[AndrewH13]

Wild guess, £3,750 ?

£2999? Nearest wins one?

 

[SuperBurrito]

Is this the long-awaited m-scaler showing covered up on the CanJam London preview video (4:15) -

Hmm, it's surprising to me that the new device has the same form factor as the Ttoby and the Hugo TT2. To me this means the 3 devices are meant to be used together, in the same way as the Dave, Blu II and Etude.

So I'm guessing if this mystery product is a scaler, it will be meaningfully cheaper than the Blu II but will not have nearly as many taps. Not sure if it would be a huge upgrade for a Dave.

 

[Triode User]

RW has said before there is no point doing it unless you have the full number of taps. Anyway, it wouldn’t be an MScaler!

I suspect the differences to the Blu2 might instead be the power supply, wallwart instead of built in as per Blu2, and the inputs, possibly optical as well as usb and bnc. It will also do away with the switched options on the back that Blu2 has. Output will be dual bnc as per Blu2 because the TT2 takes that. And my final guess, these are all pure guesses, is that it will retain auto sensing of input selection although I’m less sure about that. Cost? Somewhere in the region of TT2?

I bet it will sound amazing.

 

[darkless]

I think the price will be closer to half the TT2, around £2000 or maybe a bit higher. Here's why:

Unlike the Blu2 and other Chord products, the M-scaler will likely not provide you with any additional features such as CD playback, streaming, amplification or D/A conversion. The M-scaler is basically an expensive Chord exclusive accessory (due to the dual BNC output), that promises to enable better sound quality from Chord DACs only.

It will likely be marketed as an upgrade path for both TT2 owners as well as users with less expensive equipment such as the Qutest and the Hugo2, both priced considerably lower than the TT2. As such, many within its target audience will be either unable or unwilling to lay down so much cash for a piece of equipment that cannot easily be used with future equipment, unless they stay within the Chord ecosystem.

As a Chord DAVE owner who now has a family to feed and a mortgage to pay off, I will be all over the M-scaler if the price stays within the bracket I mentioned above. If it ends up at TT2 levels, I will probably sit it out until the next iteration of the M-scaler appears. That will take at least 2-3 years if not more, considering that Xilinx has yet to release a new FPGA powerful enough that it would enable Chord to significantly boost the number of taps within future products, not to mention that Rob also needs to finish the Davina project to help figure out where to focus his next efforts.

 

[Triode User]

Part of pricing is where it fits in the product range. £2k would put it nearer to H2 / qutest territory and I am not sure Chord would want to do that. Also, I think a stand alone MScaler will be worth more to the sound improvement than £2k would suggest and would still be seen as good value over £3k and maybe nearer to £4k. I am sure many Dave owners will be buying it.

Anyway, all hypothetical as it will already have been decided and so is a pretty pointless discussion which I readily admit. We shall know soon.

 

[EndGameSearch]

So far on this thread everyone is assuming m-scaler is the answer. I thought part supply issues beyond Chord's control would keep m-scaler on the horizon and I was expecting the long awaited DX HP Amp... From a form factor standpoint m-scaler seems to be the logical answer, but as one of the many that just recently received my blu, and has no need for CD, I'm selfishly hoping I didn't just pay 2 - 3X what I could have if I waited a few more months.

 

[jarnopp]

I think the price will be closer to half the TT2, around £2000 or maybe a bit higher. Here's why:

Unlike the Blu2 and other Chord products, the M-scaler will likely not provide you with any additional features such as CD playback, streaming, amplification or D/A conversion. The M-scaler is basically an expensive Chord exclusive accessory (due to the dual BNC output), that promises to enable better sound quality from Chord DACs only.

It will likely be marketed as an upgrade path for both TT2 owners as well as users with less expensive equipment such as the Qutest and the Hugo2, both priced considerably lower than the TT2. As such, many within its target audience will be either unable or unwilling to lay down so much cash for a piece of equipment that cannot easily be used with future equipment, unless they stay within the Chord ecosystem.

As a Chord DAVE owner who now has a family to feed and a mortgage to pay off, I will be all over the M-scaler if the price stays within the bracket I mentioned above. If it ends up at TT2 levels, I will probably sit it out until the next iteration of the M-scaler appears. That will take at least 2-3 years if not more, considering that Xilinx has yet to release a new FPGA powerful enough that it would enable Chord to significantly boost the number of taps within future products, not to mention that Rob also needs to finish the Davina project to help figure out where to focus his next efforts.

I am thinking more than $2k, probably closer to $4k, for the mScaler. I also think it may have more tricks than just dual BNC connections. Why are there 2 optical inputs on the TT2?

 

[Crgreen]

I am thinking more than $2k, probably closer to $4k, for the mScaler. I also think it may have more tricks than just dual BNC connections. Why are there 2 optical inputs on the TT2?

Same reason there are 2 optical inputs on the Dave? It’s a nice thought though.

 

[dakabali]

I get great results with Kudos speakers.

Anybody with a BluDAVE with Odeon speakers setup? How is it compared to the Omega SAM? Thanks.

 

[SuperBurrito]

Part of pricing is where it fits in the product range. £2k would put it nearer to H2 / qutest territory and I am not sure Chord would want to do that. Also, I think a stand alone MScaler will be worth more to the sound improvement than £2k would suggest and would still be seen as good value over £3k and maybe nearer to £4k. I am sure many Dave owners will be buying it.

I would order it today if I could!

 

[saudio7]

I think it will be network streamer bigger brother to Poly.

 

[rgs9200m]

If there is ever an M-scaler I will speculate that there will be a number of used Blu2 units on the used market for good prices.
(Sorry for saying something that's so obvious I guess, but I couldn't resist, especially since it's probably wishful thinking for me to get a Blu2 down the line. Nothing like a mint hand-me-down...)

 

[AndrewOld]

The pricing is going to be interesting, and you have to look it in relation to sound quality. Will the M Scaler + Hugo2 sound better than a DAVE as some have claimed? If so, and the M scaler costs less than £6.5 or so then the DAVE is finished. Or if the M Scaler + Hugo TT2 sound better than a DAVE and the MScaler costs less than £5k or so, then the DAVE is finished. There are already people saying that the DAVE is Chords fourth best DAC since the Blu2 plus any of (Hugo2, Hugo TT2, DAVE) sounds better than a DAVE so these are reasonable speculations. Will the M Scaler sound better than the Blu2? There is certainly no reason for it to sound worse as it is unencumbered with a cd mechanism, and it’s design may well benefit from experience gained with the Blu2. Maybe it won’t benefit from ferrites. There certainly won’t be much space for them on the short cables u would use to stack it with a TT2. As for price .. somewhere around a TT2 give or take a few hundred. Chords metalwork is expensive, though the case for the M Scaler might be relatively simple if it has few buttons and a simple display. Not sure what is necessary if they stick with auto sensing inputs. Time will tell. People will complain whatever happens.

 

[AndrewOld]

I think it will be network streamer bigger brother to Poly.

They haven’t got the Poly working yet so I think that’s unlikely. Plus we know that Rob is to talk about his new product at Canjam, and I can’t see that he will have had anything to do with a streamer. There are plenty of decent streamers with proven software, remote apps etc. from the likes of Auralic, Linn, Bluesound etc. Chord have a long way to go before they can deliver a significant product in that space. But happy to be proved wrong.

 

[audio_1]

I reckon at least £4k. If it is only £2k other DAC manufacturers would want to start worrying. Imagine being able to purchase the best DAC in the world Dave and M-scaler for £10.5k. If it is too cheap it would cannibalise the sales of Blu2. £2k would also devalue Rob Watts achievements.