[jscmd2000]

OMG, I've never heard the youtube sound so high res before without the HMS! Almost comical and doesn't go with some of the low quality videos. I think subscribing to something like the Berlin Philharmonic online concerts series would be really worthwhile now.

 

[musickid]

What does it mean to earth an appliance for eg here it's mentioned that the qutest might need earthing. the hms is said to be isolated from ground so is there any situation where i would need to earth my hms or h2? or is this a country specific thing?

quick point: a lot of reports mention the slowing down of music with hms. i actually believe that prior to the introduction of the hms in a system the timing was actually a slight bit off maybe interpreted as a faster tempo. once the hms is in the mix the timing is adjusted to absolute perfection and this slowing down effect is actually the correct PRAT. Just listen to Gregory Porter on liquid spirit when he sings through the hms. you might as well be sat in the front row of a live acoustic set up with him singing. real life has that slight "pull back on tempo" with instruments and vocals in a live acoustic setting. just my two pence worth. mk

 

[musickid]

For Rob, and anyone else.

how does the SQ of early 90's compact high quality walkman cassette decks (sony, aiwa etc) compare to the latest in digital today? they were pure analogue and (master tape effect?) i used them when younger. many thanks mk. they even had dolby nr built in.

 

[Tao8]

Thinking it’s burned in now

I’m also currently burning in two new pairs of speakers (Harbeth 40.2 and Pureaudioproject Pap horns) and also a new SET amp all in a new room so defining exactly what is changing in the system at any point in time is currently something of a challenge.

I’m used to having a reasonably stable system (Maggie 20.7s, Magtech and Shindo pre) setup so determining any shifts in associated gear was traditionally much more manageable to identify. I do tend to believe though that I have the m scaler mostly settled in now.

Next up is looking to also upgrading the bnc cables. I’ll go for 1.5 metres. I’ve also got a good level of additional refinement and some extension by putting the m scaler up on Stillpoint Ultra 5s. I would say definitely the m scaler is easily one of the most significant improvements on a source that I have heard. It really makes this for me a purely musical experience. Prior to this the dacs that I have tried at home that most impressed me were Ch Precision and Aqua Formula. I am now completely happy that I stayed with Chord and have got the m scaler instead. That said I really have come to appreciate the Chord house sound but this just takes that all into another level. This is closer to a sota level in expressiveness and there is an absolute sense of engagement and a lack of any sense of mechanical artifice.

TBH I will likely now just save up for a Dave 2 (just tempting fate) and then probably call it quits wrt to source. So yes, I really appreciate hms every time I push play.

 

[dac64]

For Rob, and anyone else.

how does the SQ of early 90's compact high quality walkman cassette decks (sony, aiwa etc) compare to the latest in digital today? they were pure analogue and (master tape effect?) i used them when younger. many thanks mk. they even had dolby nr built in.

bandwidth limited

 

[Amberlamps]

For Rob, and anyone else.

how does the SQ of early 90's compact high quality walkman cassette decks (sony, aiwa etc) compare to the latest in digital today? they were pure analogue and (master tape effect?) i used them when younger. many thanks mk. they even had dolby nr built in.

Using them for years my self, there is no comparison, they were very popular but had crap SQ, especially if you kept recording on the same tape.

I had some metal tape’s with mine. The only difference I found was that metal C90s were heavier than normal cassette tapes. I can’t recall any sq differences between the two, although metal tapes were meant to be superior, but I never heard any differences, especially when listening to one in a walkman.

 

[paul2qute]

Well that's all my Christmas presents come early, M scaler, Hugo TT 2 and Meze audio Empyrean headphones happy days

 

[Whazzzup]

Wow dude from h2 to this....Nice dropping of the dosh

 

[gonzfi]

I like the way the Empyrean case gets it own space on the rack.

