[Jgeffen]

I can only speak for Blu2, the difference between low medium and high was quite noticeable but the difference between a good source (ProJect CD Box rs + PS / MSB CD IV / Aurender N10) directly into Dave vs Blu2 at 1m taps was a small improvement. I would ask people with good sources to compare them directly connected to their DAC vs 1M taps, not bypass vs 1M taps, just curious?

Thanks, very interesting to read!
I do have a Sonore ultraRendu to feed my Chord Qutest; not bad too.
I would like to try this.

 

[AndrewOld]

Not according to some others in this thread (little improvements), but if so, I would like to read some magazine reviews first to be convinced.
I hope Hifi News will review it soon.

What do you want out of your system? A set of good reviews by people you’ve never met? Or great music that blows you away reliably? What a total waste of time waiting for a review, when you could instead arrange a home demonstration and make up your own mind in your own home with your own music in your own system. Why don’t you trust your own ears?

 

[marcmccalmont]

Thanks, very interesting to read!
I do have a Sonore ultraRendu to feed my Chord Qutest; not bad too.
I would like to try this.

Please let me know your results, I'm thinking people with average sources (laptop/usb etc) and people with poor room acoustics/speaker setup (speakers up against a wall, reflective surfaces or absorption between the speakers etc) get larger improvements than those with excellent sources and well set up rooms. Just a guess it's still a mystery why some are hearing huge improvements and others small improvements.

 

[dmance]

@marcmccalmont
@Jgeffen
Any source comparison to any DAC should use optical input as a basis. Any input involving a metal based cable just invites a stream of RF noise into the DAC to colour the sound. In this case you will hear differences between sources but they have nothing to do with the '''quality" of the bits (which are always the same).
I trust chord DACs are jitter immune and went to toslink and never looked back.
Dan

 

[marcmccalmont]

What do you want out of your system? A set of good reviews by people you’ve never met? Or great music that blows you away reliably? What a total waste of time waiting for a review, when you could instead arrange a home demonstration and make up your own mind in your own home with your own music in your own system. Why don’t you trust your own ears?

Some of us don't have the luxury of in home demonstrations and consistent reviews add legitimacy to a products value. I have yet to read a bad review of any Chord DACs!

 

[Jgeffen]

What do you want out of your system? A set of good reviews by people you’ve never met? Or great music that blows you away reliably? What a total waste of time waiting for a review, when you could instead arrange a home demonstration and make up your own mind in your own home with your own music in your own system. Why don’t you trust your own ears?

Thanks for your reply! You are right, but I am always patient with new arrivals.

 

[marcmccalmont]

@marcmccalmont
@Jgeffen
Any source comparison to any DAC should use optical input as a basis. Any input involving a metal based cable just invites a stream of RFI noise into the DAC to colour the sound. In this case you will hear differences between sources but they have nothing to do with the '''quality" of the bits (which are always the same).
I trust chord DACs are jitter immune and went to toslink and never looked back.
Dan

One benefit of the Mscaler is it has an optical input

 

[Jgeffen]

Please let me know your results, I'm thinking people with average sources (laptop/usb etc) and people with poor room acoustics/speaker setup (speakers up against a wall, reflective surfaces or absorption between the speakers etc) get larger improvements than those with excellent sources and well set up rooms. Just a guess it's still a mystery why some are hearing huge improvements and others small improvements.

Thanks, I will do that, but not enough time right now.

 

[TeediuS]

The mscaler takes the input from optical (upto 96/24) and upscale to the max.

Because optical allows for 100% electrical isolation and should be the reference for quality without electrical noise from the source. Not sure where you read that optical input is only 4x as that is completely inaccurate.

General comment... The source does not need to be up-sampled, and shouldn’t be, for the full M-scaling.

So the manual is incorrect? It states that optical input of 44.1 is upscaled to 176.4 on the white setting (P33). I thought the primary premise of the mscaler was to upscale (and reconstructing the analogue), and then for the DAC to take the extra detail and decode ?

