[Deftone]

I strongly considered the Hugo m scaler for a while but all this talk of it having RF issues and needing to fix it with expensive ferrite cables has put me right off and I’m no longer interested. I expect no digital glare or harsh ness at that kind of price.

 

[burbster]

As far as DSD with Mscaler goes, I was planning when I get an M-scaler for my DAVE (eventually) to only use the Mscaler for PCM files.
I would just continue to use DAVE in DSD+ mode for DSF files, bypassing the Mscaler.

The Mscaler converts the DSF files to 768K PCM files before processing them. I hate to abandon the nice native DSD processing that DAVE provides.

Any thoughts? So far, I have not seen any comparisons of how DSF files sound with an Mscaler and DAVE vs. DAVE's DSD+ processing. I'd be curious to read impressions. Thanks.

I posted a while ago that when I home demoed a Blu Mk II in conjunction with my Dave, (which incidentally led to me pre-ordering an MScaler) I noticed a huge difference with the vast majority of recordings I had, from 44 up to 196 PCM. However, I felt that the smallest difference was when playing DSD files. I don't think DSDs were any worse through the MScaler at all, still a little better even, but certainly no where near the transformation experienced with other formats. So I still chose to play DSDs via the MScaler rather than solo DAVE in DSD+ mode, plus it was more convenient!

 

[Triode User]

I strongly considered the Hugo m scaler for a while but all this talk of it having RF issues and needing to fix it with expensive ferrite cables has put me right off and I’m no longer interested. I expect no digital glare or harsh ness at that kind of price.

Then I suggest you go to a Chord dealer and listen to the Hugo MScaler to see what you are missing . . . . . . You might be cutting your nose off to spite your face.

 

[AndrewOld]

I strongly considered the Hugo m scaler for a while but all this talk of it having RF issues and needing to fix it with expensive ferrite cables has put me right off and I’m no longer interested. I expect no digital glare or harsh ness at that kind of price.

One of the people claiming it suffers from RF issues and glare and harshness is a trade vendor who just happens to sell ridiculously overpriced cables that claim to fix the issue he has invented. He has now changed his tune about the glare and harshness, saying that all his cables do is make the M Scaler a “tad smoother”.

Please, please ignore these absurd attacks on the M Scaler by someone who has a vested interest in denigrating it. An M Scaler as it comes out of the box, with the supplied cables and power supply is a wonderful, transformative piece of equipment, and at a pretty fair price. You need have no worries about getting one, just don’t let yourself fall prey to anxieties created by folk who want to profit from them.

If there are residual issues with it, I would trust Rob to tell us what we might do.

 

[Mojo ideas]

I strongly considered the Hugo m scaler for a while but all this talk of it having RF issues and needing to fix it with expensive ferrite cables has put me right off and I’m no longer interested. I expect no digital glare or harsh ness at that kind of price.

I understand your confusion please try to read between the lines of some commentors who are generally well meaning and are positive and they are appreciated on the thread. However they may indeed, at times wish to, let’s say, subjectively bring the thread round to their particular area of commercial interest. We don’t condem this as it adds to the overall threads value it should be noted though obviously we don’t design a product that emits interfering RF, Rob takes great care with his designs and ensures there is sufficient filtering on internally UHF clocked signals before the leave the box and we naturally will test for any RF leaking in anycase. So you can feel confident there is nothing for you to have doubts about!

 

[Triode User]

I understand your confusion please try to read between the lines of some commentors who are generally well meaning and are positive and they are appreciated on the thread. However they may indeed, at times wish to, let’s say, subjectively bring the thread round to their particular area of commercial interest. We don’t condem this as it adds to the overall threads value it should be noted though obviously we don’t design a product that emits interfering RF, Rob takes great care with his designs and ensures there is sufficient filtering on internally UHF clocked signals before the leave the box and we naturally will test for any RF leaking in anycase. So you can feel confident there is nothing for you to have doubts about!

Thank you for your calm and sensible input. To others I say lets move on (I thought we had).

 

[supervisor]

2 days in and sounding wounderful.

Using the stock BNC’s so that’s what I need to look at next. It all looks rather confusing!

Does anyone have experience of Ghent BNC cables?

Paul

which Zenith is that?

 

[plinth]

I strongly considered the Hugo m scaler for a while but all this talk of it having RF issues and needing to fix it with expensive ferrite cables has put me right off and I’m no longer interested. I expect no digital glare or harsh ness at that kind of price.

There is no RF issue with the Hugo M Scaler. For me the irony is that this is a piece of equipment that makes the rest of the system sound so much better in every case that I have tested. I have bought (non-Chord) very expensive UK hifi for decades that sounded harsh and glaring and I would rarely listen to it. With the M Scaler I simply cannot turn off the music. I am listening to albums that I have not played in years and become absorbed and overwhelmed by the music. There are tons of ways to spend fortunes on hifi to get brittle, harsh sounds. The M Scaler is not one of them. It does not even sound like 'hifi'; it sounds like music.

 

[marcmccalmont]

A Quote from the TT2 manual might have the same warning in the Mscaler manual?

With a thick, solid aluminium chassis,

the Hugo TT 2’s casework largely

protects the sensitive internal circuitry

from radio frequency interference.

However, for optimal performance, it is

recommended that the following points

are observed:

1. Consider placing the

Hugo TT 2 away from

wireless routers.

2. Separate the Hugo TT 2

from amplifiers using

toroidal transformers. (Note: Probably preamps and other sources too.)

3. Operate mobile phones

at a distance to avoid

interference.

Although the Hugo TT 2

is largely shielded, it can

generate radio frequency

interference that may have an effect on

radio and television reception.

If this occurs, please reconsider your placement.

I’m of the opinion the more powerful the FPGA the more rf care must be taken

 

[EndGameSearch]

Is there any new news regarding US availability (HMS)?

 

[AndrewOld]

Thank you for your calm and sensible input. To others I say lets move on (I thought we had).

Indeed your most recent post said that DECT phones output RF at a similar frequency to the FPGA in the M Scaler and should be put in a different room, and handsets and routers should be kept away too for the same reasons. Once again you raise the spectre of RF and criticize Chord products for being sensitive to it, so sensitive that they should be in different rooms from things that might radiate RF. Soon no doubt you will claim that an M Scaler needs to be in a different room from a DAVE and connected by 20m of your cable encased in 240 ferrites which will cost a mere $20,000.

 

[JaZZ]

2 days in and sounding wounderful.

Black is beautiful!

 

[organicmac]

I agree with John Franks that forum members are sophisticated enough to interpret what is being posted and I enjoy Triode's contributions.
My own experience highlights in a different way the potentially negative effects of signal pollution.
When I first got DAVE, I used the stock power cord for weeks but found there was some harshness and this improved with using a Russ Andrews power cord and even more by plugging into an Isotek Polaris power block. Having had HMS for a few weeks, I also found harshness in the fantastic sound and this time, plugging into the Polaris power block has produced a major improvement to my ear.
Andrew

 

[GreenBow]

I'm lost on the whole RFI thing, the cable thing, and the PSU thing.

With the TT 2 I expect its input is filtered against RFI. The Hugo 2 is said to be. I don't hear any change between optical and USB. Thus cabling should be easy to accommodate. (That's all I know or think.)

 

[Whazzzup]

I have been lost since the first ferret was announced.