From Christer
Hi max22,
Interesting question.
Well, to make things absolutely clear, my absolute refererence is how acoustic music actually sounds LIVE, and NOT as it sounds via even very good vinyl like direct cuts.
Vinyl is far from perfect.
And I will need to compare back home with an MScaler in my own home system via my electrostatic speakers to hear how M Scaler works in my system to answer your question.
But I suspect M Scaler could very well be, as Rob put it, "the final nail in the coffin of vinyl" for me too.
I am now much to my surprise discovering what has hitherto been hidden in well recorded 16/44.1 via all other way of playing rbcd I have heard and they are many.
Qutest on its own did not sound quite as realistic as the best direct cuts can do to me via my speakers.
But I can as before, safely say, that as far as the actual SQ leap and increase in realism is concerned with full m-scaling via my current travel setup consisting of my Qutest an M Scaler and a battery powered headphone amp connected via the best of two sets of rca cables I have with me, and into my HD 800,has taken my enjoyment of well made digital recordings in general and 16/44.1 in particular to new higher levels.
Levels I now realize I was not even close to with Qutest on its own.
It is almost as if the harshness and hardening and the colouration of both tonal and timbral information and general lack of resolution digital so often suffers from, has been "vacuum cleaned" away with my best recordings.
And acoustic space and soundstage is much more real with longer decay on recordings where that has been properly captured too.
Qutest on its own was definitely a clear improvement on HUGO 1 which I also have at hand, but would not even dream of using other than in an absolute emergency from now on.
And the increase in SQ is so big with M Scaler at full 1M mscaling that Qutest also lags far behind imho.
There is no going back.
Ps Sorry if the above takes away from some of the joy new Qutest owners may feel.
But I have to say again if you havent heard your well recorded acoustic music m-scaled "You aint heard nothing yet", imho.
Cheers Controversial Christer