Hugo M Scaler by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread

[tunes]

HEKse vs D8000 pro direct from DAVE + Mscaler vs Susvara with DAVE + Mscaler + Speaker amp??

 

[stuartrosen]

I currently have a TT2 fed by my Lumin U1 Mini. I’ve played a little with Roon DSD upscaling and couldn’t tell the difference, or at least not enough of a difference to care.

Am I correct that this experience gives no preview as to how I’d feel about an M Scaler? The order of magnitude I read about with the M Scaler seems for most people to be significant and undeniable.

and one other question - seems from Chord’s documentation that I’d benefit from connecting the Lumin to the M Scaler via USB rather than my current single-BNC connection - agree?

 

[The Jester]

Varied results depending on musical taste and what your listening through, acoustic instruments and voice via well setup speakers is the most noticeable to the point where once you’ve heard it there’s no going back, more subtle via headphones to start with but most noticeable is the lack of listener fatigue with all musical tastes, headphones on and some favourite tracks and a whole evening slips by …

 

[Ragnar-BY]

I currently have a TT2 fed by my Lumin U1 Mini. I’ve played a little with Roon DSD upscaling and couldn’t tell the difference, or at least not enough of a difference to care.

Am I correct that this experience gives no preview as to how I’d feel about an M Scaler?

Absolutely. Roon upsampling to DSD might even degrade TT2’s sound. M Scaler works differently. Just listen to it for a week and then use pass-through to compare.

 

[The Jester]

I currently have a TT2 fed by my Lumin U1 Mini. I’ve played a little with Roon DSD upscaling and couldn’t tell the difference, or at least not enough of a difference to care.

Am I correct that this experience gives no preview as to how I’d feel about an M Scaler? The order of magnitude I read about with the M Scaler seems for most people to be significant and undeniable.

and one other question - seems from Chord’s documentation that I’d benefit from connecting the Lumin to the M Scaler via USB rather than my current single-BNC connection - agree?

Can be minor issues with RF so USB has galvanic isolation … Toslink at least ensures no RF issues …
Having said that I have no issues with dedicated PC server to MScaler via USB …
Also, as said in the previous post give it a week of listening but don’t obsess over constant A/B testing, just listen to some favourite tracks over a few days and then use the Pass through for an hour or two … if the M Scaler is for you you’ll miss it in the system …

 

[Triode User]

I currently have a TT2 fed by my Lumin U1 Mini. I’ve played a little with Roon DSD upscaling and couldn’t tell the difference, or at least not enough of a difference to care.

Am I correct that this experience gives no preview as to how I’d feel about an M Scaler? The order of magnitude I read about with the M Scaler seems for most people to be significant and undeniable.

and one other question - seems from Chord’s documentation that I’d benefit from connecting the Lumin to the M Scaler via USB rather than my current single-BNC connection - agree?

Regarding the usb vs bnc question, best to try both. I don’t have a lumin but with my antipodes streamer I prefer its bnc output to connect to the MScaler. A friend of mine suggested I try that because he had tried various options and thought the single bnc input was by far the best in his system.

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

I currently have a TT2 fed by my Lumin U1 Mini. I’ve played a little with Roon DSD upscaling and couldn’t tell the difference, or at least not enough of a difference to care.

Am I correct that this experience gives no preview as to how I’d feel about an M Scaler? The order of magnitude I read about with the M Scaler seems for most people to be significant and undeniable.

and one other question - seems from Chord’s documentation that I’d benefit from connecting the Lumin to the M Scaler via USB rather than my current single-BNC connection - agree?

I would strongly advise to avoid roon upsampling. To my ears it did completely nothing - maybe even degraded SQ.
With the m scaler - it's different story. But like @Ragnar-BY said listen m scaler to week or so and then go back to solo TT2 - that's the best way to see what you are missing.

