[jarnopp]

After reading all this I think I will play some records on my RP10, no RFI in sight.

No RFI, just wow, flutter, dust, tracking angle changes - flip the record now - and...

 

[dac64]

After reading all this I think I will play some records on my RP10, no RFI in sight.

I need the RFI blockers badly because with one button pressed I don't have to lift my body from the chair for months!

 

[N Quarter]

I do need some form of exercise, and are we not all chasing analog sound in the end?

 

[HumanMedia]

After reading all this I think I will play some records on my RP10, no RFI in sight.

LOL
Except that phono lead from your cartridge is at such a low level it is also susceptible to RFI. Plus I found that my original Linn Sondek LP12 power supply was a known bad citizen and was spewing out RFI itself. Didn t affect record playback but could interfere with something else on the same power board, like a phono stage or digital equipment, even when the turntable wasn’t in use, but still plugged in.
No where to hide from the RFI!

 

[watermad]

Bits and Pieces
I’m a software engineer by training and a computer scientist by profession, so understand binary 0 and 1. I’ve tried a number of network bridges and they have either reduced or not changed the musicality of my high fidelity system.

My hi-fi setup is Sonus Faber Electa Amator 2 augmented with Tannoy ST100 Super tweeters, REL Carbon Limited, Audio Research VT80SE, Chord DAVE + Mscaler connected via dual BNC, speaker cable Townshend Audio Fractal F1 and hooked up to the grid via a Shunyata Denali 6000 power conditioner, with Russ Andrews 500 Powerkords connecting the equipment to the Denali. All equipment is isolated on my custom Soundations equipment rack and the REL, VT80SE and Sonus Faber on Townshend Audio Seismic Podiums and Pods.

I have previous tried adding a Roon bridge with Pro-ject Stream Ultra 2 reducing musicality and the Aualic Aries G1 making no difference, however this changed with the dCS Network Bridge. I did serious A-B listening with the dCS NB connected via S/PDIF to Msclaer and QNAP Roon direct via USB to Mscaler these are my findings.

I trust my ears and am fortunate to be able to see live music both amplified and unamplified on a regular basis. Adding the network bridge to my system elevated the musicality to another level, with vocals especially affected, with a more natural presentation and a general more spatial presentation of the performance with separation, it sounds like a band, but playing in unison with every member able to be heard contributing to the sum of the parts being greater than the whole. The bass which is the foundation for music has acquired new found texture and tonality, a walking double bass is my benchmark and the harmonics are bang on. All frequencies benefit, with an added shimmer and decay to notes where there is some.

The much maligned at the time Sade and her “Never as good as the first time” has never sounded as live and musical with all band members clearly contributing to the groove and Sade sounding more sultry than ever.

If you value musicality and a natural presentation then the dCS Network Bridge is a must audition

 

[GreenBow]

i posted the following in the Qutest discussion last month, reposting here.
—————
Ya know every time I see reference to 2.5ghz noise being impactful to ones DAC, I immediately think of 2.5ghz wifi which operates at that frequency. Could the rising awareness of RFI issues be directly proportional to the skyrocketing prevalence and strength of home wifi?

Are we unwittingly creating a major audio problem for ourselves with 2.5ghz noise, which Rob says is pernicious and hard to eradicate, by using more and more wifi and bigger and more powerful wifi routers? Im starting to think YES absolutely. And if anything in or near your audio system uses wifi then the strength of the RFI it creates will be exponentially higher the closer it is to the receiving component or the router itself....

And cable shielding which is connected at each end, to provide a 0v reference (ie signal ground), will not help at, in fact quite the opposite as it will act as an antenna to bring in that 2.5ghz noise right were it is very damaging - signal ground.
—-————

Is the 2.5GHz noise that which the ferrites are used to remove? I saw numbers about ferrites and frequencies before. Is it that the ferrites are to draw out the 2.5GHz noise from travelling from the M-Scaler to the DAC? The 2.5GHz noise coming from the mains.

 

[Deolum]

To all those people who have a M Scaler:

What is your experience with M Scaler + Spotify?

I have a fairly good setup but can't stand Tidal anymore so i'll "downgrade" to spotify. So Spotify will become my only source. Sadly spotify doesn't offer highres. Would a M Scaler be a worth update? Would it at least sound as good as Tidal without M Scaler then?

