[Drewligarchy]

OK so I finally succumbed to Ferrite frenzy and popped off to Mouser to buy 10 Wurth 74271633S Ferrites. Duly got home and attached them to the dual coax leads, 5 on each, and thought What.

Soundstage collapsed dramatically and so much grain it was like listening through sand or an MP3 file, take your pick but sound was not good at all.

Not sure why this went so pear shaped, after reading all the posts about RFI and how we can't possibly be hearing what M Scaler can do without the little beasts attached to every piece of equipment, well I was at least expecting a small positive.

So off came said little beasts and restored was my music to its original and enjoyable form. To be fair I have not played around with placement or numbers, but as a first trial, well I have no idea what all the fuss is about and cannot for life of me work out how I could be doing this wrong, have cable, have ferrite, will clip, job done.

If anyone can shed any light or have any suggestions.

I would try either optical into your DAC directly, or optical in to M-Scaler and Optical in to DAC. While this won't give you the full benefit of the M-Scaler experience, it will at least provide you with a tone that has removed the vast amount of RFI.

If it sounds closer to this from a tonal standpoint, you are doing it right. If not, the ferrites are having some type of negative effect on sound quality.

In my experience, the removal of distortions (either intermodulation or other distortions) can sometimes MASK grain. Sometimes the sound can be initially appealing, but it almost always leads to fatigue with me (or sonic congestion). That's why I suggest you compare it to an optically isolated signal path. You'll be able to determine if you are objectively removing RFI or adding to it. Then you can decide what you want to try in terms of the aftermarket options available.

 

[justubes]

Does anyone have details of the Optodx, is it bit perfect and whether it works on single bnc for non chord use?

Thanks

 

[kelly200269]

Just got my HMS to go with my TT2.
Initial impressions? Well, it’s not a ‘night and day’, stark difference/improvement over TT2 solo, but a very subtle, but audible improvement.
Is that what other owners have found?

 

[Amberlamps]

Just got my HMS to go with my TT2.
Initial impressions? Well, it’s not a ‘night and day’, stark difference/improvement over TT2 solo, but a very subtle, but audible improvement.
Is that what other owners have found?

It takes time to get used to it and, yes, it's not a night and day difference like alot of folk here will have you believe. But you should start hearing things you possibly weren't hearing before, think more seperation/holographic effect around every instrument making it easier for us to clearly hear them.

But it can also destroy some tracks you listen to, some tracks sound very very good and some sound utter pish, it all depends on the actual recording, but it does take time to get used to it.

Just to add, some tracks may not benefit much from it, but the ones that do, the effect can be startling.

 

[ZappaMan]

Just got my HMS to go with my TT2.
Initial impressions? Well, it’s not a ‘night and day’, stark difference/improvement over TT2 solo, but a very subtle, but audible improvement.
Is that what other owners have found?

its easier to a/b the difference with closed headphones - if that helps. you prob should be able to the timing of notes is easier to discern, music may feel a bit slower, more relaxed, the bass should be more prominent. make sure its on full taps , thats the third light from the left is on white colour.

 

[ray-dude]

Does anyone have details of the Optodx, is it bit perfect and whether it works on single bnc for non chord use?

Thanks

I did a long review of the ODX (link in my signature below) It is bit perfect, doesn’t do any digital processing at all. Basically takes the digital signal, converts it to optical, then converts it back to digital. The two channels are completely independent, so you can use them for single BNC as well.

 

[SoundeScapes]

Just got my HMS to go with my TT2.
Initial impressions? Well, it’s not a ‘night and day’, stark difference/improvement over TT2 solo, but a very subtle, but audible improvement.
Is that what other owners have found?

That's what I feel after 1 week with M Scaler.
The difference is very subtle. But it's there and I do hear a bit more depth, cleaner bass
and a clearer less digital treble, for instance the notes high up on the E string on a violin sounds better, a bit more natural.