 

[Karnicopia]

I think it’s great advice to just listen to it for a week or so and then remove it and to me I noticed it as listening fatigue similar to when I’m trying to get rid of RF. The m scaler allows me to listen louder without fatigue which brings increased soundstage detail retrieval dynamics etc. if I just A/B volume matched I’m not going to notice that but if I listen for some time with the m scaler I will bump up the volume and if I do the bypass the volume seems too loud for my comfort level. Some other times I notice it is just on really complex passages it keeps everything distinct and coherent in a way I feel like I haven’t really heard before. This part I do feel like the TT is the best DAC I’ve owned (coming from RME ADI) so some of this is due to the DAC but I feel like I come across this a lot more with the scaler in the chain. This one is much harder for me to pinpoint but I definitely feel like it’s there.

 

[LarsMan]

I think it’s great advice to just listen to it for a week or so and then remove it and to me I noticed it as listening fatigue similar to when I’m trying to get rid of RF. The m scaler allows me to listen louder without fatigue which brings increased soundstage detail retrieval dynamics etc. if I just A/B volume matched I’m not going to notice that but if I listen for some time with the m scaler I will bump up the volume and if I do the bypass the volume seems too loud for my comfort level. Some other times I notice it is just on really complex passages it keeps everything distinct and coherent in a way I feel like I haven’t really heard before. This part I do feel like the TT is the best DAC I’ve owned (coming from RME ADI) so some of this is due to the DAC but I feel like I come across this a lot more with the scaler in the chain. This one is much harder for me to pinpoint but I definitely feel like it’s there.

I just recently acquired a DAVE and then an M Scaler (I also came from an RME), but to me the difference in DAVE with and without M Scaler is night-and-day. With M Scaler it's like I'm part of the music and not just listening to it. I also run these into my tube headphone amp, not the DAVE amp.

 

[burbster]

I currently have a TT2 fed by my Lumin U1 Mini. I’ve played a little with Roon DSD upscaling and couldn’t tell the difference, or at least not enough of a difference to care.

Am I correct that this experience gives no preview as to how I’d feel about an M Scaler? The order of magnitude I read about with the M Scaler seems for most people to be significant and undeniable.

and one other question - seems from Chord’s documentation that I’d benefit from connecting the Lumin to the M Scaler via USB rather than my current single-BNC connection - agree?

I agree with what has been said so far, from my own experience any sort of software up-sampling done in real time has had a negative effect on SQ. possibly down to increased load on the processor of the server??? And in my set up the upsampling is done on a separate processor to the streaming. But the Mscaler is totally different, I was experimenting with PGGB a few weeks back, where I had to take the Mscaler completely out of the chain. I then played some standard files and the difference with out the MScaler, just direct from streamer to DAVE was very stark! Far more so that just having the Mscaler in bypass.

I now use Coax or Toslink into the Mscaler, I prefer both to USB but YMMV, and with a decent cable USB can sound very good.

 

[kelly200269]

I prefer both to USB but YMMV, and with a decent cable USB can sound very good.

USB can/does sound great, and the HMS/TT2 combo does sound different depending on which USB cable you use.

 

[TDinCali]

just received my m-scaler. Perfect fit with the Bakoon 13r. I’m guessing someone is going to tell me that stacking is a no-no?

 

[Slim1970]

just received my m-scaler. Perfect fit with the Bakoon 13r. I’m guessing someone is going to tell me that stacking is a no-no?

Not at all, it looks good! As long as there's sufficient air flow you should be okay.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

just received my m-scaler. Perfect fit with the Bakoon 13r. I’m guessing someone is going to tell me that stacking is a no-no?

Yes, like absolute "no-no" unfortunately. Search above for some reasoned posts on why that could be an issue. Now, maybe your system is built in a way that this is not an issue, but for most some amount of spacing helps.

 

[ra990]

Yes, like absolute "no-no" unfortunately. Search above for some reasoned posts on why that could be an issue. Now, maybe your system is built in a way that this is not an issue, but for most some amount of spacing helps.

Concur. If I'm not mistaken, both MScaler and TT2 manuals explicitly tell you that the devices shouldn't be placed near toroidal transformers, which is what is in one of those sexy Bakoon legs.