so what would improve? He isn’t going to make a combined Mscaler Dave.
if you buy Dave, the only upgrade on that is an Mscaler.
so what would improve? He isn’t going to make a combined Mscaler Dave.
if you buy Dave, the only upgrade on that is an Mscaler.
i don’t know but would argue can always improve something nearly 5 years on from when first released if nothing more than adding more taps to make a bigger gap between it and the TT2/Mscaler combo
m scaler i would say has definitely pulled sales away from the Blu Mk2 as no longer many dealers listing the Blu Mk2 , i wondered if they may do an improved Mscaler in a choral case with the improved power supply that dave uses for example
but again all this is merely pondering proof will come in the actual testing of both TT2/DAVE with/without mscaler in my system
well I think you will find the Dave will be quite special … and even much more with Mscaler
Hi Mjb,
I tried feeding our M Scaler & DAVE direct from the Audiostore Prestige 3 via cheap (amazon style) 2m USB cable. DAVE then fed the NAC52 with a Chord Chrysalis RCA to DIN cable. It worked fine. Music was a little bit harsh, grainy sounding & relentless though.
Swapped the Chord Chrysalis for Flashback’s poshest RCA to DIN cable (it was about £40, if memory serves). Music was a but duller & “sat on”. Not so great, so reverted to the Chrysalis RCA to DIN.
Swapped the no-name USB cable for a rather expensive Curious Cables 2m USB in very bright yellow. Ooh, considerably smoother, less grainy sounding, less relentless and all together nicer. Not as good as the Chord combo sounded at the dealer demo, which had a very different set up. Still, I kept the Curious Cables USB.
Then bought an Optical Rendu on trial, with its fibre optic cable connection to the Cisco 2960 8 port switch. Prestige server now feeding music out via ethernet rather than USB. This also meant that the server was no longer running Roon Ready (i.e. as both Core and Endpoint) but as Roon Server only, with the Rendu acting as Roon End Point. The Rendu fed M Scaler via a £30 Supra 0.75 metre USB cable. Result? Laughably better. Music finally started to flow without sounding grainy or tiring. So much better.
I have subsequently replaced the Chord Chrysalis RCA to DIN with an AR Sound Lunar RCA to DIN. It opens up the sound, letting more subtle detail flow through, so long as the pesky RCA connectors are really tightened up tight. They have a screw down collar which has to be tight or the sound goes flat.
I still hanker after a Chord Sarum RCA to DIN cable, as that has the best results for a DAVE to Naim pre amp that I’ve heard, and I’ve tried our NAC52 as well as a NAC252 and a NAC552. Same benefit in each case. Just not sure I can bring myself to pay £2,000 on a metre of interconnect.
Hope this helps re a few set-up tips for M Scaler & DAVE.
Best regards, BF
well Bluesfan, you should try a 30 GBP Google Chromecast (now available on eBay) into your Mscaler through optical… you might be quite surprised how good the optical inputs on Chord DACs and Mscalers can sound, even with modest sources.
as for interconnects, the Vertere DFI RCA to DIN does quite a good job, doesn’t sound the same as Superlumina, but remarkably similar design, and not quite as expensive. otherwise there is the redline range which is better than DFI, and still less expensive than superlumina
I use one of these DFI (and I have many) from my Chord Mojo (and also another for Dave, and a third for my turntable) and it’s a delightful cable (for the money)
for musicality i dislike very much any kind of USB interface, as I have tested this many times, even on Auralic hi-end streamer from USB vs Coax VS optical (on the very same streamer) - the optical and coax sound much better than USB. Something about USB seems to introduce some kind of grain into the signal.
Even through Blu2 Mscalers input
The simple explanation is the SPDIF was created by Sony/Phillips only for musical signals apparently - but USB is an all purpose interface meant for printers and mouses , hard drives and other data transmission , NOT created for musical signals only, and then it only came much much later.
Gordon Rankin created a new software a few years ago to make USB transmission possible with a DAC asynchronously - but to my ears SPDIF beats it every time.
The latest chipsets and software on the USB only audio quest Dragonfly red do sound really good, have to say, but still I would choose SPDIF still any time over USB
Which is why you never see this USB input on a Naim source (other than DAC V1).
I also found a big difference with the Qutest when I moved from ND5XS2 coaxial to Aries G1 using the optical output. I also started using a power bank rather than the powersupply. That also made a big improvement.
As for interconnects. I’m using a Naim HiLine with a handmade quality din-rca adapter. That works really well.
Future upgrades will be the Mscaler but also using power banks.
