[Amberlamps]

I imagine the TT 2 sounds smoother and more revealing, than the Hugo 2. That's how I find Chord DACs as they go up the line, being due to more detail. I imagine other qualities, and some I can't think of. The Hugo 2 was beyond my expectations so I expect the TT 2 to be.

(Currently playing Peer Gynt - Suite #46 1. Morning mood. Silky: flutes, oboes, and strings.)

I wonder about the idea of trading in equipment. Won't we lose a lot of value. Wouldn't it be better to keep the Hugo 2. I know I would if I bought a TT 2. I would want to keep the Hugo 2, for using when away from the TT 2. Also I would want it for the off-chance that the TT 2 failed or had to be in for repair.

In financial terms, in the UK, the Hugo 2 costs £1800. Whereas how much would trade in be. Maybe £800 - £900. More or less I do not know. However the effect of not trading-in, is someone offering a Hugo 2 to me for £900. I would bite their hand off.

Depending on where you shop, tradein value could actually be £1800 and how they manage to do it and still make money is weird.

 

[Amberlamps]

I listen to classical (mostly large-scale), contemporary Jazz, (progressive/alternative/independent) Rock, electronica... The M Scaler effect is rather independent of the genre.

Thats good to know, as I was starting to think that it was mostly classical music that the mscaler was happy with, but if it’s independent of genre, I should be hearing changes with basically all my music.

I will use one track and will listen to it a couple of times on hugo only, and then on hugo and mscaler. But that would still leave the question regarding 1 million taps and passthrough sounding the same, some people say it sounds the same, others like yourself say that the change from 1 million taps to 49 thousand ala passthrough mode is also noticeable.

I’m suspecting a few things are at work here, hopefully it’s just something simple and can be easily resolved, what I think has caused some confusion is the fact that I hadn’t listened to hugo for a couple of months before I got my mscaler. I always get blown away when I stop listening to hugo and then come back to using it. It’s that good. If I could solve the “passthrough sounds the same” problem, I would be happy.

 

[zappazappazappa]

I imagine the TT 2 sounds smoother and more revealing, than the Hugo 2. That's how I find Chord DACs as they go up the line, being due to more detail. I imagine other qualities, and some I can't think of. The Hugo 2 was beyond my expectations so I expect the TT 2 to be.

(Currently playing Peer Gynt - Suite #46 1. Morning mood. Silky: flutes, oboes, and strings.)

I wonder about the idea of trading in equipment. Won't we lose a lot of value. Wouldn't it be better to keep the Hugo 2. I know I would if I bought a TT 2. I would want to keep the Hugo 2, for using when away from the TT 2. Also I would want it for the off-chance that the TT 2 failed or had to be in for repair.

In financial terms, in the UK, the Hugo 2 costs £1800. Whereas how much would trade in be. Maybe £800 - £900. More or less I do not know. However the effect of not trading-in, is someone offering a Hugo 2 to me for £900. I would bite their hand off.

When I upgraded my Hugo 1 to Hugo TT several years ago I part exchanged with Fanthorpes who gave me £1000 trade in (Hugo 1 was retailing for £1400 at the time). Obviously I can't predict what they would offer as a trade in price for your Hugo 2 all I would say is they are very fair on trade ins as well as nice (and professional) people to deal with. In case any one's wondering I don't work for or am in any way associated with Fanthorpes!

 

[thePhones]

What I find mind-boggling how fast each and every time this thread gets rushed by fear that the m scaler is flawed.
I always like to even better my experience with the Chord products although I am 99% happy without it, but that doesn't mean that I'm not happy with the product. For example the discussion about the lengths of bnc cables brought me closer to the sound I always dreamed of. I bought a very short cable because I thought that's just more practical, but after this discussion I tried the 1m cable provided by Chord and wow, already a big difference (yes big... when you get so close to 100% everything matters imo). So I ordered a 2m although this is completely unpractical but this is what I want: as close as possible to perfection.
But to make a point here: the m scaler is absolutely awesome and I am so glad that Rob has invented this baby. There is nothing else on this planet that does this kind of magic when it comes to reproduction of digitally stored music. For the first time ever I like to listen to piano, before (yes to also with the Hugo 2) it was just not realistic enough.
Oh where I'm at it: just everything gets so much more realistic AND musical I tell you
I'm convinced since the Hugo 1 that Rob is discovering something really special and it got better with each and every tap, oh boy does his wta filters sound good.
So please keep the negativity down a bit. Let's enjoy the music and help each other out to reach 100%

 

[Lgn3]

When I upgraded my Hugo 1 to Hugo TT several years ago I part exchanged with Fanthorpes who gave me £1000 trade in (Hugo 1 was retailing for £1400 at the time). Obviously I can't predict what they would offer as a trade in price for your Hugo 2 all I would say is they are very fair on trade ins as well as nice (and professional) people to deal with. In case any one's wondering I don't work for or am in any way associated with Fanthorpes!

