[Clive101]

Thanks. If you don’t mind, yeah I’d like to know what it’s like out of your laptop. I appreciate it.

Your comments are already helpful. I don’t like too much brightness or harsh treble, so I’ll keep that in mind. I’m actually pretty happy with the treble out of my TCs (I prefer those headphones to my utopias.).

I guess I don’t really know what the SOtM ultra would add or take away from my setup. A trusted audio contact (to me, as he’s been right in the past) told me a mutec and usb regenerator would improve the timing and sound quality more than my m-scaler. I thought that was pretty crazy, as I found the m-scaler to make a big improvement. I like SOtM stuff, so that’s why I’m interested in the SOtM version

but you got me thinking. Thanks!

TCs nice, especially with the WA33.

Note, I am testing Dave single ended into LCD4 with a balanced cable.

With the laptop ( J river ) and SOtM both on battery. No Wi-Fi in the room. Torus Tot AVR mains treatment, Supra Mains cables ( with drain wire ), Blue fuses, Supra and Chord Sarum T USB cables.

Better SQ ( IMO ) Laptop with the SOtM more separation between the instruments, vocals more natural. Some hot tracks still on the hot side but not as much as with a server added. With a laptop only, very lean and uninteresting.

Caveat both sounded good as I using a "DAVE"

Servers do make a different on the Dave / Mscaler, depending on ones priority and expenditure one has to make a choice, laptop/computer plus SOtM or Server.

I did try with a few USB cables in the mix, I would say put your best sounding USB cable between the SOtM and Dave or Mscaler.

Anyone wanting to use a cheap USB cable try the Supra a very good cable for the price.

Always try before you purchase or have a refund policy, getting the synergy correct for your own preference is a very "Dark Art".

My main system always had high detail / transparency but I needed more musicality I never have been happy until I changed the Dave - Mscaler BNC cables to Wave and then added the Antipodes CX EX. Now plenty of toe tapping.
I have yet to add the Woo Wa33 in to that system...! but I guess transparently would take a hit

Hope that helps, let us all know how you get on.

 

[ZappaMan]

This is my weekly comment where I say, the mtt2 is an amazing setup. I take it for granted most of the time. But when I sit down for a critical listening session, with some really enjoyable music, I am truly amazed at the transparency and how close I feel to the artists/bands.

 

[Ciggavelli]

TCs nice, especially with the WA33.

Note, I am testing Dave single ended into LCD4 with a balanced cable.

With the laptop ( J river ) and SOtM both on battery. No Wi-Fi in the room. Torus Tot AVR mains treatment, Supra Mains cables ( with drain wire ), Blue fuses, Supra and Chord Sarum T USB cables.

Better SQ ( IMO ) Laptop with the SOtM more separation between the instruments, vocals more natural. Some hot tracks still on the hot side but not as much as with a server added. With a laptop only, very lean and uninteresting.

Caveat both sounded good as I using a "DAVE"

Servers do make a different on the Dave / Mscaler, depending on ones priority and expenditure one has to make a choice, laptop/computer plus SOtM or Server.

I did try with a few USB cables in the mix, I would say put your best sounding USB cable between the SOtM and Dave or Mscaler.

Anyone wanting to use a cheap USB cable try the Supra a very good cable for the price.

Always try before you purchase or have a refund policy, getting the synergy correct for your own preference is a very "Dark Art".

My main system always had high detail / transparency but I needed more musicality I never was been happy until I changed the Dave - Mscaler BNC cables to Wave and then added the Antipodes CX EX. Now plenty of toe tapping.
I have yet to add the Woo Wa33 in to that system...! but I guess transparently would take a hit

Hope that helps, let us all know how you get on.

Thanks for the update! I’m leaning toward trying it out now. I’ll report back if I do

 

[llamaluv]

A few questions on the Opto DX:

• Does it come with power supplies to power the two boxes?
  
• What's the diameter for the plugs for the DC inputs? Is it 2.5mm?
  
• Are the optical connections that connect to the two boxes proprietary (I assume they are)?
  
• For those that ordered one, what was the turn-around time like?

 

[Uncle Monty]

I use 0% compression setting for FLAC files so that the FLAC container is merely a holder of metadata for WAV files. Since the amount of processing required to restore the WAV file is negligible, in my system, I don't hear any difference between the native WAV file and the 0% compressed FLAC file but I do get to have the metadata stored with the music file (instead of being inferred by the filing system folder structure names).

Regards
GG

I get artist / album / cover art added automatically to my WAV files through Gracenote - is that what you mean by 'metadata'?

 

[audio_1]

A few questions on the Opto DX:

• Does it come with power supplies to power the two boxes?
  
• What's the diameter for the plugs for the DC inputs? Is it 2.5mm?
  
• Are the optical connections that connect to the two boxes proprietary (I assume they are)?
  
• For those that ordered one, what was the turn-around time like?

