Popular Post Always.Learning Posted March 11, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 11, 2019 It is ironic that, in this thread devoted to Chord's M-Scaler, there are only a handful of reviews/impressions from actual users. Here is a review I just posted on Head-Fi: I have now had the M-Scaler in my system for about ten days. Here are some observations. Overall Gestalt The single biggest takeaway for me is that music is more composed and calm. Music does not feel as hyped as before; there are not as many moments that show some hint of harshness; there are fewer sharp edges. In a word, music is more natural. Some would say this is a darker sound and I wouldn’t disagree. But it is not darker at the expense of detail or resolution. Frankly, this greater sense of composure ran counter to my expectations, which centered on things like clarity, detail, and soundstage. I didn't know quite what to make of the M-Scaler during my first hour or two of listening because in some ways it seemed like some drama was missing. The more I listened, the more I realized that I was more easily drawn into the music and a greater emotional connection was formed. There was a subjective sense that music had slowed down. This is pure speculation on my part, but my guess is that HMS is easing the difficulty my ear/brain may have processing music; listening is both more relaxing and more involving. It is important to put this in context: my current system (see below) is the least forgiving and most transparent that I have had over the years (though I have some friends with more resolving and less forgiving systems). The speakers are not laid back; rather, they are dynamic, nimble, and fully capable of revealing harshness, glare, and poor recording quality. So this newfound sense of composure and calm is particularly beneficial in the context of my system. Separation of Musical Lines This is probably the second biggest revelation for me: the ability of the M-Scaler to unravel dense musical passages and allow one to follow disparate musical lines. There is a very evenhanded treatment of different strands in the music that allows one to hear and focus on multiple strands of music simultaneously rather than forcing the focus on a particular instrument or voice. This enhanced ability to follow stacked elements of the music or criss-crossing musical lines is a chief virtue of the HMS. In his excellent review of the HMS on audiophilelifestyle.com, @austinpop captured this well when he said: "The best way I can describe it is temporal coherence. There is just something “right” about the sound in terms of its timing. Take dense orchestral music like the Mahler. Normally, with music like that when different instruments come to the foreground in terms of volume, one’s ear is drawn to them, and the others recede from attention. It’s akin to surfing - riding on the crest of each wave. Forgive the mangled metaphor - I don’t surf! What I found with the HMS is that as an instrument receded from its crest, it remained perfectly easy to follow. As a result, I found myself able to keep my attention on what instruments were doing off their peaks. On dense music, this is a revelation! It draws you so much deeper into the piece, both intellectually and emotionally." See https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/my-quest-for-a-new-dac-part-5-chord-electronics-hugo-m-scaler-hugo-tt-2-r781/ This ability to follow musical lines not only draws you into the music, it allows you to appreciate and understand how it is actually put together. High and Low Volumes On most tunes I am now able to turn up the volume by several decibels with no hint of strain, compression, or harshness. Conversely, the system sounds very good at low volumes, allowing one to hear a coherent whole without missing pieces. Since my listening room is our living room, this flexibility is important to me. Human Voice Wow. Very dimensional, very natural. Little inflections are heard and understood. Bass The M-Scaler does not produce more (or less) bass than I was hearing before. Rather, it is cleaner, more intelligible, tuneful, and easy-to-follow bass. Bass also seems more locked in with the rest of the music. If bass is important to a given tune and recorded well, you are in for a treat. Soundstage/Depth One of the major strengths of my current system is a large soundstage with excellent imaging. I wouldn't necessarily say that the HMS has produced a bigger soundstage. I do hear better layering front to back. I also "see" images that are more defined and that seem to have greater cushions of air around them, without fuzz on the edges. For example, on a recording of two pianos, it is easier to