[HeeBroG]

Thanks Roy for the update for those of us who can't travel to these audio shows. I am very happy with Dave but all this talk about M scaler has intrigued me and I now eagerly await delivery of my Blu MKII.
I think it's high time you update your equipment signature

 

[onsionsi]

Thanks Roy for the update for those of us who can't travel to these audio shows. I am very happy with Dave but all this talk about M scaler has intrigued me and I now eagerly await delivery of my Blu MKII.
I think it's high time you update your equipment signature

Looking forward to your impression.

 

[ray-dude]

I may have missed it earlier in the thread, but has anyone tracked down an adapter from the dual BNC from the Blu2 to the coax input on the Hugo2? Pointers most appreciated

 

[Limniscate]

I heard the Blu2 at RMAF and was shocked at the improvement over just the DAVE.

 

[lojay]

I've received the Blu 2 and have tried the BluDave on my speaker rig at home (to Omega CAMs directly with HFC Ultimate Ref RCAs) and headphones at work (to DIYT2 and Sennheiser Orpheus HE90).

I must say that the improvements are immediately noticeable. It seems wrong to put it this way, but the BluDave lifts away the smudge around instruments and voices that was once there with just the Dave. Tonality is richer, with sonic cues presented in a palpable stable and solid sonic image. One way of putting it is that sonic cues which used to sound like they were floating in space with the Dave now sound properly like instruments playing with the musician sitting or standing firmly on the ground. Realism is the word.

To make sure I wasn't hearing things, I did an A-B comparison: I swapped the USB feeding the Blu 2 into the Dave, switched the Dave from BNC to USB mode, and the magic is gone.

I was most impressed with the effect on my headphone rig: I must say that whilst I had to use a tube amplifier with the HE90 headphones, which are very dated by today's standards. It shows that this old system could still scale higher with improvements on the digital front end. I have never heard anything as resolving yet. I listened to the BluDave all day at work (very distracted from it I must say) and brought the BluDave back home. The BluDave directly driving the speakers was less impressive, still very impressive, but I felt the resolution of my headphone setup could not be matched. Might be speaker placement or simply the speakers not up to it, I cannot be sure.

Wth both speakers and headphones another thing that was immediately apparent was the improvement in soundstage, depth and bass. Bass in particular was an area I felt the Dave alone lagged behind other top of the line DACs. I don't think so now. A typical criticism of electrostatic headphones like the HE90 is the lack of bass - I agree with that statement but, for the first time, I consider that it's bass was more than adequate in terms of quantity and viscerality when I was playing Jennifer Warnes' Way Down Deep. It's fair to say the BluDave has turned up the bass a notch or two.

The improvement in depth is very noticeable. I put on Yuja Wang's Rachmaninov (Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini) and was able to hear for the first time that Yuja's piano was distinctly closer to the audience than the strings. With just the Dave, it seemed that she was much closer to the strings; with the BluDave the focus was much on her which is the point of the recording.

These are my findings so far. In short, the Blu 2 completes the Dave. It's worth it. There are things I could still improve - there's a little bit of glare (interestingly, mainly when I play back CDs). If anyone has extra ferrite cores or cable recommendations do let me know!

Last time I wrote about my initial impressions of the BluDave, I took the view that I was less impressed by it on my speaker rig compared to its astonishing effect on my HE90 headphones. I have since upgraded the digital front end at home with a SOtM sCLK-EX clocked SOtM sMS-1000SQ server, router and tX-USBexp. I also replaced the Shunyata Python power cord that was feeding the Blu II with a HFC Ultimate Reference Helix. But the most important upgrade I had was replacing the BNC cables.

I did not quite follow the footsteps of others in purchasing Habst or Nordost cables. Instead, I went for Wireworld Starlight Platinum 75 Ohm BNC cables at 0.5 meters each. The improvement over the stock BNC cables startled me. I don't mean this as an exaggeration. This was the only upgrade which managed to lift the veil to the resolution bottle-neck I was having with the speakers. Leaving the quality of the Wireworld BNC cables aside (since I have no other top of the line BNC cables to compare it with), I believe this shows that the stock BNC cable was holding back the clarity, resolution, image solidity, viscerality and tonality of the BluDave by a few notches.

