[The Jester]

the tt2 sounds flat and 2 dimensional without the mscaler with rbcd. of course if you've never heard the mscaler with the right recordings one could not possibly know. the mscaler adds an infinite amount of sparkle and musical energy in a manner unobtainable by any other device. once you listen to the mscaler the dac on it's own becomes unlistenable. it is audio magic based in rock solid theoretical physics and engineering principles. i am skeptical about negative or indifferent reports. i have listened thoroughly with and without. good quality recordings are important i admit for the full effect.

Couldn’t agree more, good quality recordings and especially ones that haven’t engaged in the “loudness war” ,
for different tastes have a listen to the 2019 Beatles Abbey Road remaster, Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories or Antarctica by Vangelis ....

 

[Christer]

Yes, but I'm lazy as I try and listen to Master Audio songs and forget to change. There is no auto setting on the Mac sadly.

If you are using a mac as source there are at least two computer music-players that override audio midi in your mac and automatically select the correct native format unlike audio midi which does not.
I've also occasionally run into strange clicks, stutters and other problems with internet based streams and my Qutest/Mscaler playing direct from my macs.
But no such probems with these two, Audirvana and Pure Music players.

I mainly use Audirvana and it works well with both my cd rips and large hi res collection.
My other player,Pure Music, can also be set as player with internet based files like Youtube and broadcasts.
And it also automatically selects the correct format.
What Roon or Tidal do or don't do, is completely irrelevant to me personally since I absolutely refuse to pay rent for a computer program or player of any sort.
Cheers CC

 

[ZappaMan]

Couldn’t agree more, good quality recordings and especially ones that haven’t engaged in the “loudness war” ,
for different tastes have a listen to the 2019 Beatles Abbey Road remaster, Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories or Antarctica by Vangelis ....

Blade Runner sound track by vangelis is great ambient experience. I wasn't expecting Antartica to start with synth noises... whats synth got to do with antartica lol.

 

[HumanMedia]

What Roon or Tidal do or don't do, is completely irrelevant to me personally since I absolutely refuse to pay rent for a computer program or player of any sort.
Cheers CC

Roon can be set up to not screw with the data and not do it’s own upscaling but the settings are in a few spots and some are not obvious. I can’t remember the specifics as it has been too long since I have used it. I also avoid the cost of Roon and use the LMS server player system, which really is fantastic and completely free, although a little trickier to setup especially with the heavy security of the latest macOS. It also runs cross platform and on a few NUCs and NASs also. Unless you are Specifically using plugins like the HQPlayer upscale or Roons metadata, LMS does everything Roon does.

Getting a little off topic, back to player apps - Others here use Tidal and should be able to chime in how they avoid that app forcing upscaling just as they manage to get it to avoid using the lossy MQA nonsense.

Decent player apps should all have a way of setting an ’exclusive’ mode and outputting bit perfect data.

 

[Christer]

Roon can be set up to not screw with the data and not do it’s own upscaling but the settings are in a few spots and some are not obvious. I can’t remember the specifics as it has been too long since I have used it. I also avoid the cost of Roon and use the LMS server player system, which really is fantastic and completely free, although a little trickier to setup especially with the heavy security of the latest macOS. It also runs cross platform and on a few NUCs and NASs also. Unless you are Specifically using plugins like the HQPlayer upscale or Roons metadata, LMS does everything Roon does.

Getting a little off topic, back to player apps - Others here use Tidal and should be able to chime in how they avoid that app forcing upscaling just as they manage to get it to avoid using the lossy MQA nonsense.

Decent player apps should all have a way of setting an ’exclusive’ mode and outputting bit perfect data.

Thanks, what is LMS? I 've never heard about it before but if it is free and works with streamers like Pi or DAPs maybe I would not have to move my mbp from office work and the internet to its place in my main system several times daily.
But yes I do use exlcusive direct mode with both Audirvana and Pure Music and if I understand things correctly doing so basically turns my mbp into a server with basically nothing else running in the background while playing music.
Cheers CC

 

[HumanMedia]

LMS is Logitech Media Server. It’s a server-streaming-player system. It was originally released for the long gone Logitech Squeezebox in 2007ish Since then the product was cut loose and became community sourced and is updated almost every week. Version 8 has just added integration with streaming services like Qobuz and Spotify. It was the inspiration for Roon.

The Server can be installed on Windows, macOs, Linux or Intel and arm code for NAS. The player which is often called SqueezeLite can be installed in NUC, Pi, or laptops, phones tablets or dedicated streamers like the ultraRendus (which ship with the player already installed) etc. There are android and iOS apps as playback controls with optional players as well.