The Taps thing in DAVE and Mscaler is misleading. They are the merely computational means to transform Rob’s Maths into as realistic an analogue waveform as possible. So the first thing to happen would be for Rob to come up with a new algorithm and then see if more Taps enable that.
From what I’ve read, Rob’s concentrating (and it’s been quite a while) on an A to D converter that uses his calculations.
So, my personal view, is audition and buy without fear.
not quite was I expecting - that an auralic will beat a ND5XS2, but that is what the creator of all chord DACs keep saying - his dac can handle enormous amount of jitter from optical and optical provides a clean isolation from all electrical noise from streamers
I’ve been very impressed with the Aries G1. Sounds very transparent, smooth with optical… bags of detail and easy to listen to 7hrs+ a day, which I do every day (office). Even though I liked the ND5XS2, I wouldn’t go back to it… much prefer the SQ and functionality of the Aries G1 with the Chord DAC.
yes but the aries doesn’t have chrome cast capability !
which functionality does aries G1 beat the ND5XS2?
‘Davina’ as I believe it was nicknamed. It would provide a great means of linking in analogue sources to Dave, for those of us not using a preamp between Dave and power amp. At present if I want analogue sources I have to swap plugs to bring a pre back in (music making sources, not replay, in my case). That said, if, as I suspect, pricing is anything more than a small fraction of Dave it will be out of the question for me.
Davina is really for the musicians and also the mastering engineers and record labels.
That is my expectation, too - and should make for a wonderful digital recording and subsequent playing combination, possibly the first ever direct pairing of ADC and DAC available for consumer benefit.
I picture it also potentially having a hifi place for analogue sources, in the way I described, or home recording - but I suspect the price may limit both, and for hifi there would seem to be no benefit for anyone using a preamp between Dave and power amp.
Yeah, don’t need Chromecast. I don’t even use Airplay, Songcast or bluetooth that it offers. I use Roon Ready that is also available on the ND5XS2.
However, the ND5XS2 does not have the screen, the ability to use the Naim remote to control it, button controls on the front of the device to control it and Optical, USB and AES digital outs, only coaxial. This means I can easily change external DACs easily and use the connection that best suits the DAC.
Having all the different digital output options was the driving force for the change, the sound quality in my system using the Aries G1 optical is a lot better with the Chord DAC compared to coaxial with the ND5XS2. But, since using it, I’ve really appreciated the screen, remote and button controls etc which I would very much miss.
which cable were you using between the Naim and Chord
Naim HiLine at the moment.
Edit… with the ND5 XS2, I used TQ Black. and now use Wireworld Supernova 7.
I also tried Mark Grant HDX1 digital coaxial as well. That was a good cable… both were, just optical sounded better. Which I wasn’t expecting as I’ve always been a coaxial guy.
not sure about this cable, the usual cables are Naim DC1 and the Chord digital cables
digital coax cable benefit from being 1.5m metes minimum
I had the Mark Grant one for a while and tried the TQ one on the basis I’ve always had good results with them. But even with the TQ black, the difference with Optical was very noticeable, and that was with a cheap cabe to begin with.
The noise floor was significantly lower, the silences were so dark it was like the system had switched off. This probably helped bring out more detail in the lows/mids but the highs also sounded smoother, liquid like. The coaxial, which in fairness sounded ok until I tried optical, sounded a bit more edgy, grainy even.
In the past when I’ve tried an optical cable it never sounded as good, just seems that with the Chord DAC really performs well with optical compared to USB and Coaxial. Not sure why that is but, it is what it is I guess.
that is exactly what the designer of Chord explicitly says - the optical is the best sounding input because it cuts the electrical noise connection to the streamer/computer
also because his DACS can handle enormous amounts of jitter which are not found in sources any which way.
the only issue left then is SI - signal integrity which one would rarely encounter unless the cable is broken.
Optical has limits - it was never designed to go above 96 KHZ sample rate, and for Qobuz 192 KHZ streaming then it’s back to Coax SPDIF
I don’t particular like that the aries is a coax rather than BNC output to maintain the 75 OHM impedance from streamer to DAC
Seems true. I had the two streamers setup to gather for a week. There was little to no difference between the Aries G1 & ND5XS2 with coaxial. They both performed the same. Which is what I was expecting. The addition of a screen, remote and button controls would have been enough to swing it.
As I had bought the ND5XS2 second hand and got a good deal on the Aries G1, they cancelled each other out when I sold the Naim. It was a £0 upgrade.
So far, the DAC, Transport and cable are all working good at 24/192 so nothing lost there either.
The idea going forward is to add an MScaler & TT2 or (TT3 if it’s updated.)