[STR-1]

Described here.

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...udio-streaming/?do=findComment&comment=975720

Per Ray's excellent point above, let's move further discussion of PSUs elsewhere.

Ooops, how did I forget that. Did read that post when it first came out and even marked it “Liked”. I’m clearly trying to cover too much ground on these forums.

Suffice to say the TT2 and M Scaler smps can be improved on. My M Scaler/TT2 bedroom combo currently sounding very nice through iems, with each device powered with the Rob Watts endorsed Poweradd Pilot Pro and fed from my AK380 DAP. No mains involved.

 

[zenlisten]

After hours of systematic testing it turns out that the occasional subtle electric pop noise in the right-hand channel of the M Scaler is coming from the power socket (even though there was a power conditioner in the chain). When I moved the complete system to another room in another level I could not here the issue for half an hour. Now everything is back in the original room but the power comes from another power socket from the opposite side of the room. Sometimes I still get something similar from this socket but it's very subtle now, almost acceptable. (I guess I will need to look into better power conditioners or alternate power sources someday but it's not urgent.)

(My best guess is that the noise may be caused by the heating/hot water system which is nearby, especially to the original power socket. Since it's a hot Monday, with not many people in the house, it didn't fire too often today which made the testing much harder for me: after listening to a couple of tracks I incorrectly thought that the noise was gone just before it reappared again. Very frustrating.)

Additionally, the sound quality seem to have improved since the WAVE cables are installed. Of course, it's hard to tell now what is causing the change, the cables or the power socket change. But listening to my favorite albums I definitely feel closer to the music. I can hardly do anything else tonight, lost completely in listening. Feeling so grateful towards musicians and gear makers tonight.

Thanks to everyone who recommended the WAVE cables and to Nick who made them! The system is finally in a good shape. (The next time I feel like spending several hours on testing again I may do a comparision between the stock cables and the WAVE ones.)

 

[Triode User]

After hours of systematic testing it turns out that the occasional subtle electric pop noise in the right-hand channel of the M Scaler is coming from the power socket (even though there was a power conditioner in the chain). When I moved the complete system to another room in another level I could not here the issue for half an hour. Now everything is back in the original room but the power comes from another power socket from the opposite side of the room. Sometimes I still get something similar from this socket but it's very subtle now, almost acceptable. (I guess I will need to look into better power conditioners or alternate power sources someday but it's not urgent.)

(My best guess is that the noise may be caused by the heating/hot water system which is nearby, especially to the original power socket. Since it's a hot Monday, with not many people in the house, it didn't fire too often today which made the testing much harder for me: after listening to a couple of tracks I incorrectly thought that the noise was gone just before it reappared again. Very frustrating.)

Additionally, the sound quality seem to have improved since the WAVE cables are installed. Of course, it's hard to tell now what is causing the change, the cables or the power socket change. But listening to my favorite albums I definitely feel closer to the music. I can hardly do anything else tonight, lost completely in listening. Feeling so grateful towards musicians and gear makers tonight.

Thanks to everyone who recommended the WAVE cables and to Nick who made them! The system is finally in a good shape. (The next time I feel like spending several hours on testing again I may do a comparision between the stock cables and the WAVE ones.)

So glad you are sorted. I think I recall suggesting that was probably something else rather that TT2 or the Mscaler!

 

[Deano1974]

After hours of systematic testing it turns out that the occasional subtle electric pop noise in the right-hand channel of the M Scaler is coming from the power socket (even though there was a power conditioner in the chain). When I moved the complete system to another room in another level I could not here the issue for half an hour. Now everything is back in the original room but the power comes from another power socket from the opposite side of the room. Sometimes I still get something similar from this socket but it's very subtle now, almost acceptable. (I guess I will need to look into better power conditioners or alternate power sources someday but it's not urgent.)

(My best guess is that the noise may be caused by the heating/hot water system which is nearby, especially to the original power socket. Since it's a hot Monday, with not many people in the house, it didn't fire too often today which made the testing much harder for me: after listening to a couple of tracks I incorrectly thought that the noise was gone just before it reappared again. Very frustrating.)

Additionally, the sound quality seem to have improved since the WAVE cables are installed. Of course, it's hard to tell now what is causing the change, the cables or the power socket change. But listening to my favorite albums I definitely feel closer to the music. I can hardly do anything else tonight, lost completely in listening. Feeling so grateful towards musicians and gear makers tonight.

