ISO REGEN Listening Impressions (kicked off with some measurements)

[ted_b]

My ISO Regen arrived today (thanks Alex and co) and I will put it through its paces starting tonight (worst case tmrw).  I wanted to say that I was not paying attention when the USPCB was announced and did not realize it has an onboard VBus switch.  Nice touch!

[ted_b]

The microRendu (or any other renderer or network audio adapter) is not optional if one needs one.  You can't just remove it, you'd then have to compare the sound of another renderer in the mix, or another part of you signal path acting as a renderer (or NAA).  If you can just as well listen to hirez audio without having to have a physical renderer device in line, then by all means do it.....but your question above did not ask to compare those, it simply asked microRendu or none...which is not really vaild.

[ted_b]

20 minutes ago, timtom said:

Prior to adding a microRendu to my chain it was MacMini to Dac. I had no renderer. I heard music coming out of my speakers. So in my instance the microRendu was indeed optional.  I asked "Has anyone with a microRendu > ISO REGEN/LPS-1 in the chain..." "In the chain" is the operative phrase here. Does that clarify my question for you?

My point was that you cannot just jettison the microRendu and compare sound.  If I assume your signature, then you were using the microRendu as an NAA, connected via ethernet.  To remove it means you are then moving your dac driver, etc back to the Mac Mini and going direct.  This variable alone is huge and has nothing to do with the ISO Regen.  Now you are comparing a Mac-based HQP with Mac drivers and ISO Regen to a Linux-based NAA with Linux driver (per se), separated by ethernet, and then going into an ISO Regen.  Your A/B has more than just with or without microRendu.  The sound of direct vs NAA, Mac driver vs Linux driver.   Ethernet as an isolator, etc.  If you want to reduce it to uRendu-ISO Regen vs just ISO Regen then go for it, but it's way more than that.  YMMV.

[ted_b]

I received one of the first ISO Regen/USPCBs (aka IR), thanks to Alex's diligent work, but have failed to report on it due to a few of life's curve balls.  During that hiatus, I have made sure that the IR was being broken in, and now have a good  600+ hours on it.   The unit (and as I alluded to, I will include the USPCB here; haven't tried it with and without due to my newly reinvigorated "life's too short" mantra) is powered by their LPS-1 and drives a Kitsune-modded SU-1 (internal ps for now). 

 

So the signal path is:

HQP Windows 10 server -> ethernet ->Windows 2012R1 NAA w/JCAT card -> TotalDac USB cable -> IR -> twisted USPCB -> SU-1 -> Nordost Silverscreen HDMI -> Holo Audio Spring Kitsune Edition I2S input.

 

Note:  I will report on the same path, with uRendu NAA instead of Windows NAA later.

 

I currently play PCM at 384k and DSD at DSD512.

 

Many of us go to great lengths to find newly remixed or remastered favorites that just might improve the listening experience, only to find that only a fraction of them really do that.  Many of us spend big $$ on trying to improve the listenability of our systems by supposedly upgrading our digital front ends and dacs at quite a steep price, usually due to the damn reality called diminishing returns.  And most importantly, many of us assume that the level of sonic bliss we currently experience (black backgrounds, wide soundstage, etc) can most likely be improved upon only slightly, and without giving up something else (especially lots of money).  But we keep trying, and often we stumble upon some tweak or product that makes a nice difference.

 

The ISO Regen is not one of these things.  No, it is not a nice little thing to add to your system, at least in mine, because last night my buddy Rob and I sat down to "get used to the sound and then remove the IR to hear the delta" sort of evening.  My wife is out of town and I had plenty of time to try and hear the subtleties.   What a joke!!

 

Someone must have broken into my home during my hiatus and replaced ALL my music with master tapes from heaven.  Dear god, it was that kind of change.  We first heard it with a simple redbook album one of my go-tos...Gillian Welch's Harrow and the Harvest.  The tidal waves of air, color, definition (which I define as detail with body), soundstage presence, harmonics, vocal realism, and, what really stood out (the entire night)...a complete 100% removal of listener fatigue.  Dave's guitar work was mesmerizing, as if I were listening to it plugged into my own amps instead of recorded.  And this is an average redbook recording, nothing audiophile about it (although well done).

