Contact Us About this Product

I own Bliss Hifi, a high-end audio boutique, and I am listing this Chord Electronics Hugo M Scaler on behalf of its owner. He is the sole owner and purchased it new. It is in like new cosmetic condition and perfect working order, finished in satin black.

The unit comes with all original accessories including the power supply, IR remote control with batteries, and original packaging.

The Hugo M Scaler is one of the most transformative components you can add to a digital audio system. It contains the world’s most advanced digital reconstruction filter, a staggering 1,015,808-tap WTA (Watts Transient Alignment) filter derived from the technology first developed for Chord’s flagship Blu MkII transport. What it does is elegantly simple in concept and profoundly impactful in practice: it upscales standard 44.1kHz digital audio to 705.6kHz before passing it to your DAC, giving the downstream converter vastly more information to work with. The sonic result is not subtle. Spatial resolution opens up dramatically, transient edges gain a natural precision that is immediately convincing, tonal textures become richer and more finely differentiated, and the overall sense of depth and dimensionality takes a meaningful leap forward. While the M Scaler can improve any DAC with a compatible digital input, it reaches its full potential when paired with a Chord dual-BNC DAC like the Hugo TT2, which I am also listing separately. When connected via dual BNC cables, the M Scaler delivers the full 768kHz upscaled signal, and the combination of these two components together is widely regarded as one of the finest digital front ends available at any price. I am also listing a pair of Wireworld Silver Starlight BNC cables, which are the ideal connection between these two units.

Check my stellar feedback and buy with confidence. This listing includes free insured shipping across the CONUS. As this is a passthrough sale that I am brokering on behalf of my client, I can only accept payments via PayPal F&F, Venmo Gift, or personal check, but this also gives you the opportunity to attain this at my lowest possible price.

More about the unit:

The Chord Electronics Hugo M Scaler is a standalone digital upscaling device designed and manufactured in Great Britain. At its core is a Xilinx XC7A200T FPGA running Rob Watts’ proprietary WTA filter code with a tap length of 1,015,808 taps, making it the longest and most advanced digital reconstruction filter in any consumer audio product. This filter technology was first developed for the Blu MkII CD transport and is designed to more accurately reconstruct the analog waveform from digital samples by preserving transient timing information that conventional short-tap filters discard.

The M Scaler accepts digital audio via one galvanically isolated USB Type-B input (compatible with PCM and DSD data, with DSD upsampled to PCM), two coaxial BNC inputs, and two optical inputs. PCM support spans 44.1kHz to 768kHz in 16- to 32-bit resolution. Output options include one galvanically isolated dual BNC connection (which enables upscaling to the maximum 768kHz from 96kHz source data when connected to a compatible Chord DAC such as the Hugo TT2, Qutest, or DAVE), one single BNC S/PDIF output (for use with third-party DACs at up to 384kHz), and one optical output. The front panel features Chord’s signature illuminated spherical controls for input selection, output sample rate, and video mode (which reduces latency for film applications). The control spheres display input source and incoming sample rate using Chord’s polychromatic color scale. An IR remote control is included.

The M Scaler’s compact form factor is dimensionally matched to the Hugo TT2 and designed to stack directly on top of it, forming a highly capable yet space-efficient digital front end. Dimensions are 23.5 x 4 x 23.8cm (9.25 x 1.57 x 9.37″). Weight is 2.5kg (5.6 lbs). A Windows driver is required for USB connectivity; Mac OS is natively supported.

Contact Us About this Product

Indexed by