Yes, the dCS Network Bridge.
All the lights are correct.
Discussed this functionality with both dCS and Chord.
The restriction here is the dual aes protocol, as written by dCS AND adhered to by Chord.
Curious, and Iād never read it that way. However, Iām not sure why youād want to input Dual BNC as maximum upscaling (the reason for having one in the first place, is only available from BNC1ā¦ Or am I reading the manual wrongly again?
Chord would state that there will be NO difference in performance. But then they would say that there is no difference if you use a LPSU with their DACs, something that many would contest.
It was an easy and cheap experiment. As in my first post I found that I did prefer the āextraā upscaling BEFORE the digital stream hit the MScaler. This was using Linn Kazoo & Minimserver. This combination cannot upscale Qobuz.
I have recently been listening via Roon, which CAN upscale Qobuz. Interestingly there are only a small number of āproblemā recordings with which I prefer upscaling ā¦and I generally still prefer my local rips to Qobuz, a tad. Could I pick them blind? ā¦maybe!
Its all rather good via Roon and the differences are small.
In theory dual BNC input should be a pointless exercise, as I found the difference I thought Iād let the community know. Wonāt affect many people.
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Yes itās a pointless exercise
The Mscaler is rather much better at what it does ā¦
I wouldnāt be that didactic. As I stated in my first post, with Kazoo and Minimsercer I preferred my system with Minimserver doing its upscaling.
With Roon I upscale on problem files.
So not pointless.
If you have the kit this is a quick and cheap experiment.
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I have to say Iām surprised the mscaler has dual input, cant imagine why I would ever use it though.
Yes, as was I ā¦and that they used the dCS authored protocol. The only hoop is an AES to BNC convertor.
The dCS NB has dual AES outputs (on the XLR) and dual SDIF-2 outputs (on BNC). And a single SPDIF (on RCA).
More general info. SDIF has a different data stream vs AES/SPDIF. Someone told me SDIF is used by japanese audiophiles. There are small differences between the AES and SPDIF protocols. There is also an unbalanced AES that use BNC which has a slight difference in the electrical specification vs. SPDIF (I think this is what is called āSPDIF Professionalā on some boxes I have).
Hi Jan,
The M-Scaler ALSO does dual BNC input, see my references above. Tested and works.
The dCS NB has no dual output SPDIF.
It was a while ago I saw the m-scaler but I remember they had a confusing chart that mentioned dual inputs - but that chart was referring to the inputs on the connected Chord DAC, not the m-scaler.
The m-scaler is a x16 device maxing out at 768kHz so why would you need a dual input? One can handle the speed.
True, it has dual AES output. Run these through two AES to BNC converters and voila. See my posts above.
Yes it can handle the speed, but I thought, why not?
My observations posted above.
Since posting my initial findings the best part of a year ago there have been a few changes in my system. From a digital point of view the main change has been the move to Roon.
For the last few weeks I have been I have been listening to the Chord 2yu/2go streamer and comparing this to my usual dCS Network Bridge. This led me to revisit the dCS NB spdif vs AESx2.
Using my problem files there is much to recommend the dual AES route, BUT in controlling the excesses of a small number of problem files it also removes a degree of higher frequency information. The effect of this is to remove a touch of dynamics & imaging information.
Bottom line:
I am listening via the dCS NB spdif output.
Chord included the dCS AES protocol on its inputs for āfuture developmentsā. It will be interesting to see if they produce a higher quality streamer that includes this, or quietly retire the dCS AES via bnc on its M-Scaler inputs.
Hi
I donāt know how the network bridge and chord dac work together especially over the dual aes, but obviously in a dCS system of network bridge and dac itās the best way to connect the units together.
So i would expect the network bridge to work best if dual aes can be used when using other dacās with it.
Maybe ask on the dCS forum
Hi Dunc,
Yes, I was surprised they had instituted the Dual AES protocol on input, as well as between M-Scaler and DAC; in both cases over BNC. Hence āgiving it a goā.
As you know I have a list of āproblemā files. The dual AES/BNC route certainly improved these, but also removed a slight amount of detail and dynamics in the final assessment.
I have not doubt the dual AES outputs will work supremely well with the dCS DAC inputs for which they were designed. I am purposefully ignoring that for the same reason I am āignoringā the Chord DAVE; resistance hasnāt been futile ā¦yet!
How is the H7000 coming along?
M
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Hi
The allnic is going well, it was even going well the day you popped up, it was me that was the problem, well that and me not realising i had the wrong settings on the vitus input.
But itās sounding great, plus i know even have a second tonearm and cartridge set up, so i can switch between them.
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