Chord Hugo M Scaler - Stereophile Review (measurements also)

[BDWoody]

I'm trying to find principled reasoning as to why there's a sound difference.

That can be a challenge in an often unprincipled marketplace.

 

[Veri]

Online videos purporting to demonstrate differences using extremely expensive audio products are _always_ faked one way or another.

Waiting for someone to analyse the wave forms and call it out hehe

 

[mansr]

Waiting for someone to analyse the wave forms and call it out hehe

Sorry, I can't be arsed.

 

[bennetng]

Sounds like the audio is recorded by capturing the output with a mic. Stereo width is narrow and frequency response is strange.

 

[budje]

There was also apparently a brief discussion of this in 2016 https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/more-taps-for-digital-bliss.260/

Here's Robb Watt's presentation from CanJam 2018:

At 10:05 I think he's arguing that the transient response can be blunted by sample rates, and human ears are are sensitive to leading edges transience.

I'm not arguing one way or another. Most of this is over my head, I'm just trying to understand if there's any reason why the previous YouTube video would have an audible difference. It could certainly be fake, like maybe he just added a stereo widening pass. Saying "it's fake" definitively is unsatisfying, if it is I'd like to understand how it could be faked. And if it's not, I wonder what property of an upsampler, if any, would contribute to an audible difference. Would improved leading edges of transient responses would survive through mp3 encoding? I don't see how, but I'm also not well versed in this stuff.

 

[Human Bass]

I don't think I've seen anyone mention this video yet. There are some others like it. What do you make of it? I believe I can hear an audible difference between the Hugo M Scalar in passthrough vs active mode. I could also be falling for sighted test bias too.

I don't see any reason for this from the perspective of "upsampling" because YouTube compresses down to 192kbps anyway. It's also hard to tell if the switches are level matched, the "engaged" segments sound a bit louder to me, but there's more to it than that too.

I'm trying to find principled reasoning as to why there's a sound difference. The whole video could be faked too, but I don't see a reason to suspect fake vs real either way.

So the M scale audio magic survives the mic, the analog to digital conversion and YouTube lossy aac? Incredible.

 

[mhardy6647]

So the M scale audio magic survives the mic, the analog to digital conversion and YouTube lossy aac? Incredible.

I guess that only serves to illustrate how profound its audio magic is!

 

[spooky]

At 10:05 I think he's arguing that the transient response can be blunted by sample rates, and human ears are are sensitive to leading edges transience.

I'm not arguing one way or another. Most of this is over my head, I'm just trying to understand if there's any reason why the previous YouTube video would have an audible difference. It could certainly be fake, like maybe he just added a stereo widening pass. Saying "it's fake" definitively is unsatisfying, if it is I'd like to understand how it could be faked. And if it's not, I wonder what property of an upsampler, if any, would contribute to an audible difference. Would improved leading edges of transient responses would survive through mp3 encoding? I don't see how, but I'm also not well versed in this stuff.

You are not going to get a sensible response here. I'm not even sure if any of the people knocking it have actually tried it.

 

[BDWoody]

You are not going to get a sensible response here. I'm not even sure if any of the people knocking it have actually tried it.

Troll on your first post much?

 

[spooky]

Troll on your first post much?

Am I wrong? The person who asked the question got nothing other than sarcastic comments.

 

[mansr]

Am I wrong? The person who asked the question got nothing other than sarcastic comments.

Sarcasm is the only sensible response.

 

[spooky]

Sarcasm is the only sensible response.

I disagree.

 

[mansr]

I disagree.

Thanks for making that clear. I would never have guessed.

 

[BDWoody]

Am I wrong? The person who asked the question got nothing other than sarcastic comments.

Because this isn't a sensible product. It's based on taking advantage of ignorance for the most part.

Do you know of any subjective tests extolling it's benefits that used any controls? Meaning, level matched and blind at a minimum?

That's what might be useful, because the rest really isn't. Anecdotal claims of what even the wife in the kitchen could hear aren't really worth a lot.

 

[spooky]

Thanks for making that clear. I would never have guessed.

Ok. So now that's done, maybe somebody who has actually heard the M-Scaler can address the poster's question? I have a feeling that they'd be nervous about posting something positive as I can imagine the response that such a post would get.

 

[spooky]

Because this isn't a sensible product. It's based on taking advantage of ignorance for the most part.

Do you know of any subjective tests extolling it's benefits that used any controls? Meaning, level matched and blind at a minimum?

That's what might be useful, because the rest really isn't. Anecdotal claims of what even the wife in the kitchen could hear aren't really worth a lot.

That's a serious accusation to make about a Company.

I've heard the difference and chose to spend my money. Have you tried the product?

 

[BDWoody]

Ok. So now that's done, maybe somebody who has actually heard the M-Scaler can address the poster's question? I have a feeling that they'd be nervous about posting something positive as I can imagine the response that such a post would get.

Not if they used listening controls.

Seems it should be easy. If they want that kind of money, why not show that it actually sounds better?

 

[spooky]

Not if they used listening controls.

Seems it should be easy. If they want that kind of money, why not show that it actually sounds better?

Have you tried it?

 

[BDWoody]

That's a serious accusation to make about a Company.

I've heard the difference and chose to spend my money. Have you tried the product?

I'm very afraid now. However, I believe if more people understood sampling theory, they would have fewer sales. If that's a serious accusation, so be it.

Why be so coy about your ownership? That's generally the reason people sign up to tell us what we must be missing. Only thing lacking are the controlled tests to back up the claims.

 

[pkane]

I've heard the difference and chose to spend my money. Have you tried the product?

This should help you out, just read the first post:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...g-at-asr-for-the-first-time.17598/post-571206