Qutest, Hugo TT2, Mscaler

Did you send it to MF for the work?
I say that as my Nu Vista 300 Power amp has been " fine tuned" by MF at some expense before I bought it.
They did something similar to mine. Leaving in place the large caps in the power supply. Apparently they have some method to test caps. Personally it is well recognised that caps degrade with time, accelerated with elevated temperatures.
Quite why they did not just replace, I do not know. Can only be cost.
Anyway, my NV 300 if off to a well known independent overhauler of MF kit next week for a full rebuild and upgrade.

Hi M,

With the Mscaler I tried an SBooster, a Farad Super3, PowerAdd battery but not a Krisdonia. Then I bought a second hand Sean Jacobs DC3 Dave LPS which also had in inbuilt 15V DC3 LPS for the Mscaler. Sean advised that he no longer built this configuration because of cross contamination from the Mscaler to the Dave supply so I did a bit of DIY and removed the Mscaler DC3 and built it into a separate box. That to my ears the DC3 was the best so far, ie smoothest and least fatigue. Later I sold my Dave DC3 and bought a SJ Dave DC4 LPS. That has a +15V rail (as well as -15V and +5V) and by temporarily not using the DC4 with the Dave I was able to directly compare the Mscaler powered by DC3 and DC4. That gave me even more refinement of the sound of the Mscaler and hence why I have nowadded a Sean Jacobs DC4 for my Mscaler. The DC3 LPS has been repurposed to power a Zen Mini streamer in the kitchen.

My experiments with the DC cable were with a Gotham Cable 11301 (GAC-4/1 UltraPro Star Quad balanced, each conductor Reussen shielded). Sean had supplied this to the original owner of the DC3. The sound with this cable used to power the Mscaler was ultra smooth but with a plummy emphasis to the bass/lower mids which seemed to make that part of the music indistinct.

I then swopped to a Neotech copper stranded cable (twisted) this had a much more open sound with the Mscaler with plenty of soundstage and ‘life’ but my wife and I agreed that all this soon palled and became fatiguing. I suspect it was the usual RF noise artefacts at play. Possibly the DC cable was acting as a transmitting aerial and causing issues with radiated RF (Sean has suggested to me that the Mscaler might squirt RF noise out into the DC supply cables). My Dave is about 2ft from the Mscaler as the crow flies.

To conclude I used a Neotech copper stranded cabled with two screens made by Ghent Audio. I had this from an earlier experiment with DC cables powering a Qutest. Ghent Audio brand it as a JSSG360 construction and it was a bit fiddly with the screens to take off the micro usb and replace with a 2.5mm dc plug. This cable was somewhere in between the other two in terms of how it affected the sound of the mscaler and so far this cable is my favourite and for the moment it is the ‘keeper’. This may change though because I am going to have a swop around and try to pay more attention to physical separation of the individual components in my system,

Ok… I’ve had a response… excellent service it has to be said… 30 minuets after sending in my question, on a Sunday :flushed:

I’ll not quote word for word but rather the answer to each question.

  1. They’d hesitate to use the work regular but once a decade or so would be about right.
  2. Yes recapping service is available… of course given the above answer.
  3. Recapping / service would be available as long as the parts are available. In the case of amps, this is open ended but its harder for some products such as the DAC64 which is 20 years old.

I’d imagine DAC parts will become supersede at some point, certainly a lot quicker than amp parts… if ever, I don’t know enough about amp parts to say but it doesn’t sound like it would become a problem.

I’ve also asked about the cost of servicing. Naturally, this isn’t something that was to hand now given it is so new but they said they’d come back to me with a price based on todays costs. This would of course change over time and there is no way they could give an accurate price for something that will happen in 10 years time… of course. When I get the ballpark figure I’ll pop details here.

2 Likes

Brilliant response… both Chord and Naim have excellent reputations for support and after sales.

Now back to interconnects… I have been experimenting, and I have been trying Duelund DCA20GA based interconnects with ETI phono plugs between TT2 and Etude … so not balanced, but the sound is to die for, wonderful tone, vocals sound gorgeous, and percussion sounds wonderfully balanced in terms of LF energy and high end percussive sounds… not as dynamic as balanced but I love the tonal palette.

1 Like

Every time I’ve reached out to Chord with a question, they’ve been extremely quick to reply… always the same person. I don’t want to name names (forum rules a problem possibly) but it makes for a very good impression of the company.

I’ve reached out to a local dealer of TQ to ask if a demo of the TQ Ultra Black II XLR is available. Seems like they’ll sort out a pair of TQ Ultra Black II and TQ Ultra Silver XLRs. Could be interesting.

Thx Nick,

Interesting. Where do you physically locate the Chords and the PSUs?

I have used Ghent cabling, and use Star Quad DC cabling.

If you want to try something left field run your DC via a network cable using POE adapters.

M

@Simon-in-Suffolk I had feedback from Chord this afternoon regarding servicing costs. Based on todays prices, it would cost £300 to service the Etude! Of course, this will go up over the years due to inflation etc.

Well, after a very enjoyable weekend of listening to the Etude with the TT2 & Mscaler I’ve decided it’s a keeper. I guess this is the last major piece in the hardware jigsaw. The current trio of M Scaler, TT2 & Etude could last me years and occupies a very small area. This is was a big selling point for me as it doesn’t dominate but blends in.

