[bobnewboy]

Are these batteries capable of large fast current loads to retain dynamics and transients?

Perhaps for belt-and-braces, direct battery connections for the main supply and slower moving transients, with a parallel-connected (floating) super cap array as a reservoir for instantaneous delivery to cover fast transients? Note: I don’t have an HMS...yet.......

 

[LucyWu]

Lithium batteries (LiPo, LiFe etc) typically have v low esr and are capable of tens of amps. SLA batteries generally are capabale of short term high current too.

Lithium ion are probably the cell technology used in some of these fancy solutions (RAVPower etc) anyway.

But there is no correlation between digital processing/signal and music waveform (MScaler processing will represent a fairly constant current draw at any given setting and clocks and FPGA will have their own extensive PSRR measures) so I do not believe this will be a significant characteristic for this use case.

 

[LucyWu]

Perhaps for belt-and-braces, direct battery connections for the main supply and slower moving transients, with a parallel-connected (floating) super cap array as a reservoir for instantaneous delivery to cover fast transients? Note: I don’t have an HMS...yet.......

Exactly - though I am wary of supercaps (you need additional circuitry or extensive testing and unit matching to keep them in balance when you're running them in series to support higher voltages (supercaps are typically only directly tolerant of a few volts)). Good capacitor banks though with bypass measures etc would be an option.

 

[The Jester]

Tossing up between SLA and Lithium equivalents and the Lithium‘s state “charge control” which sounds like some sort of built in electronics whereas the SLA is just 6 linked 2v cells ... depends on the capacity but even a medium sized 18 A/H has a rated current supply of 100A for 5 seconds max so I can’t see peak transient demands being a problem ...

 

[LucyWu]

Tossing up between SLA and Lithium equivalents and the Lithium‘s state “charge control” which sounds like some sort of built in electronics whereas the SLA is just 6 linked 2v cells ... depends on the capacity but even a medium sized 18 A/H has a rated current supply of 100A for 5 seconds max so I can’t see peak transient demands being a problem ...

Lithium cells are available in many kinds of package, from individual cells, to formed packs of multiple cells to hit a particular voltage multiple, and on to these complex packaged solutions with inbuilt charging, regulation and balancing.

My familiarity is with welded lithium packs of multiple cells with no built in electronics for charge or voltage regulation. They come with balancing fly leads which plug into separate chargers. Way more messing about than something like the solutions people above have been using, but performance is direct from the pack without any intervening electronics for use. These things will deliver 120 amps in the blink of an eye, so the kind of usage we are discussing is well within the capabilities of these batteries and they measure very well for self noise, as do SLAs.

Sadly I missed out on an MScaler that was for sale in the UK today, so I won't be able to try this for a while longer. I waited almost ten weeks for Chord to produce my Dave, not sure what the leadtimes on MScalers is right now.

 

[DJJEZ]

Lithium cells are available in many kinds of package, from individual cells, to formed packs of multiple cells to hit a particular voltage multiple, and on to these complex packaged solutions with inbuilt charging, regulation and balancing.

My familiarity is with welded lithium packs of multiple cells with no built in electronics for charge or voltage regulation. They come with balancing fly leads which plug into separate chargers. Way more messing about than something like the solutions people above have been using, but performance is direct from the pack without any intervening electronics for use. These things will deliver 120 amps in the blink of an eye, so the kind of usage we are discussing is well within the capabilities of these batteries and they measure very well for self noise, as do SLAs.

Sadly I missed out on an MScaler that was for sale in the UK today, so I won't be able to try this for a while longer. I waited almost ten weeks for Chord to produce my Dave, not sure what the leadtimes on MScalers is right now.

Damn that's nuts. I waited 8 weeks for my TT2

 

[PANURUS]

I have the same batteries as @ra990. I am only using a battery connection for the M-Scaler and it IS NOT plugged into an outlet when I’m using it. I use the on-off switch on the battery to turn the M-Scaler on and off so when I stop listening I switch the battery off which (obviously) also turns off the M-Scaler. I switch batteries when the one I’m using is almost discharged and then plug it into the charger so I always have at least one fully charged battery. While I haven’t actually timed it I’m guessing I get about 20+ hours of listening time before a recharge. The battery can of course be used when it is also charging but I haven’t done a comparison. I’m assuming using a power strip would really be no different than plugging directly into a wall outlet but nothing surprises me anymore so maybe there is a difference!

I use the Poweroak K2.
There is a little difference when charging or not Because in my setup i use a mini smart rooter GL MT300N V2 powered on battery too.
The mini smart rooter ( 30 euro ) is connected by WIFI and with a little RJ45 to my streamer.
Before the rfi of my rooter could pass through the streamer to pollute the main.

