Chords New M -Scaler

[seeteeyou]

On 7/27/2018 at 11:21 PM, austinpop said:

So bottom line, while you could get HMS upsampling to 192kHz to most DACs, that only gives you access to 1/4 million taps. Should a DAC be capable of 384kHz on its S/PDIF input, that would give you 1/2 million taps.

 

ComTrue made something called CT7601 Audio USB Bridge for 200 bucks and at the very least it's able to record 0.5M taps via that single S/PDIF output @ 384kHz

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/review-comparison-of-5-high-end-digital-music-servers-aurender-n10-cad-cat-server-totaldac-d1-server-auralic-aries-audiophile-vortex-box.787020/page-79#post-14119139

In other words, the physical presence of M Scaler should be no longer required after the recording is done. In other words, we could split the costs of acquiring that, we could rent that, we could borrow that from a buddy, we could pay an owner to do the recording, or owners could even sell that after an entire music library is done, so on and so forth.

 

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It uses the mono data format on AES3, in order to double the sample rate, so this is an industry standard. But I don't know any DACs that use it today.

 

Since the coaxial input of CT7601 actually supports up to 768kHz, maybe we could use two of them to record each mono channel separately / simultaneously and then merge them into stereo *.WAV files afterwards? Editing *.WAV files should be relatively easy since PCM shouldn't be a challenge by any means.

[seeteeyou]

On 7/25/2018 at 1:48 AM, The Computer Audiophile said:

All information is welcomed.

 

Since there's no free lunch, I'd love to know about the Pros and Cons to the Chord approach. 

 

One of the major Pros should be transparency and that ultra low output impedance might be fairly difficult to find when we're looking at other brands. However, only those of us who are driving Omega / Voxativ etc. directly without an amp could actually understand what the deal is

 

https://chordelectronics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Dave-User-Manual.pdf#page=12

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-dave.766517/page-240#post-12717515

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As you have a DAVE, just check the user's manual and you will see its listed output impedance of 0.0055 ohms. Now try and find any other commercially available source with an output impedance that low.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-blu-mk-2-the-official-thread.831343/page-118#post-13783010

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Hugo2 directly driving my Voxativs results in better detail resolution, depth and transparency than my Martin Logan setup and by a significant margin. At this stage, my near field Voxativ setup is the much more satisfying setup. It could be that the Voxativs are more resolving than the Martin Logans but I'm more inclined to believe these Pass Labs monoblocks are the culprit.

 

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I think the problem is with amplifiers (and preamplifiers) in general. They just get in the way and they significantly impact Blu2's performance. If ultimate fidelity to the original musical performance is the goal, I will go out on a limb and predict that Rob's digital amplifiers will have a larger impact on 2-channel speaker listening than Blu2. As good as Blu2 is, the negative impact of amplifiers and preamps is even greater.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-blu-mk-2-the-official-thread.831343/page-202#post-14115340

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I gave up on preamps long ago believing that DAVE directly driving any amp sounds more transparent than any preamp ever could and my direct A/B against a variety of preamps including a $30k VAC seemed to prove this to me.

 

And then we've got great news for owners of Abyss AB-1266 as well as HiFiMAN HE6se / Susvara etc.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hugo-m-scaler-by-chord-electronics-the-official-thread.885042/page-44#post-14422626

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The first DX amp will have HP outputs.

 

DX amp with Power Pulse Array should be a digital amp and therefore we might not even need to add any DACs between that and M Scaler.

[seeteeyou]

Looks like I could easily get a million taps from an OEM

 

[seeteeyou]

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hugo-m-scaler-by-chord-electronics-the-official-thread.885042/page-7#post-14389189

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Never go above 15V on the input with the Hugo M scaler.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hugo-m-scaler-by-chord-electronics-the-official-thread.885042/page-8#post-14389287

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I use Poweradd pilot pro 2, set to 12V OP.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hugo-m-scaler-by-chord-electronics-the-official-thread.885042/page-65#post-14449051

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The M scaler is 13W total.

 

Maybe LPS-1.2 is barely enough at 13.2W?

[seeteeyou]

Almost all non-Chord DACs could only accept 192kHz via (single) coaxial BNC / RCA inputs. As a result, we're only able to utilize 0.25 million taps instead of 1 million. Maybe not worth all that money?

 

There's something like ComTrue CT7601 from Taiwan that could accept 768kHz via single coaxial inputs, though most likely it's only limited to DIY stuff.

 

They're still working on DAVINA with USB output, that's what I'm waiting for myself.