Qutest, Hugo TT2, Mscaler

I assumed my dealer had made a typo when I asked about the stand for Dave alone. I declined!

@Simon-in-Suffolk hello Simon,
What has led you to you not using the DAC in your NDX2 as you have been trialling this migration via TT2 to Dave/Etude and potentially Prima ?

I was going to say if it is Chord rack, they certainly keep it quiet on their web site and product inventory.

Levels of performance. The NDX2 analogue out is very capable, but a completely different ball park from the DAVE which arguably is one of the best DACs in the world currently.
I guess in the Naim world it’s like comparing the ND555 with the NDX2.

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For those of you using a tt2 into a Naim NAC are you using DAC mode or amp mode, and if the latter at what volume setting please?

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DAC mode

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Thanks

My experience is with Hugo 1 and Dave, but I imagine the TT2 would be much the same. Dialling down the volume definitely sounded better. The consensus seemed to be that the H1 volume was best set at Turquoise level, I think, although I had mine set even lower than that when I ran it into a 282.
This had the added bonus of making the preamp volume pot user friendly. In fact I wondered if the improved sound quality came from making the preamp work a bit harder, as it were, instead of giving it a full fat 2.1V signal.

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Thanks guys, for both of my Hugos I ran them a little lower than the standard setting. After quite a lot of trial and error I’ve settled on -9 on the tt2. Strangely I needed to have another fiddle with it when I put the m scaler on. Sounds fantastic now

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I run my TT2 in DAC mode, that way I control the volume with my Nagra integrated.

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In dac mode through my 282 it’s very loud very quickly, hence using amp mode

I also run the TT2 into SN2 in amp mode, which gives me more flexibility. Volume on SN2 is usually between 8 and 10.

Well, you’ve said this a few times but this time I might actually do it.

Since you mentioned this I’ve been playing around with my source setup to see what works best. I found a USB from the Roon NUC still sounded a bit edgy so I decided to do two things.

  1. Remove the G1 from the system, use the Chord Shawline from the G1 on the Cisco switch, move the Wireworld Starlight 8 Cat 8 ethernet cables to feed the Cisco and then the another to the Roon NUC.

  2. Try a iFi iPurifier 3 USB on the back of the Mscaler from the USB feed from the Roon NUC.

Doing (1) made a good improvement to the edginess of the usb, a bit less fatiguing but still missing a bit of bass detail… maybe a little compressed. But, when I added (2), this brought out more detail in the bass… probably the first thing I noticed, next was the increased depth of soundstage… less compressed. I wouldn’t say wider, just more depth. It felt like it was coming towards me a lot more than before and a bit less fatiguing. That said, (1) had removed most of the high end harshness that appeared when moving from optical to USB.

The improvements when using the speakers were also evident when using my Meze Empy.

I dare say if I had the extra power & ethernet cables, the same improvement would be achieved with the G1 but that would just bring it level with the Roon NUC > M Scaler > TT2 setup.

Going to see how it goes over then next day or two but the G1 may make way for a future Chord amp and possible LPS for the NUC as well. With my current setup, it is becoming harder to justify the extra £ of the G1 in my system just for the screen and pause button not matter how impressed I am with the G1. It’s been out of my system for the last 5 days and I haven’t felt the need to put it back so far!

Edit… just to say the Roon NUC is a Gen 7 i5, 8gb Ram, 256gb PCIe system drive and 1tb Samsung 970 Evo Pro for the music.

Today I received my Wave Storm cables, and after only two hours of listening before coming to work, I am very happy with this upgrade, highly recommended. It’s like everything just bloomed, the noise floor is non existent, detail and emotion in buckets. You know that feeling when something just sounds so right, like I am no longer listening to a stereo system, I am listening to a performance by musicians. I got these for under half of MSRP because the were demo cables, but they look brand new to me. Can’t wait to head home from work to hear some more.:+1:t6:

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Very nice… looks like someone has their weekend set :wink:

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Yes the jump in performance from the stock BNC’s with clip on ferrites is substantial. Now I need to look at speaker cables, because these things convinced me that cables matter…a lot.

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Speaker cables make a massive difference. For transparency, I went for Tellurium Q Silver II… previously had the TQ Blacks but the silver really lifted the mids, tightened the bass with smooth highs.

Would love to try out the Silver Ultras but I’ll probably add a power amp first. Chord advised I’m probably not seeing the best out of the speakers using the TT2 directly. Plenty of time though as I’m enjoying what I have with the TT2 & M Scaler.

I have used Nordost Heimdall 11’s before with Cary Audio gear, I also used the same ones when I had an SN2. When I had the 272/250 I used Naca5 and Superlumina,so now that I am using a Nagra integrated, I suppose I should call my Nagra dealer to find out what is recommended with Nagra.

Definitely… that’s when places like Futureshop are handy when they offer 60day trial of cables… inc speaker cables. Unfortunately I don’t think they go outside of Europe though.

We have Future shops in Canada, so I see you are thinking of getting rid of the G1, don’t you need it for streaming services, or does the NUC. take care of that? I have been looking at the new Antipodes “K” series servers, and drooling all over my I-pad.

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