hear the two pianos as distinct instruments played by distinct musicians, each occupying their own space. On a musical level, this allows one to appreciate the interplay between the musicians and grasp more of their intent. Related to the issues of soundstage and depth, there is significantly greater recovery of ambience and air in recordings that have it. Impact on Redbook Files I've never been a big believer in the importance of format; it’s music first, then recording quality; with format last. I am now even less of an advocate for the importance of (or differences among) hi-rez formats. HMS tends to level the field, unlocking hidden beauty in your Redbook files. Really good recordings become stupendously good. As others have noted, however, it is not a miracle worker. The impact of HMS on Redbook varies widely depending on recording quality. Setup Issues Chord should really insert some additional pages in the HMS owner’s manual that spell out exactly how one should connect the M-Scaler to DAVE, Hugo2, and Qutest. Currently, the manual only deals with Hugo TT2. I was up and running quickly, thanks to some helpful comments by folks in this thread. An Observation Regarding Power and the HMS I am unlikely to try different power supplies on the HMS, as I have read enough comments, from enough experienced people, to conclude that it is difficult to better the supplied power supply without going to a great deal of expense. But I did try one little experiment. [Side note: I replaced the stock power cord that comes with the HMS with a Shunyata Venom power cord. Pretty cheap upgrade at $95. I have not compared the stock power cord with the Shunyata.] Initially, I plugged the Shunyata power cord into a fairly cheap Wireworld power strip. This is where I have plugged in my other non-analog power supplies that power various components in my digital chain (Uptone Audio LPS 1s). This power strip is plugged into a different circuit than my dedicated audio circuits. This practice follows the advice of Shunyata, which is to separate purely digital components (like the HMS) from anything that contains an analog circuit, both physically (to the extent possible) and in terms of power circuits. Sometimes the received wisdom needs to be tested, however, and so I plugged the Shunyata cord into an available outlet on my Audience aR6 TSSOX power conditioner. This particular outlet was designed for digital components (like a DAC), although I prefer to plug DAVE into one of the outlets normally reserved for amps (and I have my amp plugged into the wall). There was a clear and unambiguous change for the better using the power conditioner to get power to the HMS. What stood out was that bass was more intelligible and propulsive, and backgrounds seemed blacker. There was another step forward in reducing edginess and a step up in musical engagement. The Audience conditioner, combined with its expensive Audience power cord to the wall, and my dedicated 20 amp circuits using 10 gauge wire all combined to produce this result. BNC Cables Note that my experience so far has been with the stock cables. Eventually, I plan to audition two or three brands of BNC cables and see how much of a difference they make. Comparisons with Vinyl I have a good vinyl setup and it's been an interesting exercise to compare good vinyl records with the same tunes played through HMS. Not surprisingly, the results vary widely. For those who believe HMS has made vinyl obsolete, I'm sorry to report that is not the case. Vinyl is still king with select recordings. Example: any tune on Joni Mitchell's Blue album (the reissue on Rhino). This record has that "breath of life" that is immediately recognizable within 10 seconds. It's mostly about tone and texture. The dulcimer on "California" and "A Case of You" has much more texture and woody resonance than with any digital version (that includes a Tidal 24/192 MQA version (unfolded by Roon to 24/96); a Qobuz 24/96 version; and my own rip of a Redbook CD). By comparison, the dulcimer through my digital chain sounds a little plasticky, lifeless, and grey. Joni's voice is simply more human, more tangible, and more real on vinyl, and my analog system throws a considerably bigger image. The comparison is not close at all. On the other hand, yesterday a friend brought over Radiohead's "In Rainbows" album and the Reference Recordings album "Exotic Dances from the Opera." Neither vinyl album could hold a candle to digital playback of the same tunes through HMS. I will say that the variation in the quality of vinyl playback is much greater -- from really bad to really great -- than what I typically hear through digital with HMS, which tends to vary from OK to