ISO REGEN Listening Impressions (kicked off with some measurements)

[tboooe]

The eagle has landed....right now I have the IsoRegen warming up being powered by a 5v Teknet battery.  Just played one song and it works!  I will give it a few hours before I sit down tonight to give it a serious listen.  I am pretty excited!

 

BTW, i am using some Legos for support.  Unfortunately, I cannot get the height exactly right so the IsoRegen (actually USPCB) is slightly flexing upward.  Hopefully this wont be a problem long term.

[tboooe]

11 minutes ago, MisterRogers said:

Can you all please confirm successful use feeding either SU-1 or MC-3+?

I am using it with an SU-1.  So far I have only listened to a few songs but no issues with crackling noise.  What SU-1 output are you using?  I am only using I2S.

[tboooe]

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tboooe]

1 hour ago, Altabay said:

My system is Roon/HQPlayer/DSD512, Windows NAA, ISO REGEN, Singxer SU-1, HoloAudio Spring L3 DAC, Schiit Freya preamp, Parasound JC-1 monoblocks, Revel Ultima Salon 2 speakers.  ISO REGEN and SU-1 are powered by separate LPS-1s.

First of all, awesome system.  I have always liked the JC-1 monos and the Salon 2 speakers!  

 

Right now, I am trying to figure out if its worth it to power my IsoRegen with a separate LPS-1.  Right now, I am using the same LPS-1 to power both the IsoRegen and SU-1.  Are you able to compare 1 LPS-1 versus 2?

[tboooe]

Ok...I've had the IsoRegen since Monday afternoon and have been comparing powering it with a 5V Teknet battery and an LPS-1 that is also powering my SU-1.  To me, using a homemade Y cable (Canare 4S6) with an LPS-1 removed the easy, organic sound that I really really really (really) like about the IsoRegen being powered separately by the battery. So I have proven to myself that a separate power supply sounds best in my system.  Now I need to figure out a few other things:

• Does powering the IsoRegen at 7v make any difference?
• Will an LPS-1 sound better than my $20 battery?

Anyone have a spare LPS-1 I can borrow???  Pretty please??  

 

Next on my testing list is to use the battery on the SU-1 and the LPS-1 set at 7V on the IsoRegen.

[tboooe]

4 hours ago, Altabay said:

Based on these, I strongly encourage you to try the dual LPS-1 setup.

Exactly what I was afraid of!  Aside from soundstage collapse, did you notice any decrease in sound quality though?  It seems like with the Anker powering the IsoRegen the sound was the same and it was just the soundstage that changed?

 

BTW, thank you so much for taking the time to do this little experiment.

[tboooe]

15 minutes ago, bobflood said:

Hi Alex,

 

Suggestion. 

 

Please start a new thread for cables able to power two devices from the LPS-1 at the same time ( example mRendu and IsoRegen). There is the DIY thread but many of us are not able to go that route. I am sure that the issue will come up quite often going forward.

 

Thanks,

 

Bob

If you are at least comfortable stripping some wire and using a screwdriver then you can cobble together a Y cable.  Get some Canare 4S6 cable and the 2.1mm DC plugs with screw terminals and you can make the cable in 5 mins.

 

Btw, powering my SU-1 and IsoRegen from the same LPS-1 did not sound as good as powering them separately.  

[tboooe]

6 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Interestingly, using a single LPS-1 to power both the ISO-R and something downstream (assuming the aforementioned constraints are met) should be just fine.

From my personal experience, using an LPS-1 to power the IsoRegen and my SU-1 did not sound as good as using separate power supplies.  I do not (yet) have a second LPS-1 but I did test powering the IsoRegen with a common external battery and it sounded better than sharing a single LPS-1 in my system.

 

I am not smart enough to understand the electrical implications of sharing an LPS-1 with the IsoRegen and SU-1.  Perhaps someone can help explain the implications?

[tboooe]

7 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

Tommy,

 

Yes, I should have qualified my closing comment there. I didn't mean to say that there was no degradation at all from sharing vs. separate LPS-1s. Just that the degradation would be greater if powering the mR/IR combo.

No problem at all.  I didnt think you were implying anything.  I just wanted to share my experiences sharing an LPS-1.  It seems there is no free lunch in our whacky audiophile hobby.  I guess I need to start saving my pennies for a second LPS-1.

[tboooe]

1 minute ago, elan120 said:

I remember there are inputs mentioned using one LPS-1 to power both IsoRegen and SU-1 degrade the SQ

I did this test and found I liked the sound more using a simple mobile battery to power the IsoRegen at 5V instead of sharing the LPS-1 between the IsoRegen and SU-1.  To me using a battery sounded smoother and more analog.  I have since ordered an ifi Ipower to try and power the IsoRegen at 9V.

[tboooe]

13 minutes ago, elan120 said:

@tboooe, FWIW...have you confirmed with @Superdad whether IsoRegen can be powered by 9V supply?

 

By just reading what's on IsoRegen product page and the print on the voltage input port, it appears an external supply of 6-8V DC range is needed...

Yes sir!  Confirmed by sir Alex. I wouldn't risk burning my precious IsoRegen!

[tboooe]

Good thing my SU-1 doesn't draw much!

 

[tboooe]

I thought I would update my impressions after having had and not had my IsoRegen for about a month now.  Without getting into too much typical boring audiophile jargon I would say there are two major changes in my system that I hear.

