[Triode User]

Having only recently discovered the extremely impressive performance of the TT2, the next logical (?!) step was to hammer the wallet once more and go for an m-scaler...(courtesy also of the current virus situation misery lol).

Anyway, being slightly concerned by the number of folks stating the almost obligatory need to have top grade digital cables, which can indeed be silly money, I myself feel much happier knowing one can make one's own fairly easily for not a lot of money. And having found superb results first for connecting my Naim UnitiCore to Hugo2, and now to the TT2, I shall of course be repeating for the 2x BNCs of m-scaler.

Although unconventional for a 75 Ohm requirement, I and a very exacting fellow DIY head-fier friend (with far better hearing than myself!) progressed from using Neotech UP-OCC silver and copper wires for interconnects/headphone cables/power cables, to applying same to digital cable. And much to both our surprise, it easily surpassed my previous use of 1.3mm solid 'ordinary' pure, soft annealed silver in place of a coax cable's copper.

But this time, instead of conventional coax cable as the carrier, I used cat 7 Ethernet cable! By removing its 4x twisted pairs from their foil shielding, one can replace with the already teflon coated Neotech cables. I personally used 2x silver and 2x copper, but a higher AWG in just one pair would probably be just as good. And I also - hating connectors with a vengeance - dispense with the plugs' pins and fashion the wires so as to act as the pins and make direct metal-to-metal contact in the socket...far more preferable IMHO!

Given the much higher frequency transmission capability of such cable, it was a pleasant surprise to discover just how well it aided performance, despite perhaps not quite being the exact SPDIF impedance requirement. No doubt the additional (thick) foil shielding around each conductor, as well as the outer braid help no end in interference suppression.

And so perhaps fellow DIY cablers (and would-be ones) might want to give this method some thought...especially as it's a relatively easy procedure, and one that I'm sure can result in a cable to rival (or exceed!) commercial ones at many times the price...

A photo of the blank cable I used first, but for the m-scaler will use cat 8 cable out of interest :



ps. The twisted pairs are easily pulled out with pliers, and then try not to pinch the cable, so avoiding compressing the foil conduits too much....GOOD LUCK!

Excellent, hilarious. Thanks for brightening up a Covid Friday.

 

[hypnos1]

Excellent, hilarious. Thanks for brightening up a Covid Friday.

Ah well TU, am glad for that! But when it outperformed an incredibly fancy-looking, and very expensive cable my friend borrowed, it's we who had the last laugh......(improbable though some may find it lol!)...

 

[ZappaMan]

Ah well TU, am glad for that! But when it outperformed an incredibly fancy-looking, and very expensive cable my friend borrowed, it's we who had the last laugh......(improbable though some may find it lol!)...

name names

 

[Triode User]

Ah well TU, am glad for that! But when it outperformed an incredibly fancy-looking, and very expensive cable my friend borrowed, it's we who had the last laugh......(improbable though some may find it lol!)...

I honestly thought you were just ‘aving a larf! You mean you really did just poke the cable ends into the socket with no BNC connector ?

 

[hypnos1]

name names

Hi ZM. Hope to get the make later on today...we played around with lots of different types of cables a while ago now, and can't remember which digital one it was. I do however remember it was an 'oldie', a bit of a multi-monster and originally about £1000!

I honestly thought you were just ‘aving a larf! You mean you really did just poke the cable ends into the socket with no BNC connector ?

Yep TU...'tis indeed on the whole an 'unorthodox' approach I admit. But although I do take certain liberties with the various experiments I've made over the years - both with converting(successfully) tubes never dreamt of in my tube amp's configuration(!), as well as cables - I wouldn't go so far as eliminating the BNC connector entirely lol. No, just the centre pin, which is often just gold plated brass. And even if lucky enough to find one with some silver in it, it still has to be connected to the cable wire (often with a blob of solder between the two!). Hence my constant striving for direct metal-to-metal contact wherever possible...

 

[GreenBow]

You know there was a post recently about music for demoing the M-Scaler. (Clapton Chronicles: Best of Eric Clapton.)

As I said before I bought it just because I wanted it and not for demoing M-Scaler prowess. Anyway it left me thinking about another album that might demo the M-Scaler prowess. Album by Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, and titled the same. I found it in the music review sections in one of the hifi mags. I played it though on Youtube or Amazon, and bought it straight off.

