[musickid]

i use a high quality individually switched mains strip by olson electronics. after listening i switch off hms and tt2 on the strip leaving my computer and router powered on. leaving audio gear on for no real purpose when not listening make me feel uncomfortable especially if not in the flat.

 

[feddar]

The problem is that the power goes out in my neighbourhood at times. I assume that can damage the unit. Is that correct?

 

[The Jester]

The problem is that the power goes out in my neighbourhood at times. I assume that can damage the unit. Is that correct?

More when it comes back on as the voltage can surge and/or fluctuate, not good for any electronics ..
living in a sub tropical environment where thunderstorms are common I use a locally made Thor brand power conditioner system ... not cheap but cheap insurance for all my gear ... company has a $500k connected equipment warranty

 

[feddar]

I noticed something today. If I move the BNC cables around while listening (I did this to reposition them out of sight), there is a significant noise heard in the headphones. I thought it was the cables, but they are stock, and were properly placed. There was not so much noise (but still some) if I moved the cables when the power supplies were placed further from them. Does this sound normal?

 

[The Jester]

Connectors on the stock cables are “adequate” to get up and running but if moving the cables moves the connector around too much you could possibly be causing a bad connection .... just guessing but only thing that comes to mind ...
a bad connectIon on the centre pin should cause a dropout but I’m not sure if the outer connection would cause the same dropout or just make it more prone to picking up interference ....

 

[Christer]

With our Swedish summer weather turning into thunderstorms after the wonderful heat wave with tropical nights(I love tropical nights) I am more and more considering a full off-grid option for my headphone listening and one of the cheapest and according to Rob himself also the best options seems to be to buy a car battery for my Mscaler.
I can already run my Qutest via a battery powered psu and I also have my battery powered Grado headphone amp which runs on two 9v batteries.
And even with the alkaline batteries I bought at a 7 Eleven in Thailand in February still in the amp it worked well for the 4-5 hours of listening I have done so far.
I know this amp can run for months with hours of listening on a daily basis,on 9v Lithium batteries so I will buy some next time I go to town.
I used it last night during a thunderstorm for the first time with my Qutest and Wave BNC cables with surprisingly good results.
Leaner and not quite the full bodied SQ I am used to with my other headphone amps,but
and this was the big surprise actually, also with a notably lower noise floor which made it a bit easier to hear very very low level percussion and other instruments at ppp levels with some of my favourite recordings.
Last time I tried it at home I was still using the supplied smps for my Qutest and I got annoying hum via my reference rca cables and quickly disconnected it again and also remembered how inferior to my usual headphone amp it had sounded via the stock BNCs in Thailand last winter, and haven't used it until last night.
This very recent discovery strengthens my belief that the orginal smps somehow sends noise back into the Qutest and is NOT the optimal way to power Qutest.

But according to the manual Mscaler runs on 15 v via its smps.
And car and boat batteries are all 12 volt aren't they?
I know some here are running their Mscalers with powerpacks and even at 16v in some cases.
Has anybody actually tried running the Mscaler with a high quality 12 v car or boat battery?
Suggestions of brands and types of battery to try and on sale in mainland Europe,actually Sweden, would be much appreciated.
I know power banks are a less bulky option. But aren't all of those also switching power supplies with similar limitations as the supplied smps of both Qutest and the Mscaler?
PS Did anybody else than me notice that this is page 768 of the Mscaler thread?

Cheers CC

 

[Triode User]

Christer,

1. If buying a lead acid battery get a 'Leisure Battery' rather than a car battery. These are designed for gradual discharge and also for rather deeper discharges than a car battery which is at its optimum if kept fully charged as it would be in a car and also is designed with very high cranking currents in mind. The Leisure Batteries are generally used in caravans or the living accommodation in motor homes.
2. Another option is a 4S3P, 4S6P etc type of li-ion battery pack which outputs 14.4 volts with no switching devices needed.
3. No, I had not noticed the page number!

Nick

 

[Christer]

Christer,

1. If buying a lead acid battery get a 'Leisure Battery' rather than a car battery. These are designed for gradual discharge and also for rather deeper discharges than a car battery which is at its optimum if kept fully charged as it would be in a car and also is designed with very high cranking currents in mind. The Leisure Batteries are generally used in caravans or the living accommodation in motor homes.
2. Another option is a 4S3P, 4S6P etc type of li-ion battery pack which outputs 14.4 volts with no switching devices needed.
3. No, I had not noticed the page number!

Nick

Thanks for your advice Nick, your mentioning Leisure batteries reminds me that I actually used to have two of those in my motor home in Canada which were charged by two large solar panels.

I used them for both indoor lighting,laptop charging, charging camera batteries and my walkman cd player among other things.

