Chord M-Scaler and Should I Want One?

@rockrider, yes I was looking at using ONE of the Diablo’s SPDIF inputs, which I understand will work and improve things but it won’t upsample to the extent that it would with the dual BNC outputs used by Chord. The Diablo DAC has two SPDIF inputs but they are each for different input channels.  Given your experience I suppose it would be necessary to also use a premium SPDIF cable to get good results (sigh, cables!)

I see that Amir at Audiosciencereview has pooped all over the M-Scaler. Which is a pretty good indicator that it may be actually quite good!

If I were a HiFi product manufacturer I would list Audiosciencereview’s quote of “I cannot recommend this product!” As an endorsement of the product along with all the other positive review quotes! LOL, okay enough…..

Seriously though I think there’s enough positive consensus from reviewers and owners to suggest this piece offers some benefit.

I also see that this unit offers more “clarity” in many cases.  With my Innuos Zenith Mk3 and the PhoenixUSB reclocker, along with my Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker cables and B&W 802’s, my levels of clarity I believe are already quite high.  So I do wonder in my case if they M-Scaler could actually overdo the clarity in my system.

I wouldn’t say the M-Scaler is about clarity. It’s more about weight, balance and a certain relaxed naturalness. 

I wouldn’t say the M-Scaler is about clarity. It’s more about weight, balance and a certain relaxed naturalness. 

i agree with this... with the right accompanying dac (in my case the hugo tt2 or an older musical fidelity trivista), it is about a sense of ease and naturalness, a richness of tone added to the sound.... in effect, more analog sounding less digital, as if the bits are glued together more nicely

Okay, you have my attention lol….   I don’t think those are areas you can have too much of.  Thanks for correcting my inaccurate perception of what this unit does (understanding that it would be different and likely with lesser of a benefit in my case with the degree of upsampling capped using the SPDIF output to my Gryphon DAC).

To me, these sonic traits sound similar to my experience when adding the Innuos PhoenixNET network isolator.  Smoother, deeper, more natural.  The PhoenixUSB reclocker added clarity and precision, and the network isolator made sure that things continued to sound natural.