Audiophiles often express admiration for a particular component because it allowed certain details never heard before to come through, some might call this a night and day difference when all that is heard in reality is one small and musically unimportant detail (be it a cough or turn of a page). With the upgraded BNC cables in place, this is not the case for the BluDave. It was able to resolve small low-level details in a much more musically significant manner which contributed to overall realism.

One concrete example I can give is the Epilogue on the Les Misérables 10th anniversary concert album. This is a great test of resolution and ambiance. At the outset of the track, for the first time, I was able to hear the ambiance surrounding the ringing of the bells. For the first time, I heard performers stand at a specific location on the stage: Fantine was standing on the left to me, the ailing Jean Valjean was to the centre left but was closer to me than Fantine. For the first time, I heard the voice of Cosette being very distinct from that of Eponine's both on my right. In the middle of the track, again for the first time, I heard footsteps in the middle of the track (which may be the chorus standing behind the signers who were about to enter into Do You Hear the People Sing). There was no fuzz or blur in between voices, just palpable and solid sonic images of the performers singing in front of me. Most remarkably, none of this resolution came at the expense of tonality or harshness or digital glare.

This is amazing stuff and I now have to retract my comment about the BluDave being less impressive on speakers. Romaz is certainly right in thinking that the effect of the BluDave is even more pronounced on speakers, especially if directly driven.

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

Last time I wrote about my initial impressions of the BluDave, I took the view that I was less impressed by it on my speaker rig compared to its astonishing effect on my HE90 headphones. I have since upgraded the digital front end at home with a SOtM sCLK-EX clocked SOtM sMS-1000SQ server, router and tX-USBexp. I also replaced the Shunyata Python power cord that was feeding the Blu II with a HFC Ultimate Reference Helix. But the most important upgrade I had was replacing the BNC cables.

I did not quite follow the footsteps of others in purchasing Habst or Nordost cables. Instead, I went for Wireworld Starlight Platinum 75 Ohm BNC cables at 0.5 meters each. The improvement over the stock BNC cables startled me. I don't mean this as an exaggeration. This was the only upgrade which managed to lift the veil to the resolution bottle-neck I was having with the speakers. Leaving the quality of the Wireworld BNC cables aside (since I have no other top of the line BNC cables to compare it with), I believe this shows that the stock BNC cable was holding back the clarity, resolution, image solidity, viscerality and tonality of the BluDave by a few notches.

Audiophiles often express admiration for a particular component because it allowed certain details never heard before to come through, some might call this a night and day difference when all that is heard in reality is one small and musically unimportant detail (be it a cough or turn of a page). With the upgraded BNC cables in place, this is not the case for the BluDave. It was able to resolve small low-level details in a much more musically significant manner which contributed to overall realism.

One concrete example I can give is the Epilogue on the Les Misérables 10th anniversary concert album. This is a great test of resolution and ambiance. At the outset of the track, for the first time, I was able to hear the ambiance surrounding the ringing of the bells. For the first time, I heard performers stand at a specific location on the stage: Fantine was standing on the left to me, the ailing Jean Valjean was to the centre left but was closer to me than Fantine. For the first time, I heard the voice of Cosette being very distinct from that of Eponine's both on my right. In the middle of the track, again for the first time, I heard footsteps in the middle of the track (which may be the chorus standing behind the signers who were about to enter into Do You Hear the People Sing). There was no fuzz or blur in between voices, just palpable and solid sonic images of the performers singing in front of me. Most remarkably, none of this resolution came at the expense of tonality or harshness or digital glare.

This is amazing stuff and I now have to retract my comment about the BluDave being less impressive on speakers. Romaz is certainly right in thinking that the effect of the BluDave is even more pronounced on speakers, especially if directly driven.

