[Christer]

A friend of mine compared a Qutest to his Hugo2 both listening and testing. He found the stock power supply to be limiting on the Qutest and found the ifi ipower to increase its performance to near the Hugo2

Hi,
When auditioning the M Scaler earlier this week I also tried a battery powered linear power supply unit with Qutest and there could be slightly less noise by using one. But I need to confirm that under completely silent conditions to be absolutely sure.
Anyway I am thinking of getting one just to be able to use Qutest without having to plug it in.
I am travelling with a battery powered headphone amp that runs for weeks on 2 Lithium 9 volt battteries and my mbp and that way I could be independent of wall power four up to 4-5 hours of listening to hi res files.
Regarding H2, my experience with it is that it will not drive difficult power-hungry planar headphones as effortlessly as Qutest and a high quality headphone amp.
What headphones was your friend using?

But to be completely honest imho, neither of the two are even close to good enough for me having heard what M Scaler adds.

The best possible SQ from Chord is either DAVE/BLU2 or DAVE/M Scaler it seems, with TT2 a very good second.
But M Scaler elevates both H2 and Qutest from ok, to very nice and enjoyable SQ imho.
Cheers Controversial Christer just gettting ready for today's Sunday matine´concert in KL.

 

[jlbrach]

I am shocked how many people will suggest the speakers or HP’s are most important. If the source is no good it does not matter how good the speakers are. I would much rather have a decent speaker or HP and TOTL source than a TOTL HP and poor source

 

[hehaw77]

I am shocked how many people will suggest the speakers or HP’s are most important. If the source is no good it does not matter how good the speakers are. I would much rather have a decent speaker or HP and TOTL source than a TOTL HP and poor source

Welcome to earth... I'm thinking of buying a Abyss 1266 ; which do you prefer that one or the Susvara...

 

[Mikey99]

I am shocked how many people will suggest the speakers or HP’s are most important. If the source is no good it does not matter how good the speakers are. I would much rather have a decent speaker or HP and TOTL source than a TOTL HP and poor source

I agree source is important, but there is a need for balance through the chain, and it depends on your starting point.

For fun I just did an experiment with my setup (iMac / Roon> optical>Chord Hugo M-Scaler>Chord DAVE > XI Audio Formula S with Powerman > Abyss 1266 Phi). I swapped out the HD800 for the Abyss, and compared that benefit to the M-Scaler in/out on both. I.e., comparing an HD-800 to Abyss upgrade to an M-Scaler upgrade. The delta in price for both upgrades is order-of-magnitude comparable. In this case if I had to choose I would pick the headphone upgrade, no contest.

 

[marcmccalmont]

Hi,
When auditioning the M Scaler earlier this week I also tried a battery powered linear power supply unit with Qutest and there could be slightly less noise by using one. But I need to confirm that under completely silent conditions to be absolutely sure.
Anyway I am thinking of getting one just to be able to use Qutest without having to plug it in.
I am travelling with a battery powered headphone amp that runs for weeks on 2 Lithium 9 volt battteries and my mbp and that way I could be independent of wall power four up to 4-5 hours of listening to hi res files.
Regarding H2, my experience with it is that it will not drive difficult power-hungry planar headphones as effortlessly as Qutest and a high quality headphone amp.
What headphones was your friend using?

But to be completely honest imho, neither of the two are even close to good enough for me having heard what M Scaler adds.

The best possible SQ from Chord is either DAVE/BLU2 or DAVE/M Scaler it seems, with TT2 a very good second.
But M Scaler elevates both H2 and Qutest from ok, to very nice and enjoyable SQ imho.
Cheers Controversial Christer just gettting ready for today's Sunday matine´concert in KL.

Both my friend and I are 95% speakers 5% headphones both of us have Focal Utopias

 

[Triode User]

Both my friend and I are 95% speakers 5% headphones both of us have Focal Utopias

I am 100% speakers but a customer came to listen to cables yesterday and he brought 3 sets of headphones that he had on loan to trial. LCD4Z, Focal Utopia and Meze Audio Empryrean. They all had strengths but I can see why you might have the Focal Utopias.

 

[Christer]

Both my friend and I are 95% speakers 5% headphones both of us have Focal Utopias

Thanks,
One of the reasons I bought Qutest instead of H2 was that back home I also listen mostly via speakers.
But via my quite big Electrostatic speakers Qutest was a bit disappointing and I mainly listened to vinyl via speakers while in Sweden.
I hope an M Scaler will make me happier also via speakers than Qutest on its own did.
My only worry is that I have a big 900 watts per channel amp into 4ohm with a huge separate power supply that might interfere with M Scaler.
I strongly suspect that my bad experiences with H1 as system based dac was for such reasons because like Qutest on its own via headphones it sounds ok but not as good as Qutest and nowhere near Q/MS via headphones.
But I carry it as a backup dac on my travels still.
Cheers Controversial Christer

 

[SunWarrior]

Okay! My silver Hugo M Scaler arrived yesterday, and is already married to the DAVE that's been my main DAC for over two years. Married for life, I'd say.

Skipping past my mediocre metaphors, I am totally delighted with what the HMS does for my music. At this point, I've mainly listened to the now HMS-enhanced system through speakers. I hear lots of positive changes, and no negative changes. My wife (who loves listening to music, but isn't into audio toys) also hears those significant and obvious improvements.

