This interview series has been a massive eyeopener, having an insight into how DAC's work and the theory behind it from someone so knowledgeable is very interesting!
Oh my goodness, this is seriously some of the best audio related stuff I've seen on TH-cam. Thank you and Mr. Watts SO MUCH for doing this. It was extremely informative and I loved watching it. So many questions answered!! Anyway, have an awesome weekend!
Thanks for the great interview. I've read a lot of Rob's writings and get a high level gist of what he's saying, but your explanatory interludes helped a few things click that hadn't before.
I am also about to buy TT2 and the M Scaler. But I am wondering if i should go for Auralic Aries G2.1 as a music transport or a more simple setup; Chord 2Go+2Yu. Which music transport setup do you guys prefere?
@@andreassilverbris9924 I have not yet acquired a streamer but will look at the new Bluesound Node purely as a transport to feed the M-Scaler via Coax. Keep us posted on what you eventually acquire? So far I just stream from my ssds connected to MB Pro. Direct USB connection from the laptop to the M-Scaler.
My limited experience with streamers and PC audio using the M-Scaler and TT2 would suggest that the streamer used makes only a slight difference. I'd personally be choosing based on your feature requirements and interface preferences more than worrying about absolute sound quality. When A/B testing two streamers you might hear a difference, but in isolation, they'll all sound great with the TT2/HMS combo
Brilliant interview. I share your opinion that It is remarkable how much different highly knowledgeable technicians approach conversion of digital data. I own a poly/mojo that I really like and several (not very expensive) mqa dacs and renderers that I also like a lot. I don't hear mqa as being veiled or muddy. In fact, room information and small details are great. Only if both stages of decoding and rendering are used, that is. Only doing decoding leaves a half way house feeling. So I'm a bit at a loss about my next step. Qutest would be an option (and this interview affirms the deep knowledge about what causes audible result that mr. Watts has). But losing the immersive and relaxing quality mqa has for me is not something I'm looking forward to. But my sincere thanks for the interview. Just how fast and sensitive hearing works was new for me. And I understand mr Watts's reasons for using only his filter-style a lot better.
Hi Ruud, I'm glad you found this helpful. Having bought myself a Qutest, I haven't really missed MQA. Tidal MQA albums still sound great even without full decoding/rendering, etc. but it's probably worth seeing if you can demo it for yourself before taking the plunge.
Hi. A question: Being in Europe, I would like to contribute financially to your work. I don't want a credit card linked to my Pay pal account, but only want to use Paypal as a debit card for occasional expenditure worldwide. Becoming a patreon to your channel requires a credit card linked to my pay pal account. Is it possible to make a paypal donation, without becoming a patreon? I don't mind not having extra chances in your give-aways, since being in Europe, transport and taxes takes a lot of fun out of winning anything if it would occur. But the depth and clear explanations, especially in the current string of interviews, makes you the go-to channel for learning more about the hobby I like. My compliments. Greeting from Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Ruud
Hi Ruud, thank you so much! It's amazing for you to make the effort to do this when the system doesn't suit your needs. You could send a gift manually to my PayPal account if you would like to. That way you can just use funds from your bank account. My PayPal email is lachlan@lachlanfennen.com Once again, I really appreciate the gesture!!
What Rob Watts says about the optical interface is a bomb & it's free. From personal exp. If u start a system it's a no brainer. If u have optical between source & DAC, rush to it. Get the highest Q real mineral optical multiwire medical grade u can afford. U'll be much safer & will save time, with less investment. It's limited to 192 Khz & 24 bits... so already high compared to available sources. And with Chord DACs, no oversampling from sources, so you're good. PFS : do you or did you use optical once ?
I do use optical sometimes with streaming sources like Raspberry Pi, etc. What I've found is that optical isn't always the best input on all DACs, but it can be a great choice to avoid noise introduced from the environment
@@PassionforSound Thx for your xp PSF. Must say, Q of the optical cable must be top noch. Don't even look under best grade. WATTS confirmed : I wanted USB to reach the optical level. This guy designs one of the best DAC of 2021.
I run the USB input to my 2Qute via a Sonora MicroRendu which provides galvanic separation plus being the Roon endpoint. I am still enchanted by this DAC (which I run in parallel with the well regarded Sabre 32 DAC in an OPPO 205…..and the 2Qute wins reasonably easily). So perhaps one of the driving forces to upgrade to the Qutest is gone. Now I will start investigating the M-scaler as upgrade path.