really great. My System To help put my observations in context, my system consists of: Devore Gibbon X loudspeakers HiFiMan HE1000 headphones Chord DAVE Chord Hugo M-Scaler Roon/Tidal/Qobuz running off SD card Mac Mini modified by Uptone Audio in bridged mode serving as Roon Core server, powered by Uptone Audio JS-2 power supply Paul Pang ethernet switch with TXCO clock powered by Jameco LPS SOtM dCBL-Cat7 Ethernet cables Blue Jeans Cable 6a ethernet SOtM sMS-200 Ultra powered by Uptone Audio LPS-1 power supply with custom Zenwave UPOCC copper cable Uptone Audio Iso Regen powered by Uptone Audio LPS-1 power supply and Ghent Audio cable SOtM txUSB Ultra powered by Uptone Audio LPS-1 power supply with custom Zenwave UPOCC copper cable TW Acustic Raven turntable and integral phono cable TW Acustic Raven 10.5 tonearm Miyajima Shilabe cart Zanden/TW Acustic record mat Crayon CFA 1.2 integrated amp with Synergistic Research Blue Fuses Crayon CPH-P phono stage with dedicated Paul Hynes SR5 DR48 power supply with Synergistic Research Blue Fuse Daedalus/WyWires speaker cable High Fidelity CT-1 Enhanced interconnect WyWires Gold interconnect Phasure Lush USB cable Phasure Lush^2 USB cable Audience AU24 SE USB cable Audience aR6 TSSOX power conditioner Shunyata Alpha HC power cord powering amplifier direct-to-wall Shunyata Alpha HC power cord powering Chord DAVE selection of Audience AU24 SE and Audience PowerChord power cords Two 20 amp dedicated circuits with 10-gauge wire and FIM 888 AC outlets Stillpoints Ultra SS and Ultra Mini under most components including speakers Finite Elemente rack with Cerabase footers Equipment Vibration Protectors from A/V Roomservice under other components Finite Elemente Ceraballs under other components Custom wall-mounted TT rack Acoustic Revive Schumann resonator powered by Jameco LPS Stillpoints Aperture acoustic room treatment (2) A/V Roomservice acoustic room treatment (4) Acustica Applicata Diffusion Absorption Audio Device ZSleeves DIY ultrasonic record cleaner/VPI 16.5 record cleaner High Fidelity Cables MC 0.5 Wave Guide High Fidelity Cables Magnetic Adapters mozes, blue2, Account Closed and 7 others 5 4 1 Link to comment
Popular Post Always.Learning Posted April 10, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted April 10, 2019 Ken (@kennyb123) is absolutely right about the importance of upgrading your BNC cables with the HMS. Please note I am not complaining about the Chord-supplied cables. I have been happily enjoying them for the last six weeks or so and Chord deserves some credit for including these with the HMS -- it helps get people up and listening quickly. Not many manufacturers include a pair of cables with their product. In any event, I was motivated to try a new pair of cables by Ken's experience (we are friends) and by another mutual friends' positive report on a pair of very affordable BNC cables. These are the Geistnote Apogee Wyde Eye cables, available direct from Geistnote or on Amazon. They will not break the bank -- $40 for a well-manufactured 3 foot BNC to BNC cable. Under $100 for a pair including tax and fast shipping here in the USA. The difference between these cables and the Chord cables is plain as day. There is more precision, less smearing and splashing, and just a more controlled, organized, disciplined, and tightly focused presentation. Tonality seems very, very slightly different — a little more accurate I would say. These cables really enhance the HMS strengths of a calming effect and precise transient timing. A ridiculous and musically significant bargain at under $100. I have little doubt that the Geistnote cables, good as they are, can be bettered by more expensive cables, including the different flavors of Shunyata. In fact, I will likely upgrade again at some point, though I'm not in a hurry. The same friend who recommended the Geistnote replaced them with Shunyata Sigma cables and found another very significant, musically important upgrade. But I'm not sure you are going to find another pair of cables for under $100 that will provide this sort of upgrade. austinpop, kennyb123 and beautiful music 2 1 Link to comment
