totaldac D1 server

[GuillaumeB]

It's impressive that Vincent has been able to develop so much new software. I guess his team is a little smaller than Devialet's but UPnP, Qobuz and Tidal are all there - wow !

I hope that Dialog/Spark will deliver similar functionality but suspect that Totaldac may still win in terms of sound quality

Well AFAIK support for Qobuz and Tidal (and other streaming services) is done through the ipeng8 app so prob not much to do with totaldac. I've been struggling to get this set up to be honest. Will try and have another go at some point and report back. 

Airplay however works perfectly   so I suppose I could just stream from the Tidal app on my iPad. Presumably the totaldac server will reclock everything ensuring minimal jitter. This could be the simplest solution.

The other option would be to use one of the UPnP control points, having said that Kazoo doesn't appear to see the totaldac d1 server on the network, whilst Lightning DS does. 

The more I think about the more I think I like the simplicity of using the Tidal or Qobuz app, assuming the d1 server is reclocking the Airplay input...

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Instant reply from Vincent - yes the Airplay input is reclocked! 

Guillaume

[GuillaumeB]

Last night I changed the firmware on my d1 server. I had previously installed a version that supports MPD, UPnP, Airplay etc

It's a bit of a faff since you need to remove a fiddly little micro SD card from the back of the unit and using an adapter burn an image of the operating system on the card which is 16 gigabytes!

Anyway I installed the version that is for MPAD only and according to Vincent sounds better, since everything is optimised to give the best possible sound quality with pre-loading of tracks. In Vincent's own words it is "very focused on very resolving and balanced systems".

Oh my goodness! I couldn't quite believe the improvement. I listened to the same album before and after I made the change. The album was Stacey Kent - The Changing Lights, in 24/41.1

The improvement was unmistakable. Stacey Kent's voice just sounded more natural and "in the room". It's like the focus sharpened and there was a better sense of where the instruments were in the room.

When you think you've done just about everything to optimise your system and an improvement like this comes along unexpectedly it certainly puts a smile on your face!    Think I'll be sticking with this version for the time being.

Guillaume

[Confused]

Looks like your having a happy day Guillaume!

This makes me think though, I remember reading that the 3D Labs Nano was maybe close to the performance of the Totaldac D1. This I found tempting, although I could find very little information on the thing, let alone anywhere I could look at one or get a demo. (other than maybe the hassle of a sale or return home demo) I rate streamers as one of the hardest things at the moment to achieve any kind of sensible comparisons. How does an Aurender XYZ sound vs NAD M-50 vs 3D Labs etc, I could list a dozen more. Although Dialog, when it eventually released, will undoubtedly be 1000 times better than any of them.

However, from what you post above, the D1 with updated firmware is now somewhat superior to the D1 of old...... Can't be bad!

[GuillaumeB]

Looks like your having a happy day Guillaume!

This makes me think though, I remember reading that the 3D Labs Nano was maybe close to the performance of the Totaldac D1.  This I found tempting, although I could find very little information on the thing, let alone anywhere I could look at one or get a demo.  (other than maybe the hassle of a sale or return home demo)  I rate streamers as one of the hardest things at the moment to achieve any kind of sensible comparisons.  How does an Aurender XYZ sound vs NAD M-50 vs 3D Labs etc, I could list a dozen more.  Although Dialog, when it eventually released, will undoubtedly be 1000 times better than any of them.

However, from what you post above, the D1 with updated firmware is now somewhat superior to the D1 of old......    Can't be bad!

I think the 3D Labs Nano sounds very interesting indeed and if I were in the market for a streamer this would be very high up on my list.

As far as I know there is no UK distributor but then again I haven't contacted the company to enquire. Not too sure about support for streaming services either, I suppose this would come down to the UPnP controller you use and I don't know if it will work with the Linn OpenHome UPnP standard. With that said it has a very strong following across the channel with many having sold their Aries to get their hands on one.

I've actually got a Dialog on order so look forward to comparing it to the d1 server. When it arrives of course. 

But you make a good point there are literally dozens of options out there and so far I've only heard the MiND 180, Aries, Linn Sneaky DS and of course the d1. The ones I really want to hear are the Melco N1A (I understand a firmware update is imminent effectively turning out into a transport), the Aurenders (the X100 and W20), and the Request Audio The Beast even if it's silly money! Pedro at Absolute Sounds was raving about it last time I saw him. 

Guillaume

[Kunter]

Last night I changed the firmware on my d1 server. I had previously installed a version that supports MPD, UPnP, Airplay etc

It's a bit of a faff since you need to remove a fiddly little micro SD card from the back of the unit and using an adapter burn an image of the operating system on the card which is 16 gigabytes!

