Yes I’ve tried a few permutations, if it’s having an affect I can’t hear it although swapping the RCA for the XLR had a bigger affect than I expected so perhaps there is/was some interference. Do yourself a favour and get a demo through your dealer but be prepared to part with some money if you do. I suspect this is an end game amp for me, it’s superb
I use my Dave as a pre with the Etude, excellent results.
Thanks, I really like the simplicity of Dave/Etude, at least on paper, and having already dispensed with my Naim pre, I’ve been contemplating ever since whether my 250 is still a good choice of power amp.
I’m also on the lookout for new speakers, but this will all have to wait until the new year.
I’ve just purchased an Mscaler to pair with my Qutest see how this pans out later
Its on (only 30min) and fed by a Node 2i blimey it sounds good!!
I think the M-Scaler & Qutest is a seriously capable digital combo. Power the Qutest with an SBooster and an SBooster Ultra II and it kicks it up another gear.
If you can, try an optical cable from the Node to the M Scaler. This effectively cuts out any noise getting from the streamer to the M Scaler. It should lower the noise floor and bring out extra detail in the bass as well as improving soundstage depth.
Using a Chord optical C-Lite toslink, cheap but seems to do the job well its what I used between the Node and Qutest.
The setup sounds really good I may look at changing the two supplied BNC coax leads in a few weeks after things settle down.
My office system is an LG TV via toslink into a Hugo TT > Nap140 > LS3/5a.
It sounds excellent …with an LG TV!!!
That is worth doing… as you say, give it a bit of time for everything to settle down and for you to get used to the sound. I didn’t go crazy with the BNC cables and opted for 1.5m length cables… the slightly longer cables can help reduce noise flowing from the M Scaler to the DAC.
You’ll see from above that you can get great performance from the M Scaler without very expensive BNC cables by using something like a Krisdonia power bank as this stops any noise generated by the M Scaler from flowing to the DAC.
I thought the Node would hold back the MScaler but not from my listening position.
I had a Node 2 and it’s a great streamer. Compact and easy to setup and use! From memory, it’s also a Roon endpoint I think… amazing value and sound quality to be honest!
Even though I don’t use Roon you are right it is Roon ready device.
Kate Bush Hello Earth track on CD rip the ending passages sound haunting and extremely detailed, love it.
Sorry, do you say the opt digital cable is better than bnc digital one between m scaler and Hugo tt2?
Thanks
David
Better… that depends on your preferences but in terms of sound quality, technically yes. What it does is isolated the two devices as electrical noise cannot travel by light. What tends to happen is it narrows the soundstage slightly as noise can artificially widen it but, it should improve bass detail and soundstage depth.
Now, you can either settle with the optical connection and accept you may max out at 24/96… some cables will go to 24/192 though. Or, use it as a way of testing how well a BNC/USB cable is managing noise.
I used optical for a long time but them used it as a way of testing how well my USB cable setup was working.
Edit. Rob Watts seemed to favour optical. It would apply to most devices. But, just because a cable adds some noise doesn’t mean it’s bad… some people will enjoy the sound of a cable for what it adds to the overall sound.
Damn, I ve just ordered a rca-bnc digital cable between my cd transport and the Hugo tt2, since I was sure it would be better than other option!
I think the supplied coax are very good… and work well. I have found the key thing is physical separation of the mscalar away from the TT2… and use a seperate mains outlet… it works well.
Having said that I do also use the Wave High Fidelity Reference coax between mscalar and TT2. With physical separation and separate mains outlets the effect is subtle. but irritatingly beguiling so once tasted it’s just too annoying going backwards.
I am using True Signal Audio silver XLRs… very addictive… hugely natural, insightful, uncluttered and dynamic with lovely bass slam enabling performance , though not cheap.
One downside in now having such a fast and revealing systems, digital errors become really noticeable… ie with some media some clicks can become startlingly apparent… even for streamed media… I never used to notice this… but luckily most media is of good integrity.
Provided the work properly. One of mine had a crackle that was quite obvious when listening via headphones. Quite bad if disturbed. Hence why I changed mine and opted for a longer reach cable.