Here’s my ask: I have a Qutest, would it be better to add an mscaler to Qutest or move up to HugoTT2, assuming that I can only do one.
It depends if you want a world class headphone amp, or just a DAC.
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DAC, I do very little headphone listening, So the mscaler with qutest probably makes the most sense?
I think so, I have not heard the combo myself, but my local dealer who has a Blue2 with Dave, tried the Blue2 with Qutest, and was quite impressed.You already have the Qutest right?
I have tried all in my system. The TT2 is a big step up from the Qutest. The Qutest paired with the Mscaler does not quite reach what is revealed by a bare TT2.
Now a TT2 with Mscaler is something else. That is what I stuck with.
I also don’t use the headphone amp in the TT2 - but would not part with it.
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Yes, already have a Qutest,
I barely use headphones either, but the option is nice to have. Have you tried using the TT2 as a preamp yet? I thought it was really good as a pre, but I wanted to get back into Vinyl, so went with a Nagra integrated, so I could do that.
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Agreed, it is nice to have for the occasion . I have not used it as a pre. Love my 282 and never felt the need. May in the future though, just for fun.
I think Chrisu ditched his 282 for a Dave directly into his 250 DR.
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Yes, I sold my 282 and now use Dave as a preamp. It felt weird running a Naim system without a Naim preamp, but I spent quite a bit of time listening to it and I couldn’t honestly say that it sounded better or worse with no preamp, just a bit different. So having blown the budget on Dave, I couldn’t justify keeping the 282, and I was very happy to be able to get rid of all those extra PSUs and cables. The headphone amp was a nice bonus too, although I rarely use them at home.
I was previously using a Hugo, which was nice, but didn’t work so well as a pre. Haven’t tried a TT though.
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Next step should be an Mscaler Chris, I would think?
Is there no end to this madness? (Don’t answer that!) No, probably new speakers next.
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I would be tempted to wring every last drop out of your X2’s with an Mscaler before swapping speakers, but it is your choice. For a good year I was using Dynaudio excite 12’s as my main speakers, and when I added the Mscaler to my TT2, I really could not believe how awesome they sounded. I have just recently upgraded my speakers, but there is a lot to be had with modest speakers, and a killer source…IMO.
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I have a qutest and an Ndac here.
I test the Qutest VS the Ndac, and on my system the Ndac was winning in term of spacialisation and global rendering. The Qutest was a bit more accentuate the HF.
After i have tried and compare the Ndac + XP5 VS the Qutest, this is another league. The qutest can not compete anymore at all in all front.
Currently i am using the Ndac with an XPS, this is very musical, and you can get an Ndac + XPS for half of the price of a TT2, as the Ndac can use an Olive XPS.
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I agree, from a slightly different viewpoint, I went:-
Hugo2
Hugo2 plus MScaler, and then compared this combination with Hugo TT2 (bare) at home. I traded the H2 and HMScaler for the TT2.
The TT2 is also a really flexible device as a DAC/pre/headphone amp.
With the MScaler I got frustrated with the additional remote, and I also found I preferred 2x upscaling over the maximum available, but still better than standard ‘redbook’ (from a Uniti Core at the time) I.e. I was not maximising the value from the MScaler.
Although this is not the same dedicated processing as the MScaler I now use a 2x upscale for ‘free’ via DSP on Roon - some add HDPlayer.
Something sounds wrong there, full upscaling is WAY better than 2x upscaling on my setup. With the H2, it might be harder to get the connections right, since it is so small.
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looking at demoing a TT2 do you run it using USB from your zenith?
thanks
I run my Zenith, to my mscaler to my TT2 - with fabulous results
Did you find it made a difference running via the 282 rather than straight to the 250?
Did you just run it in dac mode also?
Thx
I honestly haven’t tried just running it to the 250. I really should, but somehow I doubt (now I may be wrong), it will perform better than my 282. I use it in DAC mode, and may try the pre down the road.