But li-ion batteries sound like an even better choice in my music listening room, and they are also smaller aren't they?
Would 4S6P be the highest capacity one?
I want a solution where I don't have to recharge every bl.... day as I have to do with my MPU1 for Qutest.
My battery powered headphone amp not only runs almost forever on two 9 volt batteries, but is impressing me more and more used with both the Chord Company Indigo Blue rca's and your Storm BNC.I really did not expect it to be both so quiet and also transparent as it has proved to be.
Would you also know if possibly the two 9 volt batteries are in series or parallel connection in the Grado amp I am using?
Two times nine volts for longer lasting power or 18 volts maybe?
Whatever the case is, it now drives both my HD 800 and HEKV2 with better SQ than I have ever heard it deliver before on my travels .
In fact almost a bit like replacing the stock BNCs on my Mscaler with Wave BNCs in improved clarity and cleanness.
Clearly less grunge.
I now suspect that my other headphone amps like Qutest on its smps are also affected by mains noise.
Now I am really interested to hear if Mscaler can also be improved on with simple cheap things like li-ion batteries.
Completely off grid with headphones at least is tempting with this new insight a thunderstorm made me explore.

I'd much prefer a long lasting large capacity virtually noise free non switching option over powerbanks.
Today's been another rainy thundery day with my main system switched off and disconnected from the mains basically all day. But I simply can't enjoy my music fully without the Mscaler,so I've been using it in spite of all the rumbling going on in the skies above.
If I wasn't "so fussy about my p...." misquoting one of Rowan Atkinson's best, I could already easily go off grid, two ways, either Qutest alone into the headphone amp or, believe it or not, just connect my long dead, but recently to my even bigger surprise ,magically re-surrected Hugo 1 to my laptop on battery.
I guess it just went into hibernation over winter?
But I AM a bit too fussy.

I will check with my local specialist battery shop in town asap.

But still keep me updated on your adventures with different psu's both with Qutest and your Mscaler I mostly listen via my main speaker based system.
And the thunder season is relatively short here in the north.
Cheers CC

 

[alexl993]

Now that I'm using the TT2 I'm wondering what my next move should be? Should I replace my Mac Mini with a 'proper' streaming like an Innuos Zen MK3 or get an Mscaler instead (while l keep using my Mac Mini as my music server)? What's going to give me 'more'?

 

[me2621a]

Hi all,
Have a question for you all. I have my M Scaler and I have my Dave. I am using Wireworld Starlight Platinum BNC cables. It seems like based on my reading that the BNC cables can pass EMI from the M Scaler to the Dave (this is my understanding from reading all of these posts). I am not currently in a position to buy the Wave BNC cables, and do not wish to buy a batter pack, can I simply add ferrite clips to my existing BNC cables and have theortetically some positive effect? If so are these (assuming I get the right diameter for my BNC cables) what I should be buying: https://www.amazon.com/Cedmon-Piece...p/B07CWCSNW9/ref=psdc_306792011_t1_B07P9TPRDV ?

Thank you for your help.

 

[HumanMedia]

Hi all,
Have a question for you all. I have my M Scaler and I have my Dave. I am using Wireworld Starlight Platinum BNC cables. It seems like based on my reading that the BNC cables can pass EMI from the M Scaler to the Dave (this is my understanding from reading all of these posts). I am not currently in a position to buy the Wave BNC cables, and do not wish to buy a batter pack, can I simply add ferrite clips to my existing BNC cables and have theortetically some positive effect? If so are these (assuming I get the right diameter for my BNC cables) what I should be buying: https://www.amazon.com/Cedmon-Piece...p/B07CWCSNW9/ref=psdc_306792011_t1_B07P9TPRDV ?

Thank you for your help.

Those will be too low in the frequencies they attenuate. These clippons will target the right frequencies:

Wurth model 74271633S , 8mm Internal diameter
Wurth model 74271622S, 13mm ID
Wurth model 74271633, 19mm ID
You will also need a key to open them Clipon opener key 74271

HOWEVER the clipon versions applied to BNC cables reportedly make the sound worse, whilst the solid unsplit ones are better, but require you to assemble your own cable. A page or two back are a couple of cable ‘recipes’ to DIY. A current personal project is to come up with an ultra low budget DIY ferrited BNC recipe that requires no crimping, uses industry spec parts, by leveraging existing commercial cables to get half way there. I will report back when I have something to recommend.

A different use of the clipon ferrites that I have posited a couple of times Is to apply them to power cables to address high frequency loops. Does this also improve things? I have some of the clipons above on order to try on AC power leads. I will also report back on my experiences here as well.

