SoundRebels
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IsoTek EVO3 Aquarius
- Thread starter SoundRebels
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Audioseduction
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Looking on the inside looks like you don't get much for $2000.
BobM
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From a quick interior visual perspective it looks similar to the DIY AC filter design Jon Risch published 10-15 years ago. Some chokes, some X/Y rated caps before and after, and some varistors (for surge protection) with a transformer on the inbound side.
No surprise. So much voodoo in power for high end audio. Audience looks good, but I'm considering three Torus AVR20's. One for each amp and one for preamp and sources. It's the only one I can find that can actually supply MORE power (for brief seconds) then plugging your amp directly into the wall and therefore no restricted dynamics. Power that is clean and regulated. Regulated to me is very important but no one likes to talk about it - except those that know power. Its key for digital sources to have a constant 120v, 60 cycles.
SoundRebels
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Mike - what High end? EVO3 Aquarius is dedicated for budget systems.
Audioseduction
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BPT BP-3.5 Signature PLUS Ultra Isolator also provides more power then the wall outlet provides for short term. You may want to speak with Chris (Owner/Designer) @ BPT
$2000 is budget? Man, we have officially gone insane.
You can buy an $800 APC S20 (or S15) new on eBay - which seems to offer more functionality.
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Thanks. Check out this guys review of his Torus AVR20:
http://davidsusilouncensored.wordpr...-tour-and-a-look-at-avr-20-power-conditioner/
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Maybe James can chime in here about the BIT-20 which is almost identical to the AVR20, but without power regulation.
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Audioseduction
Active member
This phrase in his review is not correct because BPT also uses a custom toroidal isolation transformer made by Plitron. Pretty much his description on the avr-20 is what the BPT unit is.
"Torus Power is the only company that exclusively uses a gigantic custom-designed toroidal isolation transformer at the heart of its power conditioners. "
BPT BP-3.5 Signature Ultra Isolator
Good point George.
I have the Isotek Aquarius EVO3.
It's a very good for the price : 1500 euros including taxes in Europe.
I have test the Isotek Polaris before buying Aquarius.
Very happy with it, so I have pass an order for the above product : Isotek Nova GII.
So now, all my sources are connected with the 2 Nova GII.
I have discuted with Isotek at Munich two year's ago. His advice is to connect my amplifier with the Aquarius (because I wanted to buy it).
So I try this advice, and the sound is better.
So I'm happy with Isotek products.
Please, note I have 4 Furutech Flux 50 NCF connected with my CD player, my clock, my preamplifier and my phono preamplifier.
It's a very good for the price : 1500 euros including taxes in Europe.
I have test the Isotek Polaris before buying Aquarius.
Very happy with it, so I have pass an order for the above product : Isotek Nova GII.
So now, all my sources are connected with the 2 Nova GII.
I have discuted with Isotek at Munich two year's ago. His advice is to connect my amplifier with the Aquarius (because I wanted to buy it).
So I try this advice, and the sound is better.
So I'm happy with Isotek products.
Please, note I have 4 Furutech Flux 50 NCF connected with my CD player, my clock, my preamplifier and my phono preamplifier.
I just took delivery of an IsoTek Sigmas yesterday in my system... it is the next level up from the Aquarius which doesn't seem to get much love in this thread but I can say it has made a profound improvement in the overall sound in my system - no voodoo here. For $4000 I would be pretty disappointed at even an incremental uplift in quality however it is one of the more substantial audio investments I've made in terms of immediate impact.
For the record with the Sigmas and even with the Corvus I had before, I never had any detrimental effect on the sound from a dynamics perspective. Even when I owned the Corvus for 2 years, I ALWAYS plugged my amps directly into the wall outlet as I believed that any kind of power conditioning would have a detrimental effect on the sound (used the Corvus for my networking gear).