Popular Post Always.Learning Posted November 7, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 7, 2019 This thread has been strangely quiet for about six months. Where are all the M Scaler users? Maybe they are all posting on head-fi (I'll be making this same post on head-fi.) This is a comparative review of four different digital cables that can be used to connect the Hugo M Scaler and your DAC, which is DAVE in my case. The other major focus of the review is the Farad Super3 Power Supply, which is now my reference power supply for the M Scaler.BackgroundAbout six weeks after buying an M Scaler, I replaced the stock Chord-supplied BNC cables with Geistnote Apogee Wyde Eye cables, available direct from Geistnote or on Amazon. These cost under $100 for a pair including tax and fast shipping here in the USA. My review of the Geistnote cables is in the post just above this one in this thread. As you can see, I thought they made a great improvement and are a tremendous bargain. But I always intended to audition other BNC cables and that brings us to this review. For a period of several weeks in September/October, I had the following cables in house: Phasure’s Blaxius^2, Shunyata Alpha, WAVE Stream Premium, and OPTO DX. The cost of each of these cables, including shipping to Seattle, was:Blaxius^2: $716Shunyata Alpha: these were borrowed from a friend but retail for $2000/pairWAVE Stream Premium: $1100OPTO DX: $787.70Each pair of cables was burned in for hundreds of hours.The impressions that follow are purely subjective. Other than to touch on how easily (or not) each cable is to physically place in your system, I will not focus on the technologies employed, the materials used, or anything other than sonic quality. I will not speculate on whether a cable reduced RF or by how much. Without measuring, how do I know? I am confident in reporting what I hear, however, so that's what this review is about. In terms of music I used to assess the gear, I am a musical omnivore. About a third of my collection is classical, a third jazz, and a third everything else.System TopologyTo help you better assess my impressions, here is the system used for this review:Devore Gibbon X loudspeakersHiFiMan HE1000 headphones (plugged into DAVE)Chord DAVE with Shunyata Alpha HC power cord plugged into Audience power conditionerChord Hugo M-Scaler powered by Farad Super3 power supply with Audience AU24 SE MP plugged into Audience power conditionerRoon/Tidal/QobuzMac Mini modified by Uptone Audio in bridged mode serving as Roon Core server (powered by Uptone Audio JS-2 power supply on different circuit than DAVE and other analog gear)Blue Jeans Cable 6a ethernetPaul Pang ethernet switch with TXCO clock (powered by Uptone Audio LPS-1 on different circuit than DAVE and other analog gear)SOtM dCBL-Cat7 ethernetSOtM sMS-200 Ultra (powered by Uptone Audio LPS-1 with custom Zenwave UPOCC copper cable on different circuit than DAVE and other analog gear)Uptone Audio Iso Regen (powered by Uptone Audio LPS-1 and custom DC cable on different circuit than DAVE and other analog gear)SOtM tX-USB Ultra (powered by Uptone Audio LPS-2 with custom Zenwave UPOCC copper cable on different circuit than DAVE and other analog gear)Audience AU24 SE USB cablePhasure Lush USB cablePhasure Lush^2 USB cable in “TANF” configurationCrayon CFA 1.2 integrated amp with Synergistic Research Blue Fuses with Shunyata Alpha HC power cord going direct-to-wall on its own separate dedicated circuitGutwire Ultimate Ground attached to unused RCA input on Crayon ampHigh Fidelity CT-1 Enhanced interconnect between DAVE and ampDaedalus/WyWires speaker cableTwo 20 amp dedicated circuits with 10-gauge wire and FIM 888 AC outletsAudience aR6 TSSOX power conditioner on one of these dedicated circuitsStillpoints Ultra SS and Ultra Mini under most components including speakersFinite Elemente rack with Cerabase footersEquipment Vibration Protectors from A/V Roomservice under other componentsFinite Elemente Ceraballs under other componentsStillpoints Aperture acoustic room treatment (2)A/V Roomservice acoustic room treatment (4)Acustica Applicata Diffusion Absorption Audio DeviceAcoustic Revive Schumann resonator powered by Jameco LPSZSleevesHigh Fidelity Cables MC 0.5 Wave GuideGeneral AdviceI was grateful that Chord gets you up and running with a pair of their own stock cables when you purchase an M Scaler. If you are happy with that pair and don't want to spend any more money, then don’t. But, as noted above, you can spend under $100 and get a significant improvement. This review is for people who are curious what more money might buy. The short answer is: much better sound. Note also that you can spend a lot more on BNC cables than what is discussed herein.Phasure Blaxius^2I ordered a pair of 1.2m cables and they are quite thick but not super heavy. They have a natural curvature that should be taken into account when figuring out the distance between and placement of your M Scaler and DAC. My pair of 1.2m cables allowed me to place the M Scaler on a different shelf of my rack, about three feet away from my DAVE. Because of the M Scaler’s RF radiation, this physical separation from the DAC is a good thing.Right out of the gate, these cables impressed with a