[Triode User]

I have the DAVE / Blu2 setup... the Mscaler to me would be useless... though its a nice looking product... we did comparisons... the Hugo2/blu2 dave/blu2 same as the mscaler... in respect to taps... Dave is superior in every way but that should not be a surprise... hugo2/mscaler vs Dave ; this is a tough one... because the Hugo does not have the sonic abilities of the DAVE. So in theory you should get a better sound... but in reality that depends... on what your driving... .. I guess you could hook up the hugo2 to an amp then maybe

Yes I agree it is not a straightforward count the taps sort of exercise. Also of course I am biased because I favour the Dave so would probably rather have Dave by itself for as long as it takes to add a Blu2 or HMS.

 

[hehaw77]

Yes I agree it is not a straightforward count the taps sort of exercise. Also of course I am biased because I favour the Dave so would probably rather have Dave by itself for as long as it takes to add a Blu2 or HMS.

good choice...

 

[HiResGeorge]

There is an almost new Chord Blu MKII upscaling transport for sale at £1196 less than a new one and available now from a VERY reputable main Chord dealer ! I can give details if you are interested or someone you know.
Cheers.GS

 

[musickid]

Strange how no one mentions chord's own top streamers.

 

[hehaw77]

Strange how no one mentions chord's own top streamers.

There are many options in that space for a lot cheaper....

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

I have not been on here for a while guys so I apologise if this point has been raised before:

The recent WhatHifi review of Blu MkII was very complimentary and I think the vast majority of it was fair and well written but I must question one conclusion. That is the preference for the dither switch set to ON for CD playback. They may like the effect of introducing dither but it is a step away from what was recorded. Perhaps they simply rushed this aspect of the review I don’t know.

I’ll choose a very well known track as an example to explain what is happening to the sound: David Bowie - ‘Aladdin Sane’ from the album of the same name.

Listen to the piano for the whole track with dither switched ON and then listen again with it OFF. The former makes the piano sound more and more unnatural as the pianist plays more frantically. (This is much more evident after 2 minutes when the outro solo begins). It is as though the recording has been doctored with short samples of piano notes being used rather than a recording of the entirety of the notes and acoustic, whereas the latter plays both the note and the acoustic for as long as they reverberate. I think the Dithered sound is losing perhaps 5% of acoustic tails of all notes and the piano itself nolonger sounds like a true acoustic instrument with dither ON. The warmth of timbre has gone. It sounds like ‘short sampled’ piano and reminds me of early 16 bit sampling machines. I suspect I could replicate what I am hearing quite well if I had access to the piano recording alone and I normalised that recording and then wiped all data below a certain dB threshold. That is what I am hearing with the dither switch ON.

EDIT: just to add that dithering on CD playback also degrades the knitting of both left and right stereo channels. If you stand a couple of feet inside your speaker unilateral triangle of sound you will notice this even more. The stereo sound just isn’t knitting together as well with Dither on. Not surprising really because you are not hearing all the data.


https://www.whathifi.com/chord/blu-mkii/review?utm_campaign=BLU MKII Promotion&utm_content=80988710&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&hss_channel=fbp-110747222358641
"The Blu has small toggle switches on its rear panel to govern the degree of scaling involved – we end up leaving this on maximum – and another to vary the amount of dither (random low level digital noise) added to the signal.

Why would you want to add noise to the data stream? Using dither is a well-known technique in digital products to help improve resolution at very low signal levels. Here it only works for 16-bit signals, letting 24-bit streams pass unaffected.

With CD, we prefer the sound with the added dither as there’s a slightly greater sense of solidity and overall subtlety. You’ll need a truly transparent system to hear it though.’"

 

[Triode User]

I have not been on here for a while guys so I apologise if this point has been raised before:

The recent WhatHifi review of Blu MkII was very complimentary and I think the vast majority of it was fair and well written but I must question one conclusion. That is the preference for the dither switch set to ON for CD playback. They may like the effect of introducing dither but it is a step away from what was recorded. Perhaps they simply rushed this aspect of the review I don’t know.

I’ll choose a very well known track as an example to explain what is happening to the sound: David Bowie - ‘Aladdin Sane’ from the album of the same name.