However over the past 6-9 months I have been increasingly distressed by noise and distortion in my system, to the point that I was thinking my hearing had been damaged, because I could replicate it across amps and speakers. For a last ditch effort, I decided to finally plug my amps into the Corvus and lo and behold - I could hear that the distortion was being cleaned up a bit! Not enough that it was gone, but definitely enough to pique my interest on the Aquarius or Sigmas.
The Sigmas has totally cleaned up this noise (which presented itself as echoey/ambient fuzz in the upper midrange of my system, affecting mostly electric guitar and vocal reverb effects).
There is a setting on the display of the Sigmas that can show the incoming THD % of your home power. From every review I have read of the Sigmas, most reviewers state that their THD reads somewhere around 2-2.5%. I was shocked to see as I listened throughout the night that mine NEVER went below 3% and at one point around 10 PM last night spiked at 3.9%. This tells me the power in my house is definitely being affected by the dozens of appliances, wifi routers (we have 4 Orbi satellites), Hue lights, and 2 pre-teen boys with every device imaginable running at all hours. I cannot be convinced otherwise that the source of all my stress and frustration at my system over the past year has been the effect this power has had on my system, audible in the distortion that I could not overcome.
I should mention during that time, I did everything imaginable to tweak out any other possibilities for distortion - I tried many isolation devices, invested in the Naim Fraim, did several Straight Talk sessions with Jim Smith, put in 12 diffusion and absorption panels all around my listening space - every thing I tried improved the sound to some degree but it could not overcome that upper-midrange distortion I was hearing. I even lost interest in listening to my system, convinced I was suffering from hearing damage, or that all my beloved music was victim of poor recording quality (LOL).
I am really impressed with the Sigmas - again I can't comment on the Aquarius but I can attest that the Sigmas restored my system and listening enjoyment, no snake oil no matter how few components are inside the box.
For the record with the Sigmas and even with the Corvus I had before, I never had any detrimental effect on the sound from a dynamics perspective. Even when I owned the Corvus for 2 years, I ALWAYS plugged my amps directly into the wall outlet as I believed that any kind of power conditioning would have a detrimental effect on the sound (used the Corvus for my networking gear).
However over the past 6-9 months I have been increasingly distressed by noise and distortion in my system, to the point that I was thinking my hearing had been damaged, because I could replicate it across amps and speakers. For a last ditch effort, I decided to finally plug my amps into the Corvus and lo and behold - I could hear that the distortion was being cleaned up a bit! Not enough that it was gone, but definitely enough to pique my interest on the Aquarius or Sigmas.
The Sigmas has totally cleaned up this noise (which presented itself as echoey/ambient fuzz in the upper midrange of my system, affecting mostly electric guitar and vocal reverb effects).
There is a setting on the display of the Sigmas that can show the incoming THD % of your home power. From every review I have read of the Sigmas, most reviewers state that their THD reads somewhere around 2-2.5%. I was shocked to see as I listened throughout the night that mine NEVER went below 3% and at one point around 10 PM last night spiked at 3.9%. This tells me the power in my house is definitely being affected by the dozens of appliances, wifi routers (we have 4 Orbi satellites), Hue lights, and 2 pre-teen boys with every device imaginable running at all hours. I cannot be convinced otherwise that the source of all my stress and frustration at my system over the past year has been the effect this power has had on my system, audible in the distortion that I could not overcome.
I should mention during that time, I did everything imaginable to tweak out any other possibilities for distortion - I tried many isolation devices, invested in the Naim Fraim, did several Straight Talk sessions with Jim Smith, put in 12 diffusion and absorption panels all around my listening space - every thing I tried improved the sound to some degree but it could not overcome that upper-midrange distortion I was hearing. I even lost interest in listening to my system, convinced I was suffering from hearing damage, or that all my beloved music was victim of poor recording quality (LOL).
I am really impressed with the Sigmas - again I can't comment on the Aquarius but I can attest that the Sigmas restored my system and listening enjoyment, no snake oil no matter how few components are inside the box.