ISO REGEN Listening Impressions (kicked off with some measurements)

[musical physic]

Just got the lps-1 & iso-r today. So far out of the box very positive comparing this new combo with the intona & w4s rur combo hooked up to an Auralic aries. Gonna burn in the new combo further. Cheers Alex. Well worth the wait! 

[agladstone]

8 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

Hi Allen:

The less expensive Priority Mail option would have gotten it there in just days.  But we always honor people's choice of carrier (some don't feel secure about the post office), even though USP Ground is slower and more expensive.  It does look like your package will be there this Wednesday.  I am confident it will work very well for you.

Thanks,

--Alex C.

Alex:

I can't wait! I'm looking forward to receiving it! 

I guess I assumed it would have been UPS 2 Day for the expedited fee (but that was purely my assumption, it was not stated as such on your web site). I will say that given my package delivery situation (I live in a condo building in the city), that UPS shipping going to my box at the UPS Store is definitely a much safer way for me and it's always a better chance I actually receive the package! USPS just leaves packages on the floor in the mailroom and they often go missing. 

[Superdad]

15 minutes ago, sdube said:

Two questions now: Can one side/leg of the JS-2 feed two LPS-1s, one feeding a the Berkeley USB and the other a distinct DAC?

 

Let's break this down a bit for clarity:

 

a) Each LPS-1 will, given 12 volts, draw 1.5 amps from whatever is "energizing"/charging it.  

 

b) A JS-2 is, at 12V, capable of delivering a total of just over 7 amps (assuming your AC mains is 120V/240; at 110/220 the max current at 12V will be about 6A); Does not matter if that is all being drawn from just one of its outputs or some split between the two outputs.

 

c) So sure, one JS-2 output can easily supply the 3 amps needed to charge 2 UltraCap LPS-1 units. Heck, it could handle 4 LPS-1s!

 

d) Given that you are powering a Mac mini (also at 12V) from the other JS-2 output, there is a small chance--if your Mac mini has some big draw bursts--that the variable 3A load (LPS-1s have distinct charging patterns) on the other rail may combine to take your JS-2 out of regulation.  The mini might shut off if it does (when the JS-2 drops out of regulation the 12V will drop to about 11.5V and the mini will shut off--no harm.)

 

e) It you attempt this, then please don't use the Kelvin-sense circuit of the JS-2 with your Mac mini.  Just set the black switch to "Switch-set" position.  This will make it a bit easier on the JS-2.

 

f) Depending upon what you are powering with the LPS-1 units, there may not be any issue at all.  That is because with a 0.5A or lower load, the LPS-1 stays in its low-charge-current mode and does not draw nearly as much from whatever supply is charging it.  Will an ISO REGEN draw more than 0.5A and put the LPS-1 into its higher-charge mode?  Not by itself.  Depends entirely on the 5VBUS load that the USB input of the DAC (or in your case, Berkeley DDC) presents.

 

Lastly, I am not clear on what you are powering (or planning to) with the two LPS-1s when you say "one feeding a Berkeley USB and the other a distinct DAC?"  Unless you are doing separate 5VBUS-injection, then you obviously mean one LSP-1 powered ISO REGEN feeding the Berkeley USB>S/PDIF converter.  But what DAC do you plan to use a second LPS-1 for?

 

15 minutes ago, sdube said:

And I hope the original ISO Regen did reach you in sound shape?

It eventually did, thanks.

[agladstone]

Look what just arrived:) 

I have still yet to unbox it , time to play !!

[agladstone]

Well, at first I thought I got a lemon / DOA , no sound was coming out at all! I was so disappointed I rechecked all the connections and disconnected and re-connected everything 5 times! 

I could not figure it out,,,,, then,,  I realized the LPS-1 was set to 3.3V instead of 7v, I flipped the switch to 7v, and I had music!! 

Its obviously not broken in yet, but out of the box, all I can say is,,,, WOW!!! I've literally never heard not only my system, but any system sound this good before, and this is only after about 30 mins of break in time!

