This is the very first time I've come across someone else describing concepts similar to those of Rob and the unbelievably high db figures that the human ear/brain may be able to discriminate Nice find.

I found Qutest/Mscaler improvement to be so subtle that I couldn't tell, even at the highest setting.

Speaker/listener placement Once you get these *just* right, even a few mm of speaker location makes a difference for the worse. Most people don't have this option due to WAF, but for singles or those with 'mancaves' that's where I'd expect the largest bang/buck

Surely this is a windup

My understanding is that analog attenuation affects damping factor. I'm sure an electronics expert will correct me if that is not always the case..

Yep, display mode 4 is what I have settled on. Least intrusive.

It does, thanks. Didn't think of that - doh!

Thanks Rob. Good thing I double-checked eh! So much for the IEC standards etc. Mind you, Neutrik is not a run-by-night brand, so if they do it this way, I bet most others also do it.

@Rob Watts Dave-related question: Got a pair of Neutrik '3 pole XLR female to RCA' adapters Says wired according to IEC 268-12 Pin2: signal, Pins 1 and 3: connected to ground Is it OK to connect them to another power amp while the normal RCAs are connected to the normal power amp? (I'm...

I can vouch for that. Didn't manage to hear *any* difference despite faffing around with cables, ferrets, batteries and so on Moving the speaker toe by a couple of mm I can tell easily, but not the MScaler effect under blind testing. I've spoken to others who are the same.

Ha ha, that was not a cheap listening session Yes, Dave is clearly a bit better than the excellent QuTest on all fronts. Once the replacement Martin Logan panels are ready, I will take them through the 'rational speaker placement' routine: and then try upscaling once again. Dave presents a...

It's exactly the same with my second set of speakers, floorstanders with efficient (95db) dynamic drivers. My current theory is that there might be a brain 'mode' that needs to switch on for someone to perceive the MScaler effect. We know that the brain fills in the 'blanks' all the time, so...

Same here. People talk about 'game changer' and such. I couldn't hear any difference, and boy did I try. Placebo was on MScaler's side, I wanted to hear a difference. But there was none. (to my ears) towing the speakers a couple of mm makes a clear difference, but not the MScaler. Maybe our...

It is important to be honest with oneself. You felt it wasn't adding enough, fair and simple. I couldn't make a case for it either. Paying double the price and going for a Dave made more sense.

For speaker-based systems I found that QuTest is a no brainer Under blind A/B testing I couldn't pick up any difference with the Qutest. So percentages of improvement vs price became irrelevant. Dave I found to be a clear improvement overall. Didn't have to squint, guess or blind test. It...