vivid and colorful presentation. You sit up and take notice while listening through these cables, as they have a meaty, visceral, alive presentation. Bass is pleasingly “phat” when on the recording. They are not overly smooth or dark. They were a clear step up from the Geistnote cables and, for a little over $700 shipped from Holland, a really good deal. Peter of Phasure is also a wealth of information, accessible, and responsive. PM me if you are interested in purchasing these cables for a very good price, as I will be selling them.Shunyata AlphaThese cables provided an interesting contrast to the Blaxius^2. Images are tightly focused, a little smaller and more distant, and very transparent. Small details emerge, there is great separation of voices and instruments, and tonality is a bit on the cool side. Transient fidelity is excellent. The feeling when listening to the Shunyata is one of suave sophistication; the sonic picture is quiet and composed. This sound is more about drawing you in rather than impressing you with exciting sound.Overall, I preferred the Shunyata to the Blaxius^2, but I could see different listeners favoring one over the other. The Shunyata, of course, are more than twice as expensive, and they are not even the top of the line Shunyata (Sigma), which cost $4000/pair. The Shunyata cables are relatively thin and pliable and easy to work with.WAVE Stream PremiumNick Bacon’s mid-priced offering is laden with ferrites and thus heavier than other cables. You will need to be very careful about supporting these cables as they could put undue stress on the connectors on your HMS or DAC. (I took extra care in this regard as my DAVE’s USB port had to be repaired after a particularly heavy USB cable twisted it out of position. Fortunately, the repair was covered by warranty. Unfortunately, I was without DAVE for seven weeks.)Immediately with the WAVE, you notice a different tonality: warmer and somewhat darker. With WAVE, I heard a “browner” or golden sound; with Shunyata, a “bluer” or cooler sound. There is more texture and a tad more sweetness with the WAVE; the sound is a little more fleshed out. In contrast, Shunyata sounded more wiry and lean; WAVE sounded more robust. With some music, the WAVE could be a little thick. Still, I did not feel cheated in terms of transparency or clarity. I did notice that you could play the music quite loudly with the WAVE and avoid the cringe factor. Overall, the relaxed, warm sound of the WAVE was inviting and I preferred it to the Shunyata. For about $1100, this is another cable that gives outstanding value and Nick has an excellent return policy and is very professional in his customer relations.OPTO DXDan Mance’s innovative OPTO DX converts the signal to optical and then back again with the aid of two small boxes and short BNC jumper cables. The boxes need 12v of power. Dan is a big proponent of battery power and I powered each of the boxes with a POWERADD Pilot Pro2 battery, which cost $90 each on Amazon. I eventually ended up buying two short, shielded DC cables from Ghent (JSSG360) to connect the batteries to the OPTO boxes. This cost about another $150, so the total cost of the OPTO set-up was about $1137.I was initially concerned that the OPTO system would add more boxes and wires and contribute to my “spaghetti” problem. The boxes, however, are quite small. The batteries are bigger but pretty thin and easy to place. The boxes need to be placed close to your DAVE and HMS as the BNC jumper cables are quite short. But those cables are super thin and very flexible. I ordered a 1.5m optical cable, which allowed me to keep the DAVE and HMS physically separate. You can order a longer cable for even greater separation. All in all, my worries about too much spaghetti and not enough real estate on my rack turned out to be overblown. In fact, I preferred dealing with the OPTO system vs the heavy WAVE cables that required careful support.So how did the OPTO sound? It just sounded “right.” The biggest impression was that I simply heard more music – a LOT more music. With almost everything I played, I heard details, layers, and textures that I had not heard before. The level of transparency is something to behold.Harshness and glare are reduced and, as with the WAVE cables, music can be played louder without cringing. Tonally, the OPTO seems to be dead neutral. It just feels like pure, crystal clear water. There is also more substance to the sound, more color and timbre that come through.The magnitude of difference I heard with the OPTO was greater than with any of the cables discussed above. It is a game changer.I did not try different power sources on the OPTO boxes – only the batteries. When