Regen, Wow!

For its a must own and try
It gave me perceived improvements in most all dacs
However with my lampi B 7 it did not
It tilted the eq too Brite I do not recall of it was Pam and dsd or just one
But the tubes were 300 B a heavy weighed tube to start with. But I do think any of us audio heads should own one or try one. The change was on par from the main board usb to a Paul
Pang v3 card
Both Ina music server with 2012 and AO 1.4.
 
Mike said:
I haven't written a whole lot about the REGEN, but I've had one in/out of my system for a couple of months now. There is no doubt in my mind it makes a difference. What I found is that it tightens the imaging and quiets the background (the last part I didn't notice until I hooked up my 107db efficient speakers!). To be honest, I don't fully understand how it works and I especially don't think that stupid little thing should make that much of a difference - but it does, it really does.

Now, I am just using the little pig tail USB adaptor that came with it. I am assuming that others have swapped that out and either found a difference or not?
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Try it with a linear power supply and you'll really hear what it can do.
 
Mike said:
I haven't written a whole lot about the REGEN, but I've had one in/out of my system for a couple of months now. There is no doubt in my mind it makes a difference. What I found is that it tightens the imaging and quiets the background (the last part I didn't notice until I hooked up my 107db efficient speakers!). To be honest, I don't fully understand how it works and I especially don't think that stupid little thing should make that much of a difference - but it does, it really does.

Now, I am just using the little pig tail USB adaptor that came with it. I am assuming that others have swapped that out and either found a difference or not?
Click to expand...
Try it straight in without pig tail adapter, i.e. hard adapter.
 
Jim Smith said:
I have been using the Curious 200MM USB REGEN link. Like it best so far.

http://www.curiouscables.com/buy.html
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Here's another one:

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Jim,

If the Curious Regen Link is anything like the Curious USB cable that I'm evaluating - then Regen owners should order that shiz ASAP.
 
BlueFox said:
There is an almost 900 post thread on WBF dealing with the Regen. It is pretty hilarious as it has attracted measurement oriented trolls from some other audio forum.

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...t-Jitterbug-and-Uptone-Regen-USB-Conditioners
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I'll bite my tongue (again) on that one.

I prefer to actually listen with my ears, not a microphone, computer, measurement tool, etc.

If measurements showed no measured improvement (and I think I saw somewhere that they did), then the answer is: you're measuring the wrong things or what we need to measure has not been developed. Quieter backgrounds should be able to be measured. Tighter imaging? Don't know.

I'm more interested in what others who have tried it actually find in their system.
 
Mike said:
I'll bite my tongue (again) on that one.

I prefer to actually listen with my ears, not a microphone, computer, measurement tool, etc.

If measurements showed no measured improvement (and I think I saw somewhere that they did), then the answer is: you're measuring the wrong things or what we need to measure has not been developed. Quieter backgrounds should be able to be measured. Tighter imaging? Don't know.

I'm more interested in what others who have tried it actually find in their system.
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Unsighted comparison is the way to determine whether the unit is having any effect, set up two sources ,one with regen in circuit and ask someone else to switch between them.
Keith.
 
Mike said:
I'll bite my tongue (again) on that one.

I prefer to actually listen with my ears, not a microphone, computer, measurement tool, etc.

If measurements showed no measured improvement (and I think I saw somewhere that they did), then the answer is: you're measuring the wrong things or what we need to measure has not been developed. Quieter backgrounds should be able to be measured. Tighter imaging? Don't know.

I'm more interested in what others who have tried it actually find in their system.
Click to expand...

Same here. Its all about the ears.
 
Here's what I don't understand about the Regen. It says on the Uptone Audio website that the USB REGEN takes the digital audio stream from your computer or other music streaming device, and generates a completely new USB data signal to feed your DAC. It accomplishes this by combining a carefully chosen USB hub chip with an ultra low-noise regulator and low-jitter clock.

However, asynchronous USB uses a clock housed near the DAC and allows it to drive the converter directly, thereby not relying on the unstable computer's clock. It is called asychronous because the DAC's master clock isn't synchronized directly to any clocks in the computer. Instead the DAC is controlled by a potentially high-precision fixed-frequency clock. This clock controls the datastream from the computer buffer near the DAC.

So, if the PC's bus clock is not controlling the datastream and the fixed frequency clock near the DAC is, why would the Regen's reclocking of the PC's bus clock make any difference whatsoever?

Best,
Ken
 
Because reclocking is needed as part of the quality regeneration of the signal to get the best possible SI to feed the Dac's USB receiver chip.

The reclock is about SI, as edge jitter is one component degrading SI. The Regen reclock is not about lowering system jitter, per se...

I think this was dealt with early in this thread.
 
Ken in this very thread, please refer to my posts 104/104/105/113 and 118. Also JKeny's reponses 115/117.

Extracts below:

Don't be confused by there being a clock in the Regen device. In asynch USB there are 3 clocks - a USB clock (usually a multiple of 12MHz) - two audio clocks (one for 44.1KHz audio family & one for 48KHz audio family). It is the audio clocks that are the master clocks in asynchronous USB - whichever one is enabled is used as the master clock to control the fillrate of the buffer in the DAC. The whole asynchronous system works by monitoring this buffer & sending signals back to the PC to tell it how much data to send in the next USB packet - in this way the buffer is kept approximately half-full at all times. The data in the buffer is clocked out by the audio clock & processed by the audio chips in the device. So this is how asynchronous USB audio works.

The USB clock (12Mhz or multiple) just controls the timing of the sending of USB packets, not the amount of data in the packets.

The Regen is a simple USB hub. All USB hubs operate as a two way staging post for the USB signal - they sit between a host & a device, receiving & sending USB signals in both directions. The signals are USB received & as part of the sending process are regenerated prior to being sent. The "new" USB clock in the Regen is used in the same way as all USB clocks - to ensure the correct timing of the packets - it has no part in the asynchronous function of a USB device - that is achieved by the USB signalling that is being sent back & forth between host & device (passing through the Regen).

Hope this clarifies.

AND

From JS: The REGEN is at its core a single-port USB 2.0 hub. All hubs actually contain two USB interfaces and a full-blown USB protocol engine. It is not just working at the analog level, it is actually receiving the data from the DAC, putting it in a buffer and retransmitting (and the other way for the packets from the DAC).

The lowly PHY chip is actually a tremendously noisy and complicated device containing multiple PLLs and clocking at various phases—and there is no such thing as an optimized-for-audio PHY. The PHY part of a DAC’s USB is highly susceptible to the condition of the USB signal, its "Signal Integrity" (SI).SIGNAL INTEGRITY: A high-speed USB signal runs at 480 mega bits per second, which is fairly high. SI is comprised of the rise/fall times of the signal edges, amplitude of the signal, noise sitting on top of the signal and jitter of the edges. Variations in any or all of these can decrease the SI. The computer determines this initially, and then it can get significantly degraded by running through cables and connectors.
 
A new question...how does the iFi iUSB2 compare to the Regen? Its a $400 prduct, so double the price, but comes with the iPower plug (claimed to be an extremely high quality SMPS).
 
Smile said:
I read that thread as a sad commentary on many of the poster's ill manners more so than a review of the Regen. Must we so strongly tie our egos to our opinions?
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Yes, there are some sad comments in that thread, but the measurements show the devise doesn't do anything, and the manufacturer seems to be unable to provide any measurable evidence to prove that it does.

Since they have a return policy, I'm going to give one a try.
 
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