 

Let me describe the definition thing.  Radiohead just released a 20th anniversary OK Computer remaster (OKNOTOK).  And although there is only so much one can do with a 1997 heavily compressed masterpiece, the "quiet passages" are revelatory in this update.  Thom's chord work toward the end of "Lucky" had so much definition that it gave me goosebumps, and I've heard this album four hundred thousand times.

 

Another non-descript (until now) redbook masterpiece is Cat Power's Moon Pix.  We put on "No Sense" and were blown away by the electricity of this minimalist album; again, the feeling that the guitars were plugged directly into MY amps, not hers.  Tonight I sit down and listen to the whole thing for the first time (although really it's my nine hundredth).

 

As a charter member of the NativeDSD team I have the wonderful privilege of listening to anything we offer.  And admittedly, I am not a fountain of knowledge on things classical, but I know what I like.  Pieter Wispelwey's DSD cello recordings are some of my faves, and with this new soundstage the realism is profoundly improved, to the point of more goosebumps.  Hall cues wash over you like they never before existed (they did but only now what before seemed like faint promises).  Gut, body, tone, earth, hell even a screech or two....seems perfectly balanced.  I cannot wait to hear more.  Our DSD256 recordings, even in stereo (what might this do to a multichannel USB chain!!!) are almost laughably real.  Spooky really.

 

OK, I guess I am a little over the top, but I call em as I hear em.  This is amazing.

 

Downsides: I heard a faint tick now and then, but I am not convinced they came from the IR, since I am pointing out that the listening session was revelatory.  I will report back.  Also, although I have absolutely no basis for this, I came away feeling that PCM was improved slightly more than the already-pristine DSD512, but this is splitting hairs.  Each was transformed.

 

What am I now not hearing, or put another way, what was removed from my system?  Dunno, but if that is simply what galvanic isolation sounds like (and it seemed to be much more than just a reduction in noise floor) I'm all about it!  The real summary of the night was this:  during listening I thought to myself that any improvement from here would be superfluous, and that the prosecution rests! (OK, at least it's a good thought).

 

Please run out and buy this IR/USPCB solution as soon as possible.  You have 30 days to try it.  Something is perfectly right about your current system if heavenly improvement is not heard (or you are just not paying attention). 

 

Edit: my next tweak is to take my Windows NAA and rearrange it so that it lines up with the ISO Regen-SU1 chain and replace the TotalDac cable with another USPCB.  Stay tuned, but as I said, any improvement from here on out is an embarrassment of riches.

 

[ted_b]

Alan,

the IR is being powered by an LPS-1 and the SU-1 is being powered by its own internal power supply (Tim's mod is to the internal power supply mainly). Both are plugged into a Topaz transformer as all my stuff is (except amps). 

 

I do have a Paul Hynes SR7EHD that is adjustable from about 9v to 19v.  Paul just sent me a new umbilical for my preamp but after trying it there i may dial it down to 9v and try it on the IR while then installing the dc kit on the SU1 for the LPS1.  Id hate to leave an expensive Hynes ps on the sidelines as i have for some time now.  

 

I own an a y cable Uptone recommended so i could also try the LPS1 for BOTH units but it seems the feedback is often less than stellar.

[ted_b]

10 minutes ago, Superdad said:

Yes Ted, it is true that many more variables would be involved.  But given the premise of the ISO REGEN--galvanic isolation, super-clocking, high signal integrity--and especially when used with an even further isolating LPS-1, I think @timtom question is a valid one and on a lot of people's minds.

OK I will revisit this one more time, and explain my reaction. 

 

In my system I take full advantage of the "N" in NAA, and have my HQP server in a totally remote location in my home (for many reasons).  My NAAs (microRendu and Windows Server 2012R1 NAA) are local, connected via ethernet/fiber of course, to my main rig, with a short USB cable (someday all USPCB ) to my dac setup (SU-1, etc etc).  When Timtom asked if one could just remove a microRendu from the microrendu-IR-dac and report back, I responded that something like that is not possible (taken literally).  I explained then that something else (in my case it would be moving my powerful server to my music room) must take its place, and since that would require many variables it wouldn't be a simple comparison of microRendu vs no-microRendu.

 

That's all I meant.  I meant no disrespect, no flippancy, nothing except....."you need to replace the microrendu with something, such as going direct".

 

And yes, Alex, I can imagine that going direct and using the special magic that the IR (and LPS1) gives you would be a real option for many folks!  (Thumps up icon, if I had one).