Sean Flynn depends on the rest of your gear Sean, as it’s always relative to rest of gear as to what benefits you get out and only you can really know this. But I think the tt2 alone is a better bet to the m scaler and Qutest in quality systems. In other words the tt2 is a better value for money proposition. It has a more typical audiophile HiFi sound with richness, and bass response and a bit more clarity and soundstage whereas the m scaler mainly improves soundstage. But considering all the areas where sound is improved and for less money than a Qutest and m scaler combo, the tt2 alone make sense rather than Qutest + ms. The ms and tt2 is a Chord Dave competitor, but the ms really just takes sound up to what is already good as an upscaler with a great filter. It can’t make the DAC in the tt2 better itself. That’s the way I look at it. It doesn’t mean it’s not good, but law of dim returns comes into these products as always. Something most reviewers don’t mention.
Sean Flynn I just completed two headphone reviews - focal clears are amazing and review will say so, but cheaper Meze 99 Neo which I compared against better grado SR225, have jumbled excessive bass. I say so too. 3-4 friends all agreed, so if I don’t say so I’ll loose credibility as I think most would agree with me. A lot of reviewers will just say they are great. But let’s be honest most consumer audio is great, so this comment needs balancing with that! It will far from have an affect to me, which is why I don’t understand why all these internet reviewers are better and more honest.
Thanks for this review. Can I ask are the stock chord coax BNC cables good enough or does one need to spend more on OEM BNC cables ? Have you heard any difference? Cheers Adam
@@13thnotehifireviews7 great. Was hoping you would say that. I'm running the HugoTT2 with my Auralic aeries streamer and I control the volume via my arcam avr850. But I'm told I can use the HugoTT2 as a preamp and use the volume knob on the DAC. Any thoughts on this ? At the moment the line fixed volume input sounds great but can always look for better :)!
I have the M-Scaler with the Hugo TT2 dac (previously had the Qutest). With the purchase of the Hugo TT2 there was an immediate improvement over the Qutest, even with the M-Scaler attached to the Qutest. The Hugo TT2 is simply sublime, but when adding the M-Scaler it's in another league altogether. I could never go back from using it. There is always the feeling, with digital audio that analogue is better in some respects and I would always subscribe to that view. However, you'd need an extremely good turntable/arm/cartridge to get anywhere near the sound that is achieved with the Chord TT 2 and M-Scaler. As to value, the competing analogue front end would be more than two or three times the price of the Chord front end even when including the necessary streamer/server. To me, this is digital done right. I still like listening to vinyl of course, I have many records which have not been transcribed digitally but 95% of my listening now is digital and I'm completely happy with the sound. The TT2 is also a pre-amp, a great headphone amp as well as a dac. The crossfeed option boosts headphone listening a lot. The M-Scaler is the icing on the cake. Carry on with your excellent hands on reviews.
The m scalar has been around for about 2 years now but not a single peer reviewed technical research paper behind this supposed ‘Engineering marvel’. All I found was marketing PDF and concept notes on filtering.
I thought it was good but very expensive for what it does on full reflection. I think it was more a self indulgent pursuit by the designer with a million taps, and because it is Chord it would have reviewers raving, existing consumer would as fanboys too. dealers would and pr agents. I didn’t see any reviewer anywhere calling it out as undeniably offering less than a tt2 on dollar or pound value. This is what the HiFi industry rides on unfortunately.
13th Note HiFi Reviews true that. I was so excited about mscaler and could not resist the purchase, however the honeymoon was shortlived. Thankfully I could opt for a refund.
Hello, I found this very interesting. I recently part exchanged my Hugo2 for the TT2 and the improvement is very marked. I always listen with headphones and my best pair, the terrific Focal Utopias, sound absolutely marvellous with the TT2. I would love to upgrade to the M-Scaler, but will need to convince my better half first. This will not be an easy task. Sad!
Your website and channel are amazing. You explain everything so clearly and for people who don’t have a degree in acoustics! My dealer lent me a Chord TT2 today. I am using this without an M-Scaler as you said that you think this sounds better than the Qutest + M-Scaler combination. So far it sounds great to my ears. I think the bass is stronger that the Qutest but I have not listened enough yet to see what else is different than the Qutest. Could you tell me what I should be looking out for please? Thank you.
Thanks for your tremendous compliment Jim. The thing is to make your mind up yourself I think Jim, as your room, ears, kit, preferences will all be different. Your money too. If I had to say, as I said in my written review, I found that the tt2 was just ‘more audiophile’ over the Qutest in the sense of midrange, bass depth and realism, and soundstage. When I first swapped the Qutest over for the tt2 that’s the first thing you notice. Easiest thing to do is keep swapping back and forth if you can do direct comparisons.