As I prefer the silver over the black… it goes well with the white, oak and glass furniture. The dealer has offered me a really good deal on the demo unit. A few hundred less than a SN3. It’s unregistered so I’ll be the first owner and it will have the full 5 yr warranty. It’s in mint condition.

The main differences between the TT2 direct and the Etude?

Well, a big improvements in bass (PMC Transmission Line is really working now), depth of soundstage, speed, with good improvements in texture, and detail. The whole sound feels more balanced and musical with bags of energy and very fast. The TT2 already had good detail but the Etude seems too squeeze a little more out of it.

The dealer that sells Tellurium Q cables nearby was in touch today. He’s going to drop by tomorrow morning to give me a Tellurium Q Ultra Black 2 XLR and Tellurium Q Ultra Silver XLR to see which one works better in the system.

I was very impressed with this as the shop is still a reasonable drive away. This is the first time dealing with them so it’s impressive that they’re dropping it off at my house for me! That could be dangerous though… I do like TQ cables :joy:

So next up will be how they perform I guess!

6 Likes

Interesting, I’m hoping to demo on Thursday. Did you consider the ultima 6 instead of the Etude at all?

Not really… not because I didn’t think it would be good or anything, just a bit to big for the space I have. The Etude just sort of fills that Performance / Size ratio just nicely. Works great where it is now but, if I were ever to move it into the living room, its’s small enough to not cause offence to the better half :wink:

If you have the space… a shoot out between the Etude and Ultima 6 would be good to do!

Edit… if the fan on the Etude had been too much for nearfield listening, I was considering the Chord SPM 650 which doesn’t have a fan but has much of what the Etude has but in a slightly bigger foot print.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on it though :+1:t2:

1 Like

Congratulations on your new Etude, I have mine paired with PMC Twenty5 23’s, really like the combo, similar to your amp/speaker set up.

1 Like

Well done on making the decision to go with the Etude. I think it reinforces the need to try things in ones system rather than just having dealer demo. I tried the Chord SPM1200Mk2 for a couple of weeks in my system when I was looking for a replacement power amp but whilst it was certainly impressive I fell head over heels in love with the sound of a Pass Labs XA30.8 compared to the Chord. Of course neither the SPM1200Mk2 nor the Pass Labs has the small footprint of the Etude and I can see why that is important.

1 Like

Good stuff. I want to find the speaker cable that I am happiest with in terms of balance… looking to try some STDCT-18 based cables.

Listening to the Naim dac now with the 555DR I can see why you have fond memories of it, Simon.

Much greater depth of detail is rendered.

Great sense of presence of the instruments and the space they were recorded in.

And the whole track drives forward with unflinching pace and rhythm.

Is that a version of the Mandelbrot effect?

There’s a sense as one descends into a fractal of joyously getting lost in the details of the pattern as they take over the whole scope of the frame.

The nDAC is more like taking a ride along with the players - surfing the waves of the song, where the details are just spray.

3 Likes

Hello !

How did you solved the power cables question?
Where did you find better result, plugged to the Matrix 2 or to the Aries ?

And did you ever try to change the short 2 pin removable cable of the Chord power supply with something better?

Thanks
Regards
David

Glad you are enjoying it Jim.
The Mandelbrot effect i refer to is when you listen to something, and as the more you focus on it the more it expands and the more you hear it with additional details, allowing you to in turn focus on those aspects and within limits the cycle repeats… it’s like deconstructing the recording into specific elements that capture your attention or interest you.
For me it’s similar to a concert where, if I can for example, if being near the performers and acoustic, I will often focus on individual musicians or instruments rather than the whole effect of the combined performance.
To be honest I suspect much of this is a combination on how our individual brains listen to and decode sound, enabled by an audio replay system or event.

2 Likes

Hi, I don’t have the Aries anymore but I was using a Chord Shawline to it from the Matrix 2 that also, in the end, had a Chord Shawline. The Stratus 7 is now powering my Cisco internet switch.

The Chord TT2 & M Scaler both come with their own power bricks, supplies. Neither has been altered but I do use a Krisdonia 50,000mAh DC Power Bank on the Chord M Scaler instead of the power supply for critical listening.

1 Like

Thanks!
I suppose you had the Electra…
All in all, did you find the Shawline from the wall to the Matrix 2 better than the Stratus 7?

Concerning the Chord TT2 and M Scaler, I am just referring to the short removable 2 pole cable from the wall socket to the external power supply…

Regards
David

Chord shawline better in sound quality. I’d say so, but the difference is small. The thing is, they are quite close in terms of price bracket so I wasn’t expecting too big a difference.

However, what is different is the flexibility of the cable and shape. The Wireworld is flat and very stiff. This make it hard to work it around other gear. It’s like a metal bar. The Shawline is thick and quite stiff but it is also round so makes it a lot easier to flex and position.

1 Like

How are the TQ interconnects, providing any improved audio therapy ?

1 Like

:grimacing: :wink:

Yes, plenty of good audio therapy :joy:

The Ultra Black 2’s were fairly new, an hour or two of use so they’ve been running most of the time. They’ve had another 15 hours or more so far.

Initial impressions are more favourable to the Black Ultra 2’s… the silvers have a lot of detail but so far, sound a little dry in comparison. But, I’ll be giving them some running in time as well just so they have a chance to settle in before making a decision!

Edit… in fact, just popped the Silvers on to run in the background for a few hours and listen to them properly this evening. Apparently they’ve had many, many hours on them so shouldn’t take much warming up.

Have to say, excellent service from the dealer… very impressed!!

1 Like