Everything is so open and airy and very detailed and clean / dead quiet background! 

I have the LPS-1 powered by an HDPlex 100 (12V out, is this correct / best voltage out to use?) - ghent Canare 4s6 HDPlex to LPS-1 

Canare 4s6 2.1 out of LPS-1 into ISO Regen. 

Cardas split (1 cable power / 1 cable data)  Highspeed USB cable out of Aurender into ISO Regen and USPA-B from ISO Regen into Mytek DAC 

[tims]

With the original Regen, I think a few people tried two Regens in "series" and commented favorably about this setup.

Alex; have you or anyone  tried placing the Regen before the Iso Regen and liked what was heard?

Thanks

[agladstone]

Although I'm quite sure the LPS-1 and ISO Regen are still burning in, I'm updating my listening results and experiments thus far:

the first thing I did was just simply replace my IFI Micro iUSB 3.0 with the LPS-1 / ISO Regen combination. Immediately it was obvious that the LPS-1 / ISO was far superior to the IFI iMicro, I've never heard anything sound so good before! So airy and detailed and dead quite background. 

As an experiment I just put the IFI Micro iUSB back into the chain as follows:

aurender -> Cardas Highspeed split USB cable -> LPS-1 (fed by an IFI 12V iPower, cardas 4S6 DC cable to ISO) /ISO Regen -> USPA-B adapter-> IFI Micro iUSB 3.0 (fed by HDPLEX 100W with Cardas 4S6 DC cable)  -> second USPA-B adapter-> Mytek DAC 

All I can say about this "chain" is ,,  OH MY!! 

It really takes the LPS-1 / ISO  Regen to the next level!!  It's sounds so good I can't possibly imagine anything sounding any better regardless of $ spent , I doubt there is literally any improvement left to possibly be made to my aurender to DAC USB chain!! 

I would make the following statement:

W4S RUR - 5/10 

IFI Micro iUSB 3.0 - 7/10 

LPS-1 / ISO - 9/10

LPS-1/ ISO/ IFI Micro - 12/10 ! 

[Superdad]

38 minutes ago, agladstone said:

What do people here recommend for best results powering the LPS-1 feeding an ISO Regen at 7V? 

I have an HDPlex 100w I can use to power the LPS-1 and I can choose 12V or 9V or 7v (I think the available Amperage can draw upto 7A via the HDPlex, but I assume the LPS-1 will just take what it needs), is 12V better than 7V?? 

Alternatively, I also have a spare IFI iPower 12V supply (I think it's rated 12v / 1.5A) that I can use and re-purpose the HDPlex 100 to another device (if I recall, it does not make much difference what is feeding the LPS-1, I'm more concerned with which voltage and amperage combination is best for feeding the ISO Regen 

 

Allen:

 

Really happy you are already enjoying your ISO REGEN/UltraCap LPS-1 so much already.

 

Please just use the 7.5V/2.93A Mean Well that came with your kit to "energize"/charge the LPS-1.   There is no reason /benefit to use an iFi iPower SMPS--and the stressful, variable load of the LPS-1 charging pattern may make your iPower fail some day.

The quality of the DC power used for charging the LPS-1 makes ZERO difference to the output of the LPS-1!

If you wish to discuss using an alternate supply for it, there is a thread for that:

 

 

[elan120]

30 minutes ago, agladstone said:

 

As an experiment I just put the IFI Micro iUSB back into the chain as follows:

aurender -> Cardas Highspeed split USB cable -> LPS-1 (fed by an IFI 12V iPower, cardas 4S6 DC cable to ISO) /ISO Regen -> USPA-B adapter-> IFI Micro iUSB 3.0 (fed by HDPLEX 100W with Cardas 4S6 DC cable)  -> second USPA-B adapter-> Mytek DAC 

All I can say about this "chain" is ,,  OH MY!! 

