[SoundeScapes]

It only works with pre 1965 recordings. What are you playing ?

Haha yes according to MK I know Only pre Dolby.
Just now I listened to 2 John Coltrane albums. That's early sixties.
But I have tried it with solo violin, singer/songwriter, rock and more complex "symphonic" rock as well.
I think it sounds as good with just the Qutest.
Going to a friends place now for some chat, beeer and music.
Maybe tomorrow I hear it differently.

 

[ZappaMan]

Haha yes according to MK I know Only pre Dolby.
Just now I listened to 2 John Coltrane albums. That's early sixties.
But I have tried it with solo violin, singer/songwriter, rock and more complex "symphonic" rock as well.
I think it sounds as good with just the Qutest.
Going to a friends place now for some chat, beeer and music.
Maybe tomorrow I hear it differently.

What headphones are you using? Is your gear beside a router or anything?

 

[kelly200269]

Apologies for this, and I KNOW that we’ve been ‘around the houses’ on this one in this thread before, but I’m extremely close to pulling the trigger on an MScaler.
The question is: Is it really worth it?
Currently using TT2.

 

[Ciggavelli]

Apologies for this, and I KNOW that we’ve been ‘around the houses’ on this one in this thread before, but I’m extremely close to pulling the trigger on an MScaler.
The question is: Is it really worth it?
Currently using TT2.

Yes, it really is worth it. I can't listen to non-m-scaled music anymore. I feel like the M-Scaler is a necessary addition to the TT2. The "digital" sound is gone, clarity improved, much better timing. If you really want to test it out though, maybe your local dealer has a unit you can listen to?

The M-Scaler has a pass through option, so you can easily tell the difference between non-M-scaled and M-scaled. Give it like 30 minutes listening to an album upscaled and then go back to pass through. You will hear why the M-Scaler is so good.

I bought the M-Scaler blind, and it was 100% worth it.

 

[JM1979]

Yes, that's a possibility. I tried listening for collapsing soundstage amongst other things and if I heard it
I don't think it was more noticeable than just turning the volume knob down a bit.
I didn't get that added sense of 3D. Maybe it cleared up more complex music making instruments easier to follow but I'm not sure.
I see you still have it but now with a TT2. Does it make a bigger difference with TT2?

my experience was that the TT2 made a huge leap with the mScaler vs MS/Qutest combo. That was with headphones but the space, staging, and realism went up significantly while also benefiting from the other TT2 related improvements over qutest.

 

[audio_1]

Ii is my experience of selling RF filtering cables that Chord kit is not any different to other DACs in this respect. It might surprise at the range of kit which can benefit from RF reduction.

For me the discussions on RF noise have been very beneficial, as I now know why digital cables sound different to each other. Many cable manufactures (other than you of course!) don't highlight this issue, others even see the extra brightness and perceived false detail as being better. Other DACs that I have owned in the past have been just as susceptible to RF noise as different digital sources have sounded different. I never understood why. I hope all the discussions on RF noise are not putting off new Chord customers. It is great understanding what affects sound quality. This enables you to improve it.

 

[musickid]

Anyone tried BNC in on mscaler? Very little talk of this. Allo Digi one comes to mind?

 

[ray-dude]

I have (using a Matrix Audio XSPDIF 2 DDC), comparing USB to SPDIF toslink/coax. Same as any other SPDIF input (limited to 24/192, etc)

if you’re going SPDIF, stay with TOSLiNK if you can, but no harm going coax

 

[seeteeyou]

Rumors spread like wildfire? I couldn't agree more since that's ignited right here on page 6

https://chordelectronics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/M-Scaler-Manual.pdf#page=6

Speaking of RF noise, here comes optical USB cables for $200 / 1M and going all the way to $540 / 20M

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=605879469650

 

[musickid]

the manual refers to headphone adaptors??? what's that all about.

for someone with optical out of their imac and bearing in mind all the mscaler does is there any advantage for introducing the matrix ddc? mscaler reclocks plus deals with jitter so i can't see any further advantage in my case unless i've overlooked something.

 

[rkt31]

Rumors spread like wildfire? I couldn't agree more since that's ignited right here on page 6

https://chordelectronics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/M-Scaler-Manual.pdf#page=6

Speaking of RF noise, here comes optical USB cables for $200 / 1M and going all the way to $540 / 20M

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=605879469650

(1) this can only be used with HMS , it can't be used between HMS and tt2 as for full advantage dual BNC is the only way. (2) with hms fed through usb you won't get the advantage of asio of tt2 as the usb source will see this cable as device not HMS (3) what is the guarantee that clean side of this usb cable is better than the original usb source for RFI emi rejection (4) aren't usb to optical converter and reclocker better solution than this cable ? Imho the biggest culprit in usb source is the power line. Even if the dac is galvenically isolated, still the dac requires data line for usb input ( like in HMS ), so replacing the power line by clean 5v battery power by using ifi idefender is a very good way of improving sq through usb.

 

[seeteeyou]

Well, sometimes it's necessary to spell things out by pointing out the obvious.

With USB DDC, Toslink outputs are limited to 192kHz as well as DSD64. Some would argue that USB / Toslink cables do make a difference but some wouldn't agree.

Now we've got a "relatively" simple cable that's "moderately" affordable while it might also happen to be a candidate for galvanic isolation between DAVINA (RF noise as usual?) and USB inputs of Hugo / 2Qute / Hugo TT / Mojo / Hugo 2 / Qutest / Hugo TT 2 / DAVE. Former ones could accept 384kHz / 0.5 million taps while latter ones should be good for 768kHz / 1 million taps.

 

[muski]

Just ordered a PowerAdd Pilot Pro 2 from amazon. Here in Northern California I’ve now been without power and thus without M Scaler for 24 hours. I can’t take it anymore

 

[dac64]

Just ordered a PowerAdd Pilot Pro 2 from amazon. Here in Northern California I’ve now been without power and thus without M Scaler for 24 hours. I can’t take it anymore

I just connected HMS to another power line, the system sounds more natural and relax then HMS sharing the same outlet with Qutest. HMS probably will sounds better with PowerAdd.

 

[dac64]

I received my long-awaited M Scaler earlier this week and have spent a few hours listening to it.
I have followed this thread from the start and read reviews etc so my expectations were pretty high.
Claims as transformational, musical, analog and that the DAC sound broken without the M Scaler certainly set the bar high.

So I was a bit surprised when I had everything hooked up and hit play and... it sounded just like before.
Went through the manual to verify settings and output was white for 1 M taps.
I have really tried to hear the difference with different kind of music but I honestly can't.
At some points I thought I heard a difference but I would never be able to tell in a blind test.
My setup is M Scaler > Qutest > integrated amp > speakers.
Upgrading from 2Qute to Qutest I heard a clear improvement that was well worth the money.
One positive thing is that I don't think I hear any added harshness or fatigue either.
But, £3500 for 'nothing' is a lot of money.

What am I missing? Can it be a faulty unit? Probably not since I recall Rob saying that if the correct colors are shown it is working.
Qutest changes its colors accordingly as well so all is probably good.
Hmmm.. confused.

I have HMS and Qutest too! Try some percussion music. The instruments sounded real with HMS. Overall, the sound is more natural. And, my 2ch became very sensitive.

And, there was improvements if HMS and Qutest connected to different power lines.