What are some of those improvements to my ears?

• Increased depth of soundstage -- and increased soundstage height too
• Greater sustain, and more clarity on the sustain, to reduce (eliminate?) muddle; true with both instruments and voices
• More separation among voices and instruments; and yet the music coheres more
• Better bass definition; not necessarily deeper, just more real
• Overall, much more engagement with richer sound

I had no problems with setup, and that's partially due to the tons of useful info earlier in this thread such as which BNC inputs on the DAVE are numbers 1 and 2 and which are 3 and 4, since they're not marked and are not mentioned in the DAVE manual...which is another story.

Dave, who will over the next several weeks do various tests with the HMS such as connecting it to his relatively new Mojo through the latter's coax input and trying the HMS optical input instead of its USB input

P.S. My initial HMS connections and usage are as follows:

* Aurender USB output to HMS input (Audience cable)
* HMS dual BNC to DAVE's number 3 & 4 BNC inputs (Black Cat Silverstar 75 cables, ~1.5m)
* Only full output with the orb-button being white; I have not tried the lesser blue or green output settings, let alone the red pass-through; I mean, why would I ever need to use that red pass-through setting?
* Music files from three sources: the albums on the Aurender's internal drive (all PCM), Tidal, and Qobuz​

 

[hehaw77]

Okay! My silver Hugo M Scaler arrived yesterday, and is already married to the DAVE that's been my main DAC for over two years. Married for life, I'd say.

Skipping past my mediocre metaphors, I am totally delighted with what the HMS does for my music. At this point, I've mainly listened to the now HMS-enhanced system through speakers. I hear lots of positive changes, and no negative changes. My wife (who loves listening to music, but isn't into audio toys) also hears those significant and obvious improvements.

What are some of those improvements to my ears?

• Increased depth of soundstage -- and increased soundstage height too
• Greater sustain, and more clarity on the sustain, to reduce (eliminate?) muddle; true with both instruments and voices
• More separation among voices and instruments; and yet the music coheres more
• Better bass definition; not necessarily deeper, just more real
• Overall, much more engagement with richer sound

I had no problems with setup, and that's partially due to the tons of useful info earlier in this thread such as which BNC inputs on the DAVE are numbers 1 and 2 and which are 3 and 4, since they're not marked and are not mentioned in the DAVE manual...which is another story.

Dave, who will over the next several weeks do various tests with the HMS such as connecting it to his relatively new Mojo through the latter's coax input and trying the HMS optical input instead of its USB input

P.S. My initial HMS connections and usage are as follows:

* Aurender USB output to HMS input (Audience cable)
* HMS dual BNC to DAVE's number 3 & 4 BNC inputs (Black Cat Silverstar 75 cables)
* Only full output with the orb-button being white; I have not tried the lesser blue or green output settings, let alone the red pass-through; I mean, why would I ever need to use that red pass-through setting?
* Music files from three sources: the albums on the Aurender's internal drive (all PCM), Tidal, and Qobuz​

Congrats you sound excited....

 

[SunWarrior]

Congrats you sound excited....

Yes, my phrase "totally delighted" kinda implies that.

Hey, why spend $5K on audio toys that fail to excite!?!

Hope you find some musical delight too.

 

[marcmccalmont]

Thanks,
One of the reasons I bought Qutest instead of H2 was that back home I also listen mostly via speakers.
But via my quite big Electrostatic speakers Qutest was a bit disappointing and I mainly listened to vinyl via speakers while in Sweden.
I hope an M Scaler will make me happier also via speakers than Qutest on its own did.
My only worry is that I have a big 900 watts per channel amp into 4ohm with a huge separate power supply that might interfere with M Scaler.
I strongly suspect that my bad experiences with H1 as system based dac was for such reasons because like Qutest on its own via headphones it sounds ok but not as good as Qutest and nowhere near Q/MS via headphones.
But I carry it as a backup dac on my travels still.
Cheers Controversial Christer

$50 for the ifi ipower is little money for a substantial upgrade
I suspect the TT2 upgrade might be more than HMS ? Personally I would go for the best DAC first.

 

[marcmccalmont]

I am 100% speakers but a customer came to listen to cables yesterday and he brought 3 sets of headphones that he had on loan to trial. LCD4Z, Focal Utopia and Meze Audio Empryrean. They all had strengths but I can see why you might have the Focal Utopias.

I found the Utopias to take months to breakin so if you heard a bit of sloppy bass that will go away in time

 

[AndrewOld]

Has anybody changed their cables from 1m to 2m as Rob suggests? Any impressions?

 

[Triode User]

Has anybody changed their cables from 1m to 2m as Rob suggests? Any impressions?

Andrew, I have and for me that gave a slightly smoother sound. The effect is quite subtle though and there is more to be had though by other methods.

 

[flummoxed]

Andrew, I have and for me that gave a slightly smoother sound. The effect is quite subtle though and there is more to be had though by other methods.

Any idea why longer cable would sound better?

I guess for most people 2m cables would be a right PITA! I use 0.5m Ghent cables which are perfect in my system from practicality point of view.