ISO REGEN Listening Impressions (kicked off with some measurements)

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I received my ISO REGEN two days ago from Martin @ VortexBox, and like a few others I also experienced dropouts which could only be resolved by unplugging and reconnecting the USB connection to my DAC. However, bypassing the isolation mechanism using the switch on the ISO REGEN made the problem go away. I replaced my cheap 2-prong mains distribution block (no earth) with a proper 3-prong mains block and I'm back to enjoying sweet music like never before.

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5 hours ago, Superdad said:

Thanks for your report.  So after properly "earthing" your system, were you also able to set the ISO REGEN's red switch back to the ISO (down) position and not experience any ticks?  

If so, then that is the way it should be and was designed to be.  Your initial trouble, while seeming like the symptoms of those with "bad" boards, is actually not related at all.

 

Sorry if this confuses some folks.  True galvanic isolation is a tricky thing and sometimes invites other issues in.

In any case, we are glad you got it sorted and are, as you say, "enjoying sweet music like never before."

 

Please let us know if we can assist further.

Regards,

--Alex C.

Hi Alex,

 

Yes, as soon as I established a proper "earth", I was able to re-enable the galvanic isolation (switch set to ISO).

 

Having already read this thread and the other ISO REGEN thread, I felt confident that my earthing solution would likely solve the initial dropouts. No trouble here.

 

Thanks again for your excellent customer service and comments here on CA. Hopefully my feedback will contribute to others finding similar solutions to their dropouts issues.

 

Just to repeat what Alex said, the above mentioned dropouts issue due to lack of earth connection is not to be confused with the crackling sounds due to a bad board in some of the ISO REGENs from the original batch. Alex is resolving this as soon as humanly possible. Be sure to let him know if you suffer from this.

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The USPCB also improved on my 30 cm QED Reference USB cable.

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Another thing to try would be to connect whatever is directly downstream to your ISO REGEN (the DC37?) directly to a grounded outlet. Going through a power conditioner could adversely affect the grounding.

 

It may sound strange, but that's exactly what happened in my case. My ISO REGEN was feeding my Chord DAVE which happened to be connected to ground through a Supra mains block using one of the filtered sockets. When I switched to an unfiltered socket on the same mains block the problem disappeared. Somehow the more direct connection to ground solved the issue.