 

[AndrewOld]

Those will be too low in the frequencies they attenuate. These clippons will target the right frequencies:

Wurth model 74271633S , 8mm Internal diameter
Wurth model 74271622S, 13mm ID
Wurth model 74271633, 19mm ID
You will also need a key to open them Clipon opener key 74271

HOWEVER the clipon versions applied to BNC cables reportedly make the sound worse, whilst the solid unsplit ones are better, but require you to assemble your own cable. A page or two back are a couple of cable ‘recipes’ to DIY. A current personal project is to come up with an ultra low budget DIY ferrited BNC recipe that requires no crimping, uses industry spec parts, by leveraging existing commercial cables to get half way there. I will report back when I have something to recommend.

A different use of the clipon ferrites that I have posited a couple of times Is to apply them to power cables to address high frequency loops. Does this also improve things? I have some of the clipons above on order to try on AC power leads. I will also report back on my experiences here as well.

It is only the case that the clip on ferrites Rob Watts happened to have on the cables he happened to have sounded worse with the M Scaler, whereas the same clip-on ferrite/cable combination had improved things with the Blu2, where there was a much bigger problem with RF. Iirc Rob was puzzled by the poor results with clip-on ferrites and the M Scaler, but never really pursued the issue to find out why. He did speculate that maybe the air-gap had something to do with it, and there might have been a resonance betweem the air gap and the ferrites inside the M Scaler. But this was never nailed down, it just remained speculation. So, it is perfectly possible that another combination of clip-on ferrite and cable with a different, or no, air gap could have done just a good a job as solid core ferrites for a lot less money than some people are paying. imo it is a great pity that the work was never done to nail down why the clip-on ferrites didn’t work with the M Scaler, and then work from that to find a clip-on ferrite/cable solution that was affordable. Rob did determine that a 2m cable gave a better result than a 1m cable of the same make though. When the M Scaler came out all the talk on this thread was how good it was, what a step change in musical pleasure it gave, but now we have hundreds and hundreds of posts about how it is digitally harsh and you can only cure this with expensive cables or BNC - optical - BNC convertors and imo the reputation of the product and Chord has suffered as a consequence.

 

[TheAttorney]

... can I simply add ferrite clips to my existing BNC cables and have theortetically some positive effect?

I tried adding several el cheapo clip-on ferrites along the length of a stock BNC cable - and it gave only a marginal improvement, at a cost of a much heavier and less practical cable. I would say don't bother with this route. Note that the bigger Wurths are much heavier than the el cheapo counterparts and are a right pain on the practicality side.

For me, a big improvement over the stock-with-ferrites was the Phasure Blaxius^2D, which had no ferrites, but was rather thick and unwieldy (although surprisingly light). Still a great sound for its price, but not very practical. I've since settled on Vertere Pulse HB, which is a SQ step above the Blaxius and has no downsides other than a high price. It also has no ferrites.

I would say wait until you can afford something better than your Wireworlds and try-before-buy a shortlist. Don't fret over whether the cable has ferrites or not - just go for one that sounds substantially better than what you already have. There are several examples posted here in the past and only one make, Wave, has multiple ferrites, but by all means try those as well, as many people recommend them (I've not heard them myself). One contender for the best possible BNC cable doesn't have any ferrites, but it does have magnets!

In a more general sense, we all like to find simple solutions to complex issues, but it's easy to miss the bigger picture. I pretty much guarantee that ferrites and batteries will not come close to solving anyone's hifi issues, although they may help sometimes. Over at AS, people have been comparing battery vs LPS for years. And whilst a battery can improve upon an average LPS, people whose opinions I value have come to the conclusion that the best LPS will always beat the best battery - because there's a lot more to it than just eliminating ground loops or whatever.

 

[Deolum]

Now that I'm using the TT2 I'm wondering what my next move should be? Should I replace my Mac Mini with a 'proper' streaming like an Innuos Zen MK3 or get an Mscaler instead (while l keep using my Mac Mini as my music server)? What's going to give me 'more'?

Never heard the Mscaler but heard streamers, MacMinis etc. and Mac Mini to good streamer is a huge step. Can't imagine the Mscaler can do that

 

[AndrewOld]

Now that I'm using the TT2 I'm wondering what my next move should be? Should I replace my Mac Mini with a 'proper' streaming like an Innuos Zen MK3 or get an Mscaler instead (while l keep using my Mac Mini as my music server)? What's going to give me 'more'?

M Scaler. It makes a profound difference. And a different kind of difference. Fancy over-engineered streamer with asymmetrical anti-vibration feet (lol!) will deliver the same bits as your Mac mini and both the TT2 and M Scaler are well designed so insensitive to the source. Only an M Scaler M scales.