Agreed - the Bridge 2 doesn’t look too different it has to be said, and I have no doubt many of the standalone streamers to be bought are the same too.
There is much to do of course in terms of cleaning up the power etc. but again exactly the same goes for many of the streamers available 
Mmm something to play with while we work at home thanks for sharing
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I especially like the middle shelf. Looks like a little town. You should add some Hot Wheels.
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Great time to have a party. Everyone should be infected!
Don’t tempt me.
I have an entire collection of Hot Wheels and Matchbox (though the Hot Wheels were much better quality) from my childhood that are all safely stored in four drawers in a large dresser back in my old bedroom in the house I grew up in. They’re still covered up with t-shirts to keep dust off of them, not to mention that I had used my father’s Turtle Wax on them all several times when I was a kid. Even used a soft bristle toothbrush to get into all the nooks and crannies.
Yeah, I was a weird kid. LOL
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Minor physical, but significant sonic update to my system. The connectors feeding my electrostatic panels seem to get corroded or in a condition less than ideal for sonic bliss so what could be better than no connector at all!
Solder sleeves are a wonder of modern technology.
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Upgraded Chord TT 2 to Chord DAVE DAC
Added Farad Super3 Power Supply to Chord M Scaler (Big Improvement!)
Chain is now: Innuos Zenith Mk.3 -> Innuos PhoenixUSB -> Chord M Scaler -> Chord DAVE -> Vitus Audio SIA-025 mk.II -> Wilson Audio Sasha W/P Series 2 + Velodyne DD12+ (at speaker level)
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Sweet stack o’ gear @ IanO!
Malia and Boris Blank.
Noice!
I too like the system but not a single PS Audio product shown. You should have gone at least from Chord TT 2 to PS Audio DSD 
instead of Dave.
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Sim Audio Moon D3 DAC Module inside a NEO 340 amp to Chord Mojo (temporarily) to Chord 2Qute to Holo Spring Level 2 to PS Audio DirectStream Junior to PS Audio DirectStream “senior” to Chord TT 2 + M Scaler to Chord DAVE + M Scaler has been my DAC journey since 2017.
Got to Snowmass on PS Audio but moved on before Windom.
Back in 1990 my first ever external DAC was a Little Bit 3 by dpa so I’ve been a bit of a Rob Watts fanboy for 30 years. But I do like Mr Smith’s products as well.
I also find the PS Audio forums the most collaborative, helpful and friendly forums on t’interwebs…
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Beautiful Aesthetics, beautiful system.
Chas
VITUS AUDIO , true Highend from Denmark - The world’s finest audio equipment.
Hans Ole Vitus - Herning/Denmark
How much does the M Scaler impress you? Did you try it with the DSD?
I am thinking of getting one, I already have a Qutest and a Mojo, and I would like to avoid a Dave but fully acknowledge it is a likely path I will take.
My original audition list was DirectStream Senior (my DAC at the time), TT 2, DAVE, dcs Bartok, TT 2 + M Scaler and DAVE + M Scaler. Overall the biggest single upgrade, sound wise, was probably TT 2 on its own as it has a very dynamic output (it’s almost like somebody’s secretly added a sub to the system).
DAVE is ultimately a more “correct” DAC in terms of resolution and spaciousness but it sounded “thinner” on its own - to paraphrase Darko, semi skimmed milk as opposed to cream. However adding M Scaler really did improve both Chord DACs with the usual Hi-Fi tropes of soundstage width, depth, height, space between instruments, resolution and timing. Overall at the time I preferred TT 2 + M Scaler to DAVE on its own but recognised DAVE + M Scaler was the best overall. You do need a Chord DAC with dual BNC inputs to get the best of it.
As to DSD, DAVE on its own has two modes: PCM Plus and DSD Plus. For DSD the latter is the better as it does not decimate the DSD stream. The switch between modes takes circa 20 secs as the FPGA basically loads a new program so it only makes sense of you are going to listen to a whole DSD album. However for Hugo 2 Rob Watts developed a “better” (to his ears) DSD filter and this is what M Scaler uses. So basically I leave the DAVE in PCM Plus and only use the dual BNC inputs. I connect my Innuos via USB to the M Scaler and my Oppo (which I sometimes use as a CD transport) to the M Scaler via S/PDIF.
