Chord M-Scaler burn-in advice/input welcomed

If ASR hates it, it must be good. Excellent contrarian indicator.

I assume you are wired but I’m surprised how many people are trying to stream wirelessly. I first tried the m-scaler with my DAVE while wireless (trying to figure out how to get a wire to my system). It just exacerbated the wireless degradation.

While struggling to get a wire installed I ran a temporary wire across the floor and immediately saw the benefit to my system. Took a few days to realize I needed to retry the M-scaler and now it does everything it is supposed to do. (I installed a permanent wire and just accepted that it isn’t hidden).

I don’t believe wires burn is but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I know that waiting for burn-in deflects a lot of returns.

Jerry

So...give this a solid 100 hours before you consider any judgements and do not turn it on and off much over the first three weeks or so.  The more time it spends hot over the first three weeks the better.  Maybe shut it off an hour each day to let the caps cool and warm back up.  

As it burns in you will get a superb central image.  Depth should be exceptional and stability will improve vs the Qutest.  Tonally, it will not soften things.  If anything, the increased detail will be a bit more fatiguing.  Focus on the superior central image in terms of staging and detail.  That is what you are really paying for with the MScaler.  

Chord is definitely to the bright side of neutral and that is not going to change.  That is not a bad thing but requires though when pairing with other equipment.  Chord delivers a central image and is better between the speakers than anyone I have heard at their respective price points.  I would not expect a broad image that extends well beyond the speakers in either direction.  That is not what they are good at.  

So it’s just like my Qutest? The Qutest needed 500 hours to burn in but was very listenable after 100 hrs. The Qutest with the Aurender N150 before the M-Scaler (HMS) was installed had a very nice layered soundstage depth and excellent between the speakers imaging. Very little soundstage width compared to vinyl or even to the soundstage width of my old Bluesound Node 2i with the Qutest.

‘As you mentioned, clarity and detail are excellent with Chord products — it was on my Qutest prior to the M-Scaler.

I’m up to 15 hours listen-time.  Fully powered 24x7.  I know it needs much more burn-in but I’m really hoping for some soundstage width and vinyl-like organic more liquid sound from the Qutest-HMS combination. And I know the Nordost SS cable needs 80 hours to get burned-in and 25 hrs to really be even a just okay quality rating.  

I’m using a fully-tubed integrated amplifier. The Chord pairing should be decent for system synergy. It was prior to the HMS addition.
 

I’ll keep listening.  Thanks for the input!

@verdantaudio @carlsbad2  I received a previously ordered Shunyata Denali 6000/s v2 power conditioner. I started hearing magic At 2 to 3 hours listen time with the new conditioner installed. 

Holographic soundstage and excellent tonality from multiple genres of music using a Chord Qutest and an M-Scaler.  Apparently the Chord equipment appreciates very clean power.  Or maybe 20 hours of burn-in and 5 days fully powered up with a couple short system power downs was enough exercise to get the new M-Scaler up to speed. I hope the next few days continue this level of improvement.

‘For about a year I’ve had indications I needed to improve my power conditioning due to intermittent poor audio at different times and days of the week.  So I ordered the Denali.

I’m out of the initial audiophile euphoria on new equipment and back to needs additional burn-in listening mode.   It’s not bad, just needs more burn-in on both the M-Scaler and the Denali.  @verdantaudio is right.  No judgement prior to a minimum of 100 hours burn-in.  

It’s now easy to hear that the new equipment is improving my audio system. The Denali has over 50 hrs listening time, the accompanying Alpha XC cable as over 35 hrs and the M-Scaler nearly 75 hrs. Each of these components is powered up 24x7.

I’ve gotten the soundstage width I wanted. The biggest change I have noticed is that I’m listening to a much wider variety of music genres. I’ve gotten into world and eclectic music on Radio Paradise because it is a high quality stream and the music is relatively new and well recorded.

I’ve noticed the improved imaging and clarity on music recorded in the last 15 years compared to the older jazz that I usually listen to.  I’m now clearly hearing how much better a good remaster sounds on older music compared to the original. 
And system or power noise must have been reduced because I want to constantly turn the volume up!  

I’m looking forward to additional improvements as the equipment gets more burn-in time.  Evaluation of three new components simultaneously is not optimal but it just happens.