Just took delivery of a 75ohm rca to bnc cable to try with the douk ddc. Curious as to how bnc in sounds on mscaler as never had the chance to try before. Will report back.
Hugo M Scaler by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread
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AndrewOld
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Wasn’t the whole point of using the douk to electrically isolate the USB source from the M Scaler by using optical? In which case using any kind of wired connection between it and the MScaler or DAC is not sensible.
By logical deduction yes of course. But i've come to realise what's stated on paper doesn't always correlate to what you actually hear in reality. But yes i have a 20cm optical cable arriving today to see if that works vs a 1m optical cable which was not steady streaming 192khz tracks.
I was expecting an identical sound to usb but the douk ddc going imac to douk to mscaler bnc in initially sounds closer to optical than it does to usb. I'm using an rca to bnc 75 ohm cable from amazon with the stock usb a to micro usb cable that came with the convertor. The brightness with usb seems smoothed out and the vocals on Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album seem very natural indeed. Whether this is more psychological remains to be seen but on bnc 2 in on msclaer the sound is one i could live with permanently. Will try the 20cm optical cable once it arrives.
Interesting point: with the ifi streamer or any usb streamer does roon look past the streamer and detect the mscaler and if so does it apply exclusive mode control to both? With a laptop//computer roon detects the mscaler and exclusive mode is added to it automatically by default. Do you have to enable both the streamer and mscaler in roon?
Interesting point: with the ifi streamer or any usb streamer does roon look past the streamer and detect the mscaler and if so does it apply exclusive mode control to both? With a laptop//computer roon detects the mscaler and exclusive mode is added to it automatically by default. Do you have to enable both the streamer and mscaler in roon?
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saudio7
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What is better power voltage for Mscaler 15V or 12V. when I use power bank with 12V it is working perfectly, but as for power supply I have only 15V and thinking to try 12V.
If all internal voltage is below 5V then it should be easer for internal regulators to change it.
If all internal voltage is below 5V then it should be easer for internal regulators to change it.
Hi Rob (@Rob Watts),
I recently purchased a Mscaler. It is an amazing unit! It transformed my Hugo2 into a smooth, detail, and analog-like sounding machine. I cannot live without it.
Over the weekend, I fiddled with an idea -- does Mscaler sound different with different power banks? I then compared Krisdonia's 9v to 12v, and to MaxOak's 12v. Like you and other users in this forum, I like Krisdonia's 9v better 12v. Then, I compared Krisdonia's 9v to Maxoak's 12v. To my surprise, Maxoak is even warmer, smoother and it has better depth. I remembered you said Mscaler regulates the 9-15v input into 5v with RF filter. I do not understand why. Each component in my system is battery-powered. Using a different battery for Msclaer should not affect the sound, but it does.
Do you know why? I found one of your posts saying Krisdonia could be the issue.
Found a powerbank that has an unregulated 9v-12.6v output. I may give it a try.
https://www.bixpower.com/product-p/bat-bp90-12v.htm
"Output II has a nominal voltage of 10.8V (Range from 9V ~ 12.6V). This port's power comes directly from battery cells without voltage regulation. When the battery is fully charged, its voltage is 12.6V. Output voltage will then decrease gradually. Most of the time, the output voltage will be around 10V ~ 11V ( nominal voltage is 10.8V). When the voltage drops to 9V, the port will shut off and stop providing power. This port can be used to power portable DVD players and digital photo frames."
Thanks in advance.
I recently purchased a Mscaler. It is an amazing unit! It transformed my Hugo2 into a smooth, detail, and analog-like sounding machine. I cannot live without it.
Over the weekend, I fiddled with an idea -- does Mscaler sound different with different power banks? I then compared Krisdonia's 9v to 12v, and to MaxOak's 12v. Like you and other users in this forum, I like Krisdonia's 9v better 12v. Then, I compared Krisdonia's 9v to Maxoak's 12v. To my surprise, Maxoak is even warmer, smoother and it has better depth. I remembered you said Mscaler regulates the 9-15v input into 5v with RF filter. I do not understand why. Each component in my system is battery-powered. Using a different battery for Msclaer should not affect the sound, but it does.