I do not work for Fanthorpes either but my experience dealing with them is exactly as yours.

 

[ZappaMan]

Nintronics offer very high trade in value for hugo2.

 

[TeediuS]

as for what you're hearing (or not), i'd focus on the bass. the key thing i notice is the tightness, and note variations, with some bass or sub-bass note purposely having a wobble and that being clearer and more detailed.

when i was demoing the mscaler, and first brought it home, it was more the shift to TT2 that I felt was the big step change, and mscaler wasnt as noticeable (though, to note I got both at the same time). i dont hear much difference flicking to passthrough, but then it's not immediate (couple of secs to flick back to full mode, and slight pause when going from white to red), so that makes it harder to pickup.

I took the mscaler out of the link last night (just moved optical over to tt2, and changed the input from dbnc to opt1), certainly a lot brighter (sounded a little louder too, like 1db or so). listened to a few songs that way (maybe about half an hour), then shifted it back. cant remember what optical input i had it in the mscaler before, put it 1, and cycled input to the purple (auto select?), and was definetely a noticeable difference (as in better than what i thought i was hearing before taking it out of the chain). ended up listening for an extra couple of hours, going some of my favourite songs. i have changed a few things over the last few days, shifting to using lcd-x for a bit, moreso than hd800s (musickid, still cant find my pm-1 6.5mm cable, argg), and my ghent-audio bnc cables arrived the other day, so they've been added in recently. i've also been changing filters a bit now, settling on filter 3 / xfd0, whereas was mainly on fil1 previously. so a few changes all over the last few days, but last night certainly sounded like it gel'd more together, and a noticeable change with mscaler out of the loop (which is pretty easy to do, as long as you can get to the back).

 

[JaZZ]

Thats good to know, as I was starting to think that it was mostly classical music that the mscaler was happy with, but if it’s independent of genre, I should be hearing changes with basically all my music.

I will use one track and will listen to it a couple of times on hugo only, and then on hugo and mscaler. But that would still leave the question regarding 1 million taps and passthrough sounding the same, some people say it sounds the same, others like yourself say that the change from 1 million taps to 49 thousand ala passthrough mode is also noticeable.

I’m suspecting a few things are at work here, hopefully it’s just something simple and can be easily resolved, what I think has caused some confusion is the fact that I hadn’t listened to hugo for a couple of months before I got my mscaler. I always get blown away when I stop listening to hugo and then come back to using it. It’s that good. If I could solve the “passthrough sounds the same” problem, I would be happy.

I hope that you'll find a good solution – ideally in the form of finding the M Scaler's magic by just enjoying the music without the nagging doubts. Meanwhile the M Scaler has become very important to me, but I can still listen to music without it – particularly in bed through X5 II, Hugo₂ and Atlas, where I often renounce the hassle to dislocate the M Scaler each time.

 

[Amberlamps]

What I find mind-boggling how fast each and every time this thread gets rushed by fear that the m scaler is flawed.
I always like to even better my experience with the Chord products although I am 99% happy without it, but that doesn't mean that I'm not happy with the product. For example the discussion about the lengths of bnc cables brought me closer to the sound I always dreamed of. I bought a very short cable because I thought that's just more practical, but after this discussion I tried the 1m cable provided by Chord and wow, already a big difference (yes big... when you get so close to 100% everything matters imo). So I ordered a 2m although this is completely unpractical but this is what I want: as close as possible to perfection.
But to make a point here: the m scaler is absolutely awesome and I am so glad that Rob has invented this baby. There is nothing else on this planet that does this kind of magic when it comes to reproduction of digitally stored music. For the first time ever I like to listen to piano, before (yes to also with the Hugo 2) it was just not realistic enough.
Oh where I'm at it: just everything gets so much more realistic AND musical I tell you
I'm convinced since the Hugo 1 that Rob is discovering something really special and it got better with each and every tap, oh boy does his wta filters sound good.
So please keep the negativity down a bit. Let's enjoy the music and help each other out to reach 100%

Where do you see negativity ?

Is nobody allowed to have a genuine concern about a product nowadays that even mentioning it is somehow “negative”, I’m not the only person who mentions that 1 million taps to passthrough sounds more or less identical.

Keep the smillies down a bit, as this is a serious thread and laughing smillies are not permitted.

