Qutest, Hugo TT2, Mscaler

Yep I think that goes for many of us here… and even with open back phones it still is the music room :grinning:

Excellent… well thought out!

My requirement in the future will be a slightly bigger office and the living room that will allow a TV and speakers either side. The chimney breast, stove etc don’t allow enough space for speaker placement at present… and I need the fire in the winter so I can pop my feet up in front of it when keeping a single malt company… dam, it would have been bliss with a good music as well :cry:

As it stands… I use a Sonos Beam… which to be fair is rather good for what it does.

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Ok…

Mettal EP - Rodrigo y Gabriela = 3 tracks of guitar sensory overload. With NFL it reminds me of the, “You’ve been Tangoed” adverts… clicky link… the attack and drive of these tracks… as well as the imaging etc is incredible… god help @Simon-in-Suffolk with headphones… your head would be spinning with the detail and pace. Amazing EP.

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Nice… listening with Empyreans to the Battery track… great playing … and love the dynamics of the I assume sound box slapping/ percussive effects… and just a tad of reverb added to give a bit of air… the texture of the strings is really enticing…
The playing from around 4m on Seasons in the Abyss has some more studio effects, but sounds really musically interesting and intriguing… it feels quite a tight recording with not a huge field so you get the impression the guitars are close together.

Listening in 44.1/24 on Qobuz.

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Yeah… it just gets better and better. The detail and feel with two guitars, one in each speaker then one kicking in centre is a great mix… the energy just leads me to listen to more and more of their work! Superb work.

It sort of feels like the guitars on the sound keep bouncing towards you, around the side lunging forwards and the lead taking centre but back as if your being circled. It’s a very engaging EP

On Qobuz as well, same 24/44 version.

There is a bit of percussive panning on Battery.

Yeah… the movement across the sound stage every now and again on all three tracks is impressive. Just put it on again… another Roon special… picked one guitar track, set it to radio and this cropped up. Great find.

Been giving my marching orders now… got to put it down… off to a socially distanced gathering… have fun.

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The percussion was done by the female partner, she ended up wrecking her hands - and he left her, bloody tragic.

M

Flipping heck… that’s harsh!

Not exactly true Simon. You can use FIR filters in Roon depends on how you do the DSP. The ones created for me by HAF that I use in the convolution engine are fir. You can make you own via REW as well. But yes upsampling doesn’t.

Yes Roon can use FIR filter response kernel and yes that it is convolved… but is maths intensive… so will need a cpu with good maths support/acceleration which many personal computers have now… I don’t know what windowing function Roon uses however.
The interactive eq filtering on Roon is done using IIR filters.

Couple of noise reducing tweaks completed.

IsoAcoustics Mini Isolation pucks for the TT2 & HMS. Thanks for the recommendation @InTune

I initially tried these under the speakers to see if it improved on the current isolation feet… didn’t make any difference there but when I added them under the TT2, it seemed to make the mids, highs a little clearer… more focus. Added the others under the HMS but the improvement didn’t seem as great.

The other area I’ve been trying to improve is noise passing through the BNC cables from the HMS and not just from the power supply. A lot has been made of using OPTO DX or Wave Cables but some mentioned (Rob Watts and others) that using a power bank at the HMS end prevents the flow from the HMS to the TT2.

The problem I had found with this is some power banks sounded worse… didn’t reduce the noise floor etc at all and the supplied power switch was better. The PowerAdd Pilot Pro Rob Watts uses isn’t available in the UK unfortunately. He used it at 12v 3amps.

However, after a few attempts, I’ve found one that seems to be an improvement on the stock power supply… Krisdonia Laptop Power Bank 25000mAh. This also gives a 12v option with 3 amps.

As I hoped, the quiet spells seemed darker revealing more detail in the lows. But, what was more evident is the improvement in the mids/highs… it feels like they’re tighter, improved focus and less grain. It was like a the audio equivalent of astigmatism being removed and that imaging became clearer, mids/highs were smoother and the edge of notes clearer.