Do you know why? I found one of your posts saying Krisdonia could be the issue.
Do you have a chance to look into it? Could it be the Krisdonia's DC-DC conversion caused the differences? If so, would it be better to have an unregulated output from a power bank and let Mscaler does all the regulation?
Found a powerbank that has an unregulated 9v-12.6v output. I may give it a try.
https://www.bixpower.com/product-p/bat-bp90-12v.htm
"Output II has a nominal voltage of 10.8V (Range from 9V ~ 12.6V). This port's power comes directly from battery cells without voltage regulation. When the battery is fully charged, its voltage is 12.6V. Output voltage will then decrease gradually. Most of the time, the output voltage will be around 10V ~ 11V ( nominal voltage is 10.8V). When the voltage drops to 9V, the port will shut off and stop providing power. This port can be used to power portable DVD players and digital photo frames."
Thanks in advance.
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to be free
New Head-Fier
Hi guys. Newbie here. had a Tt2 for some months, Roon, zen stream, good cables and now added a M scalar, and been going 40 minutes or so, all lights indicating up scaling, and all I can say is wow! …..
totally, totally underwhelmed…. can hardly tell any difference at all. Blind testing a/b‘ing of 44/705 and struggling to tell one from the other.
$7000 AUD for this? Pretty shocked how disappointing this is… so someone tell me this needs burning in, warming up, a coffee? Anything.. as this is is a big flop..
using meze elite, and upgrading to the silver cable was a much bigger upgrade than this…
tim
totally, totally underwhelmed…. can hardly tell any difference at all. Blind testing a/b‘ing of 44/705 and struggling to tell one from the other.
$7000 AUD for this? Pretty shocked how disappointing this is… so someone tell me this needs burning in, warming up, a coffee? Anything.. as this is is a big flop..
using meze elite, and upgrading to the silver cable was a much bigger upgrade than this…
tim
The Jester
1000+ Head-Fier
Stop A/B testing and listen to some of your favourite music for a few days, the go back to bypass,
Different genres yield different outcomes too, anything with acoustic instruments really come to life,
More difficult to realise differences via headphones compared to speakers as soundstage, image depth and placement is more obvious, bass is the most obvious via headphones with better texture, weight and definition,
How are you connecting the source, USB, BNC,Optical ?
Different genres yield different outcomes too, anything with acoustic instruments really come to life,
More difficult to realise differences via headphones compared to speakers as soundstage, image depth and placement is more obvious, bass is the most obvious via headphones with better texture, weight and definition,
How are you connecting the source, USB, BNC,Optical ?
ruthieandjohn
Stumbling towards enlightenment
(Formerly known as kayandjohn.)
I, too, have had “the Emperor has no clothes!” reaction to adding the Mscaler to my TT2…no apparent difference. I then noticed that a familiar recording that used to have clear differences in the left and right channel lost those differences. A bit of investigation showed that everything was now coming from the center, even in Mscaler pass through mode. When I physically removed the Mscaler from the chain, the TT2 was back to giving me its exquisitely excellent sound.
In fiddling with the Mscaler during this effort, I noted that the power input was intermittent if I twisted the plug connector going into the unit. Likewise, rotating the BNC connectors just a bit produced a gorgeous flashing light display of intermittency.
I sent the unit in for warranty repair, which was quickly performed (They replaced the mother board and power unit). I now have the unit back and in my system. There is still some brief loss of synch that happens if I move the unit while operating, and I have not yet traced it to a particular connector. But it is OK if not moved during operation. I cannot reliably hear a difference between 16x upsample and pass through (I might just barely hear a bit brighter and more open sound at 16X upsample, but not enough to think I would reliably sense a difference, much less a preference, in a blind A/B test).
