What would be the cost of a PSU absolutely identical to a Naim PSU if it was mass produced in China and sold by the million naked (without a case)? And then one requiring to produce only the low power requirements of a DAC/preamp? That is what these power supplies are.
I bet those Naim and Chord cases aren’t cheap either.
A Q for the Mscaler users … do you set and forget, or do you frequently change the upscaling settings?
Set and forget, to the highest upscale level. The effect of the Mscaler is subtle, I for one would need time to evaluate each level to determine exactly where the differences lay, time I don’t feel I need to invest as the top level sounds so good.
Set and forget here. I can’t think of a reason why I’d want to use lower settings. Maybe if it was connected to a TV setup as well as audio but as mine is only used for audio, it’s set to max and never changed.
That is a very fair point.
I suppose I was thinking about this in the context of the high reputation of the Dave, which I would have unknowingly associated with high-spec components (I know that is not the same thing as high performance). I was also thinking of several people here who seem to change SMPS to LPS almost as a point of principle. And some fit a LPS whose cost dwarfs the cost of the actual equipment.
And some add a XPS DR or 555PS to a NDX2 which is 90 -140% of the NDX 2. It means people can improve the sound should they wish above and beyond the original hardware without having to payout all that money in one go.
When you listen to Rob he describes how the parts for his DACs are selected specifically to work well together. This is a case of the DAC being the sum of all it’s parts and not just one. If a part costs more and doesn’t add enough to the sound quality or warrant the extra cost then I guess it won’t be selected.
If Chord added all the extra power modifications that some users add, it would probably push it way above what most would want to pay… and, for how much extra SQ improvement?!? Deminishing returns.
The Chord Dave has been recognised as one of the best DACS available for the past 5 years or more… so it seems like they’ve done alright. I think you maybe reading too much into the cost of one element amongst what must be hundreds, thousands of parts.
Set and forget, even for TV playback, sounds superb any way.
And regardless of how good something is, it seems there are people whose life interest is tweaking, forever trying different power supplies, or cables, or cables to the power supply and from the power supply, and plugs on the cables, etc etc. The fact that they do, and from time to time claim improvements, is simply a distraction: whether the rest of us would hear any difference is another matter, and if so whether enough to be worth the cost, hassle etc is another question.
Set on maximum and left there.
I set and forget, tried some a and b tests at first but now I leave it on full upsampling all of the time
We set & forget. Thank goodness too, as the logic of Chord’s control buttons is totally beyond us on both the M Scaler and DAVE. It has to be one of the worst examples of ergonomic design for electronics, ever.
The only bit we do remember is to toggle one of the M Scaler’s lights between green for TV and white for music.
Best regards, BF
I agree. That is a very fair reply. I am sure that the ability to both select appropriate parts for a component irrespective of price (either high or low) and then configure them so as to produce a result that is better than the sum of the parts takes a great deal of skill.
The only bit we do remember is to toggle one of the M Scaler’s lights between green for TV and white for music.
I set mine to automatic (and music glows yellow)
Perhaps slightly off topic but I noticed you have innuos phoenix as well as m scaler. Which do you feel made the biggest difference in your set up?
Ta
I felt that the Phoenix had a bigger impact. In my system is was really good value for money compared to the MScaler and the wave cable, I wouldn’t be without it
Thanks, I have hugo tt2 and zenith mk3 and am hoping to add one soon.
there is no way I would pay 3149 dollars for the phoenix.
and I would not use USB for an input on any DAC anyway - it’s a computer interface only really to be used for DSD>
for all other files, SPDIF is more musical
your ears and wallet have a difference experience, which I understand.
I have no issues at all using USB when it’s done well. Isolating and providing a clean power separate from the data source (Roon NUC) and reclocked. Sounds very analogue, no grain, once you separate the power. Don’t forget, Rob’s DACs and M Scaler make very good use of USB as a source and mentioned on a couple of occasions on Head Fi that the Optical & USB are near identical and that Optical is “Reference” in terms of SQ.
After hearing what a basic iFi USB Purifier 3 can do to the sound, I’d certainly demo a Phoenix
price to performance issue for me.
$3149 is getting close to Mscaler… I’d buy the Mscaler first and use a good SPDIF source.