Listen to the piano for the whole track with dither switched ON and then listen again with it OFF. The former makes the piano sound more and more unnatural as the pianist plays more frantically. (This is much more evident after 2 minutes when the outro solo begins). It is as though the recording has been doctored with short samples of piano notes being used rather than a recording of the entirety of the notes and acoustic, whereas the latter plays both the note and the acoustic for as long as they reverberate. I think the Dithered sound is losing perhaps 5% of acoustic tails of all notes and the piano itself nolonger sounds like a true acoustic instrument with dither ON. The warmth of timbre has gone. It sounds like ‘short sampled’ piano and reminds me of early 16 bit sampling machines. I suspect I could replicate what I am hearing quite well if I had access to the piano recording alone and I normalised that recording and then wiped all data below a certain dB threshold. That is what I am hearing with the dither switch ON.


https://www.whathifi.com/chord/blu-mkii/review?utm_campaign=BLU MKII Promotion&utm_content=80988710&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&hss_channel=fbp-110747222358641
"The Blu has small toggle switches on its rear panel to govern the degree of scaling involved – we end up leaving this on maximum – and another to vary the amount of dither (random low level digital noise) added to the signal.

Why would you want to add noise to the data stream? Using dither is a well-known technique in digital products to help improve resolution at very low signal levels. Here it only works for 16-bit signals, letting 24-bit streams pass unaffected.

With CD, we prefer the sound with the added dither as there’s a slightly greater sense of solidity and overall subtlety. You’ll need a truly transparent system to hear it though.’"

Nice to see you again!

I thought it was well known that the Dither was only meant to be switched On when used with other manufactures DACs or as a Video switch mode when using other inputs to the Blu2. Rob clarified the dither switch in his posts copied below and I am surprised that a reviewer might think they know better.

Dither is added for CD player only; the feature is only for non-chord DAC's where the addition of dither can make a difference; it is only on Blu 2 because the feature was on Blu 1. I would not do it today. So the dither switch is used to set the video mode filter for USB and the SPDIF inputs, and the video mode setting clearly is not needed for the CD player.

Note that the dither switch is video mode when not using CD; up for full 1M taps, down for lower latency 0.1s for video (2/3 M taps).

Yes the filter performs the same function; it's just that 768k OP's all of the samples; 384k half; 176k one quarter. So with 384k, it is the same latency, but half the taps are not used, as half of the outputs are not outputted.

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

Hi TU I see you are still going strong on the threads.

I also see you purchased some active speakers and clearly liked them. The subject of relationship between amplifier and speaker is something I have been researching closely recently. This is not the thread to post my findings but I must say linearity of frequency (or lack of) within the upper mids to lower highs for so many amp/speaker matches is a much more common problem than perhaps people realise. Active speakers are one good way to overcome that anomaly I think.

 

[Triode User]

Hi TU I see you are still going strong on the threads.

I also see you purchased some active speakers and clearly liked them. The subject of relationship between amplifier and speaker is something I have been researching closely recently. This is not the thread to post my findings but I must say linearity of frequency (or lack of) within the upper mids to lower highs for so many amp/speaker matches is a much more common problem than perhaps people realise. Active speakers are one good way to overcome that anomaly I think.

You are right that this is not the place to discuss it but it is quiet here so if we do not make too much noise we might get away with it for a while.

I really like what the ATC active speakers do and going active makes a stunning improvement to their identiacl speaker in passive form. Sadly the ATC SCM150ASL actives I have bought are not quite firing on all cylinders due to being 13 years old but they are booked in with the factory early in the new year for the new version of the tweeter together with new bass surrounds and new mid domes and surrounds. For the moment therefore my Spendor SP200 and Pass Labs poweramps are my reference system. In support of what you are saying it took me many trials to select the Pass Labs amps to get a good enough level of transparency with the Spendors that I knew I wanted.

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

At least you have a good backup whilst the upgrade is ongoing TU.

I have a new amp on order as of Friday. I didn’t want to go the active route because it would have meant giving up my Piega’s. That big Piega Coax is just too close to my musical heart. I won’t mention the amp choice on here btw because this is a Chord thread. Suffice it to say though that this was a very expensive upgrade! I cannot believe how fast HIFI prices are rising and with sterling faltering I felt I needed to pull the trigger now. There will be fallout when HIFI price inflation hits the buffers I am pretty sure of that. Chords massive expansion into lower priced solutions will be seen as a very smart move in a few years time I think.