It really takes the LPS-1 / ISO  Regen to the next level!!  It's sounds so good I can't possibly imagine anything sounding any better regardless of $ spent , I doubt there is literally any improvement left to possibly be made to my aurender to DAC USB chain!! 

I would make the following statement:

W4S RUR - 5/10 

IFI Micro iUSB 3.0 - 7/10 

LPS-1 / ISO - 9/10

LPS-1/ ISO/ IFI Micro - 12/10 ! 

I think I know how your feel about this combo, Allen!  

[agladstone]

10 hours ago, elan120 said:

I think I know how your feel about this combo, Allen!  

The combination of the two (three actually because I think the LPS-1 is playing a big part) is unbelievable!!! 

I do think the LPS-1 / ISO Regen play the biggest part in the delivery, but adding the IFI takes it above and beyond !! 

I forgot that you were also using this same exact chain in your system, it's soo good!  

[EMMM]

Long time lurker and first time poster here, please be gentle :-)

 

Received my ISO Regen and LPS-1 combo yesterday.   I was fully prepared for a long delay given the big wildfire that happened near Alex’s place, so was pleasantly surprised (and hugely impressed by Alex’s dedication to his customers!) when I received an email saying my package had shipped just a day or two after the wildfire incident.

 

Ripping off the packaging and connecting it all up took mere minutes.  The ISO Regen was connected via a 90deg USPCB adapter to my late-2012 Mac Mini, then connected by a straight USPCB adapter to my Schiit Modi Multibit (aka Mimby).  Another pleasant surprise was finding that they all lined up perfectly on my ancient Soundstyle hi-fi rack without the need to make any height adjustments to the Mac Mini or Mimby.  I was also a bit anxious when placing my order as I was concerned that I would have to turn my Mimby upside down if the 90deg USPCB adapter was oriented the other way.  Happy to say, this fear was unfounded.

 

First impressions after turning it all on were very promising.  There’s better separation between the singers and instruments.  Human voices sound more natural and less digital. 

 

I regularly use Spotify Premium, so just for laughs, played a song that my kids happen to like at the moment - Rainbow Connection by none other than Kermit.  Suddenly a banjo-playing and singing green frog materialized between my speakers, sounding even more three dimensional and human-like than usual, with accompanying string section and percussionist very distinct from Kermit’s voice (normally without the ISO Regen, it would have been a bit harder to separate them).  Gave me the goosebumps, it was very realistic.  For songs by Celtic Woman, it was so much easier to identify Lisa from Chloe and vice versa.  Very impressive performance for something fresh out of the box.

 

The rest of my system, integrated Krell KAV300iL amplifier and ATC SCM19v1 loudspeakers, is usually very revealing but frankly, the ISO Regen has brought it to an even higher level.  I can’t wait for it to fully run-in. 

 

Great job Alex and John!

[agladstone]

10 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

Allen:

 

Really happy you are already enjoying your ISO REGEN/UltraCap LPS-1 so much already.

 

Please just use the 7.5V/2.93A Mean Well that came with your kit to "energize"/charge the LPS-1.   There is no reason /benefit to use an iFi iPower SMPS--and the stressful, variable load of the LPS-1 charging pattern may make your iPower fail some day.

The quality of the DC power used for charging the LPS-1 makes ZERO difference to the output of the LPS-1!

If you wish to discuss using an alternate supply for it, there is a thread for that:

 

 

Alex, 

thanks! I will just do that (use the meanwell), it was more of an attempt to keep a switch supply off the power grid so to speak, but I have a seperate leg (shared but not attached to any stereo equipment power legs) with a power strip in my rack for the other switch supplies that I can't avoid (cable box, rack fans, IR controller), so I'll just plug it in there! 

[musical physic]

Goodbye intona, goodbye wyred4sound rur, goodbye curious usb! 

 

Man the iso regen +lps-1 combo hype is REAL. out of the box the difference is already noticeable. Now that I have used it for the past 48 hours, the music is so resolving and inviting. 

