised a while back I managed to get my hands on a couple of Entreq grounding cables to try out, these are Eartha cables with USB plugs at one end and spades at the other. The spades connect directly to the ground box. It's never an exact science with Entreq since so much experimentation and patience is required, sometimes it works and other times it clearly doesn't and more often that not requires time to settle in. I started with the Challenger version (matching the Challengers I am already using with NAS and Draytek switch). 

I let the music play for a while. Several tracks in I found the same old Entreq effect - for want of a better word a "softening" of the sound, where some of the harsher edges of the higher frequencies just mellow out a bit. But I'm simplifying since I think something more profound happens that I've never been able to pin down. The resulting effect is that I start enjoying the music rather than feeling the need to critically evaluate. 

So overall I think I'm in a good place now. Good SQ, great control point and no need to boot up my Macbook AIR (which quite frankly I don't really like doing when it comes to playing music). 

Guillaume

[Hifi_swlon]

Great that it all arrived and setup without too much hassle. Do you see yourself going back to MPD Guillaume (or running it in parallel), or is it too early to tell?

I suppose it somewhat depends on whether you leave oxford audio with a stack of dCS up-sampling kit in a few weeks, as I don't think they're Roon certified yet