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UpTone Audio USB Regen Listening Impressions


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What is your initial response. I know its premature but would like to hear it anyway

 

Well I have the Totaldac D1 and I have also got one of the first batch of 50 Regen's released, so I will let you know my thoughts on the Regen; both with and without the D1....don't clog this thread Alexis, but PM me, interested in your thoughts on the D1, as mine are opposite.....
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  • 2 weeks later...

For anybody who has a Benchmark hgc 2 dac and an iFi usb power thingy and dont have a long enough usb cable from the pc to go to the dac (like me) try this. Turn off your pc pull the power plug to the iFi and reboot. Going through the iFi and the Regen I get an overly dark sound. When I pull the plug on the iFi everything opens up.

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Sorry for the above post...apparently the darkness was caused by something else.

For anybody who has a Benchmark hgc 2 dac and an iFi usb power thingy and dont have a long enough usb cable from the pc to go to the dac (like me) try this. Turn off your pc pull the power plug to the iFi and reboot. Going through the iFi and the Regen I get an overly dark sound. When I pull the plug on the iFi everything opens up.
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Just about every classical piece with violins I have played in the last week or so with the Regen has never been so grain free on my system. If you like classical and have a usb dac you must get a Regen. Period!

 

 

If you like classical music, try Paganini's Violin Concerto #2 with the REGEN. The whole concerto has crazy treble extension and pizzicato runs, and the Rondo has a delicate triangle or something in the background toward the end. You need excellent clarity to make this sound great, and the REGEN delivers. I recommend the recording by violinist Accardo.
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Ok short of another Miracle from Uptone I tried some LiFePo4 batteries as a power supply for Regen. 3 in parallel in series with 3 in parallel (3.3v 2000 ma cells). Its a nice combo because fully charged I get 7 volts and the 3 in parallel gives 1/3 the output impedance of one cell. Sounds super clean in mids, upper mids, tight in bass. Soundstage even bigger. The 3 in parallel also gives longer time between charges.

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Here is a short blip on my ever evolving quest for a better power supply for the Regen. I was briefly using a LiFePO4 supply made up of 3 2000 ma cells in parallel in series with another set. Sounded better than the stock supply. I tried the Regen with an iFi power unit in front. So it is computer -> short usb -> iFi -> usb cable -> Regen. I liked it better with the iFi power thing out. But that freed up the iFi power supply (9V at 1 a). So I tried it directly into the Regen and this is best in my system. Also I have a 3.3 ohm resistor soldered into my usb cable feeding the Regen.

 

Has anybody tried the new 3 microvolt noise supply from iFi yet?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Try Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet on Mercury. I have had this album for a long time and it comes close to being edgy. Not so so with the Regen.

 

My Regen shipped today. I have some thoughts about music I want to listen to with the Regen to test its capabilities (things like flute choirs and strings that can get grainy). What are some specific recordings that Regen users have found to be enhanced by their Regen? Maybe just some categories of music and types of "stressors" to good sound reproduction that the Regen handles well. Want to put it through its paces and therefore would like to spend a few hours training my ears to listen to these recordings on my system before the Regen is installed. Thanks, folks!
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  • 3 weeks later...
ok... went back and forth a couple of times from green to... orange and all finer detail is there

can't still say, though, the orange brings out more. but, to me, it sounds slightly "darker" (warmer) than the green

 

someone mentioned "brightness" if not even "harshness". can't get there, on my system, even playing the brighter violin solos (which... I'm not sure is good: violins actually are, or can be, nasty nagging buggers :P )

 

I agree with your analysis. But I understand the comment about the harshness too. No the Regen is not harsh but the power supply (any except a battery) can be harsh when the powerline is bad. Just recently we had a mega storm and just before it hit my system sounded grainy/edgy. However when I subbed my LiFePO4 battery pack for my preferred ac supply (iFi Usb Power supply-9 volts) 99% of the harshness went away. Yes you need a very very good ps for the Regen. And just to close the circle when my powerline is good( good weather 5:30 am) the iFi supply beats the battery pack.

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Just to clarify is the iFi power supply the original one that came with the iFi package or the new and improved, lower noise iFi supply? If it is the original which I have I agree with every word of your analyses of the MW vs the iFi. I believe the Regen is very sensitive to ps's and maybe the upstream USB cable. I have all the confidence in the world that Alex and John will come up with a great low cost ps.

 

 

[QaUOTE=RichB;439960]Was able to do some listening last night and compare how things are sounding with the Regen Amber powered by the stock Mean-Well PS and the 9V iFi Audio iPower.

 

System: my old 2009 external PS Macmini runing mavericks with some SW optimizations (nothing crazy) with music files stored on external FW drive OS and apps on internal Smasung SSD. Audirvana plus 1.5.12 running with iTunes. The Mac Mini and External HD are plugged into a Running Springs Haley PLC. Audio portion is Wavelength Audio Cosecant W/Denominator USB dac (plugged into Running Springs Dimitri PLC) - cardas clear I/C - Ars Sonum Filarmonia SJ (tube) integrated amp (JPS Aluminata PC into dedicated circuit) - cardas clear speaker cables - Merlin TSM Black Magic Edition speakers.

 

The Regen MW and iPower supplies were plugged into the RSA Dimitri (Never both at the same time... I would only have the PS in use plugged in to ensure when was not interfering with the other when not in use). Connection of the Regen to the Cosecant was via the supplied little USB adapter.

 

Music used was a range of ripped CD's tracks (Alison Kruass - Maybe, Boz Scaggs - Thanks to You, Jack Johnson - All At Once, Harray Allen Quartet and some others) and some Hi Res downloads (Red Rodney 1957, Neil Young @ Massy Hall - Old Man).

