CHORD M-Scaler Review (Upsampler)

[Guettel]

So they weren’t All else is humbug.

Really? Lol. The very next words explain how levels were matched.

 

[BDWoody]

If you A/Bed and couldn't hear it, no big deal. Buy gear you like and I'll buy gear I like.

Point made. Since you have nothing but repetition to back your claims, you can move on from the thread.

 

[Ken1951]

Point made. Since you have nothing but repetition to back your claims, you can move on from the thread.

And now he can go back to his home forum and proudly announce he was banned from ASR. Probably get a gold star or something.

 

[voodooless]

Really? Lol. The very next words explain how levels were matched.

Yeah, that’s not good enough. SPL meters are far form accurate enough for this.

 

[BDWoody]

And now he can go back to his home forum and proudly announce he was banned from ASR. Probably get a gold star or something.

He was only banned from this thread... That may not be good enough.

 

[voodooless]

He was only banned from this thread... That may not be good enough.

That must surely earn some kind of street cred

 

[VQR]

He was only banned from this thread... That may not be good enough.

What am I supposed to read for entertainment now???

 

[voodooless]

What am I supposed to read for entertainment now???

Head over to

Master Thread: Are measurements Everything or Nothing?

Seems like so many review threads get challenged with: 1. Measurements are not everything. 2. You all never listen. 3. I trust my ears, not graphs. 4. I don't listen to graphs. I listen to music. 5. You all must not listen to music at all. 6. Why don't you all buy the best SINAD gear? 7...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[HarmonicTHD]

What am I supposed to read for entertainment now???

Be assured. There will be plenty more like him in no time. It (sadly) never ends.

 

[VQR]

Be assured. There will be plenty more like him in no time. It (sadly) never ends.

With them round up in one menagerie thread, we'll have enough material to develop and sell the perfect snake oil audio product to fund ASR for the next millenium.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

With them round up in one menagerie thread, we'll have enough material to develop and sell the perfect snake oil audio product to fund ASR for the next millenium.

After a while you heard them all. The ever repeating same arguments citing wifes, friends, internet celebrities, car and watch comparisons. And if that doesn’t help Einstein and Quantum physics are called in to explain the mysteries of a simple 20 to 20kHz signal. You will see. Enjoy the ride ;-)

 

[VQR]

After a while you heard them all. The ever repeating same arguments citing wifes, friends, internet celebrities, car and watch comparisons. And if that doesn’t help Einstein and Quantum physics are called in to explain the mysteries of a simple 20 to 20kHz signal. You will see. Enjoy the ride ;-)

In an unblind state, the benefit of the M-Scaler is both real yet imaginary. Once we observe the box in ABX, however, we only then reach a certain conclusion of no improvement. Try as he might, no audiophile may remove sources of placebo and still hear the benefit of said box. This, my friends, is Schrödinger's Ear.

 

[DSJR]

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.

Forgive me, but my Apple dongle makes YouTube sound good, with lots of air, space in the mixes if the material allows it and more than enough volume for my fairly sensitive 64 ohm headphones... Maybe it's the jitter spray which is still way below supposed audibility levels. For ten quid including USB-C adaptor I ain't complaining at all

P.S. I heard two M-Scalers the other week in two different systems admittedly with Chord Ultima amps as well. Very 'dry' and 'dead' sounds, little 'air' from speakers I thought I knew and none of the 3-D the rep appeared to demonstrate on a previous dem switching the darmed thing in and out (the levels changed though, giving the sound via the M-Scaler greater depth effect as it was actually quieter as measured done the way it was!).

 

[amirm]

Many, many people, whose reviews can easily be found, have reported hearing an obvious difference.

This is indeed what made me want to listen for myself and see if I heard a difference too.

I meant with the two files I provided, not random sighted nonsense.

 

[amirm]

I like many things that can't currently be explained. So do you.

But this one can. Anyone with any signal processing experience will tell you the same thing. The fact that lay people think otherwise, doesn't make it so.

 

[JustJones]

"I like many things that can't currently be explained. So do you."
Been pondering this and
Perhaps this should be a new thread but I can't think of anything I like that can't be explained. This is in the vein of materialism, toasters, TV's, autos, audio equipment.

 

[MaxBuck]

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

You're hilarious!

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Many, many people, whose reviews can easily be found, have reported hearing an obvious difference.

This is indeed what made me want to listen for myself and see if I heard a difference too.

I am a Chord DAC fan!
I have had Mojo classic, Mojo2 and currently own a Hugo2 .
I also would like a TT2 to use with speakers direct for my work place.
I have tried the MScaler with a Dave for about an hour.
Frankly I hardly noticed a thing, and I wanted to.
On minimum setting, I heard a tiny difference , that was neither here nor there. At max. setting on some well recorded orchestral classical music, perhaps a tiny clean up.
I doubt if I could tell in a blind test.
So there! from a Chord fan.

 

[Jmart]

This is a review, listening tests and measurements of the CHORD Hugo M-scaler upsampling digital transport. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $5,295 (some show it as $5,650).

View attachment 216660

We have t

CHORD M-scaler and Hugo 2 Listening Tests
Conveniently, the switch between bypass and 2X upsampling was seamless. So I used that to perform listening tests. I say some because the button cycles to higher rates and there, it causes a glitch/pause which completely throws off your mind. Going by forward mode of bypass to 2X, I detected no difference at all. Nothing changes as far as tonality, soundstage, etc. I captured a couple of samples for you to listen as well:

Chord M-Scalar Sample 1.wav

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Chord M-Scalar Sample 2.wav

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

You can listen right in the dropbox or download them. If you are sure there is a difference, go ahead and say which one is M-scaler bypass and which is 2X.

FYI I could not run a null test with DeltaWave as there is too much clock drift and clips are not lined up. The difference shown was the same as two consecutive captures without changing anything.

How were these wave files made?

 

[amirm]

How were these wave files made?

Captured using RME ADI-2 Pro audio interface/ADC.