[Triode User]

I just tried this on my setup, it does not like it!! Really strange, but when I try to select inputs 'backwards' it locks on to the dual signal but plays it at 705 despite it being a HiRes track, when I cycle through the inputs the 'correct' way it goes to 768. Bizarre, but no big deal I guess now I know. Thanks guys.

Yep, strange. I have just tried again going backwards and it locks on with the BNC 3 and then after the few seconds I get 768kHz (I am feeding HMS 48k). I have no ideas why we get different results on the same kit.

 

[Christer]

More or less laptop size, but thicker and heavier

I am not really sure how much each weigh but when I brought my heavy 17" MBP to listen to the two together today I did some in hand weight comparisons before everything was setup and it felt as if each on its own weighed sligtly more than my 6lbs heavy laptop.

I am really temped to buy a featherlight just released brand new 13" Macbook Air with 16gigabyte of ram and at least 512 SSD this season.

In other words both TT2 and Mscaler together at least 12lbs I think.
Not a doublepack I would carry around on my travels.
And I would absolutely not pack either of them in a suitcase on flights.

But both heavy and expensive as it is, at least the M-scaler is undoubtedly still on my radar.

The Macbook Air I mentioned above is even beefed up with 16Gig ram and 512TB hardrive still quite a lot! cheaper than either of these two audiophile toys.
And that is so even accounting for the fact that with Apple you have to pay way more for the same tech than when buying a pc only because "someone has already taken a bite out of the apple on the back".

Anyway,

I started my listening for about half an hour with my usual large scale symphonic acoustic hi res reference material via two different sets of headphones connected simultanously, Senneiser's HD820 and the new HE1000SE from HIFIMAN and TT2 on its own.

Intial impressions were not overwhelmingly positive with TT2 on its own.
I had honestly expected a much more obvious SQ advantage over both H2 and Qutest also at hand, finding the sound still "a bit digital" and with a whiff of synthetic at first. But with more inner low level detail than both H2 and Qutest. Judging from this first real music session I would not be willing to pay so much more for a TT2 than a H2 or Qutest.

But adding the M-scaler now THAT was something else indeed!!

Even more detail than TT2 on its own, but less synthetic and less digital sounding with ,sorry to repeat it all over again, for those who find me really annoying, but material I know very well how it can and should sound.

With Mscaler added there was no doubt that I was hearing a clearly and very obviously more effortless and realistic sound with both more information delivered and timbrally more accurate.
And of course also opening up the soundstage quite a lot.

I spent about two hours with the TT2/Mscaler combo but when I was ready to connect the Mscaler to Qutest instead of TT2 the shop got really busy and it was impossible to listen to low level symphonic material any longer even via the HD820.
But I will return next week again and hopefully run through the same program again with Qutest connected to a very good headphone amp and the M-scaler.

With TT2/Mscaler I was mainly listening on green level into blue and maxed out with really low level mastered non compressed material into -4 on the scale. But most listening was done between 15-25 on the TT2 scale.


Via HE1000SE I could hear really low level things I know are there, but not as clearly via Qutest and my HEKV2, via Mscaler gentle ppp level brushes sounded closer to how they should sound hitherto only heard via DAVE/BLU2 outside of the sessions.

But the question is whether my humble Qutest will deliver something similar or approaching what I heard, connected to a really good headphone amp?
Maybe I will know next week.

I suppose some of my posts on this thread have been a bit "Sour said the fox".
Mscaler does deliver .

But I am still a very greedy person and don't want to spend more than absolutely needed.

There was also a very puzzling incident. When someone connected something to the same power outlet TT2/Mscaler stopped working completely and had to be restarted again.
I don't know why this happened not did the saleman who plugged in some other unit on the same line.

PS Not even a single second of AC/DC was listened to by me this time around.

Cheers Controversial Christer

 

[tunes]

.


I suggest not being sidetracked by the gold plating. More important is a good quality robust BNC connector. Unless you know what you are looking for it is difficult to know what is poor but the cheaper ones are flimsy (and many have gold plating just to fool you!).

As an example I just photographed some of the one I use to show you that some of the best do not use gold plating.
You can trust Canare, Belden etc and other well known names - (Canare are second and third down in my photo).

They do not have to be expensive, the ones at the top of the photo are by a firm confusingly called 'Coax-connectors' and they are good value.

What do you think of these?

 

[Triode User]

What do you think of these?

I use similar myself and they should be fine.

