[iamoneagain]

Yeah, that's very much in line with what I've found with sinc-M as well.

As far as deciding to move on from HQP to Mscaler, that just makes good sense in your position. You would need a compelling a reason to keep pushing. My reasons are my own. I don't mind the financial investment for better sound, but I have a penchant for elegant technology. The DAVE is elegant tech. DAC, preamp, headphone amp in a ridiculously compact unit. I use it with headphones, but eventually I'll add in some super efficient speakers like the Omega Super Alnico. This will mean no headphone amp, no power amp, just the DAVE.

It is worth effort for me to try ad keep this minimalist setup. Upscaling in software meant no additional hardware. If I end up going Mscaler (not out of the question at all). I will also be looking at a connection like Opto-DX. All of a sudden that's six more boxes including the power supplies, then there's the clutter of interconnects and cables. Right now the Dave sits on its own tiny shelf attached to my laptop stand. It's so nice that way.

I’m just using my setup purely for headphones, Focal Utopia. I also won’t be getting an Opto-DX for the reasons you stated. Too much mess. I might look into Wave cables next year. Right now sounds excellent with just some cheap Blue Jeans bcn cables and stock power supply. I’m sure things can improve further but think all this talk of RFI might be overblown. Seems like the final tweak but not a must have.

 

[CRITICALSHOT]

The Super Tweeters are the Tannoy ST100 super tweeters, a great sonic and aesthetic match for my Electa Amator 2s, the Tannoy's have been discontinued a long time ago. Equivalent are the https://www.analogueseduction.net/all-speakers/ST300Mg.html, not a fan of the steam punk aesthetic, or the https://www.analogueseduction.net/t...s/townshend-audio-maximum-super-tweeters.html.

My Electa Amator 2s have a passive ABR on the back, so they go DEEP but TIGHT BASS, not BOOM, I've had them new 20yrs next year. I have not heard a standmount that gives me the musicality they do. However the Vimberg Amea and Marten Parker Duo are on my radar as replacement birthday presents next year .

As for your question on USB, dCS Network Bridge does not support USB audio, however S/PDIF physical and audio connection, does your DAC not support it?

I have a Dave with the MS, but I would like the option to use the USB and or S/PDIF.

 

[6RS]

Congratulations, you have heard the true sonic effect of the M Scaler. You have not been influenced by the endless gushing reviews in this forum and elsewhere into thinking that the lean, bright sound produced by the M Scaler is actually an improvement. The TT2 on its own is quite a decent DAC (better, in my opinion, than the DAVE - I have owned both).

You may well come to believe that the difference made by the M Scaler is actually an improvement if you keep reading the comments in this thread which will inevitably follow. But if you retain confidence in your own ability to hear and judge for yourself, you will probably realise that the endless upscaling of music signals through massive processing is not without (significant) cost, and you will end up selling your M Scaler and enjoying the TT2 as it is.

I have recently bought an M-Scaler and after being WOWed initially, I was increasingly irritated by what may be called "glare". I use the M-scaler with Qutest. Both for M Scaler and Qutest, I use SBooster linear Power Supplies. To connect between M Scaler and Qutest, I built my own BNC cables similar to the WAVE cables (Oyaide Silver connectors, 19 Würth ferrites per cable, silver 75 Ohm coax cable).
Today, I re-inserted my Audiophilleo2 + PurePower between MacMini and MScaler instead of directly connecting the Mac Mini by USB to the M Scaler.
Wow, all glare is gone.
Maybe the same effect can be achieved with an optical Toslink connection, but for some strange reasons, my Audioquest Cinnamon optical cable fits the Hugo2 but not the MScaler because of the idosyncratic design of the optical input connector on the MScaler.

