CHORD M-Scaler Review (Upsampler)

[tmtomh]

I just wanted to interject here with my situation and why it works wonders for me. I love great indie music and for some reason I can only find the recordings on bandcamp.com. whilst they offer wav and aiff, the underlying sample rate is barely above 48khz. Secondly, I play videogames, with this, games tend to compress their music to save space and there is nothing I can do about it. Until the M-Scaler. So if you are stuck with poor sample rates due to the rest of the world not caring, plus the added bonus of video mode, this thing does wonders.

I'm sorry, but none of this makes any sense.

 

[amirm]

I just wanted to interject here with my situation and why it works wonders for me. I love great indie music and for some reason I can only find the recordings on bandcamp.com. whilst they offer wav and aiff, the underlying sample rate is barely above 48khz. Secondly, I play videogames, with this, games tend to compress their music to save space and there is nothing I can do about it. Until the M-Scaler. So if you are stuck with poor sample rates due to the rest of the world not caring, plus the added bonus of video mode, this thing does wonders.

That's like saying that you want to pay $6000 for someone to modify your car speedometer to show double the actual speed!

 

[Palladium]

That's like saying that you want to pay $6000 for someone to modify your car speedometer to show double the actual speed!

Creative once made the same claims on their X-Fi sound cards but at least they have the courtesy to not charge $5300 for it.

 

[Axo1989]

My car speedo goes up in 10 km/h increments until 90, then 20 km/h increments. I guess that's to fit 240 on the dial. While it feels normal inside, I often wonder what happens from outside as I cross that threshold. Hopefully the car does a sci-fi shimmer.

 

[theREALdotnet]

That's like saying that you want to pay $6000 for someone to modify your car speedometer to show double the actual speed!

There could actually be a market for that

 

[Lukino]

Some people would be able to claim that they vacuumed the apartment nicely with the oppositely connected vacuum cleaners and would claim that they had it clean. They can see and feel the difference.

 

[keatonhj]

Sorry but the M scaler does nothing to reverse compression in music.

compression is the wrong word... everything gets uncompressed in the codec, what I meant is they keep samplerates low to save space.

 

[Leporello]

compression is the wrong word... everything gets uncompressed in the codec, what I meant is they keep samplerates low to save space.

Why is it a problem? How does the M-scaler help to solve it?

 

[RandomEar]

compression is the wrong word... everything gets uncompressed in the codec, what I meant is they keep samplerates low to save space.

Upsampling does not restore information lost in lower sample rates.

Apart from that, most game audio is 16 bit 44.1 or 48 kHz. Reducing disk space would be done by compression rather than downsampling, as downsampling will make you lose all HF information and compression only slightly reduces overall quality.

 

[keatonhj]

Why is it a problem? How does the M-scaler help to solve it?

the M-Scaler outputs 798Khz. not by adding information that wasn't there. but by doing a job of making the input signal closer to an analogue wave sign for the DAC to output for the pre-amp to amplify so the signal sounds better. I think it does. whatever you all say if you blindfolded me and took it away I would know instantly. there's a button to change the sample rate on the M-Scaler. can easily tell the difference between max scaling and no scaling.

 

[BDWoody]

I love great indie music and for some reason I can only find the recordings on bandcamp.com. whilst they offer wav and aiff, the underlying sample rate is barely above 48khz.

That gives you frequency response up to 24kHz. Do you need more?

by doing a job of making the input signal closer to an analogue wave sign for the DAC to output

Maybe a review of sampling theory would be helpful. Monty does a great job explaining what isn't an intuitive subject.

 

[keatonhj]

There's a great recent podcast by DARKO audio where he interviewed Rob Watts, maybe you can listen to that as well and let me know your thoughts?

 

[BDWoody]

There's a great recent podcast by DARKO audio where he interviewed Rob Watts, maybe you can listen to that as well and let me know your thoughts?

Maybe you can watch that video I linked and give me yours. Darko hosts an infomercial channel, and Rob Watts has forgotten how to speak without obfuscation.

He took money out of your pocket with a good story.

 

[keatonhj]

Maybe you can watch that video I linked and give me yours. Darko hosts an infomercial channel, and Rob Watts has forgotten how to speak without obfuscation.

He took money out of your pocket with a good story.

okay so I take advice from experts who are audio engineers (Rob Watts) and now I'll take advice from you. Money is not an object and I'm looking for a pre-amp, what's your pick? Same for bookshelf speakers, what's your pick? thankyou. apologies to readers if the subject changed but the M-Scaler will still be part of the syatem.

 

[BDWoody]

okay so I take advice from experts who are audio engineers (Rob Watts) and now I'll take advice from you. Money is not an object and I'm looking for a pre-amp, what's your pick? Same for bookshelf speakers, what's your pick? thankyou. apologies to readers if the subject changed but the M-Scaler will still be part of the syatem.

That would be a new thread.

 

[voodooless]

Money is not an object and I'm looking for a pre-amp, what's your pick? Same for bookshelf speakers, what's your pick? thankyou. apologies to readers if the subject changed but the M-Scaler will still be part of the syatem.

Genelec 8361a: no preamp and no M-Scaler needed. Connect directly to a digital source, and be done with it

 

[Leporello]

the M-Scaler outputs 798Khz. not by adding information that wasn't there. but by doing a job of making the input signal closer to an analogue wave sign for the DAC to output for the pre-amp to amplify so the signal sounds better. I think it does. whatever you all say if you blindfolded me and took it away I would know instantly. there's a button to change the sample rate on the M-Scaler. can easily tell the difference between max scaling and no scaling.

Are you sure you genuinely understand what you have purchased? Quite a few audiophiles tell others that they could tell the difference in a blind test. Yet the results of these tests are nowhere to be seen. Why do you think that is?

 

[Geert]

There's a great recent podcast by DARKO audio where he interviewed Rob Watts, maybe you can listen to that as well and let me know your thoughts?

That horse has been beaten to dead in this thread and the 300dB thread (also referenced in this thread). All Watts has is claims and opinions. Nothing scientificly proven or confirmed to be audible by others. Some of it plain wrong (confirmed by experts). Might sound impressive to layman of course.

 

[HP9000]

Time resolution doesn't need improving. Or do you think every piece of content out there was broken when approved by talent and engineer? Learn what these buzzwords mean before repeating them. ETC? Good grief.....

"Time resolution doesn't need improving."

Many of the products you measure/review have many of their distortion figures well below audible threshold, yet they are included and ranked by their slight differences. Why is time response in particular excluded?

I own a TCA HPA-10 and the sales page for this device includes step response measurements that your review doesn't.

Are you saying that if step response measurements were taken for frequencies ~20hz - 20khz for a dac, amp, or headphone that it wouldn't account for differences people say they can hear despite the rest of the distortion figures being similar/below audible threshold?

 

[tmtomh]

"Time resolution doesn't need improving."

Many of the products you measure/review have many of their distortion figures well below audible threshold, yet they are included and ranked by their slight differences. Why is time response in particular excluded?

I own a TCA HPA-10 and the sales page for this device includes step response measurements that your review doesn't.

Are you saying that if step response measurements were taken for frequencies ~20hz - 20khz for a dac, amp, or headphone that it wouldn't account for differences people say they can hear despite the rest of the distortion figures being similar/below audible threshold?

No claim is made that higher-ranked products based on distortion (SINAD actually) sound different than lower-ranked ones, if the lower-ranked ones already exceed the limits of audibility. So your analogy doesn’t support the point you’re trying to make.