⌈ TOTALDAC is a French manufacturer founded in 2010 by VINCENT BRIENT. Its headquarters are located near Mont Saint-Michel, a rocky island in the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel, in the English Channel. This company specializes in the production of digital-to-analog converters and file players. It also offers amplifiers, speakers and accessories designed to improve digital signal playback. This time we're testing the company’s first Compact Disc transport, the d1-CD model. ⌋

IF A COMPANY LIKE TOTALDAC is introducing a Compact Disc transport for sale, it's an important indication of the status of this format. ‘Like’ – meaning a manufacturer focused on file playback. Its roots go back to when Vincent Brent, still a student, became interested in audio. He started with a digital active crossover project, then focused his attention on digital-to-analog converters, before moving on to transports and file players. So, the name stylized as 'totalDAC' in the company’s materials is no coincidence.

Nowadays, a DAC is often associated with a file player, and you frequently encounter terms like a "streaming DAC" or "network-attached DAC." By the way, it's stupid in the context of audio, but it's rooted in the IT world. And it is precisely the combination of discreet D/A converters of the company’s own design with file transport modules that constitutes the "core" of this French brand's offerings. It currently also offers loudspeakers and a power amplifier, and even a mains voltage regenerator. Perhaps this is where the addition to the new logo comes from: "From Sources to Speakers".

The use of the plural form of the word "source" also seems intentional. If Vincent's horizon were limited solely to music recorded in files, the singular would have been sufficient – the plural foreshadowed what happened at last year's exhibition in Paris: the premiere of the company's first Compact Disc transport, fourteen years after the company was set up.

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▲ A few simple words with…

VINCENT BRIENT
owner, designer

⸜ Vincent Brient with his system • photo by Totaldac

WE BEGAN WORKING ON THIS PROJECT at the beginning of 2024, when Totaldac received the SUOS CD-Pro8 mechanism. We conducted many experiments with it, comparing it to the old Philips CD-2Pro mechanisms. Their results were interesting but insufficient to draw definitive conclusions. Then, during intensive listening sessions using the full Totaldac system, we tested and selected one of the deep CD transport optimizations, and the results were a real surprise to us!

⸜ A d1-CD prototype from the year 2024 • photo by Totaldac

The first device was publicly presented at the Audio Video exhibition in Paris in October 2024. The French magazine "Diapason", which was preparing a report on the exhibition, really liked it and reviewed it in January 2025. At the same time, the d1-CD also served as a reference point for developing the file players ((DAC/streamer) d1-streamer-live and d1-total. In May 2025, the time came to present the d1-CD at the High End show in Munich, using a full Totaldac system. VB

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▌ The d1-CD

THE D1-CD IS A CD TRANSPORT. So, it's a device that reads CDs and sends digital signal externally to a digital-to-analog converter. The separation of these two sections is intended for better isolation between the mechanical part, which is sensitive to vibrations but also generates its own ones, and for the separation of two systems generating different types of noise, which usually modulate each other. To some extent, the advantage of two-piece players is also a separate power supply for the mechanical components and the DAC.

The manufacturer lists the following characteristic features of the d1-CD:

• two coaxial outputs: RCA S/PDIF and XLR AES/EBU,
• 100% original Red Book signal, without any modification, pure 44.1 kHz 16 bits CD signal.
• 40-femtosecond oscillator,
• CD-Text functionality,
• Totaldac live-power external power supply,
• an aluminum and PMMA enclosure with a massive pure copper antivibration plate.

Vincent Brient, the company’s CEO and main designer, explains:p>

Playing a CD using the d1-CD provides an immediate increase in information, intensity, clarity, micro-nuances and stage depth. In the case of live recordings, such as Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus conducted by Carlos Kleiber (excerpt A), the effect is simply stunning: the singing actors materialize before us with all the physical presence they would have if we were watching them from the sound booth.

It's an experience that's hard to describe, going beyond what we're used to, except for sources like the analog master tape or live FM broadcasting. The ability to reproduce this from a CD is an achievement that deserves respect.

⸜ Totaldac d1-CD ⸜ transport Compact Disc, → HIGHFIDELITYNEWS.pl, accessed: 2.06.2025 ˻PL˺.

