[Zhanming057]

@Zhanming057, congratulations on getting a TT2. It‘s my favorite DAC as it is a few others on this forum. My first one was a silver floor model that I took even though I wanted a black one, but I got at a great discount from my long time audio gear dealer on it so I couldn’t pass it up. I barely had it out of the box before the damn thing wouldn’t charge up and turn on. So I had to wait two weeks for the motherboard to be swapped out and returned. Long story short I now have a black TT2 and a silver M Scaler. Which is okay because I can’t tell what color they are when I’m listening to music. If you can get a good price on a HMS, no matter what the color, jump on it.

Agreed, I consider it an essential for the TT2 in completing the system, and at least a "good to have" for the Dave and a few other TOTL DACs.

I am still mostly off the DAC train but I figure I could use something small that fits into a briefcase, so I can bring it to the office and for traveling when needed. Otherwise, there are better DACs - but not at this size, and definitely nothing that takes 12v DC and drives headphones. The Mscaler would stay at home.

 

[bpcans]

Agreed, I consider it an essential for the TT2 in completing the system, and at least a "good to have" for the Dave and a few other TOTL DACs.

I am still mostly off the DAC train but I figure I could use something small that fits into a briefcase, so I can bring it to the office and for traveling when needed. Otherwise, there are better DACs - but not at this size, and definitely nothing that takes 12v DC and drives headphones. The Mscaler would stay at home.

@Zhanming057, when I travel now I take my laptop with an AQ dongle Dragonfly DAC and my Grado RS1i hp‘s. It’s just not the same.

 

[Christer]

@Zhanming057, congratulations on getting a TT2. It‘s my favorite DAC as it is a few others on this forum. My first one was a silver floor model that I took even though I wanted a black one, but I got at a great discount from my long time audio gear dealer on it so I couldn’t pass it up. I barely had it out of the box before the damn thing wouldn’t charge up and turn on. So I had to wait two weeks for the motherboard to be swapped out and returned. Long story short I now have a black TT2 and a silver M Scaler. Which is okay because I can’t tell what color they are when I’m listening to music. If you can get a good price on a HMS, no matter what the color, jump on it.

For those who want to try out the Mscaler I fully agree with bpcans opinion of it,but do no take his last three words too litterarly.
I strongly doubt it takes kindly to being jumped on.

But if you still want to ty it out, do avoid jumping on the little coloured plastic balls.
Otherwise it does indeed look and feel like it is built like a mini tank but without a gun .
SQ wise the HMS is THE main reason why I am using a Chord Dac.

It has for me personally taken digital reproduction to a level where I rarely bother to listen to LPs although I have a good vinyl system and many hundreds of LPs.

I recently moved my HMS and Qutest as far apart as my Wave Storm BNC cables allow 1 metre .
I am not sure whether the actual improvement I hear is down to that or that the cheap 3 metres logitech usb cable also is helping here or maybe a combination of both . But it now allows me to stream from my iMac with surprisngly good SQ although of course real hi res ie 24 bit 96 and above still sounds even more realistic.
Regarding PGGB I only have a few test tracks and all the hazzle involved with it like long classical music movements being split in several parts with glitches has me still very happy with my Mscaler. But yes it seemed to lower noisefloor a bit compared to mscaled.

Regarding ML speakers my advice would be to compensate for the glass windowed side acoustically and put whatever MLs you may end up with a bit toe in and at least 50 centimetres or so from the back wall.
I just finished listening to some quite well recorded Anoushka Shankar tracks and still after owning mine many years I am very impressed by how realistically they reproduce acoustic instruments ,the human voice and the venue acoustics.

A "disappearing act",few other speakers can deliver as believably as electrostats imho.
Very coherent stable, pinpoint accurate soundstage and very low distortion by any standard if not playing too loud Rock and Pop Music. Three are other speakers better suited to those genres than electrostatic speakers.

But for acoustic music the electrostatic principle is still about as good as it gets imho.
Seeing that you live in the US where ML speakers are a LOT cheaper on the second hand market than in Europe I would also listen to some of the much cheaper older models before getting an expensive newer speaker just because it is newer.
Imho the class D built in amp for the bass in all newer models is not neccessarily a better option than amping a passive woofer with a good amp.
And it looks like your room might cope with slightly bigger speakers than the ones you linked to.
Cheers CC

 

[dac64]

Yeah boy! With the PGGB, open up the selection of DAC, e.g. LampoopizatOr...