It was refreshing reading ZappaMan's recent post saying that he's still adjusting to it after nearly one year.
I'm starting to think that this really is more of an icing of the cake product that you add to a system that already feels 'perfect'.
For me personally maybe I should have upgraded to a TT2 driving my speakers direct or a Dave + power amp before getting the M Scaler.

I will keep it though since I appreciate the improvements. It's a lot of £££ for these subtle improvements
but the question is if you can get them in any other way with digital?

 

[Whazzzup]

sure

 

[GreenBow]

Just a few observations in no particular order. Rob himself reported that he had experimented with clip on ferrites with Mscaler and he came to the conclusion that they made the sound worse. Others have reported that this can happen but if you persevere and put more on (say 20 per cable) then it can come good. Then again others say they get good results with just a few clip ons such as you tried. I personally found a big difference between very close fitting solid core ferrites compared to clip on. I have also found that the type/make of cable you use with the ferrites can have a big influence on the effect of adding the ferrites - the same type/number of ferrites on different cables sounds very different. RF engineers have said to me that at some RF frequencies the slot inherent with clip on ferrites can act as a lens to fire the RF back into the cable. Another idea is that Rob wondered if there was an issue with resonating going on with clip on ferrites. Also, the distance between multiple ferrites affects the target frequency range of the ferrite 'system' that is created.

My suggestion? As you are happy with your system then the easiest thing is just to sit back and enjoy it!

I seem to vaguely remember that.

 

[SoundeScapes]

sure

I don't think so. I know you speak very highly of a world-class server and I respect that because a
good source will definitely improve the sound.
But it doesn't do what the M Scaler does.
If you play a MP3 from your server it's still a MP3 and a FLAC 44.1kHz is still that.
To over simplify the M Scaler makes that MP3 a FLAC and the RBCD FLAC a high res version.

Another thing to consider is that the Antipodes DX is almost 2x the price of M Scaler.

 

[Whazzzup]

Actually that's not what the server does nor am i making a direct comparison. In the end it seems from descriptive analysis its exactly what a server can do. Yes they are not cheap, nothing in this hobby of high caliber isn't, that's the truth in you're assessment.

 

[SoundeScapes]

Actually that's not what the server does nor am i making a direct comparison. In the end it seems from descriptive analysis its exactly what a server can do. Yes they are not cheap, nothing in this hobby of high caliber isn't, that's the truth in you're assessment.

I absolutely agree. But then again think about what your server and a M Scaler could sound like.
1+1=3?

 

[llamaluv]

Just got my Opto DX in the mail. Based on the product photos on the website, I thought the boxes were going to be unnecessarily large for some reason, even though that doesn't make sense to me in hindsight. They're not. I mention this in case anyone is equally daft.

Here's a pic for scale:

 

[onlychild]

Just got my Opto DX in the mail. Based on the product photos on the website, I thought the boxes were going to be unnecessarily large for some reason, even though that doesn't make sense to me in hindsight. They're not. I mention this in case anyone is equally daft.

Here's a pic for scale:

Is your pilot pro powering the Mscaler or DX box, either way, you probably want it higher than 9v.

I use 12v for DX boxes and was using 16v for mscaler (before I got a Sean Jacobs LPS for it)

 

[llamaluv]

Is your pilot pro powering the Mscaler or DX box, either way, you probably want it higher than 9v.

I use 12v for DX boxes and was using 16v for mscaler (before I got a Sean Jacobs LPS for it)

Wow, thank you for catching that. I actually did not realize that the Pilot Pro2 output voltage was selectable, so it's been at the default 9V output setting ever since I started using it (!).

I'd been running the M Scaler at the 9V setting for weeeks now without any noticeable issues. Go figure. I had just started powering the Opto DX receiver unit with a second PP2 I just got at 9V as well, also without issue.

So now I've just changed the PP2 output voltage to 12V for both the M Scaler and the Opto DX receiver unit. And the Opto DX transmission unit is just being powered with the M Scaler's stock power supply, at least for now. Also, the M Scaler and the Opto DX transmission box are 10 feet from the rest of the audio stuff and on a different circuit breaker "circuit".