Does anyone have details of the Optodx, is it bit perfect and whether it works on single bnc for non chord use? Thanks
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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)
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".
@llamaluv To confirm, MScaler and ODX-T are poweradd battery powered @12v. ? Ensure your source feed to Mscaler is toslink or (if USB), ensure, as you say, that it's on another circuit away from Dave and your other analog components. optoDX survives 10v - 16v but likes it's nominal 12v best.
