In my DAVE review, I concluded that that DAC's "superb re-creation of soundstage depth, its sense of musical drive, and the clarity with which it presented recorded detail were addictive." Listening to this new sample of the DAVE, that is what I heard. But with the DAVE working with CD data upsampled to the maximum rate of 705.6kHz or 768kHz, there was now even more image depth, an increased sense of drive, and even more clarity. These improvements were not just audible with the magnificent Magico M2 full-range speakers; I also heard them with the KEF LS50 minimonitors.
Back in 2017, I had used the DAVE to audition various options for dither and noise-shaping when I prepared the 16/44.1 master for Stereophile's Tight Lines CD. As coincidence would have it, midway through the time I had the DAVE and M Scaler in my system, I was preparing the CD master for Translations, an album of works by modern Latvian composer Eriks Eenvalds, performed by the Portland State Chamber Choir directed by Ethan Sperry and produced by Erick Lichte. We had recorded the sessions at 24/96, so I was downsampling the hi-rez data with my dCS 972, and again I was using the DAVE to audition the various options. Once I decided on the optimal strategy, but before I sent the master to Naxos, I tried upsampling the CD files with the M Scaler to see how they compared with the hi-rez originals.
Eenvalds composes, not just with what the singers sing and the musicians play, but also with the spatial relationships between the performers. In the final work on the album, In Paradisum, the composer contrasts a downstage solo cello with a distant, almost off-stage viola, set within a mostly wordless, vocalise halo from the choir. With the original 24/96 file, the spatial settings of the viola, cello, and choir were unambiguous in both width and depth. When I upsampled the CD version to 24/705.6, I was hard put to hear any difference between it and the 24/96 original! Perhaps there was a little less soundstage depth? It was only when I upscaled the 24/96 data to 24/768 that I felt it moved ahead of the upsampled CD version, with even better spatial differentiation of the acoustic objects.
Listening with third-party processors
Last December, I was held spellbound by Russian pianist Anna Gourari performing solo the Adagio from J.S. Bach's Concerto in D Minor, BWV 974. When I got home from the concert, I called up Ms. Gourari's Elusive Affinity album on Tidal (24/48 MQA FLAC, ECM 2612) and streamed it directly to the PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream DAC. While the recording equals the live concert version in musicality, with Roon unfolding the MQA-encoded data to 96kHz, the piano's right-hand register was a little too far forward in the mid-treble. Upsampling the Roon-unfolded data to 192kHz with the M Scaler reduced the slight clanginess to the sound of the piano and better presented the relationship between the piano and the subtle acoustic of the record venue.
I heard the same improvement in the spatial relationships between the instruments and the recording space on "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" from Bill Frisell's East/West (16/44.1 ALAC file, ripped from Nonesuch 7559798632), when I compared the 24/176.4–upsampled data with the original data sent directly to the PS Audio. This was particularly noticeable with Kenny Wollesen's drums, which moved back in the image when I upscaled the data with the Chord, cleaning the window into the recorded soundstage.
My final listening session was with the M Scaler sending CD data upsampled to 88.2kHz and 24 bits to the Mark Levinson No.30.6. (The two-decades–old Levinson can't handle data with a sample rate greater than 96kHz.) Unlike the PS Audio and Chord DACs, the Levinson doesn't have a volume control, so I inserted an NHT PVC balanced passive control immediately in front of the Lamm's inputs.
It's been a long time since I last listened to the No.30.6. Feeding it the Frisell "Grapevine" with the M Scaler in pass-through mode, I was struck by the low-frequency authority and control it exerted on the double bass and kickdrum, as well as the sense of musical momentum. But the highs sounded grainier than they had with the PS Audio or DAVE, and there was less image depth. Sending the No.30.6 upsampled 24/88.2 data, the bass remained authoritative; the drums moved farther back in the soundstage; Frisell's electric guitar moved in front of the plane of the speakers; the sounds of the various stereo effects he uses moved both forward and beyond the speaker positions; and the treble lost much of its grain. Nice. Very nice. The Hugo M Scaler brought the performance of the Levinson No.30.6 DAC into the third decade of this century.
Conclusions
As David Rich, then with The Audio Critic, wrote in the 1990s, "in the next century, all audiophiles will be listening to will be different digital filters." Chord's Hugo M Scaler illustrates Dr. Rich's point: It replaces the various reconstruction filters used in other manufacturers' DACs with Rob Watts's enormously long WTA filter. That filter does sound superb, and, as a bonus—in addition to upgrading the sounds of older DACs—the M Scaler adds a USB input with Roon compatibility to DACs that don't have one, like my Levinson. At $4795, the M Scaler is relatively expensive; I recommend you audition the M Scaler with your own DAC before getting out the credit card. But "[improve] the recreation of the original music signal," as Chord claims, the M Scaler definitely did, with all three D/A processors I tried.
Eenvalds composes, not just with what the singers sing and the musicians play, but also with the spatial relationships between the performers. In the final work on the album, In Paradisum, the composer contrasts a downstage solo cello with a distant, almost off-stage viola, set within a mostly wordless, vocalise halo from the choir. With the original 24/96 file, the spatial settings of the viola, cello, and choir were unambiguous in both width and depth. When I upsampled the CD version to 24/705.6, I was hard put to hear any difference between it and the 24/96 original! Perhaps there was a little less soundstage depth? It was only when I upscaled the 24/96 data to 24/768 that I felt it moved ahead of the upsampled CD version, with even better spatial differentiation of the acoustic objects.
Last December, I was held spellbound by Russian pianist Anna Gourari performing solo the Adagio from J.S. Bach's Concerto in D Minor, BWV 974. When I got home from the concert, I called up Ms. Gourari's Elusive Affinity album on Tidal (24/48 MQA FLAC, ECM 2612) and streamed it directly to the PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream DAC. While the recording equals the live concert version in musicality, with Roon unfolding the MQA-encoded data to 96kHz, the piano's right-hand register was a little too far forward in the mid-treble. Upsampling the Roon-unfolded data to 192kHz with the M Scaler reduced the slight clanginess to the sound of the piano and better presented the relationship between the piano and the subtle acoustic of the record venue.
I heard the same improvement in the spatial relationships between the instruments and the recording space on "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" from Bill Frisell's East/West (16/44.1 ALAC file, ripped from Nonesuch 7559798632), when I compared the 24/176.4–upsampled data with the original data sent directly to the PS Audio. This was particularly noticeable with Kenny Wollesen's drums, which moved back in the image when I upscaled the data with the Chord, cleaning the window into the recorded soundstage.
My final listening session was with the M Scaler sending CD data upsampled to 88.2kHz and 24 bits to the Mark Levinson No.30.6. (The two-decades–old Levinson can't handle data with a sample rate greater than 96kHz.) Unlike the PS Audio and Chord DACs, the Levinson doesn't have a volume control, so I inserted an NHT PVC balanced passive control immediately in front of the Lamm's inputs.
ConclusionsAs David Rich, then with The Audio Critic, wrote in the 1990s, "in the next century, all audiophiles will be listening to will be different digital filters." Chord's Hugo M Scaler illustrates Dr. Rich's point: It replaces the various reconstruction filters used in other manufacturers' DACs with Rob Watts's enormously long WTA filter. That filter does sound superb, and, as a bonus—in addition to upgrading the sounds of older DACs—the M Scaler adds a USB input with Roon compatibility to DACs that don't have one, like my Levinson. At $4795, the M Scaler is relatively expensive; I recommend you audition the M Scaler with your own DAC before getting out the credit card. But "[improve] the recreation of the original music signal," as Chord claims, the M Scaler definitely did, with all three D/A processors I tried.