The little difference when charging or not the poweroak is near the same that with or without video mode on.
No sibilance but a little less space between note. A little less details.

My conclusion now is that before the PSU of the scaler and the TT2 was the most polluted with the rfi generated by
1. the rooter of my house. 2. The Alimentation of my Hugo2.
3. The usb charger of my phone, of my wife, of my ipad , etc.

Now all the little equipments of my house are charging or in use with powerbanks. And the alimentation of the main powerbank is disconnected when i listen to music.
So Rob Watts is right when he designed the PSU because he can‘t known howmunch the 220V was polluted by the rfi in my house.
So Rob Watts is right when he said to remove the high frequency noise from the scaler and that this noise is little IF
your are save from other rfi.

I remember 5 years ago when I start with my Dave. Some days the sound was good and another days i dislike it. I do not understand why. Then came the blue 2 and the ferrites days. So i learn the sound with or without rfi.
After i remove the source of rfi and then i remove the ferrites. No ferrites on my BNC wireworld cable.
No rj45 converter to optical and optical to rj45. No wired switch (500 euro) between rooter and streamer.

The Poweroak k2 is very helpful but I do not understand why the Poweroak K2M is twice the price.

edit : The PowerOak K2M output 3A on 12V and 4 usb 2.1A. It could not be better for use it with the TT2 or scaler

 

[The Jester]

Another little discovery that worked for me at least, dug through my old vinyl collection and found several that I also had CD versions of, so after checking they were all original early 80’s versions of both Vinyl and CD spent a couple of hours doing A/B comparisons and the end result were few real comparisons ... for sound quality the CD’s won out every time but it was obvious the mixing was different from Vinyl to CD, with some the CD sounded brighter and cleaner sounding, with others it was the opposite, and with some I preferred the overall sound of the Vinyl version ..
while I was setting things up I thought about the interconnect from the Qutest to preamp ... described by some as pseudo balanced but basically an RCA lead with a twisted pair inside an outer shield connected at one end and usually designated as the source end, but I remembered reading that was mainly due to the source being lower impedance, but how can that be the case with the Qutest being DC powered, maybe better to have the shield connected to the preamp that has a 3 pin IEC power cord .... short answer, to my ears at least, it does sound better connected that way ....

 

[GreenBow]

I initially didn’t believe significant RFI was even a problem for me because I live in an isolated rural setting. It literally only took a few seconds of listening after connecting the M-Scaler to the battery to realize how wrong I was. I’ll likely try listening by using the battery while it is charging just to satisfy my curiosity, but otherwise it seems that would just turn it into another version of a PSU. Really, the change was huge and there is no going back!

Might be worth looking at the iFi Powerstation. .... It uses active noise cancellation to remove mains noise. If you can get a demo, then why not. It's a fraction of the cost of mains regenerators or fully equipped mains conditioners.

I don't have M-Scaler but the Powerstation is always in the back of my mind.

 

[Icenine2]

I've been running M for about 4 hours a day. Unsure about IF there is a break-in period or not but is SEEMS that it is sounding better with a little age. Last night I had a sesh w/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Deja Vu. The Japan CD issue HDCD version. It was like I'd never heard it before. Never noticed some of the vocal layering blah, blah etc. The big takeaway is that when your listening it just sounds so good. Forge the audio geek-isms I could spew.

 

[DJJEZ]

I've been running M for about 4 hours a day. Unsure about IF there is a break-in period or not but is SEEMS that it is sounding better with a little age. Last night I had a sesh w/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Deja Vu. The Japan CD issue HDCD version. It was like I'd never heard it before. Never noticed some of the vocal layering blah, blah etc. The big takeaway is that when your listening it just sounds so good. Forge the audio geek-isms I could spew.

I ran mine 12 hours a day for 2 weeks straight to break it in. It definetley improved a little over time from brand new

 

[The Jester]

Electronics themselves, cables or simply the brain readjusting but mine sounded better after a couple of weeks use ...

 

[DJJEZ]

Electronics themselves, cables or simply the brain readjusting but mine sounded better after a couple of weeks use ...

Its definetley everything combined for sure.

 

[ra990]

FYI - I ended up trying the Lifatec optical cable and liked it a lot more than the QED reference, mainly because of how soft, light, and flexible it is despite having more glass fibers than the QED. The QED reference cable has a pretty large head which makes it difficult to get a good fit into the recessed TOSLINK port on the MScaler. The Lifatec connector is pretty small and snaps in with a satisfying click, which I couldn't get the QED to do. Lifatec is playing my 192k files without any issues. They're both around the same price, so I am returning the QED and keeping the Lifatec. Thanks to whoever recommended it!

 

[JohnA1]

Anybody have recommended Redbook recordings that show off MScaler at its best?