I always struggle with these descriptions as to me great hifi produces great music, as long as the music recorded is good!
Please clarify “more powerful” in this context?
And here I guess it way well depend on the power amp in question …and of course the choice of preamp would be critical.
I do it all the time as I can switch off the Mscaler processing and hear Dave alone.
Dave alone is very good, but Mscaler has a lot more processing capability, and one can easily hear this. I would not use Dave without Mscaler now that I have it, but was very happy when I didn’t know what I was missing.
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My experience with the DAVE is to short to be useful.
But in the end experience with other DAC+Pre (like the Rockna Wavelight) has always ended up preferring a separate pre. It may be impedances or a real analog volume control making the difference.
But why not start with the DAVE direct and push evaluating preamps to some future date.
Without delving into technicalities, HQPlayer simply gives you options. You get over 40 digital filters to try, some optimzed for transients, space or timbre. You also get nine different types of word length reduction algorithms to mix and match. Once you’ve identified the filters that sound best in your system, you can choose among them depending on the type of music and/or recordings. You can do this from any computer or tablet from the comfort of your chair, simply point and click on the GUI. M-Scaler gives you one predefined digital filter, that’s it.
I don’t think that’s accurate, there are several million taps filters, and even a 2 million taps one, but that’s about the only similarity, at least according to the designer:
“sinc-M is not trying to be replacement or “sound like” Chord’s M-Scaler filter, it is just my take on a million tap filter, in my way.”
For what it’s worth, none of those high tap sinc filters are among my favorites, maybe they work better with the DAVE, but my Qutest doesn’t get along with them.
Indeed, it all shows how we are different. I did have mscaler to use with DAVE, i felt ultimately after a year I preferred the DAVE performance without it, as it certainly makes a difference, so ended up not using it… so recently traded it in.
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BTW a sinc(x) is a specific reconstruction filter response for the sinc(x) mathematical function (sin(x)/x) , so there is only one filter response type with a choice of it being an Finite Impulse Response filter which uses kernel samples or ‘taps’ and a window function (and the more of these for a given sample size, the more accurate the response governed by the windowing function upto a point, after which it simply adds noise for a finite sample word size ), or Infinite Response Filter which uses computed filtering functions, and is typically recursive and is governed by the computational accuracy of the DSP numeric accuracy.
The sinc filter function is theoretically required to adjust or reconstruct the sample data in the higher frequencies filter response to align it with the sample theorem, which in reality is impossible to achieve, which is that each sample represents a value for an infinitely small period of time, ie it has zero time duration.
A sinc filter response on the sampled data would be totally neutral with respect to the original sampled data (which is the point of it) , however some / most? DAC manufacturers create their own custom reconstruction and low pass filters to suit taste … but these would not be sinc filters.
With respect to FIR and IIR filters there are many choices to be made as sampling and reconstruction process is ultimately lossy in the real world.
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Ok, understood - however if used “flat”, just upscaling, how does it compare with MScaler?
Indeed, and as ever the preamp is often the heart of a system, and so is critical…but their inputs are usually more robust and accommodating than the inputs of a power amp… unless the power amp is an integrated power amp.
Rob explains the new Ultima dac with a possible launch date in 2024
With the launch of the new Choral Scaler with matching case work I think the Dave will be around for the foreseeable future.
Regarding MScaler performance with my 500 setup I can easily hear the difference the MScaler adds.
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importantly, what is feeding it? (Please complete the survey (the two polls)
ND5XS2 > DC1 > MScaler > Wave Storm Ref > DAVE > AR Lunar > 552DR
Server QNAP TS459 + Asset
Yes, I might have posted earlier… I ran DAVE, then DAVE with Mscaler for about a year, then I returned back to DAVE … they do sound different, but for me I find bare DAVE more natural on most produced recordings.
Yes with quality headphones I can hear a bit of extra feel on certain non heavily produced recordings with mscaler… but on many other more produced recordings the resultant sound started to feel a little clinical and artificial… so I parallel ran for many months and found myself preferring the non mscaler more often than not… so in the end it was just gathering dust, so I sold the mscaler.
FWIW before I bought DAVE I borrowed Chord TT2 for a while and Mscaler felt more beneficial with that DAC… to my tastes of course…
I also think if you have a low quality in terms of clock stability, source, or a noisy USB source, Mscaler can act as a quality reclocker and noise filter for DAVE. (You can scale down the Mscaler over clocking to taste).
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I’ve never tried an M-Scaler in my system, can’t really attest to that.
All this Dave talk was making me itchy so I’ve just picked up a pre loved Dave for a decent price from a local seller. Swapped it out for my TT2 so it’s between my Mscaler and pre and it sounds very good. I’ll experiment with and without mscaler etc etc over the next few weeks. It’s a fairly clear improvement over the tt2 but not so much that the latter is embarrassed.
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Enjoy… you will most likely start noticing aspects of your recordings you have not heard or appreciated before
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Stop with this Chord love in!!!
Dave + mScaler (9k) really wouldn’t be a bankrupting investment if we sold nDAC/555PSDR (6k) at current used prices.
Very very difficult to do demo comparing like for like 
And we do absolutely love our nDAC/555PSDR but do wonder what beats it, and at what price.
Our next DAC step would require either brand loyalty with audition (ND555) or a jump ship to Chord or other, where home demo might be difficult/impossible.
Heard nd555 vs ndx2 with Dave and frankly the ndx2 +Dave combo wins overall. And that’s without an mscaler involved