Hugo M Scaler by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread

[Reactcore]

I'm totally lost in Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings masterpieces orchestra on 48/24 DVD rip.. so much going on.. keep it safe.. keep it secret

 

[OrenT]

Hi everyone,
First post (but have been following for a long time) from a proud new TT2 & M Scaler owner (less than 48 hours out of the box). Already loving it!

Got a question(s) for my fellow Scalers i can't seem to find the answer for:
Why are there 4 levels of upsamling on the Scaler? I mean, why and under what circumstance would one not want to get the most out of it by not using the maximum upsamling rate? Is there a functional or other reason i'm missing that i should prefer using the green (medium) or blue (high) rather than max (white)? Does anyone use the TT2/Dave without taking advantage of max upscale?

Thanks!

 

[iamoneagain]

Hi everyone,
First post (but have been following for a long time) from a proud new TT2 & M Scaler owner (less than 48 hours out of the box). Already loving it!

Got a question(s) for my fellow Scalers i can't seem to find the answer for:
Why are there 4 levels of upsamling on the Scaler? I mean, why and under what circumstance would one not want to get the most out of it by not using the maximum upsamling rate? Is there a functional or other reason i'm missing that i should prefer using the green (medium) or blue (high) rather than max (white)? Does anyone use the TT2/Dave without taking advantage of max upscale?

Thanks!

I believe maybe you’d use them when not hooking up to a Chord dac. I believe that if you use anything less than the white setting, you’re not bypassing the internal WTA1 filter. Only Chord where this is not true is original TT, with half million bypassing. I only bother to test red vs white settings for comparisons.

 

[Triode User]

Does anyone use the TT2/Dave without taking advantage of max upscale?
Thanks!

No, not after the first 10 minutes of playing with the settings.

 

[varadero xl1000v]

I only bother to test red vs white settings for comparisons.

..and what was the result? I'm interested in this because I have the same Chord combination, but the switching of the button colors does not give me any acoustic change. I have the feeling that it only works at 768 kHz.

 

[iamoneagain]

..and what was the result? I'm interested in this because I have the same Chord combination, but the switching of the button colors does not give me any acoustic change. I have the feeling that it only works at 768 kHz.

So a good track to show the mscaler strength is “Space Annual” by Mogwai. Starts off with just piano. With red (passthru) the soundstage is flat in comparison. It sounds like a recording of the piano. With the white setting (full million taps) you hear the piano’s reverberations echoing off in the the distance. The sound is more opened up and no longer sounds like a recording.

I don’t feel it changes the overall sounds as much helps shape the soundstage and tighten things up. There are no overlapping instruments fighting for your attention. Everything has its own place in the soundstage and you can choose to either focus on one thing or let the whole thing come together as it would in real life.

My perception is just from listening with Focal Utopia’s plugged directly into the Dave. I’m sure speakers or other headphones might show off other aspects.

Another good Mogwai song to show differences in overlapping is “Flee”. With passthru you can hear how everything is fighting together and blending into one sound once it all kicks in. With the white setting, everything is layered. I don’t feel tensed up after listening. Each part can still be picked out.

 

[varadero xl1000v]

So a good track to show the mscaler strength is “Space Annual” by Mogwai. Starts off with just piano. With red (passthru) the soundstage is flat in comparison. It sounds like a recording of the piano. With the white setting (full million taps) you hear the piano’s reverberations echoing off in the the distance. The sound is more opened up and no longer sounds like a recording.

I don’t feel it changes the overall sounds as much helps shape the soundstage and tighten things up. There are no overlapping instruments fighting for your attention. Everything has its own place in the soundstage and you can choose to either focus on one thing or let the whole thing come together as it would in real life.

My perception is just from listening with Focal Utopia’s plugged directly into the Dave. I’m sure speakers or other headphones might show off other aspects.

Another good Mogwai song to show differences in overlapping is “Flee”. With passthru you can hear how everything is fighting together and blending into one sound once it all kicks in. With the white setting, everything is layered. I don’t feel tensed up after listening. Each part can still be picked out.

Thank you very much for the description you gave me ..

 

[opienor]

I have had the M Scaler for about a week now. To me the improvement it makes is way easier to hear through speakers than headphones. Anybody else who thinks this? The improvement is clearly there with headphones also but not as apparent.

 

[Gadget67]

I have had the M Scaler for about a week now. To me the improvement it makes is way easier to hear through speakers than headphones. Anybody else who thinks this? The improvement is clearly there with headphones also but not as apparent.

I’d agree with that and the real proof is that my wife (dicey hearing and hardly an audiophile) noticed the difference right away.

 

[The Jester]

Much more evident over speakers and the more accurately they are setup the more noticeable the improvement.

 

[ecwl]

I personally think that with headphones, it’s easier to hear the PRaT / transient improvements.
But to hear the soundstage improvements, it may be easier to hear through speakers.
Once we start going through speakers (unless you’re wiring say your TT2/DAVE directly to the speakers), most people have preamp, amp maybe even tubes in between the DAC and the speakers so depending on how things are setup, I can see how the soundstage or PRaT changes can potentially get diminished whereas with headphones, you’re completely bypassing everything else (assuming you don’t use a headphone amp).

 

[NYanakiev]

A quick question on some possible upgrade paths for a current Hugo 2+2Go owner:

-How good is the Hugo 2+Mscaler combo versus the TT2 (have been considering buying a TT2 and adding a Mscaler down the line as an alternative)
-Would adding a Mscaler to Hugo 2 make it impossible to use the 2Go?

I intend to keep on using my Focal Utopia- no fancy speakers to power, unfortunately.

Any words of advice are welcome! Thanks!

 

[TKpurple]

A quick question on some possible upgrade paths for a current Hugo 2+2Go owner:

-How good is the Hugo 2+Mscaler combo versus the TT2 (have been considering buying a TT2 and adding a Mscaler down the line as an alternative)
-Would adding a Mscaler to Hugo 2 make it impossible to use the 2Go?

I intend to keep on using my Focal Utopia- no fancy speakers to power, unfortunately.

Any words of advice are welcome! Thanks!

I have hugo2go plus mscaler but the problem is that until 2yo is out you can’t use it together. You can use mscaler when 2go is attached but through seperate source. I could compare roon through sotm with s booster power into mscaler with wave cables into hugo v hugo2go and it was scary how good hugo2go sounded it was more transparent. I also had tt2 on loan together with mscaler and compared it to hugo 2. I decided for hugo2 with mscaler v tt2 but I am not sure it was done fully on the sound merits as I was heavily biased toward mscaler. It was also easier to see mscaler effect with any dac then to compare both DACs as it required longer period listenings on both system Ab swithing between h2 v tt2 was taking me too long to make some valid conclusions. So I took mscaler with hugo2 route but its not the end until 2yo is released. I would say also there imho more dramatic change between dave and tt2 then h2 and tt2.

 

[Reactcore]

One tiny thing i have to report is that one of the supplied cable's BNC won't lock in.. i can't push it far enough in causing dropouts if i touch it.

A tip for Chord is to at least check those cables for fit before shipping. (I know they're pre-sealed in bags)

Lucky as an CCTV engineer i made 1000's of coax cables with BNC's. So i grabbed my tools and made some.



I made them shorter to nicely fit with my Qutest. Though i remember reading that longer sounds better.. but i can't reason how that could be.

 

[dac64]

Nice!

Since you're handy, you may try to explore 1.5m, 3m and 4.5m pairs, enjoying the fun in this hobby!