CHORD M-Scaler Review (Upsampler)

[DonR]

I'd highly recommend Qobuz instead of Tidal. Tidal is infecting all their files with MQA, even ones they claim to be "lossless". There's a great video on Youtube where someone did a ton of measurements on it.

That is one of my issues with cloud streaming. The provenance of the content can often be questionable and change on a whim. The longevity of the platform can also be an issue.

 

[keatonhj]

I just want to put this out there. I'm not an audio flog with fancy acronyms and technical knowledge of how sine waves work and all the different elements that go into a DAC.

What I do want to say though is I play a ton of Nintendo Switch games and I watch a lot of Netflix. I listen to s***** quality music because band camp only outputs compressed stuff.

I had a Qutest DAC and wanted to just tell everyone, the m-scaler is worth it in my setup. It has a passthrough button so I can turn it from max up-scalling to zero upscaling and the conclusions after 6 months of use are, it makes games sound better, low quality music sound better, podcasts, you name it, it upscales it into something that sounds like it was an original master file.

What I see here in this really long thread is a bunch of audio file nerds throwing master music files at this thing, thinking that they're going to make them sound better. The hint is in the name. It's an upscaler.

Peace.

 

[Snoopy]

I just want to put this out there. I'm not an audio flog with fancy acronyms and technical knowledge of how sine waves work and all the different elements that go into a DAC.

What I do want to say though is I play a ton of Nintendo Switch games and I watch a lot of Netflix. I listen to s***** quality music because band camp only outputs compressed stuff.

I had a Qutest DAC and wanted to just tell everyone, the m-scaler is worth it in my setup. It has a passthrough button so I can turn it from max up-scalling to zero upscaling and the conclusions after 6 months of use are, it makes games sound better, low quality music sound better, podcasts, you name it, it upscales it into something that sounds like it was an original master file.

What I see here in this really long thread is a bunch of audio file nerds throwing master music files at this thing, thinking that they're going to make them sound better. The hint is in the name. It's an upscaler.

Peace.

You could just do all that upscaling for much less money with better results in software and add EQ to it.

 

[ahofer]

What I see here in this really long thread is a bunch of audio file nerds throwing master music files at this thing, thinking that they're going to make them sound better.

He is gaming with an expensive DAC but the rest of us are the nerds.

 

[BDWoody]

I just want to put this out there. I'm not an audio flog with fancy acronyms and technical knowledge of how sine waves work and all the different elements that go into a DAC.

What I do want to say though is I play a ton of Nintendo Switch games and I watch a lot of Netflix.

How did you stumble across this place?

 

[Ken1951]

How did you stumble across this place?

This is a most excellent question.

 

[amirm]

I listen to s***** quality music because band camp only outputs compressed stuff.

I have bought a ton of albums from bandcamp at CD quality. Some of the albums are in my reference list of tracks. So not sure where you get that and what it has to do with Nintendo Switch.

 

[amirm]

I had a Qutest DAC and wanted to just tell everyone, the m-scaler is worth it in my setup. It has a passthrough button so I can turn it from max up-scalling to zero upscaling and the conclusions after 6 months of use are, it makes games sound better, low quality music sound better, podcasts, you name it, it upscales it into something that sounds like it was an original master file.

Upscaling is a mathematical computation with zero insight into what it is doing. It is simply creating more samples with the same information that was fed to it. If you think enlarging a picture makes it more detailed, then heaven help you.

 

[shoto]

if anything is heard it must be the high jitter on digital output that you hear in the dac.

Also many dac chip measure worse at higher sample rates, another reason it possible upsampling can make change to the sound (with more distortion).

 

[Guettel]

I had a Qutest DAC and wanted to just tell everyone, the m-scaler is worth it in my setup. It has a passthrough button so I can turn it from max up-scalling to zero upscaling and the conclusions after 6 months of use are, it makes games sound better, low quality music sound better, podcasts, you name it, it upscales it into something that sounds like it was an original master file.

Peace.

Yeah, I have the same experience. The most remarkable thing was how the upscaled good DAC made even Youtube sound great. That was a great surprise I wasn't expecting since there's a ton of stuff on Youtube that you can't find on Qobuz like a lot of amazing Grigory Sokolov recordings.

 

[voodooless]

Yeah, I have the same experience. The most remarkable thing was how the upscaled good DAC made even Youtube sound great. That was a great surprise I wasn't expecting since there's a ton of stuff on Youtube that you can't find on Qobuz like a lot of amazing Grigory Sokolov recordings.

These claims show exactly how little knowledge people have of the technical workings, and how much faith they have in the marketing story. Uncanny!

 

[Guettel]

These claims show exactly how little knowledge people have of the technical workings, and how much faith they have in the marketing story. Uncanny!

Very true. I could mostly care less about the technical workings. I'm more interested in whether I get a good experience.

 

[JustJones]

Very true. I could mostly care less about the technical workings. I'm more interested in whether I get a good experience.

I've heard this before.
Time frame : early 1990's
Place : PT's Show club
Device under discussion: Vibrator called "The Beaver"

I was taking a survey

 

[voodooless]

I'm more interested in whether I get a good experience.

… the Emperor’s new clothes …

 

[Guettel]

I've heard this before.

You've also heard it from pretty much everyone who's ever bought audio gear, or anything complicated but useful to them.

 

[VQR]

You've also heard it from pretty much everyone who's ever bought audio gear, or anything complicated but useful to them.

With the M-Scaler, it's expensive placebo.

 

[Guettel]

… the Emperor’s new clothes …

If you don't can't perceive a better experience from things, then by all means, don't buy them.

 

[Guettel]

With the M-Scaler, it's expensive placebo.

It definitely IS expensive for most people. It's only a placebo for people who can't hear what it does or think what it does doesn't justify the cost compared to their own financial means.

 

[Ken1951]

It definitely IS expensive for most people. It's only a placebo for people who can't hear what it does or think what it does doesn't justify the cost compared to their own financial means.

 

[ahofer]

It's only a placebo for people who can't hear what it does

That’s not how placebos work.