Support Forum
https://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?27-Logitech-Media-Server

Personally I use a macMini as a server, a networked Sonore ultraRendu as a player and an old iPad as a controller for the player.

There is also a long list of plugins for it, internet radio integration etc, including DSD streaming.

Here are the nightly builds of the latest server version showing all of the server architectures cupported by default but people on the forum can do occasional custom compiles for architectures not in the list.

http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=8.0

There used to be good graphical step by step instructions for it all but now it’s all community supported that has all gone. Ask around there as there may be some helpful stuff online or in Wikis or similar.

Performance is great and it is free.

 

[HumanMedia]

Thanks, what is LMS? I 've never heard about it before but if it is free and works with streamers like Pi or DAPs maybe I would not have to move my mbp from office work and the internet to its place in my main system several times daily.
But yes I do use excusive direct mode with both Audirvana and Pure Music and if I understand things correctly doing so basically turns my mbp into a server with basically nothing else running in the background while playing music.
Cheers CC

Yes that’s exactly what you could do. The only fly in the ointment right now is support of the latest macOS as it has so much security added that they haven’t had the resources to build and document a new installer for it. But if you are one version behind, or further back it all works extremely well.

 

[Christer]

Yes that’s exactly what you could do. The only fly in the ointment right now is support of the latest macOS as it has so much security added that they haven’t had the resources to build and document a new installer for it. But if you are one version behind, or further back it all works extremely well.

Thanks again I am not one behind, my mbp is the one the last 17" mbp models mac built in late 2011.
I'll look into LMS when I get a server solution of some kind.
PS Excuse my "excusive" I meant exclusive.
Cheers CC

 

[AndrewOld]

Thanks again I am not one behind, my mbp is the one the last 17" mbp models mac built in late 2011.
I'll look into LMS when I get a server solution of some kind.
PS Excuse my "excusive" I meant exclusive.
Cheers CC

LMS is very good, it was a remarkable achievement at the time and still holds its own in some respects. You can run it on a NAS or Raspberry Pi, or rubbishy little windows laptop if you have one. If you do try it, do check out the associated remote app for your iPhone or iPad called iPeng - it is excellent.

 

[Christer]

LMS is very good, it was a remarkable achievement at the time and still holds its own in some respects. You can run it on a NAS or Raspberry Pi, or rubbishy little windows laptop if you have one. If you do try it, do check out the associated remote app for your iPhone or iPad called iPeng - it is excellent.

Hi, when you say LMS still holds its own in some respects,do you mean SQ wise or something else?
SQ wise I am still quite happy with both Audirvana and Pure Music with my mbp and Qutest/Mscaler.
Neither program is free like LMS, but imho both are still holding up well against the admittedly very few Roon and VERY expensive streamer boxes options I have auditioned so far.
To give just one example of MANY.
Last night I played the 24/96 download recording of Varese's Amérique as performed by the Seattle Symphony live via my HEKV2 into my Musical Fidelity V3 complete with its separate PSU box via Qutest/HMS and I have to say, I can only remember it sounding even better via DAVE/HMS and the biggest most expensive Woo Audio amp driving Susvaras.
Effortless and very clean and immensely detailed and realistic SQ, and a very suitable recording to sort the "wheat from the chaff".
A very richly scored work with a large dynamic range,that to the uninitiated may sound a bit like a mix of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring with bit of Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin thrown in here and there. And an exotic Oriental Dance at times competing with the Firebrigade going at full speed down Fifth Avenue.
Amérique is certainly not easy listening, but a really good workout for any system,well maybe not a desktop based direct to TT2, small speaker system,but truly fascinating music indeed.
Those who can't hear the difference between an Mscaler IN or not with any of the three current dacs from Chord that can connect one, in a good system, with THIS recording imho,either need their ears properly cleaned or maybe find another more suitable hobby to indulge in, than HIGH END HIFI?
Cheers CC

 

[rkt31]

Roon can be set up to not screw with the data and not do it’s own upscaling but the settings are in a few spots and some are not obvious. I can’t remember the specifics as it has been too long since I have used it. I also avoid the cost of Roon and use the LMS server player system, which really is fantastic and completely free, although a little trickier to setup especially with the heavy security of the latest macOS. It also runs cross platform and on a few NUCs and NASs also. Unless you are Specifically using plugins like the HQPlayer upscale or Roons metadata, LMS does everything Roon does.

Getting a little off topic, back to player apps - Others here use Tidal and should be able to chime in how they avoid that app forcing upscaling just as they manage to get it to avoid using the lossy MQA nonsense.

Decent player apps should all have a way of setting an ’exclusive’ mode and outputting bit perfect data.

