ISO REGEN Listening Impressions (kicked off with some measurements)

[ray-dude]

2 hours ago, lmitche said:

After an elaborate Audiolinux,/NUC endpoint and Audiolinux/Server tuning session today, I achieved hands down the best sound ever heard here. While already playing at a high level, the system took on a new level of tonal detail, brass instruments sound golden, guitar strings sound real . . . truly beautiful.

 

So just for grins, I thought to test removing the LPS1.2 powered ISO Regen. What a mistake! I put it right back nestled between two Lush cables. Transients just don't hit the same level without the ISO Regen.

 

What a great device.

 

I'm looking forward to upgrading my AL NUCs this weekend to the latest greatest, but I want to echo the feedback on the ISO Regen.  

 

By pure chance I had a 2nd ISO Regen in house so I put two in series (powered by LPS 1.2 with a Ghent splitter DC cable) and the lift over a single ISO Regen was startling.  

 

At this point, with 2 ISO Regen's in series and the LPS 1.2, my AL NUC end point and Roon Bridge is sounding VERY close to the SQ I get with SqueezeLite and large buffers.

 

Absolute winner

 

[ray-dude]

The ISORegen takes power from USB Vbus on the input side, and from (in your case) the LPS 1.2.

 

The ISORegen outputs clean voltage on the USB to whatever is downrange.

 

If you want all clean power to the ISO Regen, you can get something like the iFi Defender.  That allows you to inject 5V to Vbus on the input to the ISO Regen.  I found that this does have a positive impact on SQ, but you do need a 2nd supply for the iFi Defender (to inject clean Vbus into the ISO Regen)

 

Another more aggressive way is to have two ISO Regens in series.  In this case, the second ISO Regen is getting clean Vbus from the first ISO Regen, and a cleaner baseline USB signal.  When running with ISO Regen's in series, I was surprised how much of a positive impact it had in my system.  I can't clearly say whether that was because of clean Vbus into the 2nd ISO Regen, or the cleaner baseline USB signal, or both.

 

When running ISO Regen's in series, I powered them with a single LPS 1.2 (with a DC splitter cable from Ghent audio), and by having a battery pack on the first Iso Regen and an LPS 1.2 on the 2nd ISO Regen.  I slightly preferred the former configuration, but only very slightly.

 

All this power stuff is crazy maddening.  If you want to take a trip into that rabbit hole, I documented some of my personal descent into madness here:

 

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/audiowise-opto•dx-optical-isolation-bridge-for-dual-spdif.23757/reviews#review-22155

 

(If you don't want to go through the whole thing, search for "Impact of USB Vbus Isolation")

[ray-dude]

I’ll echo The above feedback, and add that with my DAC, the USB input is powered by USB Vbus (for galvanic isolation). The ISORegen with an LPS 1.2 injects high quality mains isolated Vbus into the DAC. I’ve found that cleaner power on the DAC usb input has a positive impact for me. 
 

[ray-dude]

I think clean power makes a big difference for me. I ran a NUC with SmPS and ISORegen and found that it scaled very nicely from smps to battery to LPS 1.2. If have since received my Paul Hynes Sr4-19, but I haven’t had a chance to see what that brings to the ISORegen party. 
 

today, my IR is feeding a Matrix Audio XSPDIF DDC, with optical toslink going to my Dac. iR and power still makes a big impact for me. Previously, I actually ran two IR’s in series, battery power to first and LPS 1.2 to one closest to DAC. Stunning SQ in this configuration, but bit embarrassing to try to explain to civilians. 
 

my take away was that the IR also benefits from better power on input and better USB. My inference is that a better PC config matters with the IR as well. When I power my NUC with my SR4, the sq lift (with IR and Matrix Audio In the chain) is stunning. 
 

Alas, everything still matters (at least in my room and setup)