Most likely fourth quarter. But I still have much testing to do, and more features to implement, plus some more things I need to try to perhaps further improve performance. And then there is the time delay for Chord to get into full production.

Hyper busy at the moment. Quartet M scaler will not be launched at Munich, but the prototype will be available to listen to on the trade days (Thus/Friday). On Saturday/Sunday you can see it, but the production version will be slightly different to the unit shown. I will be there on the...

I have been hyper busy over the last few weeks, so haven't had time to post, so apologies for that. I have been reluctant to reply to this as my reply could easily be considered as boasting or marketing BS. But adding Quartet into his system (one of which I have heard several times) was a huge...

Partially as I have an initial DAC prototype working. But that doesn't mean you need a new DAC to appreciate Quartet - recently I have been showing the pre-production Quartet to a few selected audiophiles via a Dave against an M scaled Dave, and the subjective results were very much better than...

Any digital circuit can introduce RF noise. The issue here is how much, and this depends upon power - Toslink optical receivers have the lowest power consumption. By far the worst is USB, as this requires a processor to buffer and decode, and that creates two orders of magnitudes more random RF...

I covered this aspect in recent NYC and Singapore CanJam seminars - here are the relevant slides: I think optical has a bad reputation because it sounds rich, warm and naturally rounded due to the reduction in noise floor modulation. This is a less impressive sound than the etched and forced...

Clearly the writer doesn't have a clue how sampling theory works - the diatribe is just mumbo-jumbo. To say that with more taps "they will end up blending to each other, keeping the "build-up" in between at higher level. Closer these are to each other, higher the build-up. In other words, these...

I would hesitate to put a number on the sound quality from the DAC as the analogue and PSU is indeed vital. But if pushed for a number, it would be very much more than 90% is dependent upon the interpolation filter and DAC implementation. The problem is so many listeners are not good at...

It doesn't need 24 hours - that applies to Hugo 2. How long it needs depends upon the initial charge state, and the fact that the last charge (from 95% to 100%) is a tiny trickle charge and this can take a couple of hours alone. And because it's a trickle charge, it's uncertain when it will...

The new Quartet M scaler will have more complex and lossless EQ built in. Oddly enough, I am putting the finishing touches to it right now. Having EQ that does not mess up sound quality or musicality is a really useful tool.

Quartet's single BNC and optical OP is different to the Hugo M scaler - I decided to fix the OP at 176.4/192k as it then allowed for an optimised data path. All inputs are converted to 705.6/768 kHz, then the 176.4/192 is created by decimation from the common 705.6/768 kHz - but it's by no means...

Yes Quartet M scaler will have 176.4/192 kHz toslink OP, plus 176.4/192 kHz coax and of course dual BNC at 705.6/768 kHz. On another note, I will be posting my new seminar slides here after Singapore CanJam.

I really welcome suggestions for EQ - but as @hypos said, you can't please everyone. The settings for the shelf and peak were determined so that one could compensate for a first order response for bass - a lot of Japanese IEMs have a first order roll-off at 125Hz, and with the appropriate bass...

Thank-you for your kind comments. Ah you spotted that! I occasionally add intentional little hints to my posts. Yes the base PSU design has some variants that will suit other future products - in particular the Ultima DAC.

So long as it's not white it can't clip under any circumstances even with the max digital input of 0dBFS.