 

[6RS]

I got another question: I got frustrated with making a double BNC -> 3.5 mm cable to connect the Hugo2 to the M Scaler. So I just bought a Qutest instead.
However, Qutest has no volume control, Hugo2 has. Now, I am using the volume control of Amarra. I wonder, is the volume control of Hugo2 superior to the one used in Amarra? Any thoughts or experiences?
Anyway, the new kid on the block is the Leedh algorithm, that operates to avoid rounding (by choosing from volume attenuation steps that do not involve rounding, works only with 16 bit, 44.1 kHz, apparently). I wonder whether the hype about Leedh is justified.

 

[iamoneagain]

I have recently bought an M-Scaler and after being WOWed initially, I was increasingly irritated by what may be called "glare". I use the M-scaler with Qutest. Both for M Scaler and Qutest, I use SBooster linear Power Supplies. To connect between M Scaler and Qutest, I built my own BNC cables similar to the WAVE cables (Oyaide Silver connectors, 19 Würth ferrites per cable, silver 75 Ohm coax cable).
Today, I re-inserted my Audiophilleo2 + PurePower between MacMini and MScaler instead of directly connecting the Mac Mini by USB to the M Scaler.
Wow, all glare is gone.

I connect my Mac mini to the mscaler via optical cable, so no RFI from the Mac is being fed thru. Only issue I’d have is saying using the mscaler with its stock power supply transmits RFI unto the dac unless you use something like Wave and Opto-Dx. If I do have glare, it’s currently not bothering me at all so in no hurry to fix what I can’t tell is broken.

 

[andrewd01]

I have recently bought an M-Scaler and after being WOWed initially, I was increasingly irritated by what may be called "glare". I use the M-scaler with Qutest. Both for M Scaler and Qutest, I use SBooster linear Power Supplies. To connect between M Scaler and Qutest, I built my own BNC cables similar to the WAVE cables (Oyaide Silver connectors, 19 Würth ferrites per cable, silver 75 Ohm coax cable).
Today, I re-inserted my Audiophilleo2 + PurePower between MacMini and MScaler instead of directly connecting the Mac Mini by USB to the M Scaler.
Wow, all glare is gone.

Not surprising. Digital sources do matter.

 

[andrewd01]

Yeah, that's very much in line with what I've found with sinc-M as well.

As far as deciding to move on from HQP to Mscaler, that just makes good sense in your position. You would need a compelling a reason to keep pushing. My reasons are my own. I don't mind the financial investment for better sound, but I have a penchant for elegant technology. The DAVE is elegant tech. DAC, preamp, headphone amp in a ridiculously compact unit. I use it with headphones, but eventually I'll add in some super efficient speakers like the Omega Super Alnico. This will mean no headphone amp, no power amp, just the DAVE.

It is worth effort for me to try ad keep this minimalist setup. Upscaling in software meant no additional hardware. If I end up going Mscaler (not out of the question at all). I will also be looking at a connection like Opto-DX. All of a sudden that's six more boxes including the power supplies, then there's the clutter of interconnects and cables. Right now the Dave sits on its own tiny shelf attached to my laptop stand. It's so nice that way.

Interesting discussion. It is good to hear hands-on experience relating to the comparison of hardware and software upscaling. It would be useful if people sharing their thoughts could also note what audio server they are using and how it is connected. Everything matters.

 

[Mediahound]

I got another question: I got frustrated with making a double BNC -> 3.5 mm cable to connect the Hugo2 to the M Scaler. So I just bought a Qutest instead.
However, Qutest has no volume control, Hugo2 has. Now, I am using the volume control of Amarra. I wonder, is the volume control of Hugo2 superior to the one used in Amarra? Any thoughts or experiences?
Anyway, the new kid on the block is the Leedh algorithm, that operates to avoid rounding (by choosing from volume attenuation steps that do not involve rounding, works only with 16 bit, 44.1 kHz, apparently). I wonder whether the hype about Leedh is justified.

Please post this over on the Hugo 2 thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cho...fficial-thread.831345/page-1242#post-15671937

 

[6RS]

Please post this over on the Hugo 2 thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cho...fficial-thread.831345/page-1242#post-15671937

Thanks, done.

 

[6RS]

Not surprising. Digital sources do matter.