 

USB Cable: Supra 2.0m (I would have preferred 1.5m, but all I could get right now was the 2.0m and 1.0m Supra's and the 1.0m is to short for my set-up)

 

With my Infra Red thermometer, the Regen case measured 90 degrees F at hottest point on case with the Mean Well and with the high voltage 9V iPower I was seeing 103 degrees F.

 

OK... the listening was very interesting. The Regens signature improvements where there with both, but there were distinct differences.The MW supply seemed to homogenized things a bit compared to the iPower. In doing this though the presentation of the MW was a little bit more relaxed or maybe more forgiving it a better way to say it on some tracks. The degree of improvement in clarity the Regen offered was not as present or apparent with the MW though - like there was a slight fog there which obscured some small soundstage queues in the live NeilYoung Massy hall recording. This did have the effect of seeming to pull pack dynamics a bit too with the MW. The iPower offered greater clarity and dynamics, but did seem a little bit less forgiving than the MW as the iPower laid more of the recording bare (i.e cleaned them up too much maybe for some recordings which may be a bit better off with a bit of homogenization :-) ). There where things I liked about both supplies, except for the way the MW worked on some vocals: For example like on the harmonized/overdubbed vocal on the Alison Krauss track (Maybe) can be a bit relentless with its sibilances and ch's it has at points. With the MW, it seemed to be emphasizing those vocals artifacts... with the iPower they where not being emphasized, and they sounded more apart (natural) of the recording.

 

Now, I only got the Supra USB a few weeks ago and have not don any comparison of it with other USB cables I have on hand the the (much more expensive) JPS Super V USB which I have been using. Have been relatively pleased with what I was hearing with the Supra and the Regen, but the sound in general was a bit to explicit... I have been thinking much of that is due to what the Regen does and the performance of the not so optimized old mac mini (with stock external power supply). The JPS USB has been a bit of a PITA at times (for some reason the outer barrels/shields of the A and B ends are not connected together and some gear has not liked this), but I have liked its sound - so with the iPower on the Regen, I swapped it in place of the Supra... and ... well of course it sounded different... actually a fair amount better than the Supra to my ears. The stage fell back a bit, the explicit character dropped away with the gains in clarity and resolution that the Regen Amber provides all still there. I WAS hoping somewhere inside that the Regen would help minimize a bunch of the (or the magnitude of) differences between USB cables, but I guess not! This was sounding so nice I had to just enjoy it and then called it the evening.

 

With the Supra USB, I think many folks will like the iPower on the Regen. Would be interesting to hear how it would compare to comparably priced linear (maybe on of the more affordable TeraDaks?), but don't have anything like that around and I want to get this off to Alex Monday so he can take a few days and hear for himself what it does.

 

Hope folks find this helpful... it took over a hour to write!

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Thanks for feedback. It is interesting that with the new iFi supply you got the same reaction as I did with the old iFi supply. I should add to this discussion the fact that I put together a LiFePo4 battery pack to output 7 volts. I may not be the best implementer of power supplies so I realize that is a factor too. But the battery pack (because it is off the grid) never gets edgy. So I substitute it when my powerline is hashy. But when the powerline is good the iFi adds a degree of upper frequency air to the sound (artifact maybe but a nice artifact except when the mains supply is noisy). I feel that on balance I prefer the iFi. Its interesting that I also use the Dmitri, a Promethean and a Shunyata all in Series with a spattering of 'in parallel huge inductors' all used as powerline conditioning. There are other 'thingies' in there too but my point is I try to minimize powerline effects as much as possible. But nothing is better than a good battery for that albeit with limitations in high frequency air and bass tightness.

 

I was using the new iFi iPower power supply ($49). The original power supply that came with iFi products was just called the "iFi Power Supply" and was a $30 item. Note the "iPower" labeling on the pretty packaging in the pic below. :-)

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19439[/ATTACH]

 

IMO when you say the Regen is "very sensitive to ps's", I do think that is stating it too strongly. The magnitude of differences I heard would not rank that strong on my scale, but as lifelong audio-nerd and a audio retailer for over 20 years I understand that one persons small difference is another one's huge difference (though some customers over the years have told me I tend to be somewhat conservative in weighting the magnitude of differences).

 

In my listening, while not much greater, the difference I heard in switching between the Supra and JPS USB cables was more important because of what aspects of the sound it affected.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I have had my amber regen for 2 weeks or so. It is very good. So never one to just let it be I bought a Supra usb cable. Liked it initially but tired of it after 3 to 4 days. So I put my old generic cable back in and prefered it. But then just for the heck of it I put my regen green in, just ahead of the regen amber. This, at least initially, is super super good. Everything gets better grounded to the bass foundation and it is very dynamic and a subtle hardness now gone. Based on other comments on the double regen I was expecting a subtle change. But this is not subtle. My regen green is powered by the Uptone ps. The regen amber is powered by the iFi ps. Double regen is the way to go imo, dont sell your green yet before you try it in this configuration.

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I have a Benchmark II HGC and you can use the short adapter. It is tight but doable.

 

I am looking forward to receiving my Regen in September. However, I will not be able to use the solid adapter between the REGEN and my DAC (Benchmark DAC2 HGC). Since I will be using a very good USB cable (Audioquest Diamond) from the computer to the REGEN, it seems like a good idea to have a very short extension cable of similar quality between the REGEN and the DAC. I therefore talked to JPLAY and they agreed to make a 6-inch JCAT USB cable using the double-shielded connectors they have on their dual-lead Reference USB cable.

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