It takes approx 3 hrs to charge from flat and will comfortably do a full day! But, if you want extra, there is also a 50000mAh version too. The 25000mAh doesn’t heat up at all when in use. Battery or cable.
I’ve tried it on the TT2 as well but it made little to no difference… I guess the supplied power supply and 6 Super Capacitors really do the job well!

I’ll be be running through more playlists tomorrow with it on the HMS but so far there hasn’t been a reduction in attack/pace from not using the power supply. Very happy with it.

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I am still running the stock power supplies with stock BNC cables. All I have done so far is add clip on ferrites to the BNC’s. I will sit back and let you do the experimenting,if you don’t mind. Lately I have been listening to Vinyl more than digital,and I am hesitant to spend any money in this “climate”.

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Haha… makes sense. The power bank was £95 so not to bad. My system updates are all done really. My SN2, HiCap and Qutest etc have just been sold to pay for the new stuff. Actually, couple more bits of tech going next week and it will all be paid for :grinning:

I think `I’ll need to change a BNC cable though. I’m getting a little bit of crackling in the speakers which disappears when I turn the BNC cable in the plug.

I am running stock cables but normal consideration on cable dressing and spacing between boxes… and into Empyreans the TT2 is outstanding… I suspect if one is hearing ‘grain’ it’s being introduced elsewhere… the HMS and TT2 is a fantastically revealing, vibrant, insightful and analogue performance… which really allows you to listen into layer upon layer of the recording whether it be contemporary or traditional.
This combination really shows the recording is the limiting factor in many cases.

Listening to my favourite Sandy Denny recordings right now… and her voice is so beautiful and just oozes emotion… it’s palpable

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With stock cables etc it is still undoubtedly excellent sound quality… I’m just saying, as with most things, a few tweaks here and there can bring out even more.

Sure, but in that setup, I am not sure what else there is to bring out where you can hear quite clearly in many cases the recording is the limiting factor.
Yes one can change/tweak FR presentation, but I use headphone pad rolling and headphone leads, as well the TT2 filter adjustment if required for that.

I use an RF mitigating weave in my mains cables to my audio equipment, perhaps that helps my setup to avoid these issues?

I think even Rob acknowledged that the high computing processes of the M Scaler itself can create noise that is transferred down the BNC cables. It was one of the reasons it’s been separated from other components.

Things like the Wave cables, OPTO DX and adding Ferrites clipped to cables are all about controlling the frequencies being transmitted by/through the HMS to the DAC.

The OPTO works by breaking the BNC link with optical, Wave by use of solid Ferrites but it can also be removed by breaking the connection to the power supply as it stops the flow from the HMS to the DAC. I can only describe it as a similar effect as going from BNC to optical from source to DAC.

Adding a power bank, which Rob often does, is a cheap and effective way of preventing noise transferring to the DAC.

I know a few on Head Fi had identified particular frequencies and matched the appropriate Ferrites to tame it. Of course… we are not talking massive changes here, subtle improvements to the sound. I guess it’s similar to the way we use power cables or power supplies to improve the finished sound.

As I wasn’t prepared to spend £XXXX’s to improve it further (already feel it is excellent), I was looking at cost effective power banks to to prevent any noise generated by the HMS from being sent along the BNC to the DAC… with BNC not being an isolated connection.

Edit… forgot to say, having BNC cables at 1.5m also helps… apparently but I have not tried this.

Theoretically as with most digital devices, it can be common mode, which is relative to true ground.
With using the TT2 as a headphone amp, then it is only loosely capacitively coupled to ground so will be minimal and environment dependent. But to be honest any common mode noise is going to be marginal or it won’t meet its EM compliance and/or would have ferrite chokes hard moulded into the the 75ohm coax leads.
The consideration, as stated in the manual, the mscaler is not housed in a perfect Faraday cage, so needs to be sited or positioned for minimum noise.

If connecting to a grounded amp like a Naim NAC it may well be more of an issue, but could be easily mitigated with ferrite chokes… which is exactly what they are designed to do.