Range of human hearing under age 18 is 20-20,000 Hz. For us over 40, we’d be lucky if we could hear past 12,000 Hz. If you are a frequent jazz or rock concert goer, you’d be lucky if you could hear above 8,000 Hz. 😂😝
@@PassionforSound The assumption that most people could hear to 20,000 is false, especially golden eared audiophiles who are for the most part 50+ yo. But since 90% of music is below 10,000 Hz, does it really matter if you can hear to 20,000 Hz? This is debatable, but I like to think to reproduce the finest nuances in music requires a system that resolves music not only in frequency domain, but time domain as well. The latter I believe is more important to resolve imaging/soundstaging queues, micro dynamics, and timbre. I can forgive some infidelity in frequency response but errors in time domain irritates the hell out of me. I think use of higher sample rates do make a difference if you have a highly resolving audio system. However, oversampling or upsampling is a no no to my ears. NOS music to my ears sounds more natural and less fatiguing. But then again I made me blowing smoke out of my butt and don’t know what I’m talking about. So listen to me now and believe me later. 😉
Hi John, I agree about our abilities to hear above 15-16kHz and what you say about high sample rates improving timing accuracy may be true. As for NOS vs upsampling/oversampling, the upsampling that Chord does is 100% focussed on fixing timing errors in transients so the result is a much more natural and accurate sound which, in my experiences so far, is one of the best reproductions available.
@@PassionforSound I’ve always been disappointed any upsampling or oversampling devices. It extends freq response at the cost of natural timbre. I have my doubts but if I get a chance I’ll take a listen.
This interview series has been a massive eyeopener, having an insight into how DAC's work and the theory behind it from someone so knowledgeable is very interesting!
Glad it helped, Lewis!
Oh my goodness, this is seriously some of the best audio related stuff I've seen on TH-cam. Thank you and Mr. Watts SO MUCH for doing this. It was extremely informative and I loved watching it. So many questions answered!! Anyway, have an awesome weekend!
Glad you liked it, Jeff. I'm in the process of trying to arrange another interview with a different perspective on the same topic.
@@PassionforSound That's awesome! I subscribed so I'll be really excited to see it. :D Thanks again.
Thanks for the great interview. I've read a lot of Rob's writings and get a high level gist of what he's saying, but your explanatory interludes helped a few things click that hadn't before.
Hi Jake, glad it helped. Speaking to Rob is like drinking from a firehose of knowledge. I struggled to keep up on more than one occasion!
Brillant from first episode to this one. Thanks you very much for this. Very good and dense info, Rob's work and yours are very good.
So glad you found it useful!
What a great interview and your added commentary was very helpful! Thank you so much!
So glad it was helpful 🙂
Very good interview esp on the sampling rate. Thank you
You're welcome. I've got another one coming soon I hope with Jason Stoddard from Schiit
Excellent review. I will be buying the M Scaler & the TT2 Dac combination and then calling it quits!
Thanks for watching - glad you enjoyed it. I reckon I might join you on that decision!
That’s what I did and have never looked back.
I am also about to buy TT2 and the M Scaler. But I am wondering if i should go for Auralic Aries G2.1 as a music transport or a more simple setup; Chord 2Go+2Yu. Which music transport setup do you guys prefere?
@@andreassilverbris9924 I have not yet acquired a streamer but will look at the new Bluesound Node purely as a transport to feed the M-Scaler via Coax. Keep us posted on what you eventually acquire? So far I just stream from my ssds connected to MB Pro. Direct USB connection from the laptop to the M-Scaler.
My limited experience with streamers and PC audio using the M-Scaler and TT2 would suggest that the streamer used makes only a slight difference. I'd personally be choosing based on your feature requirements and interface preferences more than worrying about absolute sound quality. When A/B testing two streamers you might hear a difference, but in isolation, they'll all sound great with the TT2/HMS combo
Fantastic interview! I'm new to your channel and I think you do a really great job. Perfect balance of technical detail and explanation.
Thanks Rob! So glad you're enjoying the content
Brilliant interview. I share your opinion that It is remarkable how much different highly knowledgeable technicians approach conversion of digital data. I own a poly/mojo that I really like and several (not very expensive) mqa dacs and renderers that I also like a lot. I don't hear mqa as being veiled or muddy. In fact, room information and small details are great. Only if both stages of decoding and rendering are used, that is. Only doing decoding leaves a half way house feeling.
So I'm a bit at a loss about my next step. Qutest would be an option (and this interview affirms the deep knowledge about what causes audible result that mr. Watts has). But losing the immersive and relaxing quality mqa has for me is not something I'm looking forward to. But my sincere thanks for the interview. Just how fast and sensitive hearing works was new for me. And I understand mr Watts's reasons for using only his filter-style a lot better.