 

1.  Crispness - I am not sure if this is the right word but instruments, especially guitar and drums that have a significant initial "bite" sound very tight and concise.  Its like listening to music in a well damped room versus one with a lot of reflections.  This gives music a very engaging and lifelike experience.  

 

2.  Graininess (in a good way) - Perhaps timbre is a better word but again, trying to avoid audiophile jargon...   To me, when listening to the human voice or woodwind instruments, there is a certain imperfection that you can hear.  The sound is not completely smooth and perfectly consistent.  There are small deviations in the note being sung or played.  The IsoRegen allows me to hear more of these tiny imperfections that adds to the overall organic sound that I prefer (think tube sound).  

 

I better stop now because I dont want Alex's head to get too big   Needless to say I am very happy with my IsoRegen.  Next test will be get another LPS-1 to power it.  Right now, I am using 5V from my HDPlex linear power supply.  

 

[tboooe]

2 minutes ago, thyname said:

My ISO / LPS-1 combo is arriving today!

 

Quick question (don't want to bother Alex), and a silly one: Do I use 5v setting on the LPS-1 to power the ISO Regen? Thanks!

5V or 7V will work

[tboooe]

5 minutes ago, thyname said:

I use a microRendu, then the ISO will be after the microRendu, then the Singxer SU-1, then the DAC.

 

The Singxer is powered by a separate LPS-1.

I also have an SU-1 and can confirm that setting the LPS-1 at 5V will work. The benefit of 5v is that the isoregen will stay cooler.  My SU-1 is powered by an LPS-1 as well.

[tboooe]

Alan, thank you for your write-up.   I also have an IR and SU-1.  I found that powering the IR separately versus sharing an LPS-1 sounded better.  At first I used a cheap 5v battery and now I use my HD Plex linear power supply.  You may want to give it a try.  To me, the IR improvements were not subtle.

[tboooe]

3 hours ago, BigAlMc said:

Hard question to answer but in your experience do you think giving the IR it's own LPS-1 would increase the SQ bump from slight to "not subtle"?

Good question.  I think eventually I will get another LPS-1 for the IR but for now my limited funds are being diverted elsewhere (i.e. my feral kids).  Perhaps you could try powering the IR separately with a cheap 5v cell phone charger battery? Worse case, if you find it doesnt improve things you've got a nice charger for your phone!  I have the following:

 

https://www.amazon.com/TeckNet-Universal-16750mAh-Output-PowerZen/dp/B00FAU7ZB2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498342637&sr=8-1&keywords=tecknet+battery

[tboooe]

12 minutes ago, Superdad said:

The SU-1 draws only 100mA from the USB 5VBUS.  So the 4 volt drop to 5V from your 9V iPower generates only 0.4 watts of excess heat from the big TI regulator.  That's very little, as per all the above, not something to sweat (pardon the pun).

 

I know this is all relative but I felt that my IR got pretty hot when powering with the 9V iPower.  It got hot enough that I got paranoid and stopped using it.  Even powering the IR with 5V, it gets warm to the touch.  I love my IR so much I dont want to risk damaging it!!  

[tboooe]

Guys, looking for some advice for those of you who have IsoRegen and UltraRendu.

 

Currently, i use a cheap, low powered PC as an NAA in my system.  After adding the IsoRegen I was completely floored by the improvement it made.  So now, my question is if the IsoRegen makes the quality of the upstream renderer less important?  Would getting an UltraRendu improve things further?  I believe I read somewhere that John S did not hear an improvement in his system with an IsoRegen after the UltraRendu but of course that does not mean the UltraRendu did not improve the sound over his previous renderer.  Prior to getting the IsoRegen, I was able to try out a friends microRendu and it did provide an obvious improvement over my PC NAA.  

 

Right now the options I am considering are:

1.  Get another LPS-1 for my IsoRegen

2.  Get an UltraRendu

 

I will ultimately get another LPS-1 but if I get the UltraRendu first, then that purchase will have to wait for a bit. 

[tboooe]

Hi gang, I picked an LPS-1.2 which I will be using to power my SU-1 and moving my existing LPS-1 to the IsoRegen. So my question is should I use the LPS-1 to power the IsoRegen or supply 5VDC to the USB input or both?  Currently, I am using my HDPlex linear power supply for the IsoRegen and the USB 5VDC.

 

Thank you.

[tboooe]

4 hours ago, R1200CL said:

 

I’m trying more or less to investigate something similar myself. 

 

I’m not sure if the LPS-1.2 should power the UltraRendu or the SU-1 in my case. 

Meaning which should be replace one of the 3 LPS-1 I have. 

 

So so I ordered 2 LT3045 6 and 5 Volt from Dubai that shall be placed inside the SU-1. 

I’m hoping LPS-1 + LT3045 will equal one LPS-1.2 for my SU-1.

 

If not, another LPS-1.2 should be ordered. (And probably another one for the switch)

 

I suspect the last element in the chain, meaning the SU-1, should have the best PS. I hope to be able to verify this within a couple of weeks. 

 

 

Yeah I should have listed another option which is to use either the LPS-1.2 or LPS-1 to power my Allo UsbBridge.

 

I've already replaced the voltage regulators in my SU-1 so I hope the LPS-1.2 can still improve things.

 

I am afriad you are right, I need to consider getting another 1.2 especially for the upcoming Uptone switch.