 

[Progisus]

To all those people who have a M Scaler:

What is your experience with M Scaler + Spotify?

I have a fairly good setup but can't stand Tidal anymore so i'll "downgrade" to spotify. So Spotify will become my only source. Sadly spotify doesn't offer highres. Would a M Scaler be a worth update? Would it at least sound as good as Tidal without M Scaler then?

What’s the Tidal issue? Mscaler will buy many years of Tidal which is way better than Stupify quality.

 

[Enstage]

RFI/EMI is noise. Noise is the plague of the audiophile world. It is what every hifi maker is fighting in design, and what every hifi consumer is fighting with better power cables, USB interfaces, NAA, etc. The Wave BNC cables and the optical "gap" solutions are all attempts at reducing noise. Noise affects the sound directly and also by its effects on the digital processing cycles (aka jitter).

By "noise," we don't mean audible hiss. There is always a level of parasitic noise that corrupts the pure signal which isn't as obvious. How do I know if it affects the sound then?

It's not as easy to detect as bass/treble response, soundstage imaging, or dynamics. You have to learn to listen for it because you're not trying to pick out the sound but how its being compromised. Why in the world would I want to learn to listen for something I don't want? If I'm not hearing it, then good right?

It's like there's, I don't know, a layer of dust on your TV screen. You didn't put it there. You can't see it. You can see the brightness, contrast, color, and resolution, and they're fine. However, when you take a microfiber cloth and wipe away the dust you go, "Oh, wait...."

You're listening for the way the sound is dull, grainy, glare-y, digital-ey, etc. The more resolving your system the more you can pick it out and the more it's worth rooting out. You may not hear it at fist but you can feel its fatigue. Then you analyze what exactly is fatiguing so you can fix it. It's not always noise, of course, but a system is always improved by dealing with noise.

This post is brilliant, just kinda changed my whole perspective on noise in a few lines ;D

 

[ZappaMan]

To all those people who have a M Scaler:

What is your experience with M Scaler + Spotify?

I have a fairly good setup but can't stand Tidal anymore so i'll "downgrade" to spotify. So Spotify will become my only source. Sadly spotify doesn't offer highres. Would a M Scaler be a worth update? Would it at least sound as good as Tidal without M Scaler then?

Qobuz is cheap enough for hi res

 

[Deolum]

What’s the Tidal issue? Mscaler will buy many years of Tidal which is way better than Stupify quality.

Spotify offers me better playlists and songs. I'm 22 grew up with youtube and soundcloud and hear mainly house, electronic etc. No jazz, no blues, no rock. Tidal can't offer me my taste of music and how i discover new songs.

Quobuz is actually worse than Tidal.

Only genre i like on Tidal is classic.

 

[ZappaMan]

Spotify offers me better playlists and songs. I'm 22 grew up with youtube and soundcloud and hear mainly house, electronic etc. No jazz, no blues, no rock. Tidal can't offer me my taste of music and how i discover new songs.

Quobuz is actually worse than Tidal.

Only genre i like on Tidal is classic.

spotify does red book quality (im presuming) so you'll be fine.

 

[Progisus]

Spotify offers me better playlists and songs. I'm 22 grew up with youtube and soundcloud and hear mainly house, electronic etc. No jazz, no blues, no rock. Tidal can't offer me my taste of music and how i discover new songs.

Quobuz is actually worse than Tidal.

Only genre i like on Tidal is classic.

My daughter is early 30’s, synth player, classically trained and was of course a Spotify user for the same reasons. She scoffed at my insistence of Tidal and Qobuz superior sound with non lossy quality. She is now a Tidal and HiFi convert. As long as you can get a non lossy tier in Spotify as @ZappaMan states you will be golden. BUT... if you become interested in services such as Roon you will need T or Q.

 

[endre83]

MScaler + Hugo 2 Roon settings: is there anything I could setup wrong:

 

[endre83]

MScaler + Hugo 2 Roon settings: is there anything I could setup wrong:

I have some dropouts/ or small reconfiguration moments, where also the soundquality light in the hugo 2 is flickering - is this because I have setup roon wrong?