I purchased and returned the Mscaler after some intense and critical listening for more than a week. My Roon + Mytek does a brilliant job without any obscure science and with honest prices.
Dimitrij Glasow It’s all a question of degrees. DSD through rubbish speakers and amps is obviously not going to be as good through great ones. The same for differing DACs. It’s common sense thinking really.
Apologies, but I have not seen such fanboyism and pseudoscience in quite sometime. A 4500 dollar solution for digital filtering and to only upsample 16 times. No wonder the product didn’t win any proper technical recognitions, only awards from hobbyist and paid marketing media. A good software on the mobile can upsample 16 times and very cleanly feed your dac. Not to mention that it is not compatible with MQA which indeed is an interesting piece of audio engineering and bandwidth optimisation.
13th Note HiFi Reviews I have a masters in VLSI chip design, so I can’t help but get sucked into core engineering specs and performance analysis. I was relieved to get my refund on this product.
Chord M Scaler is not a filter. You learn this in year 1 signal processing. With Nyquist theory 16bit 44.1kHz is will more then enough for digital sampling for human hearing. So why digital sound so unnatural. Easy because the same theory also said you have to use infinite sinc function to recover the original sound. Today most pre made DAC chip use sinc(32) or less i.e. 32 tap. Whereas M scaler recover sound with sinc(1,015,808). When sony and philips introduce CD they said sinc(8) is more then enough. Now we all knows you need more much more.
Thanks I think I said the m scaler utilises a filter which undeniably it does. My Channel concentrates on features, looks and sound quality as for everyone who puts forward an argument one way there can be an argument the other way in HiFi. I don’t do this as great audio faithfully reproduced is non exclusive and to be enjoyed by all. So theory and overt technicalities don’t come into it.
tt2 is actually kind of garbage sounding with out the mscaler iv ab and demoed over and over again, and with out the mscaler the tt2 is a panfull waste of time and money consider them and integral purchase or never touch it, with chord really go for the very top or bottom the middle lacks value go with a hugo 2 or mojo or go right to the Dave, Dave with a mascaler still makes gains but less there less obvious then the gains that the tt2 combo gains, the layering and depth and space of the dave cant be beat by the combo you may get just a tocuh of detail over the dave but not the finess, the tt2 does have some "warmth" the dave may lack but the pure tonality is not there in the tt2 , the dave sounds so good with or with out it there is no draw back to the dave , the tt2 is a half measure youll eventually want to get rid of, save your time and money and get a dave, the dave is not the best dac in the world but it playin the same league as the big boys for half to a 6th as much, the only other 10 k device id be interesting in is the new luxman disk player or eventaul standalone dac based on the same novel chip, dont fuck around be happy with the bottom or go straight to the top you'd be surprised what a mojo(black nugget of gold) can do with 1 to 2 k in silver occ cables and a dedicated psu used as a digital pre to any 10 to 20k amp i do this for fun shit on snooty dealers when i go shopping
That's interesting. I have a TT2 with very expensive amps and speakers. The sound is exceptional. Neighbours have even asked me what music system I own when they can hear it through open windows in the summer. It's exceptional sound from the TT2. To say the TT 2 is garbage makes me wonder what you are using it with. Without the M Scaler it's extremely good. Of course you are entitled to your opinion to say it's garbage. I don't have any issue with that!
@@user-tk7kz1fl2r garbage for the price . I have or have had lots of DACs in my system above and below and the tt2 is the worst performance per dollar . Your to poor to afford a Dave or two ignorant to find a DAC of better value
Worst value in there line up. Sure if the others didn't exist is fine enough but there's noooo way you can live with it stand alone after listening to Dave or after listing to a mscaler . Going from a tap perspective or from 10th to 12 order noise shapeing
For a guy a guy so passionate about fidelity, hmmm can barely hear you. I think anyone seeking to gain credibility in this field could do themselves a favor
$20k in awesome audio gear, but won't buy a $20 USB mic. ;)
It’s all a learning curve but thanks for pointing it out. This is an early video and I now use a Zoom Mike for the very reason you mention.
Sean Flynn depends on the rest of your gear Sean, as it’s always relative to rest of gear as to what benefits you get out and only you can really know this. But I think the tt2 alone is a better bet to the m scaler and Qutest in quality systems. In other words the tt2 is a better value for money proposition. It has a more typical audiophile HiFi sound with richness, and bass response and a bit more clarity and soundstage whereas the m scaler mainly improves soundstage. But considering all the areas where sound is improved and for less money than a Qutest and m scaler combo, the tt2 alone make sense rather than Qutest + ms. The ms and tt2 is a Chord Dave competitor, but the ms really just takes sound up to what is already good as an upscaler with a great filter. It can’t make the DAC in the tt2 better itself. That’s the way I look at it. It doesn’t mean it’s not good, but law of dim returns comes into these products as always. Something most reviewers don’t mention.