No need to use roon, audirvana or j river or any paid software. Use foobar with upnp plugin in windows laptop. Set output as asio. Install m connect music app in android and stream lossless tidal or Qobuz to foobar . Everything is free. What more m connect is able to stream first unfolded mqa to foobar. Not many people know this free streaming route and trapped into these expensive softwares and streamers. There is no free software except foobar which allows asio output with streaming support.

 

[iamoneagain]

I switched down to 12v and sounds the same so I’ll leave at that until someone can confirm 16v is safe or not.

I found the answer myself.

So after a couple of weeks of playing around with different volts on battery and settings on my Dave, I finally settled on this:

Poweradd at 9v and Dave with HF ON and no crossfeed.

It took me a long while to end up on this setting since this is a darker sound than I was originally used to. But it’s the most immersive and has the best textures. Don’t know why but 16v produces a brighter sound similar to the stock power supply.

I’m also finding using battery to be trouble free. I haven’t ever gone below 40% in my daily use and listen a lot while working from home. Whenever have extended break or at night , I unplug from mscaler and plug power back into battery to top back off.

 

[Christer]

So after a couple of weeks of playing around with different volts on battery and settings on my Dave, I finally settled on this:

Poweradd at 9v and Dave with HF ON and no crossfeed.

It took me a long while to end up on this setting since this is a darker sound than I was originally used to. But it’s the most immersive and has the best textures. Don’t know why but 16v produces a brighter sound similar to the stock power supply.

I’m also finding using battery to be trouble free. I haven’t ever gone below 40% in my daily use and listen a lot while working from home. Whenever have extended break or at night , I unplug from mscaler and plug power back into battery to top back off.

Which poweradd are you using with your Mscaler?
With regular thunderstorms and even some power cuts recently I also need a solution where I can listen at least via headphones off grid.
I tried a few days ago during a powercut, to listen with my Qutest and my battery powered psu and battery headphone amp. But compared to the Mscaler it sounded too coarse and unrefined and too digital to me.
It is easy to get spoilt and take smooth and effortless digital SQ more or less for granted,but very difficult to go back to non Mscaled music long term imho.

 

[iamoneagain]

Which poweradd are you using with your Mscaler?
With regular thunderstorms and even some power cuts recently I also need a solution where I can listen at least via headphones off grid.
I tried a few days ago during a powercut, to listen with my Qutest and my battery powered psu and battery headphone amp. But compared to the Mscaler it sounded too coarse and unrefined and too digital to me.
It is easy to get spoiled ad take smooth and effortless digital SQ more or less for granted,but very difficult to go back to non Mscaled music long term imho.

I’m using Poweradd pro 5 just for the mscaler. I believe this can be used for Hugo TT2 as well but don’t know anything about the Qutest.

The Poweradd was recommended as cheapest solution to avoid RF being transmitted from the mscaler to the dac.

POWERADD Pilot Pro 5 60W Power Delivery 30000mAh Power bank Dual USB Port (5V2.4A ... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WVTKTYD/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_i_k3GbFbDHGBK99

 

[blueninjasix]

Hi, when you say LMS still holds its own in some respects,do you mean SQ wise or something else?
SQ wise I am still quite happy with both Audirvana and Pure Music with my mbp and Qutest/Mscaler.
Neither program is free like LMS, but imho both are still holding up well against the admittedly very few Roon and VERY expensive streamer boxes options I have auditioned so far.
To give just one example of MANY.
Last night I played the 24/96 download recording of Varese's Amérique as performed by the Seattle Symphony live via my HEKV2 into my Musical Fidelity V3 complete with its separate PSU box via Qutest/HMS and I have to say, I can only remember it sounding even better via DAVE/HMS and the biggest most expensive Woo Audio amp driving Susvaras.
Effortless and very clean and immensely detailed and realistic SQ, and a very suitable recording to sort the "wheat from the chaff".
A very richly scored work with a large dynamic range,that to the uninitiated may sound a bit like a mix of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring with bit of Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin thrown in here and there. And an exotic Oriental Dance at times competing with the Firebrigade going at full speed down Fifth Avenue.
Amérique is certainly not easy listening, but a really good workout for any system,well maybe not a desktop based direct to TT2, small speaker system,but truly fascinating music indeed.
Those who can't hear the difference between an Mscaler IN or not with any of the three current dacs from Chord that can connect one, in a good system, with THIS recording imho,either need their ears properly cleaned or maybe find another more suitable hobby to indulge in, than HIGH END HIFI?
Cheers CC

I love reading your posts. You are almost unique in that you support your views with musical references.