First time I listened from 44.1KHz, I liked it more than the first. It was because it was a better format; redbook vs MP3 on Youtube. Then oddly the second time I played I found I was not sure about it. I found some of the lyrics were a bit sickly sweet. ... I kind of forgot about for a few weeks, then tried again, because I remembered liking it too. .. Stuff like lyrics, love songs, declarations of admiration, etc, I have to be in the mood sometimes. Other times you just wanna rock out etc.

The album though, I would recommend. It has some stunning crystalline and sparkly guitar bits. I think it's worth checking out for M-Scaler owners, just for that alone. The album is probably a 3/5 to 4/5 rating, but the stuff I like on it, I like a lot. Like some sounds, and rhythmic drive like at the end of track one, etc.


Christine McVie is from Fleetwood Mac guys. I think I read in the hifi mag Lyndsey Buckingham may have been involved in writing or production or something. One comment from the review though, caught my attention. The hifi mag reviewer said something along the lines of the following. If there is one thing that is certain, Lyndsey Buckingham in music, is pretty much a guarantee of quality. .... (I mean to check out some more of his albums too, because this album was interesting enough.)

By the way, I imagine that the M-Scaler is probably incredible with most music. I guess that's the point really. Same as the reason we buy Chord DACs.

 

[andrewd01]

I think I read in the hifi mag Lyndsey Buckingham may have been involved in writing or production or something.

Buckingham was the lead guitarist for Fleetwood Mac during their successful period in the mid 70’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleetwood_Mac

 

[Mediahound]

Buckingham was the lead guitarist for Fleetwood Mac during their successful period in the mid 70’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleetwood_Mac

He's also the main male vocalist.

 

[supervisor]

facepalm

 

[AndrewH13]

Buckingham was the lead guitarist for Fleetwood Mac during their successful period in the mid 70’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleetwood_Mac

Clearing out garage the other day, ‘Oh Diane’ was top of a pile of 12inch singles, Greenbow, check it out on YouTube for Buckingham’s role in Fleetwood Mac.

Funny enough, I used two of the first tracks on that McVie/Buckingham album all around the last Canjam, repeatedly playing on Heddphone, TT2 / MScaler / Blue Hawai / Stax, Utopia and Tia Fourte. It just happened to be the latest album I was listening to the night before on Hugo 2 at home so was very familiar with it.

 

[JTbbb]

Try “Tango in the Night” by Fleetwood Mac, it sounds excellent with or without MScaler.

 

[Triode User]

Buckingham was the lead guitarist for Fleetwood Mac during their successful period in the mid 70’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleetwood_Mac

. . . but the best music is from the Peter Green years.

One of the best song lines is from then. “Don’t ask me what I think of you. I might not give the answer that you want me to.” (Andrew, this is not meant to imply
anything. I just really like that song.)

Edit, The album The Best of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac has all the best tracks.

 

[hypnos1]

name names

We couldn't remember the expensive cable outperformed, but one that was just about matched at least was - of all things - a £900+ Chord Indigo. So, was pretty happy with that lol! And as with its £2000+ supreme sibling, the Sarum, it uses a second conductor for return as opposed to the shielding, so that will be my own modification for the four conductors in cat7/8 cable blank...single crystal OCC silver and copper wires both for signal and return (the Chords using 'just' silver plated OFC copper, surpassed as conductors by OCC wire). OK, so the shielding foil and braid are superior in the Chords, but cat7/8 shielding is still, by design/need, extremely good.

Given the stellar performance of my upstart alternative mk1, I therefore have high hopes for mk2...so long as I can configure the construction to get fairly close to 75 Ohm spec lol!

 

[dac64]

Probably. And they have the best technology for that;

After watching the video, I'd not buy the RCA digital cable.

 

[dac64]

I wouldn't go so far as eliminating the BNC connector entirely lol. No, just the centre pin, which is often just gold plated brass.

Different approach compare to blue jean digital RCA, they added another thick layer to the centre pin.

How do you secure the outer BNC contact. Pic will be appreciated.

I tried likewise many year ago but on analogue RCA. The sound was much more transparent and natural from CD.