 

[burbster]

What does it mean to earth an appliance for eg here it's mentioned that the qutest might need earthing. the hms is said to be isolated from ground so is there any situation where i would need to earth my hms or h2? or is this a country specific thing?

quick point: a lot of reports mention the slowing down of music with hms. i actually believe that prior to the introduction of the hms in a system the timing was actually a slight bit off maybe interpreted as a faster tempo. once the hms is in the mix the timing is adjusted to absolute perfection and this slowing down effect is actually the correct PRAT. Just listen to Gregory Porter on liquid spirit when he sings through the hms. you might as well be sat in the front row of a live acoustic set up with him singing. real life has that slight "pull back on tempo" with instruments and vocals in a live acoustic setting. just my two pence worth. mk

There is some semantics in play here, and the term earthing and grounding are often interchanged, but let me try and make some distinctions. In the UK when we talk about 'earthing' we generally mean it in the context of electrical safety not signal grounding. The decision to earth a device or not, certainly in the UK, is never a decision taken by the end user. It will depend entirely on the design of the equipment. (Class I or II etc) I think what Rob is referring to here is signal grounding, which is not done for safety purposes but more around trying to tie together the 0v reference points of multiple devices to avoid earth loops, which in turn can cause hum etc.

So in answer to your question, will you ever need to 'earth' your HMS or H2, no you will not. Will you ever need to 'ground' these devices to avoid earth loops, possibly!

 

[burbster]

Well that's all my Christmas presents come early, M scaler, Hugo TT 2 and Meze audio Empyrean headphones happy days

Very Nice!

 

[paul2qute]

I like the way the Empyrean case gets it own space on the rack.

That was very important lol

 

[PaulOlivetti]

For Rob, and anyone else.

how does the SQ of early 90's compact high quality walkman cassette decks (sony, aiwa etc) compare to the latest in digital today? they were pure analogue and (master tape effect?) i used them when younger. many thanks mk. they even had dolby nr built in.

Much worse in at least four major ways:
1) Frequency response: Analog tape rolls off well before 20k. Add noise reduction (except SR, which is a pro-level NR not found in cassette devices) and it's even worse.
2) Tape quantity/speed: Cassettes push very little tape by the heads in a unit of time, compared to, say 16 track 2" decks operating at 30IPS. The latter have very good frequency response because of this, while the former much worse.
3) Noise: Analog tape has a very high (comparatively to good digital) noise floor inherent in the medium.
4) Wow and Flutter: Digital jitters, but has nowhere near the enormous (relatively speaking) variations in speed that analog devices moving real tape must have as a matter of physics. And studies have shown (and this is why the LP12 was such a revelation in its time) that varying speed is a terrible effect on subjective enjoyment of music.

(Arguably) better in at least two ways:
1) Smoothness
2) Agreeable euphonic "processing" of the audio.

 

[PaulOlivetti]

Using them for years my self, there is no comparison, they were very popular but had crap SQ, especially if you kept recording on the same tape.

I had some metal tape’s with mine. The only difference I found was that metal C90s were heavier than normal cassette tapes. I can’t recall any sq differences between the two, although metal tapes were meant to be superior, but I never heard any differences, especially when listening to one in a walkman.

There were actually big difference in sound quality in the different tape formulations.

 

[Amberlamps]

There were actually big difference in sound quality in the different tape formulations.

Probably, as metal tapes were like £9 for one when you could get a twin pack of normal C90’s for 2 quid. I think I still have them in a box somewhere.

But it was nothing startling on a walkman whether it was metal or normal, a stacking stereo possibly, walkman no, as at that time mid 80s to 90s, the earphones on walkmans were those big cheap things that had a metal strap going over the top of your head and you could pull the metal apart to fit head size.

The audio quality was being hampered by the earphones.

I remember when I got my first pair of earbuds by sony, I was hawt schiit, everyone else with those clown earphones on and me with iem’s.

I would never go back to tape nowadays, the quality compared to now is far below whats acceptable today. Speaking about walkman quality, remember when you ran with it, it would screw up the playback.

Artist master tapes is a different story.

The horror

And it gets worse