 

Currently using the iso_r combo with an aries to my hifi system and the sound is almost comparable to my north star design Magnifico transport. I only use the aries to listen to tidal. 

 

I have a question about the iso_r. The unit lights up red even though there is no signal coming through. Is this normal to have it powered up all the time? 

 

 

[Superdad]

2 hours ago, musical physic said:

Goodbye intona, goodbye wyred4sound rur, goodbye curious usb! 

 

Man the iso regen +lps-1 combo hype is REAL. out of the box the difference is already noticeable. Now that I have used it for the past 48 hours, the music is so resolving and inviting.

 

2 hours ago, musical physic said:

I have a question about the iso_r. The unit lights up red even though there is no signal coming through. Is this normal to have it powered up all the time? 

 

Thanks for your great report!  Glad you are enjoying the combo so much already. 

 

Yes, it is normal for the red LED to stay on all the time.  You can keep it powered 24/7.  

 

Regards, 

--Alex C.

[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. 

[Always.Learning]

I thought I would post some quick impressions before I send my ISO REGEN back to Alex for a replacement. (I've experienced "ticking" issues with the IR in the system and Alex assures me he will get the problem fixed and I'll have a new IR in a matter of weeks.)

 

I'm probably a little different than most in that I was inserting my IR into a system that already featured an SOtM Ultra stack. Rajiv (aka Austinpop) has done the same thing and reported very favorably on the IR. These are some quick and dirty impressions since I didn't really have the IR in my system very long and did not do a lot of comparisons with the IR in and out of the system. I should be able to report at greater length and about different configurations after I get my new IR and reinsert it into the system (sometime in September after it has burned in). 

 

At any rate, when I did my brief comparisons, I heard this:  When just listening with the SOtM Ultra stack in the system (see below for system details), I am thinking:  what a nice big soundstage, what great retrieval of ambience and depth, what airiness and clarity. Insert the IR, and the music is washing over me, I'm not really thinking, just engaging with the music. Head vs. heart. Also, the IR seems to increase both bass quantity and quality. With the IR in the system, it just feels "right." 

 

Here's the basic digital signal path and analog path for the comparison and impressions described above with the IR in the chain:

 

Late 2012 Mac Mini (with Uptone mods) in "bridged ethernet" mode and running Roon off SD card, powered by JS-2 and with external hard drive (powered by JS-2) on different circuit and in different room than rest of system  > BJC Cat6a ethernet > Paul Pang switch with TXCO clock (in same room as Mac Mini) powered by Jameco LPS > BJC Cat6a ethernet > long run (80 ft) of generic Cat6a ethernet > SOtM dcblCat7 ethernet > D-Link switch modified by SOtM (powered by LPS-1) > SOtM dcblCat7 ethernet > SMS-200 Ultra (powered by LPS-1) (reclocking the modified switch) > generic USB cable (for now) > ISO REGEN (powered by LPS-1) > USPCB > Tx-USB Ultra (powered by LPS-1)  >  Audience USB cable (for now) > Chord DAVE > HiFiMan HE 1000 headphones; or alternatively > High Fidelity Cable CT-1 Enhanced interconnect > Crayon CFA 1.2 integrated amp > Daedalus/WyWires speaker cables > Daedalus Athena speakers

 

Power:  Shunyata and Audience cables and conditioner; dedicated circuits with 10-gauge wire; HFC MC 0.5 Wave Guide

 

Vibration:  extensive use of Stillpoints and bamboo; Finite Elemente rack and isolation feet

 

Room treatment:  Stillpoints Aperture; A/V Roomservice acoustic room treatment; Acustica Applicata Diffusion Absorption Audio Device

 

 

 

 

[austinpop]

24 minutes ago, Always.Learning said:

I thought I would post some quick impressions before I send my ISO REGEN back to Alex for a replacement. (I've experienced "ticking" issues with the IR in the system and Alex assures me he will get the problem fixed and I'll have a new IR in a matter of weeks.)