 

[HughF]

I took the mscaler out of the link last night (just moved optical over to tt2, and changed the input from dbnc to opt1), certainly a lot brighter (sounded a little louder too, like 1db or so). listened to a few songs that way (maybe about half an hour), then shifted it back.

IIRC, RW said there was a 3dB loss in volume using the Hugo M Scaler (whether on pass-through or not) so that might make comparisons before and after removing the HMS from the chain quite tricky.

Re the improvement or not with HMS : I am only able to use one BNC cable into my Hugo TT but I find the HMS a big improvement even so - depth, detail, bass etc. I am driving loudspeakers via an amplifier, not headphones.

Hugh

 

[naynay]

Hi,

Can i just ask is it normal that when you wobble the Dual BNC Cables M Scaler end it loses connection for a split second no problem Dac end wobbling dual BNC?

 

[thePhones]

Where do you see negativity ?

Is nobody allowed to have a genuine concern about a product nowadays that even mentioning it is somehow “negative”, I’m not the only person who mentions that 1 million taps to passthrough sounds more or less identical.

Keep the smillies down a bit, as this is a serious thread and laughing smillies are not permitted.

Oh I didn't meant your posts. I was referring to the "let's just not buy this c**p" negativity.
Also I think that when you here no difference when changing from 1m to pass through you are maybe just very fatigued or your source is not bit perfect. And... here you are

 

[Amberlamps]

I hope that you'll find a good solution – ideally in the form of finding the M Scaler's magic by just enjoying the music without the nagging doubts. Meanwhile the M Scaler has become very important to me, but I can still listen to music without it – particularly in bed through X5 II, Hugo₂ and Atlas, where I often renounce the hassle to dislocate the M Scaler each time.

I’m sure I will,

I do notice the mscaler at work, it’s just going from 1million taps to passthrough that is confusing, as it sounds more or less the same.

As far as I understood it to be, passthrough is basically just Hugo 2 doing the work, and the mscaler not upscaling it. Rob did say something about the mscaler still doing something to the volume, whilst in passthrough mode. What exactly it was, I don’t remember.

My plan is to use hugo on it’s own with a couple of well known tracks, and then do the same thing with the mscaler in the loop, 1 million taps and then passthrough. Hopefully that is all it will take to figure out this passthrough prob that I seem to be having.

I’m sure the mscaler itself is ok and doing it’s job, it’s just this weird transition from 1 million taps to passthrough. I would of thought the difference between them would of been super obvious, but it’s not, as confirmed by some others, which reassures me that it’s just the way it is.

I will figure the passthrough problem out tomorrow when I can peacefully test just hugo, then hugo and mscaler, and then hugo, mscaler and pass through.

 

[Amberlamps]

Oh I didn't meant your posts. I was referring to the "let's just not buy this c**p" negativity.
Also I think that when you here no difference when changing from 1m to pass through you are maybe just very fatigued or your source is not bit perfect. And... here you are

Ah sorry, I thought you were meaning me being negative towards the mscaler, which I’m not, it’s just a weird little problem which hopefully be figured out tomorrow. It could be any number of things and it could even be the end user

I was joking about the smillies, we need moar

 

[thePhones]

I’m sure I will,

I do notice the mscaler at work, it’s just going from 1million taps to passthrough that is confusing, as it sounds more or less the same.

As far as I understood it to be, passthrough is basically just Hugo 2 doing the work, and the mscaler not upscaling it. Rob did say something about the mscaler still doing something to the volume, whilst in passthrough mode. What exactly it was, I don’t remember.

My plan is to use hugo on it’s own with a couple of well known tracks, and then do the same thing with the mscaler in the loop, 1 million taps and then passthrough. Hopefully that is all it will take to figure out this passthrough prob that I seem to be having.

I’m sure the mscaler itself is ok and doing it’s job, it’s just this weird transition from 1 million taps to passthrough. I would of thought the difference between them would of been super obvious, but it’s not, as confirmed by some others, which reassures me that it’s just the way it is.

I will figure the passthrough problem out tomorrow when I can peacefully test just hugo, then hugo and mscaler, and then hugo, mscaler and pass through.

I can confirm that sometimes I also don't notice the change when going down. But I notice very easily when going back up. But maybe this is just a psychological effect, as the m scaler brings me in that "enjoying music mood" and when you throw just any music no matter the source at me when i am in that "state" I find it just super musical(even out of my smartphone speaker ). But that effect goes away after a few minutes and then I have to go back to the m scaler to enjoy music again. So ... yeah I think it's just that our mood is playing tricks with us.