[apmusson]

Yeah. Did this at CanJam SoCal. Dave/HMS sounds even cleaner, richer, and above all else..bigger..way more atmospheric. The sound field around your head is huge. Dave does this on its own, but with a very dry/technical sound signature IMO. HMS further increases the detail to this porcelain solid/smooth level and brings back the SOUL standalone Dave was missing (which is why I sold my Dave, now I want it back since HMS is basically the Soul Stone).

I use my Mscaler with my Hugo 2 and have been wondering whether to upgrade to TT2, Dave or something else. I've decided it won't be TT2 but I'm thinking that I'll probably wait for a DAVE successor even if it's a few years away (love my H2/MS combo).

Ade

 

[Vyyy]

Hello everyone,
So i just auditioned M Scaler with Hugo2.
I used my old not that good but still average level AKG K3003i IEMS.

I will say how i felt m scaler and would like to ask you to compare with your feelings.

1. Soundstage more 3d with huuge soft prominent bass.
2. More body vocals
3. Feeling soundstage beeing traped in a room witho lots of details and instruments and they have decay and reverb.

Coming back to just hugo2 i everything collapsed, flat, less bass, vocals came down.


I hope i am not having placebo effect here and not only one who feels m scaler in this way.
@musickid ?

Thanks.

 

[mt-hifidelity]

I

Hello everyone,
So i just auditioned M Scaler with Hugo2.
I used my old not that good but still average level AKG K3003i IEMS.

I will say how i felt m scaler and would like to ask you to compare with your feelings.

1. Soundstage more 3d with huuge soft prominent bass.
2. More body vocals
3. Feeling soundstage beeing traped in a room witho lots of details and instruments and they have decay and reverb.

Coming back to just hugo2 i everything collapsed, flat, less bass, vocals came down.


I hope i am not having placebo effect here and not only one who feels m scaler in this way.


Thanks.

I'm also using the HMS with a Hugo2 and had much of the same experience except it seems to suck out most of the bass and adds a bit of harsh brightness. I'm need to play with the placement of the unit and test different cables. I'm also removing all wifi routers and extenders from the room. I am concerned though that the additional clarity and '3D-ness' is overshadowed by the harshness and lack of bass.

 

[Vyyy]

Interesting...really. bass was so nice, i d say no harshness at all, and not even more highs, they just right and comes in all presentation just merges. But that vocal and bass and the stage!!!

 

[gnomen]

I'm also using the HMS with a Hugo2 and had much of the same experience except it seems to suck out most of the bass and adds a bit of harsh brightness. I'm need to play with the placement of the unit and test different cables. I'm also removing all wifi routers and extenders from the room. I am concerned though that the additional clarity and '3D-ness' is overshadowed by the harshness and lack of bass.

Interesting. I am also auditioning HMS/TT2 at the moment and have similar observations. (Except about the bass - in my case I thought it improved the tonality and attack of the bass.) I echo your finidings about "harshness" -- not to overstate it, there is a burr or edge to treble notes (e.g. the upper register of the violin). As I experiment with cables the problem is reduced but it seems more is still needed. I have tried turning off wifi and any other obvious source of spurious signals, although none seem to have an effect.
I KNOW what the HMS can sound like having auditioned it in-store, and I'm getting some of that in my domestic setup as well, but with the addition of unwanted sonic problems. I would say the difference in domestic settings is one of the reasons for the different posts in this thread. For some, it all works out of the box. For others, better cables, power supplies, etc. do make a difference, perhaps even a necessary difference.
Without the HMS I do not have the same problems using only the TT2. So it's a mixed bag for me whether to proceed to purchase or not.

 

[mt-hifidelity]

Makes

Interesting. I am also auditioning HMS/TT2 at the moment and have similar observations. (Except about the bass - in my case I thought it improved the tonality and attack of the bass.) I echo your finidings about "harshness" -- not to overstate it, there is a burr or edge to treble notes (e.g. the upper register of the violin). As I experiment with cables the problem is reduced but it seems more is still needed. I have tried turning off wifi and any other obvious source of spurious signals, although none seem to have an effect.
I KNOW what the HMS can sound like having auditioned it in-store, and I'm getting some of that in my domestic setup as well, but with the addition of unwanted sonic problems. I would say the difference in domestic settings is one of the reasons for the different posts in this thread. For some, it all works out of the box. For others, better cables, power supplies, etc. do make a difference, perhaps even a necessary difference.
Without the HMS I do not have the same problems using only the TT2. So it's a mixed bag for me whether to proceed to purchase or not.