 

I'm probably a little different than most in that I was inserting my IR into a system that already featured an SOtM Ultra stack. Rajiv (aka Austinpop) has done the same thing and reported very favorably on the IR. These are some quick and dirty impressions since I didn't really have the IR in my system very long and did not do a lot of comparisons with the IR in and out of the system. I should be able to report at greater length and about different configurations after I get my new IR and reinsert it into the system (sometime in September after it has burned in). 

 

At any rate, when I did my brief comparisons, I heard this:  When just listening with the SOtM Ultra stack in the system (see below for system details), I am thinking:  what a nice big soundstage, what great retrieval of ambience and depth, what airiness and clarity. Insert the IR, and the music is washing over me, I'm not really thinking, just engaging with the music. Head vs. heart. Also, the IR seems to increase both bass quantity and quality. With the IR in the system, it just feels "right." 

 

Here's the basic digital signal path and analog path for the comparison and impressions described above with the IR in the chain:

 

Late 2012 Mac Mini (with Uptone mods) in "bridged ethernet" mode and running Roon off SD card, powered by JS-2 and with external hard drive (powered by JS-2) on different circuit and in different room than rest of system  > BJC Cat6a ethernet > Paul Pang switch with TXCO clock (in same room as Mac Mini) powered by Jameco LPS > BJC Cat6a ethernet > long run (80 ft) of generic Cat6a ethernet > SOtM dcblCat7 ethernet > D-Link switch modified by SOtM (powered by LPS-1) > SOtM dcblCat7 ethernet > SMS-200 Ultra (powered by LPS-1) (reclocking the modified switch) > generic USB cable (for now) > ISO REGEN (powered by LPS-1) > USPCB > Tx-USB Ultra (powered by LPS-1)  >  Audience USB cable (for now) > Chord DAVE > HiFiMan HE 1000 headphones; or alternatively > High Fidelity Cable CT-1 Enhanced interconnect > Crayon CFA 1.2 integrated amp > Daedalus/WyWires speaker cables > Daedalus Athena speakers

 

Power:  Shunyata and Audience cables and conditioner; dedicated circuits with 10-gauge wire; HFC MC 0.5 Wave Guide

 

Vibration:  extensive use of Stillpoints and bamboo; Finite Elemente rack and isolation feet

 

Room treatment:  Stillpoints Aperture; A/V Roomservice acoustic room treatment; Acustica Applicata Diffusion Absorption Audio Device

 

Wow, that's great to hear! Not the ticking part - that's a bummer - but the fact that your experience adding the ISO-Regen to the SOtM Ultra chain agreed with my listening impressions.

 

You have an amazing system, I can only imagine how good it must be sounding now.

 

Just coincidentally, I had to remove the ISO-R from my chain, due to a glitch with an LPS-1 in my chain that I'm working through with Alex. I am really missing it. I always find that a good way to evaluate the benefit of a component is not just the improvement due to its addition, but after using it for a while, the impact of its removal.

 

Both the addition and removal of the component can tell you about the SQ benefits.

 

I hope you don't have to wait too long for your ISO-R!

[Always.Learning]

Good point, Rajiv, about the benefits of listening/evaluating after removing a component. Sometimes I think the best A/B comparison, assuming A has been in your system and you have become familiar with it, is to stick B in and let it sit there for days, weeks, even months (if you can be that patient) -- i.e., lots of listening sessions. Just let it marinate. Then go back to A and you can get a pretty good idea about both A and B at that point in not much time at all. 

 

Jon

[Altabay]

5 hours ago, tboooe said:

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. 

 

I've been meaning to ask about an issue in my system but held back because I haven't had a chance to try different combinations to isolate the problem, but since you're asking about a NAA replacement I thought I'd chime in a bit.  I apologize if this ends up hijacking your question...

 

In short, microRendu sounds much worse than an Intel NUC in my system!