• No power supplies. I use a 33 A h 12 volt gel battery for the receiver clean side and recharge it about once a week. A 12 volt ifi ipower powers the transmitter dirty side. The ifi ipower is plugged into a separate power circuit than the Dave. My Dave and Audionet Heisenberg power amps are powered by a dedicated power circuit from the consumer unit, routed away from the rest of the house wiring.
  
• 2.1 mm dia power plugs
  
• I am not sure, definitely not ST optical or toslink
  
• I received mine from Canada in about 10 days.

The Opto-Dx allowed the separation of the Dave and power amps away from the Blu2 and digital sources. (3m optical cables) I reckon there is no RF noise in my system now. The sound is weighty with no fatigue. I have also removed the 20 wurth ferrities from each of my Oyaide DB-510 BNC cables.

 

[loax27]

Your MScaler is working perfectly and there is no fault. It is part if the design that volume is reduced by approx 3dB (I think the actual figure is -2.75dB).

While upsampling from 44.1khz to 705.6khz some transients can fall above the clipping threshold, to compensate for that the input is reduced by 3db approx. Benchmark dacs also has that kind of reduction.

Thanks you all for these quick answers.This relieves me a lot, my main concern is resolved.

I understand what causes this reduction, but as I think about it ..., if the reduction is made in the digital domain, that would lead to degrade the original signal, right?
Although, if matching levels and with the Mscaler in pass-throught mode, I can not heard any difference with or without Mscaler in signal path.

 

[GryphonGuy]

I get artist / album / cover art added automatically to my WAV files through Gracenote - is that what you mean by 'metadata'?

Sorry. Yes metadata is literally data about data. In our context of music files, artist, album, song name etc is stored with the music file instead of relying on a service that may disappear at any time (internet connection may be down for example).

Regards
GG

 

[Uncle Monty]

I don't need Gracenote / wifi during playback as the metadata is saved to my server when I rip or download the WAV files. A few years ago, Vinnie Rossi advised me to turn wifi off during playback to aid sound quality. Maybe that's changed now with more modern music servers, I don't know. In short, I haven't noticed any difference in metadata between WAV and FLAC although I understand from what you say the way these files deal with / store this information might differ.

 

[Birdboy01]

If this has been discussed ad Naseum, apologies.
My setup is quite cramped and before I do what may be unthinkable in the RF world, has anyone actually stacked MS/Dave atop one another?
I mean without the Dave stand .. just the DAVE atop the Mscaler? Dunno why I'm reluctant to do this ..

 

[ray-dude]

DAVE stacked on HMS is still the best music reproduction you've ever heard! Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good...the stack will be amazing.

That being said, I used to run Blu2 stacked on my DAVE (I had some sorbothane feet between them). We've also run DAVE on top of HMS when we've had massive listening sessions (TT2, DAVE, couple HMS's, H2's, etc) and space was tight. It all sounds awesome, just take care to route the BNC cables so they're not brushing up against power cables or other lines (tougher in a cramp space, esp. if you have 2m cables). You can always do better with RF, but that is a refinement, not fundamental compared to mScaler.

An option to consider is the OptoDX with an extra long optical fiber link. I recently moved my entire digital stack (including HMS) ~10 feet away from my DAVE (only thing in my main media setup is DAVE and the RX unit of OptoDX, and a Uptone LPS 1.2 to power the RX unit). If you have space along an adjacent wall (bookshelves, etc), it is an option to consider to save space and tweak up RF at the same time. Remember that there is a BNC link between HMS and the TX unit of the OptoDX, so with 2m BNC cables you can put your digital stack 15+ feet away (with the exception of the TX unit). This happens to be how mine is setup right now (TX unit on one side of the sidewall bookshelf closest to the DAVE, and the rest of the digital stack on other side of the sidewall bookshelf)

For others that have a TT2, you can go even farther with optical fiber to get even more flexibility, but I haven't tried this myself.

Since folks will likely ask, I tweaked up so much when I pulled my digital stack to move it that I can't say whether being farther away from DAVE makes a difference (things are better, but I made a lot of changes at the same time). Once I finish up this wave of changes, I'll move things back next to DAVE and do a proper distance A/B test then.

 

[Birdboy01]

thanks Ray-dude .. resting easy now , will give it a try

 

[musickid]

This is my weekly comment where I say, the mtt2 is an amazing setup. I take it for granted most of the time. But when I sit down for a critical listening session, with some really enjoyable music, I am truly amazed at the transparency and how close I feel to the artists/bands.

You would feel even closer to the artists with a dave. a huge step up from TT2.

 

[ZappaMan]

You would feel even closer to the artists with a dave. a huge step up from TT2.

I don’t think so, the mountain is a marketing illusion, only those who starve themselves of oxygen feel the nirvana.

 

[musickid]

no illusion. 2.5 years of research and design uninterrupted by anything else. dave is thee state of the art dac.