[awesomeaw]

Confirm no BNC cable or hard copy manual. Blu MK2 do run Hot, 5 times hotter than Blu.......hotter than the Dave too.

 

[onsionsi]

@awesomeaw, can you elaborate for each area the benefit from adding Blu2 to DAVE.

 

[jelt2359]

Resub

 

[Sonic77]

My Blu2 has arrived at the dealer and he is shipping to me to arrive tomorow. I will of course plug it in within minutes and report! (Unless I decide it requires 500 hours burn in before listening to it).

Looking forward to your impressions.

 

[ecwl]

I was wondering if Rob Watts believe in specific lengths of BNC cables to connect Blu2 to DAVE. Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB manual says "1.5 meters is a good default length for USB, SPDIF and AES cables". I've heard this from other places that I admit I can't name now from before. Something about too short of a digital cable is not good but I can't remember why. Not sure if it applies to Blu2 & DAVE connection.

 

[adyc]

Their reasoning is that if the cable length is too short, the reflected signal took too short time to travel back to the transmitter end and may confuse transmitter.

 

[Sonic77]

http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Blu-MkII-User-Manual.pdf

Blu MkII Manual is out.

 

[dmance]

@Rob Watts
Could it be that a Blu2 plus the 'new' Pulse Array Amp is all that is needed for USB-Centric M-Scaler playback to high-efficiency loudspeakers? You mentioned that the Amp will have a volume control (control data transmitted alongside the DX data) that presumably can be controlled from the USB driver, right? The Amp also takes the DX (705/768khz) data from the Blu2 and does the final scaling to 256fs plus conversion to analog at higher power, right?

So ...i don't need DAVE if i don't need other inputs, nor headphones, nor a fancy display, nor a volume knob. Correct?

Thanks

 

[jelt2359]

But how will you get the digital signal into an analog one? There is no DAC chip in the Pulse Array Amp, if I'm not wrong.

 

[x RELIC x]

But how will you get the digital signal into an analog one? There is no DAC chip in the Pulse Array Amp, if I'm not wrong.

Pulse Array is Rob's discrete DAC. The FPGA does not convert the digital to analogue but is used for the digital filter. It then goes to the Pulse Array elements for conversion to analogue. This is Rob's invention. The Pulse Array amp is fed a digital signal and it does convert the signal to analogue, but the question is whether it has the WTA filter built in to an FPGA or if it needs the DAVE (or other Chord DAC) to use for the filter.

 

[AndrewC88]

Pulse Array is Rob's discrete DAC. The FPGA does not convert the digital to analogue but is used for the digital filter. It then goes to the Pulse Array elements for conversion to analogue. This is Rob's invention. The Pulse Array amp is fed a digital signal and it does convert the signal to analogue, but the question is whether it has the WTA filter built in to an FPGA or if it needs the DAVE (or other Chord DAC) to use for the filter.

Makes sense. Sort of an ultimate disaggregation of the Hugo architecture; with DAVE(+BluMk2) performing the WTA interpolation filtering, with digital DX interfaces out into the Pulse Array Amp which does the actual D-to-A conversion (based on the Pulse Array DAC architecture).

@Rob Watts
I'm curious to know how you intend to keep everything absolutely synchronised? Presumably the DX outputs on DAVE includes clocking? (as opposed to just PLLs and a reconstructed clock on the Pulse Array Amp)

 

[hmartin]

Thanks Sonic77 for the link to the manual!

According to the manual Blu MK2 does not handle DSD, strange thought someone said it did DSD-->PCM, hope it can pass-through DOP to the Dave at least. It is also worrying that it is running even hotter than Dave. I hope when Chord builds a separate M-Scaler they use the space left by the CD-transport for cooling e.g. using heat-pipes attached to the FPGA and the chassis right side as a cooler.

 

[Triode User]

I was wondering if Rob Watts believe in specific lengths of BNC cables to connect Blu2 to DAVE. Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB manual says "1.5 meters is a good default length for USB, SPDIF and AES cables". I've heard this from other places that I admit I can't name now from before. Something about too short of a digital cable is not good but I can't remember why. Not sure if it applies to Blu2 & DAVE connection.

The Blu2 Manual says, "Please note that for the maximum sample rate to be transmitted from BLU MKII to your DAC you must use a high-quality shielded 75Ω interconnect. We advise keeping your interconnect length to a minimum, preferably with a 1m maximum, and purchasing a matched pair."

So that seems clear, short as possible and 1m max.

 

[Malcyg]

Hi, I am a new member and I'm going to start with a dumb question, but I'm not sure that I fully understand what M Scaler is doing - is it not just similar to software upscaling? Rob Watts had previously advised against using software upscaling into Dave, so how is M Scaler different? Are there any conclusive findings yet on whether, and by how much, the Dave is improved by using the Blu II M Scaler?

I run a Dave into a Chord SPM1200 MkII into Dali Euphonia MS4 speakers and am very happy with my system. It is hard to imagine a significant improvement to this. Is M Scaler just go faster stripes type marketing, or are the improvements genuine and significant? I guess I just don't understand how you can improve over and above the original data being presented as cleanly and accurately as possible, which is what I have always sought to achieve.

 

[onsionsi]

I don't know if there is a benefit from Blu2 if you run a DSD files or Blu2 eventually can't play DSD files.