[Malcyg]

Occasionally I come across a CD product which stands out and my recent purchase of the Eagles first 6 studio albums box remasters set is one of those occasions. (Don’t roll your eyes). I never used to be a fan before I bought Blu MkII M Scaler. The musicality of performances and quality of recording is exceptional though imo and Blu II just seems to love these performances. It has converted me and tbh I cannot understand why these 6 Albums would sell for just £2 each. It’s ridiculous. My best purchase so far this year.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Studio-Alb...ie=UTF8&qid=1522660682&sr=1-4&keywords=eagles

Ridiculous price as you say - good spot RedRef. I have that same box set, albeit as a hires download which I bought heavily discounted at what I thought was a very cheap price, but £12 is a bargain. I was never a fan of the Eagles but my wife dragged me along to see them around 10-11 years ago and I was extremely impressed with their musical performance live. They are very accomplished musicians which I can always admire and appreciate, irrespective of genre.

One of the joys of BluDave is that CD’s and red book files sound so good, you don’t necessarily need more - hires does still have the edge, but I don’t feel any burning desire at all to buy hires files any more. With CD’s being so cheap, now is the time to grab them up. In the twelve months since acquiring the Blu II, I have bought so many CD’s, averaging 6-8 a month, often ridiculously cheap, and just ripped them and enjoy them. I find Tidal, or similar, to be great tools for exploring new music and then just buy and rip the CD’s of the stuff that I like. I find that I do still like to own music, old fashioned as that idea may be starting to become, and I think it is good to support artists by buying their products, even if most of them don’t earn much through that medium anymore. When you look at the end to end creation and distribution process, how can anyone make money selling CD’s at £2?

Writing this post has reminded me of the first time I saw the Eagles. I was a very reluctant participant and only there to support my wife who was a fan. The way they started the show was amazing. The house lights were on low and they ambled on in plaid shirts, jeans and beige rain macs. They were so casual and sloppy and it really looked like the janitors coming on to clear up after the show - I was totally unimpressed and looked across at my wife to express my feelings. Then they ambled up to the mic’s and started to sing a vocal harmony song called Seven Bridges Road. I’d never heard it before, but it made the hair on my neck stand up and still stands as one of my most memorable live moments.

 

[Jawed]

Though one new aesthetic gripe is -- can we not invest a $1 more on an OLED display instead of the retro green LED? (But as I use it only for the M-Scaler, I've since pushed it further back so the display is hidden from view.)

Put Blu 2 into standby: it still upsamples its inputs and, I believe, turns off the display.

Now playing: Sons of the East - Into the Sun

 

[jelt2359]

I used to do this but it gets REALLY hot as it continues to work (unlike Dave), so now I prefer to just turn on and off.

 

[Triode User]

I used to do this but it gets REALLY hot as it continues to work (unlike Dave), so now I prefer to just turn on and off.

That's strange. I leave my Blu2 on 24/7 (not in standby) and it stays cools. I wonder if maybe you are feeding it a signal causing it to work even though you are not listening to sound?

 

[jelt2359]

Yes, my server is on all the time. Most of the time I remember to pause it, but I don't exactly remember if that keeps the Blu2 going (since my Roon is still on). Anyway I found it burning up with a near-fever once or twice and decided, "no mas".

 

[Triode User]

That might be why it gets hot if it is processing a signal. Like I say, mine stays cool but occasionally I have forgotten to stop a radio stream and then I have come down in the morning to a hot Blu2. Switching off is going to sort it for you though!!

 

[rayl]

That might be why it gets hot if it is processing a signal. Like I say, mine stays cool but occasionally I have forgotten to stop a radio stream and then I have come down in the morning to a hot Blu2. Switching off is going to sort it for you though!!

FWIW, my unit consumes an extra 9 watts when processing vs when idle. Not a lot. It does get warm, but I wouldn't call it hot.

 

[Deftone]

With regards to the talk about clocking, I want to reiterate that my findings with clocking have nothing to do with word clocking (or signal timing), it has to do with the elimination of fatiguing noise that bad clocks introduce. My experience has shown me that both DAVE and Hugo2 are indeed immune to jitter. With just about any other DAC, Toslink connections are typically frowned upon because this connection is jitter prone and so Rob's DACs are unique in that they embrace this connection. As I contemplate the ideal server for one of Rob's DACs, I do believe such a server should have an optical connection.

Yes I agree, the more I read about high end DACs the more I noticed people saying to absolutely avoid opitical. Even though rob claims his DACs to be immune to jitter from any source (I believe him) there are still some that apparently can measure unhealthy amounts of jitter and thus requires regeneration/reclocking.

I myself use a cheap 5 meter kabeldirekt optical cable from my pc for Mojo or Hugo2 and it is good enough for me.

 

[dmance]

Hindsight is 20/20. I notice the new breed of MSB DACs (still horridly expensive) support a proprietary ProISL optical link from transport to DAC. The best of TOSLINK at much higher bitrates and lower immunity to jitter.

 

[rayl]

Hindsight is 20/20. I notice the new breed of MSB DACs (still horridly expensive) support a proprietary ProISL optical link from transport to DAC. The best of TOSLINK at much higher bitrates and lower immunity to jitter.

Also can do SACD legally with that.

The 2 new MSBs out at Axpona should be interesting comparisons.... Approx 10k and 20k USD MSRP, so that's a hair lower than DAVE and Blu2DAVE, respectively. But I've declared my allegiance for the next few years already and doubt that I would be tempted otherwise.

 

[flyte3333]

Hindsight is 20/20. I notice the new breed of MSB DACs (still horridly expensive) support a proprietary ProISL optical link from transport to DAC. The best of TOSLINK at much higher bitrates and lower immunity to jitter.

Yup and Playback Designs have been doing this for years also (high speed optical fiber connection between transport and DAC).

 

[Deftone]

it changes Blu 2 processing to use 666,000 taps

Ah, I think this would be the best setting to listen to my Slayer CDs...

 

[minibox]

My goodness, I just hooked up my blu/dave for the first time this afternoon. I listen to a good bit of vinyl but this digital setup is the smoothest, most analog setup I’ve ever heard. Amazing. Going to be a long night. I wish I didn’t have to be functional tomorrow.

 

[dac64]

​

My goodness, I just hooked up my blu/dave for the first time this afternoon. I listen to a good bit of vinyl but this digital setup is the smoothest, most analog setup I’ve ever heard. Amazing. Going to be a long night. I wish I didn’t have to be functional tomorrow.

Glad that you didn't suffer from some people did! Mainly RF issues. Btw, do you connect the two through dual stock BNCs?

 

[minibox]

Glad that you didn't suffer from some people did! Mainly RF issues. Btw, do you connect the two through dual stock BNCs?

Yes, dual stock bnc. I have ferrites and other bnc I’ll experiment with later but I suspect it’ll only be a marginal improvement after this change. I prefer to listen for a few weeks before making any changes, however minor they may be.