I replaced the generic DC cables I had been using with the Ghent DC cables, I noticed more recovery of low level information. I think this is money well spent. With respect to whether the sound changed depending on whether the batteries were plugged into their SMPS charging units or not, I could not reliably detect a difference (a friend with an OPTO and the same batteries also struggles to hear a difference). Others have reported different results.What is the effect of the OPTO on upstream components?I normally run a Lush^2 USB cable from my tX-USB Ultra to the HMS. What would happen if I switched that cable out for a Shunyata Alpha USB ($1000)? Before trying this comparison, I had switched the Shunyata and Lush^2 cables in and out of the system with both the Shunyata BNC cables and the WAVE Stream Premium cables. In general, I found that the Shunyata USB cable shared some of the same strengths as their BNC cable: it was incisive, focused, and transparent. The Lush^2 put more meat on the bones and tended to sound more analog. The differences were fairly easy to hear and I could prefer one over the other depending on the music.With the OPTO in the chain, these differences were still apparent with attentive, critical listening but significantly smaller in magnitude. It would appear that the OPTO lessened the USB cable’s impact on the sound and that’s a good thing.What about other components? I employ an Uptone Audio ISO REGEN between my SOtM sMS-200 Ultra and my SOtM tX-USB Ultra. When I first bought all these components two years ago, I found that the ISO REGEN made a rather big, important difference. As I wrote at the time:There are times when the [SOtM] products alone sound a little too analytical or lacking in color, tonal density, and body. The IR adds body, liquidity, flow, weight, and greater mid-bass and bass impact. When combined with the Ultra trifecta's refinement, detail, clarity, airiness, ambience retrieval, and precision, you've got a winning combination.Alas, I will not be getting rid of the ISO REGEN. It still makes a difference, in these exact same ways, even with the OPTO in the system. That difference is smaller, however.I also tried removing the tX-USB Ultra from my system, going straight from the ISO REGEN into the HMS. That change was not as subtle as removing the ISO REGEN. I will definitely not be removing the tX-USB Ultra as the music fell flat upon doing so. As Ray-dude and others have concluded, the OPTO is not a cure-all and will not necessarily allow you to radically change or simplify your upstream system topology.Can the OPTO DX be improved by substituting different BNC cables?Some people have reported that they hear positive differences when substituting different BNC cables for the short jumper cables that are provided as part of the OPTO system. I did some fairly brief testing and found that neither the insertion of the Geistnote nor the Blaxius^2 on the “clean” side of the OPTO (the side feeding DAVE) made an appreciable difference.I did hear a difference when substituting the WAVE Stream cables. Specifically, I heard a thicker, weightier sound that was also warmer. The OPTO cables were more transparent, I thought, with more zing on top and a more neutral tonality overall. The WAVE was more mid-range centric; the OPTO had silkier highs and greater finesse, with more resolution and separation. I also questioned some of the timbres I heard with the WAVE. For example, Rachel Podger’s baroque violin sounded a little off with the WAVE in the chain. Nick Bacon contends that the “zing” and extension I heard with the OPTO are RF artifacts and that my brain would adjust to the WAVE sound over time. He might be right. Others have reported in this forum that the WAVE cables improve the OPTO system. In the end, you have to go with your ears and I preferred the OPTO system alone.I have to add a caveat, however. The friend (@kennyb123) who let me borrow the Shunyata BNC cables for this review has a Hugo TT2 and HMS and has also found the OPTO to be a superior connection between the two. But he has found that adding the Shunyata Alpha BNC cables to the clean side made for a musically significant improvement. I had a chance to listen to his system with and without the Shunyata cables and I have to agree. In the context of his system, the Shunyata brought focus and clarity and a slightly different, more convincing timbre. Then he added some previous generation Wireworld Gold Starlight BNC cables to the dirty side and timbre became a little more colorful and robust. This was quite subtle, more so than inserting the Shunyata cables on the clean side. For more details, see post #8850 by @kennyb123.FWIW, Dan Mance believes