It is one of those components, once you’ve heard it, that you end up buying. However in terms of improving it (contrary to Rob Watts protestations) the Farad Super3 linear power supply makes a big difference. The best description is that the singers have stopped being tense about their performance and it seems all their voices have noticeably relaxed.
However just to add some uncertainty to the mix, I would say that the impact on the overall sound by the Innuos PhoenixUSB reclocker was actually more noticeable than M Scaler and a good bit cheaper to boot.
I would definitely try the M Scaler (ideally with your system in your room) before committing but if you like the Chord house sound then the M Scaler does improve it quite a bit.
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Thank you for all the detail in that answer. I currently have a Qutest with the dual BNC inputs but as you can guess, I doubt I would stop there.
I will have to study the Phoenix USB reclocker. I am currently using the Matrix X-SPDIF for that job.
I have to ask, you name the dcs Bartok but say nothing more about it. “Dismissed” perhaps? It’s another piece I think I need to hear.
My fave audio sales guy tells me to do the M Scaler + TT2+ and save the money on the Dave. But the Dave, OMG.
Thanks again for a most appreciated answer!
To be honest I’d gone to the DAC audition with the intention of buying the dcs Bartok, purely from a “it’s a dcs DAC that I could finally afford” Hi-Fi snobbery perspective. However its sound was similar to the DirectStream and even the dealer admitted he preferred the Chord DACs. Its by no means bad but didn’t, to me, justify the cost delta to upgrade from the DirectStream. Then you get into the journey of adding their external clock, then upgrading to a Rossini and then selling your house to fund a Vivaldi Gateway drug indeed.
I was happy leaving the showroom with TT 2 + M Scaler. Well I say leave but at the time there was a 13 week waiting list! However the seed of DAVE had been planted and within the year I did make the jump. My dealer had offered full buyback on the TT 2 so there was no financial loss on the move, at least that’s how I justified it to the household CFO…
I too used a Matrix X-SPDIF 2 for my DirectStream (Junior and “senior”), in fact since my HOLO Audio Spring DAC. I was never sure if the improvement came from the reclocking or the fact that you avoided the USB input of those DACs and sent them an I2S stream instead.
I have to say 'though, the Phoenix is just USB in USB out so its only reclocking and adding very clean power to the USB +5V output. There is no protocol conversion. However the magnitude of difference it makes is quite stunning, its one of those “night & day” differences you rarely hear once your system evolves to a reasonable level.
I had previously used an UpTone ISO REGEN powered by an LPS-1.2 on the USB output of a homemade music server based on an Intel NUC but the Phoenix is a totally different ballgame. In fact I believe someone on a forum placed it between a standard Intel NUC (i.e. no fanless case, no linear PSU, no local SSD type of changes that Hi-Fi people do) and their DAC and said it had then become the best sounding music server they had ever heard.
If I had to, I would say Phoenix, M Scaler, Farad Super3 PSU for M Scaler and then TT2 to DAVE were the biggest positive impacts on sound in that order. Which if you take out the Farad PSU is inversely proportional to their cost!
Sorry to derail the thread into a Phoenix appreciation society meeting. But I would recommend giving it a listen even if you don’t use an Innuos music server.
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Thank you for all that info!!!
Thank you again!
I use an M-Scaler. I have a Melco N1A (I’ve a lot of ripped CDs) which goes to a Wyred4Sound Recovery USB thingy to feed M-Scaler. At that point it’s still 16/44.1. My digital crossover is 24/96 out so I use M-Scaler to upscale to 24/96 to feed the crossover. It’s really handy to have all the inputs of the crossover and the additional ones on M-Scaler. If I were you I’d definitely try the M-Scaler with the dual BNCs. For me the benefit of 24/96 with the Rob Watts logic definitely improves the overall sound.
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