Sean Flynn I just completed two headphone reviews - focal clears are amazing and review will say so, but cheaper Meze 99 Neo which I compared against better grado SR225, have jumbled excessive bass. I say so too. 3-4 friends all agreed, so if I don’t say so I’ll loose credibility as I think most would agree with me. A lot of reviewers will just say they are great. But let’s be honest most consumer audio is great, so this comment needs balancing with that! It will far from have an affect to me, which is why I don’t understand why all these internet reviewers are better and more honest.
Thanks for this review. Can I ask are the stock chord coax BNC cables good enough or does one need to spend more on OEM BNC cables ? Have you heard any difference? Cheers Adam
Normal cables fine is my view now
@@13thnotehifireviews7 great. Was hoping you would say that. I'm running the HugoTT2 with my Auralic aeries streamer and I control the volume via my arcam avr850. But I'm told I can use the HugoTT2 as a preamp and use the volume knob on the DAC. Any thoughts on this ? At the moment the line fixed volume input sounds great but can always look for better :)!
Should be fine thx
Hi，I'm TT2 user. What usb cable for scaler?thanks
I have the M-Scaler with the Hugo TT2 dac (previously had the Qutest). With the purchase of the Hugo TT2 there was an immediate improvement over the Qutest, even with the M-Scaler attached to the Qutest. The Hugo TT2 is simply sublime, but when adding the M-Scaler it's in another league altogether. I could never go back from using it. There is always the feeling, with digital audio that analogue is better in some respects and I would always subscribe to that view. However, you'd need an extremely good turntable/arm/cartridge to get anywhere near the sound that is achieved with the Chord TT 2 and M-Scaler. As to value, the competing analogue front end would be more than two or three times the price of the Chord front end even when including the necessary streamer/server. To me, this is digital done right. I still like listening to vinyl of course, I have many records which have not been transcribed digitally but 95% of my listening now is digital and I'm completely happy with the sound.
The TT2 is also a pre-amp, a great headphone amp as well as a dac. The crossfeed option boosts headphone listening a lot. The M-Scaler is the icing on the cake.
Carry on with your excellent hands on reviews.
The m scalar has been around for about 2 years now but not a single peer reviewed technical research paper behind this supposed ‘Engineering marvel’. All I found was marketing PDF and concept notes on filtering.
I thought it was good but very expensive for what it does on full reflection. I think it was more a self indulgent pursuit by the designer with a million taps, and because it is Chord it would have reviewers raving, existing consumer would as fanboys too. dealers would and pr agents. I didn’t see any reviewer anywhere calling it out as undeniably offering less than a tt2 on dollar or pound value. This is what the HiFi industry rides on unfortunately.
13th Note HiFi Reviews true that. I was so excited about mscaler and could not resist the purchase, however the honeymoon was shortlived. Thankfully I could opt for a refund.
Can any of this be proven with blind testing or science?
It’s a lot of money to fork out on the say so without hearing anything!
That’s the job of you by borrowing or going to your dealer. Reviews are for shortlists to give an idea of what you might like
Sound? Mic??
An old video….one of my first ones.
Hello,
I found this very interesting. I recently part exchanged my Hugo2 for the TT2 and the improvement is very marked. I always listen with headphones and my best pair, the terrific Focal Utopias, sound absolutely marvellous with the TT2. I would love to upgrade to the M-Scaler, but will need to convince my better half first. This will not be an easy task. Sad!
Your website and channel are amazing. You explain everything so clearly and for people who don’t have a degree in acoustics!
My dealer lent me a Chord TT2 today. I am using this without an M-Scaler as you said that you think this sounds better than the Qutest + M-Scaler combination. So far it sounds great to my ears. I think the bass is stronger that the Qutest but I have not listened enough yet to see what else is different than the Qutest. Could you tell me what I should be looking out for please? Thank you.
Thanks for your tremendous compliment Jim. The thing is to make your mind up yourself I think Jim, as your room, ears, kit, preferences will all be different. Your money too. If I had to say, as I said in my written review, I found that the tt2 was just ‘more audiophile’ over the Qutest in the sense of midrange, bass depth and realism, and soundstage. When I first swapped the Qutest over for the tt2 that’s the first thing you notice. Easiest thing to do is keep swapping back and forth if you can do direct comparisons.
