[ecwl]

• For orchestral music (e.g., the lovely Decca/Kondrashin Dvorak 9) the sound became creamier, more natural, more flowing, with less "glare" - more "musical" or "analogue", if you will.

• For vocal music, the differences were much starker. I found that the M Scaler transformed the perceived "depth" of sound, making the voices and instruments almost "holographic": soloists appeared in front of me, rather than arranged in a line from left ear to right ear.

Thanks for sharing your experience with HMS and giving those musical examples.
Personally, I find that creamier, natural flow with holographic sound with volume and depth of vocals and instruments to be present in all recordings but certainly in the examples you provided, they are more prominent. Moreover, these improvements are obviously not audible by switching on and off the WTA2 filter on the Hugo 2/TT2/Qutest.
But as I mentioned, I also found transients to be better (in all your musical examples), which is also an effect of the WTA2 filter. For example, when Callas was singing Mon coeur… you can hear a blurred soft violin sound in the background on the left due to the limited recording quality but when M-Scaler is at 1 million taps, the blurred violin still sounds like someone is bowing the strings whereas when it is bypass through my DAVE, the violin didn’t sound like someone is bowing the strings but just some blurred violin notes.

But it is helpful in my mind that most people it seems on reflection praise HMS mostly for the holographic sound, rather than for the improved transients. It explains better to me why some people who initially liked HMS eventually preferred other software products while I find those same software products to have poor transient reproduction. I think we listen for different things in our gear. But ultimately, if it’s what we enjoy…

Anyway, thanks for that Callas recommendation as I’ve never heard her sing that aria before. It is fantastic.

 

[dcp10]

The M scaler lowers output approx. 3dB if I remember correctly so if you went from mTT2 directly to Dave that might be the reason.

Yes, I was comparing HMS->TT2 with "bare" Dave, so this makes perfect sense: many thanks

Increasing the volume on the TT2 made a fairer comparison. This was interesting; whilst the Dave had an arguably more 'muscular' sound, I have to confess it appeared to get a little "muddy" in orchestral tutti (*) - at least, compared to the HMS/TT2 combo (yes, I know one should try M Scaler with Dave, but I think that's really outside my budget at the moment).

(*) I was listening to the Sibelius 5 (final version) on BIS with Osma Vänskä. More tests to follow.

 

[dcp10]

Anyway, thanks for that Callas recommendation as I’ve never heard her sing that aria before. It is fantastic.

So glad you enjoyed it! This was part of the complete "Callas Remastered" series, c/o Abbey Road Studios (another EMI remnant). I bought the complete set on CD - and found many hidden treasures, such as this. There's also a fascinating hard-bound book with insights into the remastering process.

Whilst Callas is mainly known for her Italian roles, I think that the French repertoire is a hidden gem: the slight edge to her voice and the very-slight nasal tone works perfectly here - and I found her Carmen to be a revelation. As one reviewer once put it, "Callas is Carmen".

For me, Callas was the soprano who liberated opera from its "fat-n-warbling diva" image and finally made it 'chic' (as the French would say).

 

[dcp10]

you can hear a blurred soft violin sound in the background on the left due to the limited recording quality but when M-Scaler is at 1 million taps, the blurred violin still sounds like someone is bowing the strings whereas when it is bypass through my DAVE, the violin didn’t sound like someone is bowing the strings but just some blurred violin notes.

This is very insightful - thank you!

Interesting that you mention strings. The string tone - or rather, lack of it - was what really piqued my interest in high-quality DACs. On so many of my recordings, the strings just sound like slush; one misses the "stiction" as the bow engages with the string (having played a stringed instrument - very badly - myself, this is a cue I always listen for). I think this is another area where transients - or rather, their absence - plays a key role.

I still have to decide where I'm going with all this. I currently have the TT2 on order, but it's going to take many more weeks, and I have to decide whether to change my order to a Dave (ouch) or add an M Scaler (slightly less ouch) or be a good boy and be grateful for what I am about to receive...

 

[Christer]

@dcp10, at least you’re listening to good music for your brief period of time with the Chord triumvirate. I was trying to enjoy Callas’s 1953 Tosca again for the umpteenth time last night. After awhile the sound becomes tedious unless I EQ it to bring the treble range more in line. I prefer Leontyne Price’s von Karajan conducted recording from 1962 as I think I’ve mentioned to you before. I find that the filters and crossfeed functions are quite useful when trying to get a particular recording to sound listenable, as is the case when I listen to monographic records from the before good engineered stereo was available. I’m jealous that you have a DAVE to play with and compare to your TT2. I’m sure though that you’ll find the M Scaler indispensable from now on.

Leontyne Price, oh yes, possibly one of the best Tosca´s of them all in a recording which like her early 60s Karajan/Carmen was released on RCA.
But Callas´s spine chilling "Muere muere" in the better recorded 1964 EMI Pretre also gives me goose bumps.
Caballe with Davis on Philips is also good and very well recorded. And there is also an early 60s DECCA with Solti/ Birgit Nilsson .
Ironically many of Karajan´s later recordings from the early steely digital era do not compare well with the older ones. And Kathia Ricciarelli was better cast and recorded as Tosca in the 70s DGG Karajan still analogue recording than as Turandot imho .
Nice to see people reporting their experiences of Mscaler with music where it really matters imho.