At the moment, I am trying the approach mentioned above: “Stop A/B testing and listen to some of your favourite music for a few days, then go back to bypass.”
I’ve used Roon USB to drive the Mscaler and listened with both the Grado PS-1000 and the Focal Stellia. I even went to a premium quality USB cord and separately-filtered power supply for the TT2 and Mscaler on this second go-round.
No matter… I still love Chord products and am willing to chalk this up to my own inability to hear differences than the Mscaler itself. I also must disclose that I cannot reliably hear a difference between CD-rate (44.1 kHz) and Hi-res (> 88 kHz) music, nor between balanced and single ended headphone output.
In fiddling with the Mscaler during this effort, I noted that the power input was intermittent if I twisted the plug connector going into the unit. Likewise, rotating the BNC connectors just a bit produced a gorgeous flashing light display of intermittency.
I sent the unit in for warranty repair, which was quickly performed (They replaced the mother board and power unit). I now have the unit back and in my system. There is still some brief loss of synch that happens if I move the unit while operating, and I have not yet traced it to a particular connector. But it is OK if not moved during operation. I cannot reliably hear a difference between 16x upsample and pass through (I might just barely hear a bit brighter and more open sound at 16X upsample, but not enough to think I would reliably sense a difference, much less a preference, in a blind A/B test).
At the moment, I am trying the approach mentioned above: “Stop A/B testing and listen to some of your favourite music for a few days, then go back to bypass.”
I’ve used Roon USB to drive the Mscaler and listened with both the Grado PS-1000 and the Focal Stellia. I even went to a premium quality USB cord and separately-filtered power supply for the TT2 and Mscaler on this second go-round.
No matter… I still love Chord products and am willing to chalk this up to my own inability to hear differences than the Mscaler itself. I also must disclose that I cannot reliably hear a difference between CD-rate (44.1 kHz) and Hi-res (> 88 kHz) music, nor between balanced and single ended headphone output.
musicinmymind
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I has same feeling when I got m-scaler and spending that much money, I just left in my system and after 10 days of usage I cannot live without it.
it is something like VOSS Artesian Mineral Water, when you drink first time you think what the fuzz about it, But after a month of using VOSS you cannot go back to normal mineral water, they will taste like plastic water. Same with m-scaler, it takes time.
it is something like VOSS Artesian Mineral Water, when you drink first time you think what the fuzz about it, But after a month of using VOSS you cannot go back to normal mineral water, they will taste like plastic water. Same with m-scaler, it takes time.
Progisus
Headphoneus Supremus
If you use the supplied bnc cables then any movement can cause dropouts. This is what happened with mine and started my bnc cable odyssey. Belden worked but Wave Storm provided the best sound.
Hi,
is there any possibility for you to check out HQplayer? Let it upsample and see if you can find a difference in sound.
If someone cannot find a difference (enough) with HQplayer, then obviously there is no use to buy a hardware set like MS that does near the same.
In the case you get results from HQplayer and not from Mscaler with comparable upscaling, then something is not right.
If you can't appreciate HQplayer outcome, then it's you and/or gear somewhere bottlenecking the process, MS can't remedy that.
To eliminate some worms out of the can, only head for conclusions on gear that is like 1 hour in operation.
Another worm gone by using EMI/RFI netfilters on the power-plugs.
Dual BNC quality issues can be largely bypassed by feeding the MS with a battery, if even just for testing purposes. Mine always runs on a 30Ah LiFePO4 12V batt.
Good luck!
to be free
New Head-Fier
Thanks jester. I’m using usb from a zen stream, then obviously dual Bnc. all cables are in the 2-300 dollar range. So should be good.
Thanks, yep i‘ll be doing as you suggest - but various ‘reliable’ online reviews claim they have done on/off testing at shows on headphones, and wow what a difference. So more review deception I can only presume? I know this is very common but still, if you really can’t tell much if any difference from a straight a/b then perhaps it’s time to start calling bs on these reviewers and boycotting them. It’s just not cool.