Thanks to everyone who recommended the WAVE cables and to Nick who made them! The system is finally in a good shape. (The next time I feel like spending several hours on testing again I may do a comparision between the stock cables and the WAVE ones.)

Looking at your photo I can see you have the power cord still wrapped up and your using a twistie to keep it tidy

Maybe un do this and let the cable straighten out, friend had a sky box modulator that kept causing the sky signal to drop out and when we untied the twistie and straightened the cable the issue stopped

Just a thought

Deano

 

[zenlisten]

So glad you are sorted. I think I recall suggesting that was probably something else rather that TT2 or the Mscaler!

Yep:

My chief suspect would be something else in the house / apartment where you live. Have you tried switching off the supply to other circuits elsewhere in addition to the room where you have your music?

 

[zenlisten]

Looking at your photo I can see you have the power cord still wrapped up and your using a twistie to keep it tidy

Maybe un do this and let the cable straighten out, friend had a sky box modulator that kept causing the sky signal to drop out and when we untied the twistie and straightened the cable the issue stopped

Just a thought

Deano

Thanks, just did this.

 

[Birdboy01]

Very odd occurrence of late. currently using an Oppo UDP 205 with USB connected to seagate solid state to Msaler.
redbook sound fine, however anything over 96K are cutting in and out. If I move the optical around through either the oppo or mscaler, I have sound but certainly not sustainable when I let go.
Is there a recommended (hi quality) optical cable you guys use?

 

[jlbrach]

Received the WAVE cables today. Have been listening to music for half an hour. The occasional subtle electric pops still occur but they seem to be reduced in power a little bit.
I have to keep experimenting what is causing the issue by moving the system to other rooms and houses. Maybe this M Scaler unit or PSUs are defective?

i had such issues until i bought the roon nucleus a while ago and not one problem since

 

[kerisabe]

Very odd occurrence of late. currently using an Oppo UDP 205 with USB connected to seagate solid state to Msaler.
redbook sound fine, however anything over 96K are cutting in and out. If I move the optical around through either the oppo or mscaler, I have sound but certainly not sustainable when I let go.
Is there a recommended (hi quality) optical cable you guys use?

Had this experience before. What happened was a lose connection on the optical cable to the component cause of the cable having movements. Try to secure the cable first, then make sure the end connectors dont get pulled/moved.

 

[HeeBroG]

For me, absolutely! Vox's are incredible, and the combination is well beyond anything I could have even imagined I'd be able to hear and enjoy. After hearing Mojo the first time, it started a process where literally everything in my system got swapped out, first with Dave+Blu2, but then Omega SAMs then Vox's, then digital and power that are worthy of this incredible combination.

Enough folks have come through the house that I can pretty quickly tell if someone's brain is wired for a different type of emotional connection to music than mine is, but I've also definitely seen a trend that those that are most passionate about the Chord magic seem to have the most affinity to what these high efficiency single driver speakers can do in combination with Chord DACs. If you have a chance to give the Omega SAMs a listen and love them (and Louis is incredibly helpful and generous in making sure you get speakers you're passionate about), the entry level Voxativ's pick up right where the Omega SAMs leave off, and it is only (way) up from there.

As always, the proof is in the listening. What matters for any of us is what reproduction chain is most effective at connecting to your brain and your passions. At this level, the quality of reproduction is so crazy objectively high that the "psycho" is way more important to optimize around than the "acoustics".

I agree wholeheartedly but speaker listening can be much more complicated than putting on a pair of "cans" for those contemplating the switch!
Firstly you do need the space and then you need to be prepared to spend much time with placement and room treatments as "ALL" rooms have room modes!
Since getting my Vox's I rarely listen to my Utopias because it's hard to get depth perception for me with headphones.
I also miss the physicality of "feeling" the music like in live performance which you don't get with head-fi.
I did try connecting a sub once to the preamp output of my headphone amp before I got DAVE but it "felt" wrong somehow!

Geoff

 

[zenlisten]

After many hours of frustrated noise testing with M Scaler and TT2 yesterday, I've listened to the MojoPoly today (airplane mode).

