[JaZZ]

Unless I missed it has there been an mSCaler Qutest review/impressions? I just have a faulty headphone amp and if I keep my Qutest I need to get a headphone amp that will not interfere with/color the mScaler.

Probably you don't even need a headphone amp with the Qutest. It seems to have the same or at least a similar enough output stage as the Hugo₂ with very low output impedance, so it should be able to perfectly drive headphones as well. You only need an adapter and a media player with a decent (buffered) digital volume control. Not as perfect as the Hugo₂ with its lossless digital volume control, but most likely good enough.

 

[dawktah2]

Probably you don't even need a headphone amp with the Qutest. It seems to have the same or at least a similar enough output stage as the Hugo₂ with very low output impedance, so it should be able to perfectly drive headphones as well. You only need an adapter and a media player with a decent (buffered) digital volume control. Not as perfect as the Hugo₂ with its lossless digital volume control, but most likely good enough.

Thanks! I believe I tried this and the Qutest doesn't allow digital volume control.

 

[thePhones]

I expect to get my Hugo M-Scaler until the end of this week. Reading the manual, a question came up, regarding BNC on DAVE. While BNC connections are clearly numbered on Hugo M-Scaler (BNC 1, BNC 2), they are not on DAVE. So, which BNC input on DAVE is BNC 1, which one is BNC 2? Which one is the upper and the lower one? Is it necessary at all to connect BNC 1 at M-Scaler with BNC 1 at DAVE, or is it also possible to connect them crosswise (BNC 1 at M-Scaler to BNC 2 at DAVE and vice versa)?

I remember Rob stating that it can be connected crosswise because the information for right and left is included in the signal coming from the m scaler

 

[JaZZ]

Thanks! I believe I tried this and the Qutest doesn't allow digital volume control.

That's why I recommended a media player with digital volume control.

I remember Rob stating that it can be connected crosswise because the information for right and left is included in the signal coming from the m scaler

Not in mine.

 

[dmance]

Has anyone done a direct comparison between Psaudio Direcstream Bridge 2 ($6k) and Qutest/Hugo2+M-Scaler ($6-7k)?

I have a directstream (no bridge) and hugo2. Toslink to both. Very well isolated.
No question, hugo2 is more resolving, better staging, and mostly way better transients.

 

[maxh22]

I have a directstream (no bridge) and hugo2. Toslink to both. Very well isolated.
No question, hugo2 is more resolving, better staging, and mostly way better transients.

Do you have Sr or Jr?

 

[dmance]

Do you have Sr or Jr?

Sr, redcloud.

 

[maxh22]

Sr, redcloud.

In Darko's review of H2, when compared against the DS, he said:

"On exposing electronic music’s inner spaciousness and image focus, the Hugo 2 rivals Ted Smith’s take on FPGA-coded conversion. The Brit’s detail retrieval smarts are also on par with the Coloradoan. Where it falls short is on acoustic mass and slam."

In your system do you hear more acoustic mass and slam with the Directstream?

 

[dmance]

In Darko's review of H2, when compared against the DS, he said:

"On exposing electronic music’s inner spaciousness and image focus, the Hugo 2 rivals Ted Smith’s take on FPGA-coded conversion. The Brit’s detail retrieval smarts are also on par with the Coloradoan. Where it falls short is on acoustic mass and slam."

In your system do you hear more acoustic mass and slam with the Directstream?

Max,
In 2017 I helped with early reviews of the H2(here). At that time my source was USB thru an intona and ferrites. In comparison to the DS Jr I said they were very close.
Six months ago I purchased a DS Sr and moved on to toslink to avoid my RFI from source and also isolated the DS's AC with an isolation transformer and ferrites on the power cord. It's was(is) great. Recently, however, I got a great deal on a used H2 and ran it on Toslink and on batteries ...so fully isolated.
Both were run direct to amp and speakers.
I will stand by my statement that a properly isolated H2 is pretty special. It took only a few days for me to prefer it over my DS Sr.
I'm not sure what Darko ran as source but since H2 is without any galvanic isolation on USB, its much better (best?) over optical.
And at my near field listening, at only low-to-moderate volumes, the WTA magic of the H2 just makes everything more real and pleasurable.
Dan