Considering M Scaler has galvanically isolated USB input and re-clocks the signal, I think it is.

 

[iamoneagain]

Interesting discussion. It is good to hear hands-on experience relating to the comparison of hardware and software upscaling. It would be useful if people sharing their thoughts could also note what audio server they are using and how it is connected. Everything matters.

My test was using Mac mini as a roon bridge and HQPlayer network audio connection fed into the mscaler with the stock usb cable that came with the Dave. Stock bnc cables and stock cable Focal Utopia headphones. Had mscaler on auto source detect and would make sure I had pass thru when switching to HQPlayer but think it would just bypass either way. Was able to have roon quickly switch between no over sampling and HQPlayer.

When testing was done I went back to using my Chord company optical cable feeding the mscaler with no upsampling and that was an additional improvement over usb.

 

[GreenBow]

I have recently bought an M-Scaler and after being WOWed initially, I was increasingly irritated by what may be called "glare". I use the M-scaler with Qutest. Both for M Scaler and Qutest, I use SBooster linear Power Supplies. To connect between M Scaler and Qutest, I built my own BNC cables similar to the WAVE cables (Oyaide Silver connectors, 19 Würth ferrites per cable, silver 75 Ohm coax cable).
Today, I re-inserted my Audiophilleo2 + PurePower between MacMini and MScaler instead of directly connecting the Mac Mini by USB to the M Scaler.
Wow, all glare is gone.
Maybe the same effect can be achieved with an optical Toslink connection, but for some strange reasons, my Audioquest Cinnamon optical cable fits the Hugo2 but not the MScaler because of the idosyncratic design of the optical input connector on the MScaler.

I never heard of that kit before. I just read the website about it. From what I understand it cleans USB from you Mac, and converts it to clean coaxial output. Then you put that into your M-Scaler.

Given the cost of your Audiophilleo2 + PurePower, did you ever try a regular USB cleaner? Like e.g. the Audioquest Jitterbug, or the iFi one. I saw a post from Rob Watts once where he said the Jitterbug took out the glare from the DAVE, via USB. (IF you search Head-Fi you will see it.)

I used to have glare on the Mojo, and when I added the Jitterbug, the glare was gone. To me optical and USB on the Mojo were the same to me from then.

The Mojo didn't have filtering like the Hugo 2, Qutest, and TT2 which I have. I still leave it in the line from my PC though. I don't have the M-Scaler yet, but am often wondering about it.

On the negative side, Mediahound recently said the Jitterbug affected the M-Scaler negatively. (Not sure that's possible but whatever.)

Your Audiophilleo2 + PurePower, might clean the 2.5GHz noise which I read about recently in the Qutest thread. … That's if I understood all this right.

 

[6RS]

Given the cost of your Audiophilleo2 + PurePower, did you ever try a regular USB cleaner?
I used to have glare on the Mojo, and when I added the Jitterbug, the glare was gone. To me optical and USB on the Mojo were the same to me from then.

The Mojo didn't have filtering like the Hugo 2, Qutest, and TT2 which I have. I still leave it in the line from my PC though. I don't have the M-Scaler yet, but am often wondering about it.
Your Audiophilleo2 + PurePower, might clean the 2.5GHz noise which I read about recently in the Qutest thread. … That's if I understood all this right.

I have the Audiophilleo since long, I bought it in 2014. However, I was hoping I could reduce the clutter and remove it from the chain.
Quite possibly, a Jitterbug may have similar effects.
I can only speculate about the cause. However, I thought the >2 GHz noise is an issue between M Scaler and Qutest, and this is why I added all these 19 ferrites to the BNC cables? But it could matter also between MacMIni and M-Scaler, what do I know...

 

[InstantSilence]

Is the m scaler with tt2 significantly better than just tt2 alone?
Do these things need burn in?

 

[Kirklandia]

Is the m scaler with tt2 significantly better than just tt2 alone?
Do these things need burn in?

https://audiobacon.net/2019/05/31/chord-electronics-hugo-m-scaler-review-digital-disruption/2/