ISO REGEN launch thread! (product web page up; photos, etc.)

[lmitche]

Alex and John, congratulations on the rollout of this exciting product!  I know it will be a great success!

[lmitche]

1 hour ago, Jud said:

Hi all:  I wanted to mention in the interest of full disclosure that as a perk for helping to test the ISO Regen, Alex very kindly will be sending me a production version gratis.  (I did not hesitate to give a fair evaluation, as Alex and John can tell you!)

 

So although I don't feel it's affected my view of the ISO Regen's impact on my system (what I've reported here matches what I told Alex and John about the sound privately), I thought it only fair to let anyone reading what I say here know this.

Hi Jud,

 

Having been the other other lucky one to beta test the ISO Regen, I know you just sent your ISO Regen back to Alex for recycling.  So having used it for a year, I want to ask how your system sounds without it!

 

I can't answer this for myself as I voluntarily and reluctantly sent the G version back to John for testing six months ago after he blew up all his other prototype units.

 

I should also disclose I am gratefully receiving a free ISO Regen from Uptone.  Thanks to Alex and John.

[lmitche]

1 hour ago, Jud said:

 

To use the well worn cliche, the difference was not subtle.

Like night and day here.

[lmitche]

43 minutes ago, Quadman said:

 

John, Thank you for the explanation.  I run windows 10 pro 64 bit, creators update.  I just fired up the PC, before doing so installed the USPCB adaptor.  Went into device manager clicked on Universal serial bus controllers and the image below is what I see The name USB2.0 MTT Hub does not appear.  I believe the IR is the top "Generic USB hub", I checked the pwr mgnt tab and the box you refer to was unchecked.  I did check all listings and only 2 others had a pwr mgnt tab, the bottom two (usb root hub) I unchecked the box next to "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".  Any reason why device manager does not show the IR as USB2.0 MTT Hub?

 

 

 

Same behavior here on win 10.

[lmitche]

2 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

I'm assuming that IR would be compatible with USB Mass Storage and not just limited to USB Audio. Hopefully someone could correct me if I were mistaken.

 

Let's say this SSD is bootable and compatible with Windows To Go

 

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=42196&PageId=1

 

Does it make sense to add IR #2 for the sake of signal integrity when we're talking about storage devices? We're getting RAVE reviews for USB DDCs/DACs already, it's hard to imagine what would happen if we're running Windows off USB drives that are also blessed by the magic of IR.

The IR is a USB 2.0 device with speeds that more than handle USB audio.

 

Boot devices need higher bandwidth so a USB 3.x chain is more appropriate.  If you have a PCIE based machine an Anadco USB 3.0 will give you USB 3.0 speeds and galvanic isolation through it's fiber implementation.  I get read and write speeds north off 200MBytes/sec here over USB 3.0 UASP and Windows 10.

 

For music storage and playback, a USB 2.0 chain will likely suffice and no doubt an ISO REGEN will add value between the disk device and PC.

[lmitche]

8 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

I think you mean female 'A'--for the iFi micro iDSD.  But that is just one DAC.  Not going there. 

Besides, I already checked the measurements, and the PCB-mount female 'A' jack height, plus the thickness of the USPCB's 4-layer board, would prevent fit into the opening of the iDSD.

I still can't remember why on earth they had to design that one DAC that way. 

Hi Alex,

 

Yes, one DAC, but for seeteeyou's list, nevertheless I bet IFI sold a boat load of microidsds so it is likely to be commercially feasible. There are indeed some USB cables with a large plastic cover around the female usb a connector that work with this DAC.  They look much thicker then the USPCB board. I trust your research but what am I missing?  

 

It would be great to drop the final USB adapter when using this DAC.

[lmitche]

4 hours ago, octaviars said:

I have a question regarding using an ISO Regen between a computer and DAC.

 

First my plan was to run something like a microRendu as Roon endpoint and be done with that but then Roon launched ROCK and I plan to build a NUC7i7 to run that. So my qustion is how much more performance will I get runing a microRendu to my DAC vs. just using the USB on the NUC and run that to a ISO Regen? I know Roon recomends to use endpoints with their RAAT but with the ISO Regen perhaps this does not matter that the audio output is on the computer motherboard?

 

Loking at the pictures of what a ISO Regen does to the USB signal does it really matter what the signal comes from?

Two points:

 

The quality of the sound entering the ISO Regen will affect the quality of the sound leaving the ISO Regen.

 

It is not clear that the sound quality from an endpoint is better then a direct USB connection or vice versa. Most likely they can be made to be equivalent, but the expense necessary to achieve this is higher for the endpoint solution.

[lmitche]

22 minutes ago, octaviars said:

 

Thanks for the input.

 

I will get the NUC either way so I could try to run it with USB directly and later perhaps see if I try a seperate endpoint. 

 

 

Do you run Roon? 

 

I have a HQ Player licens so I also had plans to run a Mac mini with Roon and HQ Player with USB -> ISO regen -> DAC but Roon ROCK concept is tempting. 

I run roon/HQplayer and it is awesome.  I upsample everything to DSD 512.  You will need a high performing Mac mini to do the same.  I doubt there is a Mac mini fast enough for DSD 512.  Maybe DSD 256? I don't know.

[lmitche]

That's sounds like a good plan to me.