 

[jlbrach]

Has anyone done a direct comparison between Psaudio Direcstream Bridge 2 ($6k) and Qutest/Hugo2+M-Scaler ($6-7k)?

i have the ps audio bridge 2 hooked up in my living room with my speaker system and the dave/blu2 used for HP's right now......the dave/blu2 is better but for the cost the ps audio is very very good and highly recommended and with the bridge 2 very versatile

 

[musickid]

Dan with dual bnc galvanically isolated from an mscaler to h2 would you consider that perfectly isolated? if you don't there seems to be vey little room for manoeuvre for h2/scaler owners here?

 

[musickid]

thephones, your statement refers to hugo2/mscaler not dave/mscaler.

 

[dmance]

Dan with dual bnc galvanically isolated from an mscaler to h2 would you consider that perfectly isolated? if you don't there seems to be vey little room for manoeuvre for h2/scaler owners here?

Yeah, optical isolation of the dual coax would be ideal. Then we know the H2 is 100% isolated from the M-Scaler. Ferrites on the coax work, sort-of. Rob Watts still has not replied (upon completion of his tests) on why clamp-on ferrites appear to introduce more noise.

Fyi, for my own testing I have ordered some industrial isolation & coax-over-fibre components. They are rated at 17Mhz bandwidth so should be good enough for 6Mhz spdif. If they work, they will be much less expensive than the dedicated coax cable being sold.
I'll post my results.
Dan

 

[Triode User]

Yeah, optical isolation of the dual coax would be ideal. Then we know the H2 is 100% isolated from the M-Scaler. Ferrites on the coax work, sort-of. Rob Watts still has not replied (upon completion of his tests) on why clamp-on ferrites appear to introduce more noise.

Solid core ferrites on the coax work better than ‘sort of’. They basically cure the residual RF noise in the HMS.

Fyi, for my own testing I have ordered some industrial isolation & coax-over-fibre components. They are rated at 17Mhz bandwidth so should be good enough for 6Mhz spdif. If they work, they will be much less expensive than the dedicated coax cable being sold.
I'll post my results.
Dan

That will be interesting. It is possible that you might reintroduce noise from the fibre to coax convertor and its power supply. Many RF over fibre devices are really designed to transmit RF over long distances via fibre and so noise which might affect a DAC might not have been a design priority. And of course the HMS already has quite good internal dual bnc RF isolation and so we are really talking about a 'mop up' operation for the residual RF with much less expensive dedicated ferrited cabes being needed. Your solution might be a sledge hammer to crack a walnut but as I said, it will be interesting.

Regarding the issues caused by split core (clamp on) ferrites, this possible explanation has been posted.

I have had a chat to my husband, he was the microwave engineer, my RF design experience stopped at 100MHz. He says that any imperfections where the ferrite sections join would act as a slot antenna radiating directly in line with the cable. So this could induce the noise back into the cable

 

[Amberlamps]

Max,
In 2017 I helped with early reviews of the H2(here). At that time my source was USB thru an intona and ferrites. In comparison to the DS Jr I said they were very close.
Six months ago I purchased a DS Sr and moved on to toslink to avoid my RFI from source and also isolated the DS's AC with an isolation transformer and ferrites on the power cord. It's was(is) great. Recently, however, I got a great deal on a used H2 and ran it on Toslink and on batteries ...so fully isolated.
Both were run direct to amp and speakers.
I will stand by my statement that a properly isolated H2 is pretty special. It took only a few days for me to prefer it over my DS Sr.
I'm not sure what Darko ran as source but since H2 is without any galvanic isolation on USB, its much better (best?) over optical.
And at my near field listening, at only low-to-moderate volumes, the WTA magic of the H2 just makes everything more real and pleasurable.
Dan

When you mention Darko and H2, which he gave a good review of, I just can’t help but think of the verge, and it’s crap review of H2. I don’t know what type of drugs the reviewer was taking at the time, but it clearly was ototoxic.