Yes makes sense. I'm using the Hugo2, not the TT2. I suspect the TT2 has a much more engineered chassis and handles RFI better than the little Hugo2.

 

[ZappaMan]

Hello everyone,
So i just auditioned M Scaler with Hugo2.
I used my old not that good but still average level AKG K3003i IEMS.

I will say how i felt m scaler and would like to ask you to compare with your feelings.

1. Soundstage more 3d with huuge soft prominent bass.
2. More body vocals
3. Feeling soundstage beeing traped in a room witho lots of details and instruments and they have decay and reverb.

Coming back to just hugo2 i everything collapsed, flat, less bass, vocals came down.


I hope i am not having placebo effect here and not only one who feels m scaler in this way.
@musickid ?

Thanks.

That’s almost exactly what I thought when I first heard it, particularly the reverb of someone thanking the audience at the end of a electronic music gig, it was a crazy detail I’d never heard before. Also the bass was more 3d.

 

[Uncle Monty]

Worth budgeting for some upgraded BNC cables when adding the MScaler (e.g. https://www.wavehighfidelity.com ) and think carefully about how you feed it - I've gone for Toslink and battery-powered renderer with wifi off to cut RF interference.

Digital audio has opened up a whole new can of worms...

" theoretically there is no mechanism for a battery powered source to create noise floor modulation via RF noise, and this has indeed been verified with listening tests comparing optical to USB. Optical of course is the ideal source, as it's impossible to inject currents from the source to the DAC ground plane. " Rob Watts (Watts up)

 

[ekfc63]

I just ordered some Atlas Mavros BNC cables to try. Wonder how these will work out. I remember seeing some canjam photos where Chord were using them so assume they must be decent.

 

[Vyyy]

Worth budgeting for some upgraded BNC cables when adding the MScaler (e.g. https://www.wavehighfidelity.com ) and think carefully about how you feed it - I've gone for Toslink and battery-powered renderer with wifi off to cut RF interference.

Digital audio has opened up a whole new can of worms...

" theoretically there is no mechanism for a battery powered source to create noise floor modulation via RF noise, and this has indeed been verified with listening tests comparing optical to USB. Optical of course is the ideal source, as it's impossible to inject currents from the source to the DAC ground plane. " Rob Watts (Watts up)

Could you please share about what battery powered source you are speaking here? Thanks.

 

[Uncle Monty]

A music streamer or renderer that can run on battery power while playing music files. I got hold of a 2nd hand AK500 for this reason - plays on battery power and recharges when not playing music. DAPs also run on battery power and some have Toslink mini from the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Or run any music streamer using a battery - disconnect from mains during playback. There's been much discussion about batteries on this forum. Like a power bank - off Amazon - Rob Watts uses one but can't remember name.

 

[audio_1]

I

I'm also using the HMS with a Hugo2 and had much of the same experience except it seems to suck out most of the bass and adds a bit of harsh brightness. I'm need to play with the placement of the unit and test different cables. I'm also removing all wifi routers and extenders from the room. I am concerned though that the additional clarity and '3D-ness' is overshadowed by the harshness and lack of bass.

Once setup optimally there is much more highly resolved bass. In my system anyway, compared to the Dave fed direct via usb from a Dell XPS laptop. I am using the Opto-Dx and the Dave and Blu2 are separated by about 3 metres. There is absolutely no harshness in my system. If anything, it is too smooth.

 

[Vyyy]

Thanks. Whats a good even an old dap with usb otg out for m scaler you know that has good sq?
Also has anyone tried allo usbridge?

 

[Uncle Monty]

I only know about the AK380 dap which I've seen for £1k - £2k on eBay but the dap's EQ shouldn't matter if you're taking an optical out to the MScaler because in this scenario the dap is purely a server. There are many cheaper daps (AK and otherwise).

 

[Progisus]

I’ve fed mscaler with my AK SP1000 from optical. I didn’t notice a benefit and lost Roon. Allo DigiOne on .5m Viper coax is very quiet. I’ve tried linear PS and battery pack to DigiOne with no difference.