The Totaldac d1-CD is a top-loader, meaning the disc is placed on the motor shaft and held down by a pressure wheel, and it has a closing lid. In the tested device, both elements are placed manually. It's a large product, but still smaller than classic 400-440 mm wide players: it measures 360 x 135 x 290 mm and weighs 8 kg. To this, you also need to add an external power supply, but it's much smaller: 122 x 180 x 65 mm.

The transport is the size accepted by this manufacturer for all their devices, which allows for saving money on this component. The front can be aluminum, as in the tested unit, or acrylic. The device offers two digital outputs: a coaxial RCA and XLR AES-EBU. Upon request, RCA connectors can be replaced with BNC ones. But there's another RCA jack on the back panel. It is not intended for transmitting signals but rather serves as a ground connection for an external system of this type.

Among top-loaders, several subgroups can be distinguished: (1) devices where the lid is manually slid open, such as in transports from Audionet, Vitus Audio, Burmester or Métronome Technologie, (2) products where it is mechanically closed – see the latest CH Precision D10 SACD transport, or (3) devices with a round cover that is simply placed on top of the product. Representatives of the latter include my Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition, the S.M.S.L CD200, or the Onix XST20 SACD transport. Rega players, the Saturn and Isis, with their manually raised lids that are actually part of the enclosures, occupy their own niche.

The Totaldac designer chose the version popularized by Ayon, but gave it a slightly different character. While all the mentioned companies from this group, which also includes Shanling players, try to conceal this cover, the French company goes much further than the not entirely minimalist Ayon in this regard. The d1-CD looks like a modern version of Denon's DCD-S1 CD transport, although the Japanese device had a classic, automatically opening tray. However, it's about a large, massive rim that houses the mechanics and a heavy aluminum flap.

And the basis of the transport in question is the CD-Pro8 mechanism manufactured by the Austrian company SUOS, which emerged from StreamUnlimited. Let's recall that its engineers once worked for Philips on the original CD-Pro2 drive project. We've known about its new version for several years, although when it first appeared, it was a surprise and a phenomenon at the same time – after years of trying to convince people that the CD format was dead, a large company designed and programmed a new mechanism of this type.

Since then, it has been used in a few interesting products, to mention the CD GRYPHON ETHOS player and Accustic Arts Player IV and the CD transports: Vitus Audio SCD-025 Mk II (in the latest version), PRO-JECT RS2 T ˻PL˺ and ANCIENT AUDIO LEKTOR TRANSPORT. Each of these manufacturers utilized their transport in their own way, both in terms of its mechanical environment and software.

In the d1-CD, the mechanical elements are mounted on a heavy copper plate. It's meant to be a "mechanical reference mass" (which Totaldac uses in their DACs). It is initially decoupled using four conical springs and four silicone rubber dampers. The aforementioned plate, on the other hand, is isolated from the base using three anti-vibration feet with integrated ball bearings. The carbon intermediate plate and cover are damped with ferrite rubber.

For clocking the system, Vincent used their own idea for clock distribution, as well as their own S/PDIF signal generator. As Vincent says, the oscillator is characterized by an RMS jitter of just 40 femtoseconds, which is "far from typical and somewhat explains the impression of instantaneous dynamics."

The device is powered by an external power supply, from which a cable with a screw-on connector emerges. It is supposed to have "significantly better galvanic isolation" than regular mains power supplies, and the result can be seen in the noise spectrum when it powers a digital-to-analog converter. It should also have an audible impact on the CD transport, even though it only sends digital signal. Because the power supply is external to the device, it doesn't generate mechanical vibrations or electromagnetic waves that affect the CD mechanism, digital signals, or the oscillator.

An orange light indicates that the power supply is turned on. The displays in this company's DACs and file players are also orange, so the poorly readable, small and green (!) display in the d1-CD was a surprise to me. As it turns out, it's part of a complete package that we buy with the mechanics. What's cool is that it reads CD-Text – and maybe the reason it wasn't replaced with an OLED display or a larger dot-matrix one was because it would have been too expensive. The device is controlled using a rather cluttered, not very ergonomic remote control. That's the only way – there are no buttons on the transport.

The D1-CD was developed within the complete Totaldac system, and the comparison was made using the company's file players and a studio reel-to-reel tape recorder. The appearance of this device further confirms the return to physical digital media in audio, which we have been observing in recent years.