Cheers CC

 

[Christer]

Nice intimate play!
If you like piano solo's i had fun listening to Keith Jarrett 1975 the koln concert another day..

Keit Jarret 1975 is very good musically and performance wise imho. But the one ZappaMan just posted almost bring the singer and his piano into my listening room via Qutest/HMS and my ML electrostatic speakers. Good choice.

Having said that, last night I heard Debussy´s La Mer and Ravel´s Shéhérazade LIVE and NO HI FI system I have ever auditioned comes even close even with an Mscaler added to that experience.
One simply can not squeeze a symphony orchestra into my or any other listening room I have been to.

With BIG scale symphonic music my HEKV2 headphones are my preferred way of listening.

 

[dcp10]

Ironically many of Karajan´s later recordings from the early steely digital era do not compare well with the older ones. And Kathia Ricciarelli was better cast and recorded as Tosca in the 70s DGG Karajan still analogue recording than as Turandot imho .

Totally agree about Katia in Turandot: sadly miscast, when pretty much everything else about that recording was so magnificent.

My favourite Turandot was Maria Callas - but she was badly let down by the rest of the cast and by the recording quality of the day. Hence, my compromise here is the Zubin Mehta Decca recording with - wait for it - Joan Sutherland. She was a surprising choice, but managed to portray the fragility of her character, whilst still projecting power and menace when required. (This was a BBC Record Review recommendation - I'd never have considered it otherwise.)

 

[ZappaMan]

This one’s good if you wanna get down with yourself

 

[dcp10]

Personally, I find that creamier, natural flow with holographic sound with volume and depth of vocals and instruments to be present in all recordings but certainly in the examples you provided, they are more prominent. Moreover, these improvements are obviously not audible by switching on and off the WTA2 filter on the Hugo 2/TT2/Qutest.

Last night I did some more comparisons with "Dave" vs the HMS/TT2 combo. Whilst adding the M-Scalar to TT2 made a huge difference to sound stage (on certain recordings), I see that Dave already has a pretty good sound stage, so if - as I think I saw from your message - you're already using a Dave, then perhaps the TT2 makes less difference to this, and hence one can focus more on subtleties of timbre.

I think I'm preferring the HMS/TT2 combo over the bare Dave - but the latter sometimes seems a tad more "muscular" and perhaps has deeper bass. I emphasise 'perhaps' because the effect of the HMS seems to broaden the sound, delocalising it, diffusing the sound so that it appears less concentrated, less 'potent'. Or is it just that the TT2 is an inferior DAC?

 

[bpcans]

@dcp10, I personally I think that the TT2 + HMS is superior to the DAVE by itself in musicality. But when you put the HMS with the DAVE then you’re on a whole different level of in-depth listening.

 

[zen87192]

May I ask if any DAVE owners are using a Melco N-100 with it currently? I’m contemplating a purchase but would like to seek operators comments. Many thanks.

 

[Christer]

Totally agree about Katia in Turandot: sadly miscast, when pretty much everything else about that recording was so magnificent.

My favourite Turandot was Maria Callas - but she was badly let down by the rest of the cast and by the recording quality of the day. Hence, my compromise here is the Zubin Mehta Decca recording with - wait for it - Joan Sutherland. She was a surprising choice, but managed to portray the fragility of her character, whilst still projecting power and menace when required. (This was a BBC Record Review recommendation - I'd never have considered it otherwise.)

And if one can accept mid 50s early and dynamically compressed but simply mic´d RCA Living Stereo SQ, there is also quite a Turandot gem with Jussi Björling and Birgit Nilson.
But Karajan had Barbara Hendricks as Liu in that early digtial DGG recording and her "Signore ascolta" is simply heavenly beautiful imho.
And both Placido Domingo and Ruggero Raimondi!
Barbara Hendricks imho had one of the sweetest voices EVER and both her Opera recordings and Mozart arias and Bach Cantata albums on EMI are sublime and in clearly better SQ than DGG´s. And with the Mscaler rbcd can sound very enjoyable , if well recorded.
Talking "new" voices, Australian Siobhan Stagg who sang Ravel´s Shéhérazade at the concert I went to a couple of nights ago could be a voice to keep an eye and "ear" at, judging by her superb performance.
Cheers CC

 

[dcp10]

@dcp10, I personally I think that the TT2 + HMS is superior to the DAVE by itself in musicality. But when you put the HMS with the DAVE then you’re on a whole different level of in-depth listening.

Many thanks for the feedback. It's certainly looking that way. I'm still not quite sure about the bass though: should I expect better bass with the HMS?

 

[dcp10]

…and I think that if I were buying DAVE I would want to wait until the rumoured 5M tap "Choral Range" M Scaler appears…

 

[bpcans]

@dcp10, you should definitely hear a deeper and more detailed bass if you add an M Scaler to either the TT2 or the DAVE. As far as what a proposed choral range MScaler could be nobody knows. And since no one has ever heard it, I wouldn’t wait with bated breath to find out.