Hugo M Scaler by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread

[GuiltyRocker]

Hi All

I am purchasing a DEQX which does everything at 96K and the DAC output is 96K. I have some 96K material and I know it will have no issues with the DEQX then into the M Scaler. But also I have a lot of 48k and 44.1k material. What effect will that have on the M Scalers performance if any? I suspect its drop dead noise floor will not be as good as Rob's upsampling filters, so degrade the performance. The question is, will it be audible?

Thanks
Bill

Ideally you want to feed the M Scaler non-upsampled bit-perfect data, to me it sounds better than everything else including dCS, so my advice is don't upsample anything you feed the M Scaler.

 

[bhobba]

Ideally you want to feed the M Scaler non-upsampled bit-perfect data, to me it sounds better than everything else including dCS, so my advice is don't upsample anything you feed the M Scaler.

I agree.

Trouble is, you feed the source into other DEQX, and it does all processing at 96k, and it does not matter what you feed it, upsamples/downsamples it to 96k, unless of course, it is fed 96k. The output is always at 96K. That goes into the M-Scaler. There is no avoiding it. Looks like I can only fully unlock the M-Scaler with 96k material.

To others that were kind enough to respond, the digital source is not fed into the M-Scaler, then the DEQX - it is fed into the DEQX, then into the DAC - in my case, the TT2.

I think I will need to suck it and see.

Hope Rob can chime in with some comments.

Thanks
Bill

 

[icnaiwhimor1975]

Mscaler makes everything less harsh instead of the other way around, I hear more micro details (not distortion) of instruments, can’t talk for every genre but for jazz and classical with real instruments (not fake electronic instruments).

By this reaction I already know, you never heared the mscaler or understand what it does. I know what you mean with the distortion partt, but mscaler is something else

so the game is worth the candle?

 

[jjazzy]

so the game is worth the candle?

That is only for you to judge, for me it was.
I bought the tt2+mscaler in one go, the mscaler makes tt2 complete.
For me already end game dac for two years now, use it as dac and as headphone amp.

 

[Meridian7]

so the game is worth the candle?

Truth be told, some think not.
Imho for a variety of possible reasons.
Not so clean usb/not using toslink
Dirty mains
Non bitperfect feed
Use of mainly questionable recordings
No using max upsampling
Amps/any gear downstream that muddles or cant render transients well
Use of non chord dacs after Mscaler
... whatever I forgot.
Maybe some ears/brain simply go past it?

I think of MS as a potential that can be harvested to different degrees.

The big cut to max yield is imho:
Ansolute bit perfect feed
Max upsample to x16 setting
Battery feed MS (most powerbricks dont give a clean 12V!)
Toslink input used (not from a BT to optic converter)
No amps downstream TT2/Dave (maybe there are competent but idk)

No gospel here, just some personal take on.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

Truth be told, some think not.
Imho for a variety of possible reasons.
Not so clean usb/not using toslink
Dirty mains
Non bitperfect feed
Use of mainly questionable recordings
No using max upsampling
Amps/any gear downstream that muddles or cant render transients well
Use of non chord dacs after Mscaler
... whatever I forgot.
Maybe some ears/brain simply go past it?

I think of MS as a potential that can be harvested to different degrees.

The big cut to max yield is imho:
Ansolute bit perfect feed
Max upsample to x16 setting
Battery feed MS (most powerbricks dont give a clean 12V!)
Toslink input used (not from a BT to optic converter)
No amps downstream TT2/Dave (maybe there are competent but idk)

No gospel here, just some personal take on.

All good points, they also use crappy cables that can be falling apart, no need for ridiculous "audiophile" cables, but good cables matter. Speakers not set up correctly in a room and terrible rooms destroy the sound, headphones rectify this, however, headphones don't come near a speaker set up that is done correctly. An amplifier that I found compliments Chord are Parasound JC amplifiers, comparing using headphones vs Parasound, the amps add to Chord as they have a tube-like sound but with all the plusses of solid state, amazing combination. My two cents.

 

[Meridian7]

All good points, they also use crappy cables that can be falling apart, no need for ridiculous "audiophile" cables, but good cables matter. Speakers not set up correctly in a room and terrible rooms destroy the sound, headphones rectify this, however, headphones don't come near a speaker set up that is done correctly. An amplifier that I found compliments Chord are Parasound JC amplifiers, comparing using headphones vs Parasound, the amps add to Chord as they have a tube-like sound but with all the plusses of solid state, amazing combination. My two cents.

That JC5 looks like a beast

 

[GuiltyRocker]

That is my favorite stereo solid state amp, I compared it to DAVE and TT-2 internal amp with headphones vs JC-5 with Persona speakers and to me it blows it all away, the JC-5 with Chord is pure magic, I added the JC-2 analog preamp and it is just amazing. I even compared the JC-5 to 20k and 30k amps, I prefer the JC-5

That JC5 looks like a beast

 

[icnaiwhimor1975]

even compared the JC-5 to 20k and 30k amps

In the audio world - a higher price does not always mean an increase in sound quality.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

Do you want to hear what the M Scaler can do, play this track with your M Scaler and Chord DAC loud enjoy.

 

[Beyond The Blackwall]

I recently switched from using the USB input to optical input. Somehow it sounds better, smoother. Up until now I believed that digital sources should all sound the same, I guess that isn't true.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

I recently switched from using the USB input to optical input. Somehow it sounds better, smoother. Up until now I believed that digital sources should all sound the same, I guess that isn't true.

You likely killed the ground contamination and other airborne noise that USB can pick up, congratulations and enjoy!

 

[Daorom]

Хотите услышать, на что способен M Scaler? Прослушайте этот трек на M Scaler и Chord DAC и наслаждайтесь.

ЛBetter make a file from M-Scaler. )To listen in Chord DAC.

 

[Sevenoaks Audiophile]

You likely killed the ground contamination and other airborne noise that USB can pick up, congratulations and enjoy!

The M Scaler USB input is excellent, any issue with USB will be due to the quality of the USB output feeding the M Scaler and the USB cable.

I use Innous Pulsar (has a Phoenix Lite USB output module) and a Network Acoustics Muon2 USB cable.

 

[jjazzy]

I recently switched from using the USB input to optical input. Somehow it sounds better, smoother. Up until now I believed that digital sources should all sound the same, I guess that isn't true.

It al depends, what is the source doing, what is used technically in the device but also, what is used in the streamer, chips for toslink, which is used for usb conversion etc… xmos or another conversion etc…

Toslink sounds very good in the mscaler, because they took care of designing a good input (most devices don’t have a decent toslink input).

In my opinion toslink sounds best in mscaler, And I have decent streamer with clean usb, still prefer toslink over usb on the mscaler, it is indeed smoother, it is subtle, but it is there.