 

[zettelsm]

Best holiday wishes, all.

A little quiet time before I start the Christmas dinner, so I thought I'd post a small problem I'm having with the Blu2 in hopes that someone can offer a solution:

In the past I've always put the Blu2 in sleep mode by using the large remote control's power button at the top left of the remote. This turns off the display and I presume idles some non-essential circuitry when not actually playing a CD. It seems, by the totally non-quantitative "hand test" to run a little cooler as well.

However, after putting my DAVE and Blu2 back in my system after taking it over to a friend's house for a few days, pressing the remote's power button no longer turns off the Blu2 display. I do note the remote appears to be working correctly in all other respects -- the little green LED on the remote flashes with each button-press, it will control CD playback on the Blu2 as it always did. Now all pressing the remote's power button does is cause the DAVE display to toggle on (if off) and off (if on).

I've tried powering DAVE and Blu2 off, pulled the power cord on the Blu2, checked that the batteries are fresh, viewed the output from the business end of the remote in the viewfinder of my digital camera and can see the IR LED flashing when the power button on the remote is pressed, etc.

I don't see any buttons or switches on either the remote or Blu2 that I could have inadvertently changed to change the behavior of the remote control or Blu2, so I'm out of ideas.

Has this happened to anyone else, and is there a secret handshake to restore the ability to put the Blu2 display to sleep?

Thanks in advance,

Steve Z

 

[ecwl]

Best holiday wishes, all.

A little quiet time before I start the Christmas dinner, so I thought I'd post a small problem I'm having with the Blu2 in hopes that someone can offer a solution:

In the past I've always put the Blu2 in sleep mode by using the large remote control's power button at the top left of the remote. This turns off the display and I presume idles some non-essential circuitry when not actually playing a CD. It seems, by the totally non-quantitative "hand test" to run a little cooler as well.

However, after putting my DAVE and Blu2 back in my system after taking it over to a friend's house for a few days, pressing the remote's power button no longer turns off the Blu2 display. I do note the remote appears to be working correctly in all other respects -- the little green LED on the remote flashes with each button-press, it will control CD playback on the Blu2 as it always did. Now all pressing the remote's power button does is cause the DAVE display to toggle on (if off) and off (if on).

I've tried powering DAVE and Blu2 off, pulled the power cord on the Blu2, checked that the batteries are fresh, viewed the output from the business end of the remote in the viewfinder of my digital camera and can see the IR LED flashing when the power button on the remote is pressed, etc.

I don't see any buttons or switches on either the remote or Blu2 that I could have inadvertently changed to change the behavior of the remote control or Blu2, so I'm out of ideas.

Has this happened to anyone else, and is there a secret handshake to restore the ability to put the Blu2 display to sleep?

Thanks in advance,

Steve Z

On the remote, if you click AV, you’ll be controlling the DAVE so your power button will turn the DAVE on and off. If you click HiFi, it’ll control Blu2 and it’ll put your Blu2 in standby again.

 

[zettelsm]

Thanks so much! That did the trick. I obviously must have pressed the AV button, probably when I gathered up a handful of gear including the remote when I was carrying things in from the car.

I skimmed through the two owner's manuals but must have glossed right over the remote button functions.

I appreciate you taking the time. In the grand scheme of things it was a small problem (and of my own making) and I'm grateful for you getting me straightened out.

Best regards,

Steve

 

[ecwl]

I skimmed through the two owner's manuals but must have glossed right over the remote button functions.

It’s not in the manuals. I knew because I’ve done it before and took me a while to figure out what I did. I consider it the mysticism of Chord ownership. Lots of undocumented features and quirks. But all worth it because of the fantastic sound. Another thing I’ve learnt from moving the Blu2 around is that it’s easy to flip the dither switch down instead of up. And plugging the headphones in and out of DAVE, it’s easy to leave crossover on when listening to speakers.

 

[zettelsm]

Well, then I don’t feel so bad. I’ve had the thought before that Chord could use a good tech writer to make their manuals more complete, rather than leave the end-users to figure it out for themselves. I’m reminded of the old joke about the software engineer who, when he was confronted by a user having a problem with his program exclaimed, “That’s not a bug, it’s a feature!”

Thanks again for the assist.

Steve