HOW LONG DO YOU THINK U CAN USE THIS DAC UNTILL YOU CHANGE TO NEW DAC
?
frankie lee I’m not with you Frankie?
Nice video. Thanks.
I purchased and returned the Mscaler after some intense and critical listening for more than a week. My Roon + Mytek does a brilliant job without any obscure science and with honest prices.
What’s your speakers and amps. Mytek Brooklyn?
13th Note HiFi Reviews yes brooklyn dac+. I use the Focal Utopia, JH audio custom Layla and senny 800s. I also own the benchmark hpa4 amp.
So an mp3 file will sound like a dsd file 🤔 I cant belive that ^^ .
Dimitrij Glasow It’s all a question of degrees. DSD through rubbish speakers and amps is obviously not going to be as good through great ones. The same for differing DACs. It’s common sense thinking really.
Apologies, but I have not seen such fanboyism and pseudoscience in quite sometime. A 4500 dollar solution for digital filtering and to only upsample 16 times. No wonder the product didn’t win any proper technical recognitions, only awards from hobbyist and paid marketing media. A good software on the mobile can upsample 16 times and very cleanly feed your dac. Not to mention that it is not compatible with MQA which indeed is an interesting piece of audio engineering and bandwidth optimisation.
I never go on specs or what you talk of, best to leave it out and be real world .
13th Note HiFi Reviews I have a masters in VLSI chip design, so I can’t help but get sucked into core engineering specs and performance analysis. I was relieved to get my refund on this product.
Chord M Scaler is not a filter. You learn this in year 1 signal processing.
With Nyquist theory 16bit 44.1kHz is will more then enough for digital sampling for human hearing.
So why digital sound so unnatural.
Easy because the same theory also said you have to use infinite sinc function to recover the original sound.
Today most pre made DAC chip use sinc(32) or less i.e. 32 tap.
Whereas M scaler recover sound with sinc(1,015,808).
When sony and philips introduce CD they said sinc(8) is more then enough.
Now we all knows you need more much more.
Thanks I think I said the m scaler utilises a filter which undeniably it does.
My Channel concentrates on features, looks and sound quality as for everyone who puts forward an argument one way there can be an argument the other way in HiFi. I don’t do this as great audio faithfully reproduced is non exclusive and to be enjoyed by all. So theory and overt technicalities don’t come into it.
tt2 is actually kind of garbage sounding with out the mscaler iv ab and demoed over and over again, and with out the mscaler the tt2 is a panfull waste of time and money consider them and integral purchase or never touch it, with chord really go for the very top or bottom the middle lacks value go with a hugo 2 or mojo or go right to the Dave, Dave with a mascaler still makes gains but less there less obvious then the gains that the tt2 combo gains, the layering and depth and space of the dave cant be beat by the combo you may get just a tocuh of detail over the dave but not the finess, the tt2 does have some "warmth" the dave may lack but the pure tonality is not there in the tt2 , the dave sounds so good with or with out it there is no draw back to the dave , the tt2 is a half measure youll eventually want to get rid of, save your time and money and get a dave, the dave is not the best dac in the world but it playin the same league as the big boys for half to a 6th as much, the only other 10 k device id be interesting in is the new luxman disk player or eventaul standalone dac based on the same novel chip,
dont fuck around be happy with the bottom or go straight to the top
you'd be surprised what a mojo(black nugget of gold) can do with 1 to 2 k in silver occ cables and a dedicated psu used as a digital pre to any 10 to 20k amp
i do this for fun shit on snooty dealers when i go shopping
That's interesting. I have a TT2 with very expensive amps and speakers. The sound is exceptional. Neighbours have even asked me what music system I own when they can hear it through open windows in the summer. It's exceptional sound from the TT2. To say the TT 2 is garbage makes me wonder what you are using it with. Without the M Scaler it's extremely good. Of course you are entitled to your opinion to say it's garbage. I don't have any issue with that!
@@user-tk7kz1fl2r garbage for the price . I have or have had lots of DACs in my system above and below and the tt2 is the worst performance per dollar . Your to poor to afford a Dave or two ignorant to find a DAC of better value
Worst value in there line up. Sure if the others didn't exist is fine enough but there's noooo way you can live with it stand alone after listening to Dave or after listing to a mscaler . Going from a tap perspective or from 10th to 12 order noise shapeing
For a guy a guy so passionate about fidelity, hmmm can barely hear you. I think anyone seeking to gain credibility in this field could do themselves a favor
An old video. If you’ve ever done video? you’ll realise it’s a big learning curve. See the H390 film!!!!!