[Mediahound]

Theres almost no margin in the cilinder holes in Mscaler's housing top. And the microswitches have very little pushback force.
A possible way is to open it and rotate or swap the sticky button with one of the others.

This is why i made the button diameters in my housing with tiny bit more margin

I also suspect the casing may sometimes be pushing the button(s) a bit so perhaps loosening that in the front would help?

Note however, I try to use the remote instead whenever I can.

 

[FunkyBassMan]

Wondering your thoughts on streamers. Are they necessary?

I run M-Dave off Audirvana and it sounds incredible. Do streamers add a lot more?

 

[AussieMick]

Wondering your thoughts on streamers. Are they necessary?

I run M-Dave off Audirvana and it sounds incredible. Do streamers add a lot more?

A well designed streamer often has a great deal less noise than a PC or laptop. The difference can be staggering. I went from using a MacBook Air and Mac mini to an Innuos Zen MK3 and it convinced me to never again let a computer near my hifi system.

Interestingly it was my friends Project Stream Box 2 that started me down the streamer path. It bested my computer sources and expensive CD transport. The same day another friend brought over his Hugo2/2Go (I was using Qutest at the time so the same DAC) and it was an even bigger difference.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

A well designed streamer often has a great deal less noise than a PC or laptop. The difference can be staggering. I went from using a MacBook Air and Mac mini to an Innuos Zen MK3 and it convinced me to never again let a computer near my hifi system.

Interestingly it was my friends Project Stream Box 2 that started me down the streamer path. It bested my computer sources and expensive CD transport. The same day another friend brought over his Hugo2/2Go (I was using Qutest at the time so the same DAC) and it was an even bigger difference.

Hhhmmmmmmmmm, now I'm going to have to order the Ifi Zen Stream.

 

[AussieMick]

Hhhmmmmmmmmm, now I'm going to have to order the Ifi Zen Stream.

The friend who brought over his Project also owned the iFi ZenStream. I just asked and he said functionally identical so he’d go with whichever is cheaper. He now runs Hugo2/2Go and is very satisfied. I keep telling him to get a 2Yu and I’ll bring around the M Scaler, but he’s frightened of how much it’ll hurt his bank account.

 

[alishafai]

Wondering your thoughts on streamers. Are they necessary?

I run M-Dave off Audirvana and it sounds incredible. Do streamers add a lot more?

Interestingly, I've been wondering exactly the same thing. Right now, I am going from MacBook Pro>>>MS>>>TT2. But, I've started my research into streamers, and will let you know what I land on.

 

[AussieMick]

Interestingly, I've been wondering exactly the same thing. Right now, I am going from MacBook Pro>>>MS>>>TT2. But, I've started my research into streamers, and will let you know what I land on.

Getting a streamer let me see how much more my Qutest, amp and speakers had to give. Like when I finally bought an M Scaler last week - my speakers, amp and headphones are even better than I thought.

 

[Reactcore]

A well designed streamer often has a great deal less noise than a PC or laptop. The difference can be staggering. I went from using a MacBook Air and Mac mini to an Innuos Zen MK3 and it convinced me to never again let a computer near my hifi system.

Interestingly it was my friends Project Stream Box 2 that started me down the streamer path. It bested my computer sources and expensive CD transport. The same day another friend brought over his Hugo2/2Go (I was using Qutest at the time so the same DAC) and it was an even bigger difference.

I guess its not so much about being a streamer (playing a continuous transported music stream over IP network) but having your player isolated and less noise polluted as possible before sending the digital audio signal into Mscaler/DAC.

But convinience plays a big role too.

I went the DIY route.. and used a small thinclient PC cause its simple circuit (for a pc) No fast GPU, chipsets or multi RAM modules.
External PSU, fanless, stripped down win7 embedded
All non essential background services disabled. Optical network (SFP is powered on the same internal groundplane as pc) built a DDC in it also on pc own 5v with toslink out.

Music locally stored or reading from local NAS using SMB (= tcp data, not audio streaming)

Running Foobar2k or Jriver media center on wasapi, using phone/tablet only as controller

This costed under €100 but took some time to setup. I had great fun making it.

I had the idea of building this in a Choral housing..

 

[JTbbb]

I use the Innuos Zenith Mk3. Expensive but suited my needs perfectly. Plug & Play, Roon Ready, ripped my cd collection and the power supplies are designed by Sean Jacobs? I think I have the name right, same chap that designed the power supplies you can power Dave with. I have no idea what the differences would be against using a non dedicated PC or Laptop, as I’ve never used one.

 

[PANURUS]

A number of people went through the same thing with the Hugo 2, and swore blind that a linear PSU was improving it as well. Turned out that the stock PSU was injecting noise back into the ground plane of the power cables and that went through the power going to their amplifier. I haven't had the chance to experiment with the Qutest though, but I put all my PSUs on a power filter board so that they can't interfere with other equipment this way.

I confirm that the Hugo2 power supply pollutes the 220V and this affects the Dave. So I use my Hugo2 with powerbank.
Generally the streamers also pollute the 220V but this time it is the ethernet circuit which returns pollution to the 220V. My solution is the 2GO2YU (WIFI and Optical) on power bank, with the HMS on Powerbank and Wireworld BNC 75 ohm cables. On these cables the addition of ferrites has no effect.
I choose to place my Dave and my amplifier on main block filtered and a lot of ferrites on the 220V cables.
I prefer a good 220V, in this case, the alimentation of the Dave is perfect.
I use Poweroak K2 And i place some ferrites on the DC12V cables between the Powerbank and the HMS.

 

[Jawed]

A well designed streamer often has a great deal less noise than a PC or laptop. The difference can be staggering. I went from using a MacBook Air and Mac mini to an Innuos Zen MK3 and it convinced me to never again let a computer near my hifi system.

This is the inside of the Zen

It's a computer.

 

[PANURUS]

This is the inside of the Zen

It's a computer.

This post is to confirm that Jawed is right.
When I bought the Node, i did not understand why with the Dave and optical the sounds was so bright.
So i return it. Later the story of ferrites begins. And i understood that the Node send noise to the 220V and kill the Dave.
So the solution is to put ferrites on the 220V cable. I loose 8000 euro in streamer before i found the solution.
The optical fibre is a part of the solution But the noise of the ethernet needs to be solved too.

 

[gc4170]

I don't have any noise in my system at all. I'm using a zenith 3. yes its a computer, of course it's a computer, a heavily modified, brilliantly sounding computer.
I have that connected to another innuos box, the USB phoenix. This is connected to the mscaler and TT2 Dac. These have a Plixir Elite BDC 15V 6A Dual LPS powering them with the elite cables. I do use a number of witch hat audio morgana cables in my active naim setup, and a chord s6 power bank with chord shawline shielded mains cables.
I have a lot of clean power supplies and not gone too mad with the cables, I'm very happy with how it sounds.

 

[AussieMick]

This is the inside of the Zen

It's a computer.

Of course it’s a computer. What’s your point? It’s specifically designed for the job to be low noise in every way. It’s most definitely not a PC or a laptop or a MacBook.

 

[Jawed]

Of course it’s a computer. What’s your point? It’s specifically designed for the job to be low noise in every way. It’s most definitely not a PC or a laptop or a MacBook.

Actually, it is a PC.