▌ THE LISTENING SESSION

THE WAY WE LISTENED • The Totaldac d1-CD transport was tested in the "High Fidelity" reference system. The signal was transmitted from the RCA output via an Acrolink Mexcel 7N-DA6100 III cable to the input of the Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition player.

The device was placed on the top, carbon shelf of the Finite Elemente Pagode Edition II rack on its own feet. However, since they were sliding like on an ice rink, I placed Acoustic Revive RKI-5005 pads under them. The transport was powered by a Harmonix X-DC350M2R Improved-Version cable. I took advantage of the fact that the manufacturer placed an RCA jack on the back panel for connecting an external ground. For me, it was the Nordost QRT QKore 6 artificial mass.

» ALBUMS USED IN THE TEST ⸜ a selection

⸜ AKIRA TANA TRIO, A New Picture I, ShinRec SRCD-8030, CD ⸜ 2024.
⸜ JOHN SCOFIELD, Uncle John's Band, ECM Records/Universal Classic Jazz & Rock UCCE-1201/2, 2 x SHM-CD ⸜ 2023.
⸜ ASTRUD GILBERTO, The Shadow Of Your Smile, Verve/Verve Music Group 314 557 184-2, CD ⸜ 1965/2002.
⸜ TERUO NAKAMURA, Unicorn, Three Blind Mice ˻TBM-18˺/Sony Music Labels MHCL-10178, SACD/CD ⸜ 1973.
⸜ J.S.BACH, Suites For Unaccompanied Cello Complete, wyk. János Starker, Mercury Records/Stereo Sound Reference Record SSHRS-011/014, „Mercury Living Presence/SS Laboratory Series”, 2 x SACD + 2 x CD ⸜ 1965/2016.

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The TOTALDAC TRANSPORT TEST was another opportunity to examine the performance, operation and sound of the new SUOS CD mechanism. Actually, it's a DVD transport, meaning it's adapted to read SACD discs, but this function is blocked in it to improve performance with Compact Discs..

Based on my experience, I can say that all the CD-Pro8 transports I've tested so far share some common characteristics, modified by the software and the specific application, but still somehow visible. You can hear it clearly in the d1-CD. And that is, above all, high sound energy. This is a very open and quite clear message. Compared to it, the Sanyo transport with the StreamUnlimited program, which is the earlier incarnation of SUOS, used in the CD-35 HF Edition, sounds darker, lower and is less explosive.

In both cases, the sound is dense, full-bodied and very detailed, which also needs to be emphasized. In Ayon's case, it's about an excellent program, and in the mechanics used by Totaldac, it's about mechanical integrity and an S/PDIF output. However, the latter shows the musical world in a more direct way. There's no need to guess or listen here. The Ayon's low and dark sound is excellent, but sometimes lacks a certain kind of bite – not senseless brightening or sharpening of the attack, but precisely – agile energy in the attack.

And the French transport has that. When we listen to the AKIRA TANA TRIO album titled A New Picture I, recorded live all at once using two microphones, we get the impression of immediacy and precision that this device provides. Because precision while maintaining elegance is the second important feature of this device. The piano sounded clearer, stronger, more dynamically with it. It was even more noticeable with the lead instrument – the drums in ˻ 2 ˺ Milestones by Miles Davis. It had more energy in both the foot strike, the snare drum, and the timpani – the latter in particular would occasionally surprise me with a strong, clean, dry snap.

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THE DEVICE PREPARED BY TOTALDAC has something of the enthusiasm that we lose in audio as we gain more experience, striving for perfection. As we reach new heights in color, resolution and stereoscopy that we never dreamed of before, we too often sacrifice vitality along the way. And the d1-CD preserves it.

It's sound that allows JOHN SCOFIELD's guitar from the album Uncle John's Band to be captured more strongly than with the Ayon device, simply powerfully and tangibly. The CDs I listened to sounded similar with the Onix XST20 SACD transport (tested in the previous issue of "High Fidelity"), but it was the Totaldac that took that freshness, that emotionality, even further, like with the solo double bass at the end of the fifth minute of ˻ 7 ˺ Old Man, the track closing the first album, or in striking the snare drum with a flat-tipped stick at the beginning of ˻ 6 ˺ Nothing Is Forever.