Anyway I installed the version that is for MPAD only and according to Vincent sounds better, since everything is optimised to give the best possible sound quality with pre-loading of tracks. In Vincent's own words it is "very focused on very resolving and balanced systems".

Oh my goodness! I couldn't quite believe the improvement. I listened to the same album before and after I made the change. The album was Stacey Kent - The Changing Lights, in 24/41.1

The improvement was unmistakable. Stacey Kent's voice just sounded more natural and "in the room". It's like the focus sharpened and there was a better sense of where the instruments were in the room.

When you think you've done just about everything to optimise your system and an improvement like this comes along unexpectedly it certainly puts a smile on your face!    Think I'll be sticking with this version for the time being.

Guillaume

Glad to hear that... 

I have been experimenting on software related stuff on the cubox and the change they bring is quite amazing.

Currently settled down on Volumio, which has the latest version of MPD, and you can turn off pretty much anything else... But I would believe this shoud be improvable as well...

On a sadder note, while playing around with different power supplies, I bricked my cubox. Totally my fault. New one is on its way.

In the mean time I am playing around with a different version of small pc's, a CubieTruck... Similar to Cubox, with some pluses and some minuses. Sounds pretty good though... I will post updates as I have more to say. 

Cheers

Kunter

[Rufus McDufus]

Talking about the Cubox and totaldac I thought about trying one of the totaldac firmware images on my Cubox last night, but the only snag is I only have 8G SD cards and the Cubox one needs 16G. I guess there's probably at least one reason why it won't work - hard-coded device names in the mpd config, optimizations aimed towards the totaldac hardware surrounding the Cubox inside, but it'd be fun to try!

[Kunter]

Talking about the Cubox and totaldac I thought about trying one of the totaldac firmware images on my Cubox last night, but the only snag is I only have 8G SD cards and the Cubox one needs 16G.   I guess there's probably at least one reason why it won't work - hard-coded device names in the mpd config, optimizations aimed towards the totaldac hardware surrounding the Cubox inside, but it'd be fun to try!

Rufus, it should work and I would be very interested on the result. 8G is ok if you can fit the Totaldac version software in...

Totaldac Cubox does not have any hard coded items. Only NAS related stuff is hardcoded and if you try it out with a USB Thumb Drive, it should be ok even if you do not have a NAS. USB out is standard and should work once directly connected to Devialet USB instead of the reclocker.

Software Players make a huge difference. Now I am playing around with this with CubieTruck and Volumio:

http://frank_l.bitbucket.org/stereoutils/player.html

Cheers.

Kunter

[GuillaumeB]

Talking about the Cubox and totaldac I thought about trying one of the totaldac firmware images on my Cubox last night, but the only snag is I only have 8G SD cards and the Cubox one needs 16G.   I guess there's probably at least one reason why it won't work - hard-coded device names in the mpd config, optimizations aimed towards the totaldac hardware surrounding the Cubox inside, but it'd be fun to try!

Rufus, it should work and I would be very interested on the result. 8G is ok if you can fit the Totaldac version software in...

Totaldac Cubox does not have any hard coded items. Only NAS related stuff is hardcoded and if you try it out with a USB Thumb Drive, it should be ok even if you do not have a NAS. USB out is standard and should work once directly connected to Devialet USB instead of the reclocker.

Software Players make a huge difference. Now I am playing around with this with CubieTruck and Volumio:

http://frank_l.bitbucket.org/stereoutils/player.html

Cheers.

Kunter

Kunter - the Cubox image is almost 16 gigabytes so you'll definitely need a 16 gig micro SD card. 

Guillaume

[Rufus McDufus]

The Cubox image files are nearly 16G in size unfortunately and I just don't happen to have any 16G micro SD cards or USB sticks. I might have to splash out on one!
If the OS has sshd or whatever configured it might just be straightforward to get in and change things anyhow. Not sure how thoroughly Vincent protects his Cubox setups - probably better than I'm hoping!

[Kunter]

The Cubox image files are nearly 16G in size unfortunately and I just don't happen to have any 16G micro SD cards or USB sticks. I might have to splash out on one!
If the OS has sshd or whatever configured it might just be straightforward to get in and change things anyhow. Not sure how thoroughly Vincent protects his Cubox setups - probably better than I'm hoping!

C'mon Rufus, just break the bank

A normal Cubox image is about a gig or so, but once you open it, and recreate it, the result is 16G. (The size of the card it was first installed to).

If I were you, I would get a very fast SD card (like Samsung Pro series, yes it makes a difference) and preferably 32G since not every 16 is made the same (some are a 'bit' smaller and cause you trouble)

cheers...

Kunter