That has been my experience with Blu II also. Since purchase I have continued to improve the system from isolation, to cables, shielding and electrics and it just continues to Improve with greater clarity and more realistic performance. I never get to a stage of having over done it, where the sound becomes electronic or unnatural, as has been the case with other front ends in the past.

 

[analogmusic]

erm.. more expensive cables for an already expensive BLU2?

 

[TheAttorney]

I went for Wireworld Starlight Platinum 75 Ohm BNC cables at 0.5 meters each. The improvement over the stock BNC cables startled me..

And did you try some ferrite cores on the stock and Wireworld cables to see what effect these had?

Shame that the Wireworld costs about £800 for 0.5M, which puts it in the same ballpark as the Habst.
I'm still waiting for someone to come up with similarly rave impressions of cables that cost about 1/10th of those two

 

[Muataz]

And did you try some ferrite cores on the stock and Wireworld cables to see what effect these had?

Shame that the Wireworld costs about £800 for 0.5M, which puts it in the same ballpark as the Habst.
I'm still waiting for someone to come up with similarly rave impressions of cables that cost about 1/10th of those two

check this cable from Wireworld, same design concept and far more cheaper > https://store.wireworldcable.com/co...ht-7-digital-audio-cable-1?variant=1027751683

Or this QED reference RCA digital cable but you need adapter if that possible technically

Cable > http://www.qed.co.uk/hdmi-and-digital/digital-audio/reference-digital-audio.htm

RCA to BNC Adaptor > http://www.partsconnexion.com/81393.html

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

erm.. more expensive cables for an already expensive BLU2?

That's the point analoguemusic. With other front ends it may not be worth it but with Blu II it is.

 

[Jawed]

That's the point analoguemusic. With other front ends it may not be worth it but with Blu II it is.

There's no evidence that an expensive digital BNC cable twixt Blu 2 and DAVE can exceed the performance of a cheap cable fitted with enough ferrites. The number of ferrites might have to be 30 or 40 per cable (at which point a 0.5m cable is too short, I suppose).

Now, you could argue that an expensive cable is more convenient than buying lots of ferrites and fitting them. One might even argue that 60 to 80 total ferrites is going to cost in the region of £250, at which point the expensive cable isn't quite so expensive.

But I doubt that the expensive cable can't be improved with ferrites.

Now playing: My Morning Jacket - Sooner

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

There's no evidence that an expensive digital BNC cable twixt Blu 2 and DAVE can exceed the performance of a cheap cable fitted with enough ferrites. The number of ferrites might have to be 30 or 40 per cable (at which point a 0.5m cable is too short, I suppose).

Now, you could argue that an expensive cable is more convenient than buying lots of ferrites and fitting them. One might even argue that 60 to 80 total ferrites is going to cost in the region of £250, at which point the expensive cable isn't quite so expensive.

But I doubt that the expensive cable can't be improved with ferrites.

Now playing: My Morning Jacket - Sooner

Jawed
My evidence is my own judgement. If you believe a few ferrites can replace everything a top cable company can achieve with a 6 figure sum of R&D spent on it then that's great.

 

[adyc]

Jawed
My evidence is my own judgement. If you believe a few ferrites can replace everything a top cable company can achieve with a 6 figure sum of R&D spent on it then that's great.

However, most audiophile cable manufacturers never spend any way close to 6 figure sum of R&D. I doubt they can sell enough cables to cover that figure.

 

[Triode User]

Jawed
My evidence is my own judgement. If you believe a few ferrites can replace everything a top cable company can achieve with a 6 figure sum of R&D spent on it then that's great.

Err, well yes I do. But that’s a cynical approach but probably not far off the mark. Also it is consistent with my direct evaluation of analogue cables from high end manufacturers.

 

[x RELIC x]

Thanks to @miceblue here is Rob's talk at RMAF this year.