Hugo M Scaler vs HQ player- what's the difference?

the sound of Tao

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Jul 18, 2014
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Transients, Timing and Timbre. Rob Watts perspective.

Jubilation and outrage are perhaps the two default emotional responses in our game. Anticipation is the drug of choice, nirvana the destination of choice, despair is the realization of how much further the journey has to run and distraught can be what happens when the gear we recently buy gets replaced by an apparently better and cheaper model.

Note... I am not a tech based dude so any of the below is just me trying to grasp and relay what I have read on this.

As you identified one is hardware (and software) and the other (HQPlayer) is only software, so you need the hardware to run it as well ie the computer and the software is likely limited by the expected available computing hardware. I like how HQplayer sounds in conjunction with ROON btw.

The Hugo m scaler (or HMS was almost immediately adopted as fanboy acronym on announcement) is computing hardware as well as the Rob Watts designed specific software. Both HQplayer and the current Chord dacs and m-scalers employ specialist designed filters and the filter that Rob Watts has developed and Chord employs is apparently well beyond what any traditional computer that we would use will do and the result of a life's work since the 80's. The million tap length calculations for the filter were his benchmark goal for the ideal interpolation filter so achieving this recently after decades of work is part of the buzz as well.

The essential anticipation around the HMS is that it apparently does what the blu 2 does (or better) at half the price. Blu 2 created a significant step forward in what the Dave Dac was capable of. Put either of the m scalers in front of even a base Chord Qutest and that combo will considerably outperform the Dave alone apparently.

There is a good (and relatively easy to understand) explanation from Rob Watts at Can Jam on what he believes is a fundamental relationship of transients and timing to timbre... and how the achievement of his current million tap filter translates to perception and ultimately the natural experience of both sound and music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfscfTkHgM4&feature=youtu.be
 

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