Hi Ruud, I'm glad you found this helpful. Having bought myself a Qutest, I haven't really missed MQA. Tidal MQA albums still sound great even without full decoding/rendering, etc. but it's probably worth seeing if you can demo it for yourself before taking the plunge.
Hi. A question: Being in Europe, I would like to contribute financially to your work. I don't want a credit card linked to my Pay pal account, but only want to use Paypal as a debit card for occasional expenditure worldwide. Becoming a patreon to your channel requires a credit card linked to my pay pal account. Is it possible to make a paypal donation, without becoming a patreon? I don't mind not having extra chances in your give-aways, since being in Europe, transport and taxes takes a lot of fun out of winning anything if it would occur. But the depth and clear explanations, especially in the current string of interviews, makes you the go-to channel for learning more about the hobby I like. My compliments.
Greeting from Nijmegen, the Netherlands,
Ruud
Hi Ruud, thank you so much! It's amazing for you to make the effort to do this when the system doesn't suit your needs.
You could send a gift manually to my PayPal account if you would like to. That way you can just use funds from your bank account. My PayPal email is lachlan@lachlanfennen.com
Once again, I really appreciate the gesture!!
Excellent interview. And super intereesting material.
Glad you're enjoying it!
What Rob Watts says about the optical interface is a bomb & it's free.
From personal exp. If u start a system it's a no brainer. If u have optical between source & DAC, rush to it.
Get the highest Q real mineral optical multiwire medical grade u can afford. U'll be much safer & will save time, with less investment.
It's limited to 192 Khz & 24 bits... so already high compared to available sources.
And with Chord DACs, no oversampling from sources, so you're good. PFS : do you or did you use optical once ?
I do use optical sometimes with streaming sources like Raspberry Pi, etc. What I've found is that optical isn't always the best input on all DACs, but it can be a great choice to avoid noise introduced from the environment
@@PassionforSound Thx for your xp PSF. Must say, Q of the optical cable must be top noch. Don't even look under best grade. WATTS confirmed : I wanted USB to reach the optical level. This guy designs one of the best DAC of 2021.
A good optical cable is definitely important!
I run the USB input to my 2Qute via a Sonora MicroRendu which provides galvanic separation plus being the Roon endpoint. I am still enchanted by this DAC (which I run in parallel with the well regarded Sabre 32 DAC in an OPPO 205…..and the 2Qute wins reasonably easily). So perhaps one of the driving forces to upgrade to the Qutest is gone. Now I will start investigating the M-scaler as upgrade path.
Nice setup, John. The M-Scaler is wonderful!
Range of human hearing under age 18 is 20-20,000 Hz. For us over 40, we’d be lucky if we could hear past 12,000 Hz. If you are a frequent jazz or rock concert goer, you’d be lucky if you could hear above 8,000 Hz. 😂😝
Haha. Very true, John. What's your reason for raising this? Are you referring to the use of higher sample rates?
@@PassionforSound The assumption that most people could hear to 20,000 is false, especially golden eared audiophiles who are for the most part 50+ yo. But since 90% of music is below 10,000 Hz, does it really matter if you can hear to 20,000 Hz? This is debatable, but I like to think to reproduce the finest nuances in music requires a system that resolves music not only in frequency domain, but time domain as well. The latter I believe is more important to resolve imaging/soundstaging queues, micro dynamics, and timbre. I can forgive some infidelity in frequency response but errors in time domain irritates the hell out of me. I think use of higher sample rates do make a difference if you have a highly resolving audio system. However, oversampling or upsampling is a no no to my ears. NOS music to my ears sounds more natural and less fatiguing. But then again I made me blowing smoke out of my butt and don’t know what I’m talking about. So listen to me now and believe me later. 😉
Hi John, I agree about our abilities to hear above 15-16kHz and what you say about high sample rates improving timing accuracy may be true. As for NOS vs upsampling/oversampling, the upsampling that Chord does is 100% focussed on fixing timing errors in transients so the result is a much more natural and accurate sound which, in my experiences so far, is one of the best reproductions available.
@@PassionforSound I’ve always been disappointed any upsampling or oversampling devices. It extends freq response at the cost of natural timbre. I have my doubts but if I get a chance I’ll take a listen.
Definitely try a Chord DAC if you can, John. To my ears, they're timbre is excellent
Rob is wrong about DSD. DSD has higher accurate transient response..
According to who?
MMM. MMM.
I try to respond to most comments, but have no idea how to respond to that 😉