that any changes made by inserting different BNC cables with the OPTO will diminish if the HMS and other purely digital components are moved physically away from the DAC.The upshot is: if you are interested in squeezing out the last bit of improvement from the OPTO system, you might want to experiment. When I get a chance, I will be borrowing my friend Ken’s Shunyata cables again and seeing what, if any, difference they make on the clean side of my OPTO system. I’m not keen on adding a $2000 pair of cables to my plate of spaghetti, but I’m willing to listen.The Farad Super3 Power Supply: Another Game ChangerBased on consistently positive reviews of this relatively new 3 amp supercapacitor power supply from Holland, which can be configured to anywhere between 3.3v and 19v (it’s not variable; you have to choose a specific voltage when ordering), I decided to take the plunge and ordered a 15v version to power my M Scaler. I also decided to opt for the more expensive Furutech fuse, a Furutech Rhodium AC inlet, and Farad’s most expensive silver Level 2 DC cable. All of these options pushed the price up to about $850 including shipping. Shipping from Holland was fast, by the way.Prior to this, I had been using Chord’s stock SMPS to power my M Scaler with a Shunyata Venom power cord plugged into my Audience power conditioner. You will need a decent quality power cord with the Farad. I used an Audience AU24 SE MP power cord plugged into my Audience power conditioner.Note that the Farad Super3 is currently plugged into the same Audience power conditioner that DAVE is plugged into – my Audience power cord is not long enough to plug into a separate circuit. The outlets on the power conditioner are isolated from each other, but I’m pretty sure Dan Mance would not approve of the current setup. As noted below, however, the results are superlative. In the future, I may try a different, longer power cord plugged into a separate circuit.You might be a skeptic when it comes to improving upon Chord’s stock power supply for the M Scaler. Once you hear the Farad Super3, you will no longer be a skeptic. This is what I said in an email to various audio friends:This is a special power supply. It doesn’t increase transparency, which I don’t think is the job of a power supply anyway (unless it replaces a much noisier supply). The OPTO DX really did the heavy lifting in that area, and so I’m not sure there will be big further gains, absent improvements to the server and endpoint. But the Farad does things that are really important for musical enjoyment: - bass is big, physical, but not overblown; the word “authority” keeps coming to mind - the sound is considerably richer and more colorful and has an attractive darker quality, especially from the mid-range on down; this is my favorite improvement and something my system needed (to my ears) - the presentation is calm, smooth, and easeful - the music is more vibrant and alive with more forceful dynamics - jump factor has increased; transients have greater impactI want to emphasize that these differences were immediately apparent, even though Farad suggests that full burn-in occurs at 200 hours. This is one of the biggest bang-for-the-buck changes I have made to my digital front end.I did not compare a Pilot Pro2 with the Farad Super3 on the HMS (I would need to buy another Pilot Pro2 for this test). I realize that Dan M. and others are proponents of battery power and getting the HMS on a different circuit from DAVE. At the same time, I have read multiple reports from trusted sources that either the Farad Super3 or a Paul Hynes power supply are clearly superior to the battery solution. Elimination of RF is important, but the efficacy of a power supply depends on many factors. I would be very, very surprised if a battery could produce the rich tone, bass response, and dynamics of the Farad supply.If I knew that I would not be changing my upstream digital components (server, SOtM gear, and ISO REGEN) in the next two or three years, I would invest, right now, in additional Farad Super3 power supplies to power this gear. But I have made a conscious decision to sit on the sidelines and see what develops in this rapidly evolving space. We all know the world will look different a year from now. I am also curious to see whether and how the EtherRegen or one of its competitors in the ethernet switch category will reorder the digital landscape. With the M Scaler, I was confident in taking the power supply plunge because I am confident that the M Scaler will remain a lynchpin of my system for years to come. TheAttorney, kennyb123, deathdisco and 9 others 7 5 Link to comment
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