CHORD M-Scaler Review (Upsampler)

[Geert]

A more technical answer perhaps? this is a audio SCIENCE forum right?

It is, that's why the answer already is in the opening post so I don't feel the need to repeat it.

 

[IAtaman]

Because it doesn't have the unique M-Scaler technology that gives unimaginable depth to the sound wallet.

Not true. What M-Scaler does has nothing to do with money or wallets or anything tangible, or quantifiable for that matter. Rob "The Casanova" Watts explained this before - you guys are not paying attention. I think in a Canjam earlier this year he said, and I quote:

The only way of actually recognizing that you are not hearing true transparency is if it is more emotionally involving or not more emotionally involving.

Words to live by those are. Take note gentlemen.

 

[Purité Audio]

Did he really say that, my contempt for him grows.
Keith

 

[Veri]

The only way of actually recognizing that you are not hearing true transparency is if it is more emotionally involving or not more emotionally involving.

Words to live by those are. Take note gentlemen.

Real con-man vibes right here.

 

[IAtaman]

Did he really say that,

 

[voodooless]

I see staircases...

 

[CapMan]

Words of a desperate man!

 

[Soria Moria]

I see staircases...

Don't tell Monty Montgomery...

 

[Ken Tajalli]

If you said " successfully " does it mean I was right? Now, I dont have any idea of how the mscaler works internally but why wont the E1DA adc be able to pick up what the mscaler does?

Successful means you actually heard a difference, it wasn't just in your head.
MScaler makes disputable claims about accuracy of its operation, if partnered with some Chord DACs. If true, then no ADC, should be good enough to pick it up, and certainly no other DAC can reproduce it.
So this experiment is moot.

See how quickly ASR devolves into ridiculing the product and its designer!

 

[Purité Audio]

I don’t think ‘we’ ridicule the product the designer yes absolutely.
Keith

 

[Ken Tajalli]

I don’t think ‘we’ ridicule the product the designer yes absolutely.
Keith

I find it juvenile and pointless, but hey! if it brings you joy, carry on my wayward son!

 

[ROTUND_Catto]

Successful means you actually heard a difference, it wasn't just in your head.
MScaler makes disputable claims about accuracy of its operation, if partnered with some Chord DACs. If true, then no ADC, should be good enough to pick it up, and certainly no other DAC can reproduce it.
So this experiment is moot.

See how quickly ASR devolves into ridiculing the product and its designer!

Oh so mscaler only works with chord dac? hmm I have chord mojo 1 coming in 2 weeks, maybe I will try to listen to the samples on the mojo 1 then.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Oh so mscaler only works with chord dac? hmm I have chord mojo 1 coming in 2 weeks, maybe I will try to listen to the samples on the mojo 1 then.

Mojo 2 and above.
Perhaps I am not explaining myself well.
If mscaler was monalisa, the best hires picture of it, can not equal the original.
You can not make a recording of it, to see how good it is.
By all means do what you please, but whatever you find, sadly is going to be irrelevant .

 

[AdrianusG]

Hi Everyone,

I have a question about up-scaling in general (not perse with this M- scaler), for instance I use JRiver for that.

Does up-scaling reduce the Dynamic Range of the original incoming signal or music, and is that always the case?

Sorry, I hope some knowledgeable people here can enlighten me a bit

All help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Ad

 

[staticV3]

Does up-scaling reduce the Dynamic Range of the original incoming signal or music, and is that always the case?

Upscaling does not inherently reduce the dynamic range:


Both the original source file and the 4x upscaled one show 89.8+60=149.8dB Dynamic Range.
I used Adobe Audition for this test.

 

[AdrianusG]

Upscaling does not inherently reduce the dynamic range:
View attachment 319718 View attachment 319719

Both the original source file and the 4x upscaled one show 89.8+60=149.8dB Dynamic Range.
I used Adobe Audition for this test.

Okay, thanks for that,

What exactly does up-scaling do with the signal, (for good or bad)?, currently i use Sox in JRiver , and does it have any audible benefits at all?

 

[Purité Audio]

None whatsoever.
Keith

 

[staticV3]

What exactly does up-scaling do with the signal

It creates new samples between existing ones.
Kind of like motion interpolation on your TV, but without the artefacts because it can use the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem.

and does it have any audible benefits at all?

While motion interpolation on your TV can be very much visible, because 24FPS is well below what the human eye is able to achieve, the same is not true for audio interpolation.
This is because 44.1 or 48kHz audio is already well above what the human ear can physically register.
Increasing that to 96kHz or beyond cannot, and does not have an effect on the audible audio quality.

Yet, due to a variety of cognitive biases, you may still perceive 96kHz+ audio as sounding clearer, even though there is no difference.

 

[AdrianusG]

It creates new samples between existing ones.
Kind of like motion interpolation on your TV, but without the artefacts because it can use the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem.


While motion interpolation on your TV can be very much visible, because 24FPS is well below what the human eye is able to achieve, the same is not true for audio interpolation.
This is because 44.1 or 48kHz audio is already well above what the human ear can physically register.
Increasing that to 96kHz or beyond cannot, and does not have an effect on the audible audio quality.

Yet, due to a variety of cognitive biases, you may still perceive 96kHz+ audio as sounding clearer, even though there is no difference.

Okay, so while it does not benefit anything audibly (when correctly double blind tested and so on), it also does not degrade the original signal.
Are there then objective reasons to avoid it all together? for instance could it cause latency/stutter problems when applied versus not applied, or is that only caused by not optimal USB-connections, or buffer settings.

sorry for a lot of Q

 

[Purité Audio]

Complete waste of money.
Keith