ISO REGEN Listening Impressions (kicked off with some measurements)

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I had a few hours of listening using the following setup with ISO REGEN added:

 

WIn10 i7-3770S AIO PC (HQPlayer & local library on SSD) <iFi Mercury USB cable> ISO REGEN (LPS-1 powered) <USPCB A>B hard adaper> Singxer SU-1 DDC (modified, LPS-1 powered) <ultra-slim 1.5' HDMI cable> Holo Audio Spring DAC <XLR cables> Jensen ISO-MAX PI-2XX <XLR cables> Auralic Taurus MkII headphone amp <Stefan Audio Art Endorphin balanced headphone cable> Sennheiser HD800

 

Spring DAC was in NOS mode.  Each LPS-1 fed by a modified Breeze Audio el-cheapo linear power supply.  No upsampling in HQPlayer.

 

Initial impressions:

 

WOW!!!  I almost could not recognize some of my favorite recordings!  

 

Firmer & more prominent bass, smoother treble, less sibilant, more articulate & expressive voices, more air around instruments, longer reverb tails, more liquid sounding, stronger dynamics along with improved details.

 

The sound is frankly hard to put into words.  A number of previously un-listenable recordings are big-time transformed!  The improvements are largest with Redbook 16/44.1K content, but even my HRx (24/176.4K) recordings sounded better like never before!

 

ISO REGEN (along with USPCB) is now my favorite USB grunge blocker.  I won't be surprised to hear ISO REGEN elevating the sound of USB over S/PDIF or AES interfaces for a wide variety of system setups.

 

Bravo, Alex and John!  ISO REGEN is another major winner!  

 

Back to more listening...

 

p.s. Alex, the ISO REGEN + modded SU-1 sounds like a killer combo for the Spring DAC.  Have you heard this setup yet?

 

p.p.s. That eye diagram for ISO REGEN is among the cleanest waveforms I've ever laid eyes on.  Awesome!

 

 

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A couple of pics of my setup with ISO REGEN installed:

 

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Hi Alex,

 

I have to admit that a headphones setup is not the best for assessing changes to things such as sound stage and imaging, and often in the past I had to listen very carefully and extensively to pick out the differences after applying a tweak, but not this time.  After the ISO REGEN got installed the changes I heard in my headphones setup were not subtle (sorry for the cliche, is this an audiophile meme yet?  )

 

I have an outstanding offer to Ted to mod his SU-1 with polymer caps and super-regulator (to replace that mediocre LD1086).  I can certainly do the same for your SU-1 as well.  Just give the word.  I'm about to order a Sparkos Labs SS1117XX discrete regulator for my own SU-1, and can order another one for yours (and save on the shipping).

 

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15 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

Great to read your impressions!

 

But - didn't you have an Aries-based setup? Did you switch to a direct-USB HQPlayer-based setup while I wasn't paying attention?  I'm curious how it sounds on a endpoint/renderer/NAA setup.

 

And - any comparison to previous USB decrapifiers - Intona, RUR, Regen, ...?

I still have my Aries Femto / Vega combo which has been the reference for my headphones setup.  I just haven't listened to it for a bit, having been too distracted by my Spring DAC, Singxer SU-1 and now the ISO REGEN... 

 

Actually, since I have an Audio Design XLR switch box for switching among 3 XLR sources, I can easily do a shootout between the Aries/Vega and PC/ISO REGEN/SU-1/Spring setups.  I'll try to get to this, and it would be fun and informative, but right now I'm enjoying the sound of the latter setup almost too much...

 

I can offer some comments on the most recent changes for my SU-1/Spring setup.  The ISO REGEN (LPS-1 powered) directly replaced an Intona, and the differences have been dramatic.  The Intona itself provided some degree of improvement over no Intona, particularly in helping to make voices less sibilant, but I was blown away by the step function jump in SQ as soon as the ISO REGEN replaced the Intona.  I did try both 5V and 7V settings of the LPS-1 powering the ISO REGEN, but did not hear any difference between them.

 

I know some folks want to hear about the SQ differences between ISO REGEN and original REGEN.  I haven't compared these either.  So many comparisons to do, and so many recordings I want to hear fresh again with the ISO REGEN in place.

 

 

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One of my next steps is to haul the whole ISO REGEN / LPS-1 / SU-1 / Spring setup to my retried colleague's place for auditioning with his speakers.  He's got the fast Lyngdorf stereo subs and Benchmark AHB2 amps in bi-amped mode, and is my go-to place to assessing sound stage, imaging, details, dynamics, etc.

 

I'm glad my retired colleague has more time on his hands.  It's me with my day job that can't get enough hours in a day.

 

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1 hour ago, tboooe said:

I purposely have not read any other impressions before writing this because I did not want to bias my findings so forgive me if my post is similar to what others have said.