Other transports are not as precise in this respect. They are darker because they have a smaller, narrower attack front spectrum. And it's not just about the treble, but the entire range, all the instruments. This also turned out well in the comparison, which I was particularly curious about. What I was aiming for was a comparison between the sound of a Compact Disc played from the Totaldac transport and a Super Audio CD, but with a single layer, containing the exact same material played from the Ayon device. I wanted to compare the sound of these two formats under the best conditions for both CD and SACD.

It turns out that the SACD disc still has some advantages – certain softness to the sound, but "analog" softness, not softening, sound depth and a “withdrawal” of the soundstage. János Starker's cello from the album Six Suites For Solo Cello, which was mentioned above, recorded at Ballroom Studio A in 1963 by Robert Fine, sounded brighter and clearer with the Totaldac player. It wasn't bad sound, not at all. However, the single-layer SACD had more depth and "body" in its sound. However, that's not the fault of the tested transport, as it still performed well in this comparison, but rather a difference in the technologies.

▌ Conclusions

THE TESTED CD TRANSPORT delivers vibrant, energetic and resolving sound, which will please those who enjoy hearing every nuance. However, it's not tiring in all of this. There's no exaggeration in the message, which is easy to achieve with such characteristics. It's wideband playing of music with a big soundstage, which has a stronger foreground, and shows the background in a powerful way.

This device is much better than older CD transports from popular brands, perhaps with the exception of products from CEC. However, they play completely differently, so it will be easy for us to choose which direction we prefer. The d1-CD also plays infinitely better than CD players working in this role – both the mechanism and the digital output seem better implemented in it, serving only this purpose: reading data from the CD and sending the signal externally. The Totaldac player is excellent at this.

▌ DESIGN

THE UNIT THAT WAS SENT FOR TESTING looks like a pre-production device, meaning it's one step after the final prototype. The point is that both the mechanical elements, such as the connection of the body to the rim onto which the lid is placed, and the assembly of the components inside, especially the power supply, look like in a DIY product. The device doesn't read the disc's TOC immediately after the cover is closed, which activates the proximity sensor, because you first need to press the "Play" button.

Front and back • From the outside, the D1-CD looks like the company's DACs but with a UFO "saucer" placed on top. The housing is made of bent aluminum sheets and reinforced at the front with a thick frame, and from the inside with a heavy copper plate. It's a rigid structure, which is also aided by the sloping side walls – a design choice that, it seems, also has acoustic effects. The whole thing stands on three feet with a ball coupling – one at the front and two at the back.

A greenish dot-matrix display, once known from Philips mechanisms, is placed in the frame cutout. It allows you to display CD-Text, but in short segments and alternating with the disc or track time. There are no buttons here because all the controls are on the remote. On the back, we have high-quality RCA and XLR jacks, as well as an additional jack labeled "Ground," which I assume is for connecting external ground.

POWER SUPPLY • And there's also a gold-plated, multi-pin socket with a screw-on ring, through which we supply 22 V DC voltage from an external power supply. It is linear, based on a toroidal transformer and voltage stabilizing circuits, enclosed in an aluminum casing that resembles the transport itself in shape. An amber LED is located at the front, and an IEC power socket and a mechanical power switch are at the back. There's also a button in the transport that we use to turn it on, but only from sleep mode. The switch in the power supply completely cuts off the voltage.

INSIDE • The device is based on the complete SUOS CD-Pro8 mechanism, formerly StreamUnlimited. It is manufactured in Taiwan by ASA, but the software comes from Austria. The mechanical part has a metal body with carbon fiber braid elements. Referring to that material, Vincent Brient made a platform for it, covered with the same fiber. It is screwed to a copper plate with spacers, and the sides are closed with MDF board elements.

The mechanical components are integrated with the controlling electronics, but a small board has been attached to the bottom of the mechanical section, which looks like it's part of the S/PDIF output (an IIS → S/PDIF converter). And another small plate is screwed onto the bottom plate, which also looks like a part of this system. It has a separate power supply unit built using the point-to-point technique and attached directly to the copper plate, which serves as its heatsink. ●

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THIS TEST HAS BEEN DESIGNED ACCORDING TO THE GUIDELINES adopted by the Association of International Audiophile Publications, an international audio press association concerned with ethical and professional standards in our industry, of which HIGH FIDELITY is a founding member. More about the association and its constituent titles → HERE.

→ www.AIAP-online.org