 

I think we have very similar digital setup.  Mine is ISO REGEN on LPS-1, via USPCB into Singxer SU-1 on its own LPS-1, via I2S into HoloAudio Spring L3.  An inexpensive AudioQuest Forest USB cable into ISO REGEN, and a 0.3m Wireworld Starlight 7 HDMI cable between SU-1 and Spring DAC.  Playback is Roon to HQPlayer with poly-sinc-xtr filter.  PCM stays PCM, DSD stays DSD, upsampled to 352.8k/384k/DSD512 with auto rate family option.

 

For the NAA I am comparing a microRendu (1.3 board, 2.5 software) to a NUC (NUC5i5RYH) running Windows Server 2012R2 and Audiophile Optimizer 1.4 in core mode.  NUC is powered by HDPlex 100W.  microRendu was tested with iFi 9v adapter and also with 9v of the same HDPlex that powers the NUC.  I have two microRendus, both with the same board and software level, and tested them to confirm I don't have a faulty microRendu.

 

The results are very clear.  I love the sound with NUC NAA.  Wide soundstage, very open, airy, clear and detailed.  When the microRendu is swapped in all these good qualities go away, even with the ISO REGEN in the chain.  Sound gets narrower and congested, fuzzy, muddy, almost dirty to exaggerate a bit, and I don't like it at all.  And I can hear ticks throughout the track, mostly noticeable in quiet passages because the ticks are not very loud.  I have been holding off on upgrading to 1.4 microRendu board or purchasing an UltraRendu because of this issue.

 

This may be a problem unique to my system because I think there are happy users of the mR, IR, SU-1, Spring combo.  Further, the both mR units work just fine with the Schiit Yggdrasil DAC.  I tried removing the ISO REGEN from the chain because mine is one of the earliest ones shipped and some of those had ticking sound problem, but I heard the same poor sound with mR going directly into SU-1.  Same thing even when mR was powered by LPS-1.  My Roon/HQP machine is in another room and it connects to the NAA via first wifi then FMC.  Removing the FMC link made no difference.  I have not tried removing the wifi, but it's doubtful the network is the problem.

 

I also tried removing the SU-1 from the chain, using the USB input of the Spring DAC instead.  It still didn't sound good with or without IR.  But I only tried this combo very briefly and need to spend more time to determine if the ticks are there.  The first impression wasn't very good, but that could be due to USB input rather than I2S, hence the need for more careful evaluation.

 

One theory I have is the microRendu is simply not powerful enough to keep up with the 8x sample rates.  I don't have another 8x rate DAC to test this theory.  I need to test if mR sounds good at 4x rates into IR/SU-1/Spring.  If this turns out to be true I wonder if UltraRendu will be powerful enough.

 

Are other owners of IR, SU-1 and Spring playing 8x rates without trouble?

[Altabay]

3 hours ago, R1200CL said:

Basicly you saying you're switching between a NUC and the MicroRendu as endpoints, right?

 

That's correct.  I have two NUCs in my setup.  One NUC is running Windows 10 and both Roon and HQPlayer are running on it.  The other NUC is the HQPlayer NAA and it is running Windows Server 2012R2, in Audiophile Optimizer core mode.  I am switching between the NUC Windows NAA and microRendu in HQPlayer mode.

 

The signal path between HQPlayer and NAA goes like this: NUC, ethernet cable, switch, ethernet wiring in wall, another switch in router room, ethernet cable, wifi router, wifi, wifi extender in listening room because I don't have an ethernet jack there, ethernet cable, FMC, optical fiber cable, FMC, ethernet cable, and finally the NAA.

 

I'm enjoying the sound with the NUC NAA, but I want to figure out this problem because it just doesn't make sense that microRendu sounds worse than a stock NUC, and I am curious how much improvement there would be with either the 1.4 microRendu board update or the new UltraRendu.  I'm going to retest everything while I remove one component at a time, in this order: ISO REGEN, SU-1, fiber channel isolation, and finally wifi.