 

I am finding it really hard to describe what I am hearing because its less about sound and more about a feeling.  If I had a pick a word, it would be unadulterated.  The music sounds and feels simpler and more bare.  It is if my brain does not have work so hard to dealing with noise or artifacts that shouldnt be there.  Instead, its free to just hear the music as it was recorded.  What I am left with is a sound that is very quiet and smooth.  I feel like the entire atmosphere in my listening room is more relaxed.  Its like the IsoRegen removes all the dirt off what you are left with is something that is beautifully bare, simple, and natural.

 

I know I am not doing a very good job of describing what the isoRegen is doing in my system.  Whatever its doing, i love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have just as hard a time describing the sound of my headphone rig with the ISO REGEN installed and powered by LPS-1.  The sound became more pure, more relaxed, more dynamic and more engaging all at once.  Some of these attributes don't normally go together, so it's been major ear candy, and I almost could not put those headphones down the other day.

 

What's also incredible to me is how a USB improvement brought by the ISO REGEN can change the sound of my Holo Audio Spring DAC so much, considering the Spring is currently configured for I2S input driven by my modified Singxer SU-1 DDC with the ISO REGEN located upstream.  In this configuration, USB is one complete box removed from the Spring DAC.  If anything, this is a testament to the importance of signal integrity for an audio transport bus that does not carry actual audio clocking.

 

I'm secretly hoping UpTone can keep churning out products to clean up other interfaces utilized to transport digital audio, such as Ethernet and I2S.

 

 

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I think some credit needs to go to the PCUSB A>B adapter, for helping to preserve the excellent signal integrity of the ISO REGEN USB output all the way to the DAC/DDC input.

 

For those adding ISO REGEN between microRendu and DAC/DDC, I recommend using PCUSB at both ends of the ISO REGEN.  Use the rotated PCUSB if necessary.  The signal integrity characteristics of PCUSB A>B adapter are second to none, so it's best to avoid using anything else (including those cheap $1 hard adapters).

 

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32 minutes ago, Altabay said:

 

Is this conjecture or did you test and hear a difference from using USPCB on the input to ISO REGEN?  I suppose I can do a similar experiment by inserting a regular REGEN before ISO REGEN.  I'm hoping ISO REGEN makes everything before it irrelevant.

I didn't have time to experiment on the input side of the ISO REGEN.

 

I believe the USPCB on the ISO REGEN downstream side is most critical.  I suspect the effectiveness of an USPCB on the upstream side may depend on how good or bad the USB source signal quality is.  For a device known to have decent USB signal quality (such as the microRendu), using a USPCB to connect it to an ISO REGEN should help uphold good signal integrity.  On the other hand, if the source is a notebook with noisy USB port, an upstream USPCB is probably not going to bring incremental benefit over a USB cable.  The USPCB can help minimize signal integrity from becoming worse, but cannot change it from bad to good.  That's the job for the ISO REGEN.

 

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I'm extremely late to the EtherREGEN party, and have not posted here for a very long time.  Long story, but it had much to do with the loss of interest in audio after the passing of a dear colleague/mentor/friend and a family member in 2019.

 

Recently, an EtherREGEN has been introduced into my headphones system, to my major delight.  Both an ISO REGEN & EtherREGEN each delivered very noticeable SQ improvements.  There are now a total of 6 UpTone Audio devices serving this rig (not sure if this is a record? 🤣)

 

Attached is a block diagram of this headphones system.  It is heavy into isolation, with multiple REGENs, LPS-1/1.2 supplies and isolation transformers.  China built LPS from eBay were modified with Schottky rectifiers and better electrolytic caps.

 

This headphones rig has never sounded better.  I've been listening critically to a couple of tracks recommended by audiophile buddies.  There is very significant increase in piano heft, midrange fullness and treble smoothness, but the most stunning effect has to be dramatic increase in reverb effect.  It sounds like someone turned up the reverb during track mastering.  Reverb tails are much more easily discerned and sound longer.  Many tracks now have voices & instruments enveloped in a halo of reverb, something that I have not always noticed before.  There are also other improvements.  Imaging of voices & instruments got more focused and sharp, while the sound stage expanded.  I didn't even realize those two could be accomplished simultaneously, especially with headphones.

 

Anyway, I'm back to doing a good deal of listening.

 

 

scan80269_Headphones_System_2021-0314.pdf

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1000Base-T gigabit and faster use all 4 twisted pairs for transmit and receive simultaneously with full duplex.  This differs from USB 3.x SuperSpeed where the TX & RX pairs are always unidirectional.

 

I doubt if USB 3.x would be beneficial to DACs.  The much faster switching speed makes the receiver circuits more power hungry and thus electrically noisier.  This is a possibly a case where faster is not better for audio, unless the noise spectrum is easier to filter/block than that of USB 2.0 HighSpeed.