Hugo M Scaler and DAVE combo review
Hi all, after waiting for several months I finally got Hugo M Scaler for my DAVE. I have it for several days now and I’d like to share some opinion about it.
Lets start with the juicy part, how does it sound? In a word, RELAXED.
Suddenly the music became slower and calmer thus making it free from tension and more enjoyable.
There are two qualities that makes up the relaxed sound:
1.It’s very very Smooth: the word smooth constantly came up everytime I listen to this combo.
2.It’s a Brightness reduction machine, every song benefited from this treatment.
Similar to previous poster, after a couple of song, I stopped taking notes and just enjoy the music, because for me the sound has clearly moving in the right direction (toward fatigue free listening) and there is no point anymore looking for flaw or downside.
I’ll also add that I hear no major change in either tonal balance nor image size.
How about detail & resolution you ask?
To be honest, more detail is not what I have in mind when first listening to HMS, but further listening has proven that new detail does actually exist.
There is certainly new information being revealed by this combo, but those detail were not presented ‘in your face’ way.
on Jazz Variants (O-Zone Percussion Group) there is more drum strokes to hear and follow because each were given more space, while on DAVE alone, the louder stroke got the most attention. This stand out stroke is also what gives a bit more pinpoint imaging on single DAVE.
How’s the imaging?
Not a pinpoint imaging type, because there seems to be a cushion/dampener when the soundwave hits you. Don’t read it as hazy & muddy presentation, because it’s more like each performer / instrument were given more space around them.
How does it sound on sub par recording ?
I am happy to report that bad recording will become more listenable, of course the really bad songs still sound bad as ever, but the threshold of what is considered bad has been pushed lower.
Scale of improvement
I’ll put it as DAVE 1.5. This is a refinement of DAVE’s sound. HMS softened DAVE’s rough edges.
Side note: I just realize that when HMS+DX amp combo finally happened in the future, that will be a DAVE 2 in all but name.
Will everybody love HMS + DAVE ?
Probably not, because the combo push the sound further into one sonic polarity (less tension and more relaxed sound) so those who prefer the opposite polarity (vivid-lively sound with uber detail) will probably find it difficult to embrace.
There is nothing wrong with both personal preference in my opinion, but if you coming from the other side and you hear HMS + Dave and you feel something is missing or something is wrong, my honest advice is, have a bit more patience and just listen to these combo more, take your time, the longer the better, then switch back to your previous setup, I think you’ll be surprised, or not. Both outcome is a happy ending, if you don’t like it then good, you just save yourself LOTS of money, if somehow you do like it then we welcome you to the club.
Burn in time
15 minutes. Out of the box, HMS sound closed in and rolled off on the treble, 15 minutes later it opened up and I didn’t notice anymore change. This phenomena (closed in sound) is similar to when I change my cables recently, so it’s probably the BNC cable or power cable that is causing the change in sound.
Source comparison
My early attempt to compare sources ended up with me shaking my head left and right as I can’t even ‘lock in’ any consistent difference, let alone deciding which one sound best.
Between my noisy gaming pc, oppo 203, battery powered sdcard player, all connected by optical, I heard no differences.
Well, mentally I feel sdcard player sound little better (blackest background), but if we’d do a double blind test I have a feeling I will failed miserably.
(While on Dave alone, I can say sdcard player slightly better than Oppo 203 in terms of reduced brightness)
Will I stop searching for better sounding source?
Of course not, gear swapping and hunting is part of this hobby, but I think the urge has been significantly reduced.
My speaker setup for this review
Source: Gaming PC, Oppo 203, Redcore sdcard player, all using optical out
DAC + Pre: HMS+DAVE
Amp: Cambridge Audio 851W
Speaker: Kharma Galileo LE
Thank You for reading.
Ps: Just before I am about to post this report, I did a quick test between powerbank (poweradd pilot pro2) and smps that came with HMS. The smps sounds BETTER than the powerbank, smoother and rounder treble.
I will investigate this further and report back.