Hugo M Scaler by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread

[varadero xl1000v]

Well, I am not near them right now but I found a good picture:

And yes, seem a little bit closer. And indeed, the cables have bigger connectors. However, I keep my opinion that it is an unfortunate design of these. I remember Chord had some problems also with RCA out on Hugo 2.

Indeed, it is closer!
Certainly the manufacturer of the case, at the behest of Chord, to give more distance.

It is a problem that the user can not use metal plugs (which are usually bigger and better), toshlink ..

 

[GreenBow]

I just found a product that might work for powering the M-scaler and replace battery packs. It should last a lot longer than a battery pack too. I found a similar one on Amazon, and it lists: Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) and EMI, RFI, Surge and Spike Protection.

Cyberpower cp1500pfclcd pfc sinewave ups system, 1500va/1000w

No idea if it would be right for the job, but thought I'd pass it on.

 

[kenray536]

Hi folks. Have people tried the MScaler with non-Chord DACs? How much sound improvement did they give? And specifically, has anyone tried the M Scaler with an RME ADI-2 DAC?

I’m sure interested in this info as well.

How do you hook it up to a non Chord DAC? Would you use the single BNC output or optical out?

 

[Triode User]

I just found a product that might work for powering the M-scaler and replace battery packs. It should last a lot longer than a battery pack too. I found a similar one on Amazon, and it lists: Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) and EMI, RFI, Surge and Spike Protection.

Cyberpower cp1500pfclcd pfc sinewave ups system, 1500va/1000w

No idea if it would be right for the job, but thought I'd pass it on.

I have just wasted 10 mins of my life reading the reviews. They are not very complimentary. It seems just to be lead acid batteries with an inverter. Be careful what the spec is for the outlet. Cheap inverters are not often I good mix with high end hifi.

 

[GreenBow]

Lead acid batteries are used in car batteries and what Rob Watts says is perfect power. (Clean high dynamic current.) As long as it makes a perfect sinewave, and if it makes no RFI, how can it not be suitable? (Apart from your statement about cheap inverters and hifi.)

No idea where you saw poor reviews. Every review yet that I looked at was very positive.

 

[Progisus]

This appears to be line interactive. It has some minor line correction when under normal power. It only provides a manufactured sine wave output when under a power failure. You should look for a true online ups to be always using it’s manufactured power. They are at least double the price.

 

[GreenBow]

This appears to be line interactive. It has some minor line correction when under normal power. It only provides a manufactured sine wave output when under a power failure. You should look for a true online ups to be always using it’s manufactured power. They are at least double the price.

Ah! I see what you mean.

I imagine you could trick one of the Cyberpower units to think there was a power cut though. Anyway, I only hoped it might make sense for M-Scaler owners. I had no idea whether it would be any use or not. I thought however with that amount of power storage it would go on for weeks.

 

[HumanMedia]

Cheap Uninteruptable Power Supplies (UPS), and many not so cheap, are not only bad for audio but a whole range of equipment. Sensitive equipment like projectors even come with warnings to avoid UPS because so many are bad and will physically damage them. Remember that an MScaler uses DC power which is not a sin wave. A sin wave is AC power, and the way a UPS gets AC power from DC batteries is using an inverter and cheap inverters produce more of a sawtooth with double digit distortion, regardless of what name and spin marketing give them.

 

[Mediahound]

Cheap Uninteruptable Power Supplies (UPS), and many not so cheap, are not only bad for audio but a whole range of equipment. Sensitive equipment like projectors even come with warnings to avoid UPS because so many are bad and will physically damage them. Remember that an MScaler uses DC power which is not a sin wave. A sin wave is AC power, and the way a UPS gets AC power from DC batteries is using an inverter and cheap inverters produce more of a sawtooth with double digit distortion, regardless of what name and spin marketing give them.

Rob Watts doesn't seem to have a problem using a battry pack while travelling and would probably say that the M Scaler is impervious to the above.

 

[HumanMedia]

Ah! I see what you mean.

I imagine you could trick one of the Cyberpower units to think there was a power cut though. Anyway, I only hoped it might make sense for M-Scaler owners. I had no idea whether it would be any use or not. I thought however with that amount of power storage it would go on for weeks.

I think you are misunderstanding what that product is and does.
If you ripped the batteries out and put your own voltage regulator on the batteries that might be an OK idea. But just buy the batteries separately. What that unit does is converts from clean DC battery power to the worst quality AC power imaginable which would blow up your Mscaler instantly if you connected the AC output directly into your MScalers power jack (DC). To actually use it you would have to plug your stock wall wart into it, but still you are putting far worse quality power into your wall wart than if it were plugged straight into the wall.

As an aside, because the the gearing (and inefficiencies) of converting from 12VDC to 120/240VAC you would be lucky to get a days use from it when disconnected from the wall.

 

[HumanMedia]

Rob Watts doesn't seem to have a problem using a battry pack while travelling and would probably say that the M Scaler is impervious to the above.

The device linked to isn't a battery pack providing DC power its a battery driving an inverter to create 120 or 240v AC power, and most likely distorted AC power at that.

 

[Triode User]

Lead acid batteries are used in car batteries and what Rob Watts says is perfect power. (Clean high dynamic current.) As long as it makes a perfect sinewave, and if it makes no RFI, how can it not be suitable? (Apart from your statement about cheap inverters and hifi.)

No idea where you saw poor reviews. Every review yet that I looked at was very positive.

These cheap inverter units are far removed from being perfect power. Lead acid batteries by themselves, yes, So why not just hook up lead acid batteries direct? Well there are a few reasons why not and one might decide to hook up different types of battery instead or indeed just a better DC power unit but that is a different story.

It just seems crazy to me to even think of using one of these cheaply made items in a HiFi system. (I have seen reviews talking about them catching fire - there are many critical reviews on Amazon although they need translating ). Cheap inverters usually generate pretty crappy mains with lots of noise and probably also radiated noise.

 

[varadero xl1000v]

Good morning. Below is a complete analysis of the Chord M Scaler. I would like to ask, do the experiences of those who use this device agree with the analysis described in the article?

https://audiobacon.net/2019/05/31/chord-electronics-hugo-m-scaler-review-digital-disruption/?amp=1

 

[Mandea]

My experiences do agree. At first it doesn't seem like the sound is much improved. But when, after a couple of songs you try to go back to listening without m-scaler, it is like the music is somehow dry, although prior to M-scaler you were not aware this might be the case. Mind you, I've only had my m-scaler for 3 days. But once you start listening to music you can't stop. you can listen to music without it, but once you do try it, it's hard to let it go.

 

[Ragnar-BY]

Good morning. Below is a complete analysis of the Chord M Scaler. I would like to ask, do the experiences of those who use this device agree with the analysis described in the article?

https://audiobacon.net/2019/05/31/chord-electronics-hugo-m-scaler-review-digital-disruption/?amp=1

Good review. This is a quote which I totally agree with:

If the goal is to get digital music to be as lifelike as possible – this is it.