I hate I say this, even with the new XM scaler

 

[bpcans]

@Christer, I had to laugh at your admonishment not to literally jump on an M Scaler. Of course nobody does that. Do they? With respect to ML speakers, I’ve listened to them extensively at my audio dealers, and I like their sound a lot for the classical and jazz music that I listen to most often. For me the HMS/TT2 pairing really came to life when I connected them using the WAVE Storm BNC cables. I consider the WAVE Storm’s to be an integral component when using a Chord DAVE or the TT2 with the HMS.

 

[Christer]

@Zhanming057, when I travel now I take my laptop with an AQ dongle Dragonfly DAC and my Grado RS1i hp‘s. It’s just not the same.

Hmm , that sounds quite similar to how I started my "computer digital journey" too.

I even brought my Grados to a classical recording session to compare it against the then newish HD800 with live acoustic instruments recorded in-DXD.
My Grados weren´t that bad actually, a bit thin and overbright mainly, but the Centrance Dacport I was using, did not stand a chance against 2L s DXD raw files played back at those sessions .
Playing back some of those masterfiles now via my current Qutest/HMS combo is much closer to how things sounded live and both masters and micfeed .
Cheers CC

 

[Christer]

@Christer, I had to laugh at your admonishment not to literally jump on an M Scaler. Of course nobody does that. Do they? With respect to ML speakers, I’ve listened to them extensively at my audio dealers, and I like their sound a lot for the classical and jazz music that I listen to most often. For me the HMS/TT2 pairing really came to life when I connected them using the WAVE Storm BNC cables. I consider the WAVE Storm’s to be an integral component when using a Chord DAVE or the TT2 with the HMS.

Ha ha, but wasn´t there an early add from Chord with a 4WD jeep driving on top of a Hugo or something like that?
Cheers CC

 

[alxw0w]

Ha ha, but wasn´t there an early add from Chord with a 4WD jeep driving on top of a Hugo or something like that?
Cheers CC

 

[Jawed]

@JTbbb, here’s a picture of the room that I’d like to put the speakers in. My hp system to the right of the fireplace will of course have to be repositioned. Which is something that I was working on anyway because I need to separate my M Scaler from my TT2 on my audio-gear rack. The HMS and TT2 are sitting side by side, which I’ve read is not good if I want the best SQ.

Honestly, that room looks way too cluttered for serious speaker enjoyment.

Sticking my head above the parapet here but on the face of it I would have thought that the one side wall which seems to be mainly glass is going to cause problems acoustically. Perhaps you have drapes/curtains which are not visible.

Glass and bare walls sound basically identical.

In general the wall behind speakers spoils the sound much more than walls to either side.

A good setup for speakers either side of the fireplace in this room puts a speaker right in front of the door: 5 feet or more away from the wall behind it. But at least the door slides!

A solution might be to use speakers like these:

https://www.audioaffair.co.uk/blog/the-wonderful-world-of-duevel-and-omnidirectional-loudspeakers/

I heard these in a small cramped room at a show and they were beautiful.

 

[Widell]

Please share parts link so we can make our own…

 

[Lgn3]

In general the wall behind speakers spoils the sound much more than walls to either side.

I am not so sure about that. First reflection points ( the mirror points on side walls and ceiling ) would usually be the place to begin if acoustically treating a room for serious listening. Their name gives it away. At least that is my understanding. Googling comb effect will turn up lots of information.

 

[ZappaMan]

I am not so sure about that. First reflection points ( the mirror points on siide walls and ceiling ) would usually be the place to begin if acoustically treating a room for serious listening. Their name gives it away. At least that is my understaning. Googling comb effect will tun up lots of information.

Is there a way to do the room treatment with a microphone and software ?

 

[Lgn3]

Is there a way to do the room treatment with a microphone and software ?

I have not used it myself but here is one.

https://www.roomeqwizard.com/

 

[burbster]

Is there a way to do the room treatment with a microphone and software ?

I used REW, and initially e-mailed the results to GIK, along with pictures and room dimensions, they then suggested what and where the most appropriate treatments should go. But you can also interpret the various graphs and charts yourself and deduce what type of treatment you need. And make it yourself if you fancy it.

In terms of exactly where to place it, there are strategies for best placement, you can use the same software to log the levels of various frequencies as you walk around the room, where the levels are the highest, that is where you may want to place a tuned bass trap, as an example.

Is that what you meant? Or were you referring to room correction, and using the software to generate the correction EQ's etc?

 

[Progisus]

Well I’m down the mscaler rabbit hole again. This time with a pair of Wave Storm cables on order from Nick. Still waiting on my K30 server/player as well. On first listen after a couple years training on many many filters from HQPLayer the Watts WTA1 filter is readily appreciated. With cables and server it can only get better.