 

[x RELIC x]

So the manual is incorrect? It states that optical input of 44.1 is upscaled to 176.4 on the white setting (P33). I thought the primary premise of the mscaler was to upscale (and reconstructing the analogue), and then for the DAC to take the extra detail and decode ?

The manual is confusing. I presume you are referring to the section 4.5 chart which is for outputting through the different outputs to non-Chord DACs. It’s been pointed out before regarding the manual, but all inputs use the full M-scaling when connected to a Chord DAC with dual coaxial / BNC. The M scaler is entirely in the digital domain and the DAC converts to analogue.

 

[Nik74]

What do you want out of your system? A set of good reviews by people you’ve never met? Or great music that blows you away reliably? What a total waste of time waiting for a review, when you could instead arrange a home demonstration and make up your own mind in your own home with your own music in your own system. Why don’t you trust your own ears?

Very much agree. First and foremost your own ears make the decision of what sounds good and what not so.
In the few months of reading this forum I d say that cherry picking on opinions of people, reading between the lines and observing conversations gives more trusted information than any magazine review.

 

[TeediuS]

Wow, just woowww. Excuse the blasphemy, but hooked up to my stereo, and goosebumps after goosebumps listening through James Blake Overgrown.

I felt I had fluked it a bit with my speaker placement, after obsessively adjusting but never being really happy with the sound, then one day i stumbled on a point where the mains alone sounded holographic. (Going from Cambridge 851n -> emotive xpa-1s -> paradigm studio 100s).

Adding in the TT2 & MScaler in the chain has completely blown the walls from my room away, the depth and placement is fantastic. Also, the absolute detail in the music is leaps and bounds ahead of what I was getting before (even through the 851n upscaled everything to 384).

Haven't dropped MScaler back out the chain yet, to see how much is TT2 vs MScaler, but I think these really do push whatever you're feeding it to, to the max.

 

[musickid]

Philosophising on Adrian's review and the increase in perceived soundstage."The curse of dimensionality refers to various phenomena that arise when analyzing and organizing data in high-dimensional spaces that do not occur in low-dimensional settings such as the three-dimensional physical space of everyday experience." The effect of the mscaler is almost impossible to accurately describe using the English language or any other language for that matter IMHO.

I have the following 3 points if Rob or anyone here can help 1) Should the large metal ring on the bnc connector have some room to move ie it should be slightly loose and not fixed tightly?

2) I tried playing you tube videos with auto video yellow selected. The sample rate DXOP showed what looks like 88.1kHz not 48KHz which i thought you get with video and the cyan video detected light did not come on. Are all you tube videos not necessarily 48kHz or did i do something wrong trying to get the cyan video detected light to light up?

3) With regards to power consumption is it okay to plug in TT2, HMS and my computer and router into my high quality Olson mains strip? Currently with H2 no problems so i'm enquiring about introducing a TT2 into my power supply alongside the HMS and other equipment, i.e. my computer and router. Many thanks MK.

 

[Mikey99]

The stock BNC cables seem quite touchy. I adjusted the cables and started experiencing drop-outs every few minutes. Prior to that I had no drop-outs at all. I have played with them a bit more and it seems reduced now, but drop-outs still happens once in a while. The drop-outs only occur in dual BNC mode.

 

[Triode User]

The stock BNC cables seem quite touchy. I adjusted the cables and started experiencing drop-outs every few minutes. Prior to that I had no drop-outs at all. I have played with them a bit more and it seems reduced now, but drop-outs still happens once in a while. The drop-outs only occur in dual BNC mode.

It may be the cables. I have taken apart a pair of the supplied bnc cables. The screen crimp is only onto the soft outer insulation (as opposed to better ones where the crimp is solid onto the metal body of the connector). They are not a robust construction for long term use IMO but are fine for a get you going pair of cables. The connector itself is also built down to a price and the screen does not have much coverage. But don’t complain too much, they were free. A slightly more expensive pair of cables with canare or similar connectors may be more reliable.