[Always.Learning]

Hey zerung, I don't think anyone should read my post as taking the position that an SOtM Ultra stack "requires" the addition of an ISO REGEN. Far from it. The SOtM Ultra components, by themselves, elevated my digital sound to some of the best I've ever heard. Since my ISO REGEN has now departed and I am waiting for Alex to ship me a replacement, I'm listening to the system without it and I'm really enjoying the music. What I will say is that the ISO REGEN elevated the sound even further, and in musically significant ways. The bang for the buck is pretty great with the IR, even if you've already spent thousands on other digital decrapifiers. 

[EMMM]

It's been a week since I received the IR + LPS1 + USPCB package and it's been on and playing music almost the whole time, so about 150 hours of running in sandwiched in-between my Mac Mini and Mimby.

 

Playing Keb Mo's rendition of "America the Beautiful" on Spotify Premium shows off the sharp imaging that the IR brings to the table.  No more fuzziness in the soundstage and music.  Where previously you could hear him plucking at his guitar, now I can even make out the echo of the notes inside the guitar.  Each note is beautifully rendered and distinct, with hand claps having a softer, human flesh-like quality rather than sounding like someone smacking a pancake on hard concrete. 

 

I realize that I'm using USB decrapifying equipment costing about 2.5 times the cost of my Mimby but the music I'm hearing is fantastic.  I'm scratching my head and wondering what my next DAC upgrade would be without hitting major diminishing returns.  DACs on my radar include Gumby (with the new USB Gen 5 card), Denafrips Pontus and Holospring Level 3.  Would be great to hear from other users of ISO Regens about their experiences with those DACs.

 

 

[agladstone]

The ISO Regen + LPS 1 with the Mytek Brooklyn DAC has been a major improvement, so that's one DAC upgrade suggestion, however I admit the Holo Level 3 Spring DAC with the ISO feeding the SU-1 and SU-1 to Holo via I2S connection looks like an option I envy and perhaps if it was available when I purchased the Brooklyn may have been how I would have went, but I'm quite happy with the Brooklyn and MQA via Tidal sounds really great too! 

[agladstone]

As some

may have seen on this thread previously, I'm currently using the ISO Regen + LPS-1 going into an IFI Micro iUSB 3.0 as a chain. 

As a result of doing some experimenting, I've discovered that the IFI Micro 3.0 works perfectly well being powered by the LPS-1!!

So now I'm wondering if buying a second LPS-1 and having one for each the ISO Regen and the IFI Micro would really make the chain of the ISO Regen + LPS-1 + the IFI Micro be the absolute best combination? (I only have one LPS-1 now, so for my experiment I just connected the LPS-1 to the IFI Micro iUSB and I'm using the iPower to power the ISO Regen for my experiment).  

Any thoughts? 

[agladstone]

@R1200CL the only way it will work is 2 LPS-1 units (1 for ISO Regen and 1 for the IFI). 

I do believe both of them and my DAC all need VBus also. 

I currently use an Aurender N100H as a music player / streamer going into a Brooklyn DAC. 

I have been experimenting so far with the LPS-1 feeding either the ISO Regen OR the IFI Micro iUSB 3.0 and I've been also experimenting between which unit goes first or last also. 

Also ive been swamping back and forth between only ISO R or IFI Micro with the LPS-1. 

I do use Ghent's Canare / Oyaide star quad D.C. Cables between LPS-1 and ISO or IFI and also between HDPlex and either device. 

Because I use the Aurender as a player/streamer, I can only use the Aurender Conductor App (proprietary), so no Roon or HDPlayer is an option). 

I believe (but only have 1 LPS-1 now) that having both fed by its own LPS-1 and the IFI last in the chain would ultimately be the absolute best combination possible (between the cost of the ISO Regen, the IFI Micro iUSB 3.0 and 2 LPS-1's, it wouldn't be the cheapest USB reclocking/ Isolation/ cleaner chain out there! But it very well may be one of the best!!)