My comments in the post you quote were really regarding the actual BNC connectors on the cables.

 

[tunes]

Was referring to the connection between the HUGO2 and HMS using splitter shown above connected to the coax input and then adding the prior pictured RCA male to BNC female adapters to connect to the dual BNC cables from the HMS. I assume there is no other way other than this combination of connectors to get 1million taps out of the HUGO2 and HMS.

What I don’t understand is which input should be selected, coax 1 or coax 2 and why there are two selections with only a single coax in port on the HUGO2?

 

[hken]

I just got my HMS connecting to my Qutest. The sound is amazing from this combination. I have a concern though. HMS powered on, when I touch the case of the HMS with my hand, I feel the electrical buzz vibration. Is there anything I should worry about? How to solve this?

 

[Amberlamps]

With what headphones are you on blue?

With Hugo2 and Utopia I’m in the red range, same with ETHER Flow and LCDi4. No M scaler though.

Similar to me, red/orangy colour.

Although when I think about it, it really depends on the loudness of the tracks being played. Some of my tracks sound loud enough at red/orange, but others need upped to green/blue.

 

[Amberlamps]

I just got my HMS connecting to my Qutest. The sound is amazing from this combination. I have a concern though. HMS powered on, when I touch the case of the HMS with my hand, I feel the electrical buzz vibration. Is there anything I should worry about? How to solve this?

Same as mine, when I touch the top of the mscalers case it feels like it’s buzzing. I would say it’s normal, just the components inside reacting to electricity.

Mojo does the same when charging.

The way to solve this would be by adding goop, think silicone that you use for putting tiles up in your bathroom. It’s similar to that but thicker.

Google some pc psu tear down photos, you will see what I mean, some of those psu’s are totally covered in it.

 

[GreenLeo]

Same as mine, when I touch the top of the mscalers case it feels like it’s buzzing. I would say it’s normal, just the components inside reacting to electricity.

Mojo does the same when charging.

Rob told me that the statics is no need to worry.

 

[hken]

Good to know there is nothing to worry about. I wondered because my Qutest don't have statics at all while operating.

 

[Amberlamps]

Rob told me that the statics is no need to worry.

Yeah, it’s nothing to worry about, but as far as I’m aware, it’s not static, just electricity making a component vibrate at a high frequency.

Think coil whine on your motherboard, copper coils that whine when the pc is powered up, same/similar thing, thats why nowadays they wrap them in rubber and some also cover them in goop also.

 

[dawktah2]

No ...as jfranks said in a post, Bluebird Music waited too long to place an order. It's all just business, unfortunately.

There seemed to be a rather long delay on setting a price. Once set it upset a lot of us.

i would assume they choose their distributors.

Maybe it's time for second US distributor? As large as our country is one distributor in a monopoly doesn't seem quite right.

 

[Amberlamps]

Was referring to the connection between the HUGO2 and HMS using splitter shown above connected to the coax input and then adding the prior pictured RCA male to BNC female adapters to connect to the dual BNC cables from the HMS. I assume there is no other way other than this combination of connectors to get 1million taps out of the HUGO2 and HMS.

What I don’t understand is which input should be selected, coax 1 or coax 2 and why there are two selections with only a single coax in port on the HUGO2?

To connect hugo 2 to mscaler, you need that adapter pictured, and also “2 female bnc to male rca” adapters also.

Those adapter will fit on the bnc cables that come in the mscalers box, once attached, you can then connect the cables to your audio quest rca adapter pictured.

For 1 million taps on the mscaler, select coax 2 on hugo 2’s remote, and on mscaler, select usb on the remote.

 

[Birdboy01]

Here in the US , 1st shipment of HMS arriving next week.
So, for those in floating rarified air having heard the BluMKT2, how does the m-scaler compare- both with and w/out Blu's transport? Those with a DAVE, shout out too?
Also heard the included HMS BnC's are a notch better? Looks like the ferrite roar has calmed down ..

thank you !
Mike

 

[Mikey99]

I

Here in the US , 1st shipment of HMS arriving next week.
So, for those in floating rarified air having heard the BluMKT2, how does the m-scaler compare- both with and w/out Blu's transport? Those with a DAVE, shout out too?
Also heard the included HMS BnC's are a notch better? Looks like the ferrite roar has calmed down ..

thank you !
Mike

You used the f-word!

The included HMS BNCs seem quite basic. I had to replace mine due to a poor connection with the first pair.