Which one to buy: UpTone USB REGEN or Intona USB Isolator?

[Jud]

Thank you for the explanations, Daniel.

 

By the way, I think you can probably say "Peter" instead of things like "the often quoted customer," since the former is shorter and we know who he is.

[Jud]

Imma gonna start making and selling a gorgeous machined aluminum case to put all of these cable tweaks inside. Gonna be a best sella.

 

Someone beat you to it long since.

 

Oppo on the Inside, Lexicon on the Outside | Audioholics

[Jud]

Notice that the Intona is powered by USB itself.

 

Regards,

Peter

 

Does the Intona have provision for external power from, for example, an LPSU?

[Jud]

Hi Jud,

 

I wondered too if it was possible to have the Intona powered with a LPSU and for the moment the only way I can do this while using a "standard" USB cable would be to get something like this:

câble adaptateur usb-b pour alimentation externe jack 5.5/2.1mm

 

I intend to try this with a LPSU and will tell if it works (or not). It should take about 2 weeks (from experience).

 

For the moment, I use a standard USB cable (15 inch) that came with the iFi iUSB that I bought some years ago. The musicality I get with the Intona is so that the word that comes to mind is "naturalness". For example, the percussions show no granularity. I could put more adjectives to it, but I prefer to accentuate on the "absence" of signal pollution to summarize what it does.

 

Regards,

 

Or you could send it the signal from an LPSU-powered Regen you might have hanging around.

[Jud]

I'm sorry Adam, but this is just not quite accurate. First of all, there is absolutely a need to isolate the USB interface to prevent HF interference from the computer affecting the signal processing and causing jitter and noise problems. Also, the MUTEC MC-3+ Smart Clock USB is a USB interface, audiophile re-clocker, 10 MHz ready master clock, DDC (digital-to-digital converter), and digital switching matrix. So calling it "just a bit more advanced USB to SPDIF converter" is a bit of an understatement to say the least.

 

Best regards,

Julian

 

Hi Julian. Thank you very much for your assistance in the forums regarding Mutec products. I believe it's customary (required? - you'll have to ask Chris, our host) that people with industry affiliations edit their profiles (the line that appears above your photo, which currently says "Newbie" - you'll find this by going to the top right of the page, clicking "Settings," then "Edit Profile" on the left of the Settings page, then "Custom User Title") and/or their signatures (same thing, except on the left of the Settings page click "Edit Signature") to disclose those affiliations.

[Jud]

Hi Jud,

 

Thanks for pointing this out. I have no interest in trying to hide my affiliation and have (in other posts such as this one) added my MUTEC marketing title. Either way, I was unaware of any requirements in terms of a custom title, but I'll get in touch with Chris in this regard. In the meantime, please note my updated signature! FYI, I'm not a fulltime employee of MUTEC, but work as a marketing consultant for a variety of audio brands. Apart from that, I'm a music lover, passionate music listener, audio engineer and music producer (-> www.juliandavid.org)

 

Hope this helps settle the irritation.

 

Julian

 

No irritation at all, Julian. On the contrary, you've been uniformly helpful. I simply felt someone would eventually point out this custom/requirement (I'm not sure which), so I may as well do it now.

[Jud]

could it be that it's more than a psu ?

 

[Jud]

I personally like the results with an ISO Regen in my system, and I have an inexpensive DAC as well. But depending on how much you like to do on your own, it's possible to try to do some electrical isolation somewhat inexpensively.

 

You can use a cheap NUC as a streamer, and feed it through a chain that uses optical Ethernet (converters and switches for this can be had for as little as the $20-$40 range, and optical cable is priced similarly). If you are careful to keep the power for these devices as clean as possible, that might have some effect on the end result (of course nothing like getting a better DAC or speakers, but that would cost significantly more).

 

Or you could buy an inexpensive calibrated mic and use free software to see if your room setup could be improved. 

Both of these possibilities can be done conveniently with commercial equipment and software, but you pay for the convenience.

 

So commercially sold isolators, doing it on your own, changing your room setup - lots of different ways to play with improving the sound. And of course you can do more than one.

[Jud]

6 minutes ago, Yoshimitsu said:

if we would assume that they perform equally well.

 

If we always assume that, then of course there is no problem - cheaper is always better. 🙂

 

I am also not sure what your prior statement about "100% transparent" means in a situation where we are presumably trying to block noise.

 

But in any case, enjoy your isolator, and thank you for adding to the list that people might consider. If it is possible to open the case and take a photo of what is inside, particularly the PCB, that would be interesting.

[Jud]

2 hours ago, Yoshimitsu said:

 

I  could do that, what i mean by 100% transparent,  it doesn't alter/color the sound, it simply removes all the noise and puts the signal back to it's original clock.

 

In a system where there is very little noise, let's say you are using a battery powered laptop and you have good cables, a good dac... with or without the alldaq isolator there might be very little difference in sound quality.

 

But if you are using a desktop PC and a lot of noise is getting carried over via USB the difference will be much bigger. It simply not doing anything to the sound signature

 

The concept of an "original clock" may not be all that helpful. What matters is the clocking process in the DAC, and upstream signal integrity might conceivably affect that.