Obviously, the sound quality is below of HMS/TT2. But boy, there is also an important area where the MojoPoly easily beats the other system: the lack of RF noise. It gives a sweet "smoothness" (for lack of a better word) to music that is really special and improves music enjoyment tremendously, especially with "fragile" music (e.g., solo violin, or music of pure human voices) which unfortunately requires M Scaler (once you are spoiled, you cannot go back for this kind of music).

I will not rest until I can remove significantly more RF noise from this HMS/TT2 system.

 

[GreenBow]

After many hours of frustrated noise testing with M Scaler and TT2 yesterday, I've listened to the MojoPoly today (airplane mode).

Obviously, the sound quality is below of HMS/TT2. But boy, there is also an important area where the MojoPoly easily beats the other system: the lack of RF noise. It gives a sweet "smoothness" (for lack of a better word) to music that is really special and improves music enjoyment tremendously, especially with "fragile" music (e.g., solo violin, or music of pure human voices) which unfortunately requires M Scaler (once you are spoiled, you cannot go back for this kind of music).

I will not rest until I can remove significantly more RF noise from this HMS/TT2 system.

I'd love to have a Poly. However but I do not know if I could go through the heartache of getting it going. Plus it would be a very expensive card player. Mojo is still a gorgeous DAC; so agree with you.

 

[Christer]

After many hours of frustrated noise testing with M Scaler and TT2 yesterday, I've listened to the MojoPoly today (airplane mode).

Obviously, the sound quality is below of HMS/TT2. But boy, there is also an important area where the MojoPoly easily beats the other system: the lack of RF noise. It gives a sweet "smoothness" (for lack of a better word) to music that is really special and improves music enjoyment tremendously, especially with "fragile" music (e.g., solo violin, or music of pure human voices) which unfortunately requires M Scaler (once you are spoiled, you cannot go back for this kind of music).

I will not rest until I can remove significantly more RF noise from this HMS/TT2 system.

In my system the WAVE Storm made quite a difference with both noise and SQ. But like you I'd like to have no noise at all if possible.
Knowing that my Qutest is less noisy with a battery PSU than the supplied SMPS I'd love to try something like a Pilot PRO 2 or similar if only I could get one.
Unfortunately it seems to be deleted and nobody seems to be able to recommend me an alternative one for my HMS.
I would not be surprised if a suitable powerbank would bring down noise even further than now for me as well. But I have to repeat, that both Battery powered Qutest and Storm BNC are audibly cleaner and less noisy than without them to me.
Ideally I would like to run everything off grid.
Especially when travelling I sometimes notice how different my system can sound at different locations.
Quality of power obviously matters.

But I am a bit surprised to read that TT2 also seems to suffer from these problems?

Didn't Rob recently say that the supercaps in TT2 would take care of all such problems?
You mention Mojo versus your TT2/HMS. But if you use your TT2 on its own without the HMS is it still noisier than the Mojo on battery?

Cheers CC

 

[Triode User]

After many hours of frustrated noise testing with M Scaler and TT2 yesterday, I've listened to the MojoPoly today (airplane mode).

Obviously, the sound quality is below of HMS/TT2. But boy, there is also an important area where the MojoPoly easily beats the other system: the lack of RF noise. It gives a sweet "smoothness" (for lack of a better word) to music that is really special and improves music enjoyment tremendously, especially with "fragile" music (e.g., solo violin, or music of pure human voices) which unfortunately requires M Scaler (once you are spoiled, you cannot go back for this kind of music).

I will not rest until I can remove significantly more RF noise from this HMS/TT2 system.

Having owned a Mojo (as well as one of the original Hugos and a TT before the current TT2 and Dave) my feeling is that maybe Mojos relative lack of transparency and also for me the apparent slightly different voicing of the Mojo compared to the TT2 might be disguising some of the issues to which you refer (although of course I agree that Mojo can be perfectly isolated by running off battery and using an optical source). I say this from my experience of comparing Dave to TT2 and where Dave's greater transparency can initially take a bit of getting used to compare to other softer sounding DACs such as TT2 but ultimately I find myself drawn to that greater transparency.

 

[Ragnar-BY]

@zenlisten I have a very positive experience with isolation transformer. I can`t say that I had any problems with mains. Everything was great before I bought balanced mains unit, but it becomes clearly better after. I`m using Airlink BPS1502EU. It`s not an expensive audiophile unit in fancy case, but I love what it have done to sound of my system.

Transformer like this might help in your case if the noise is in the mains.