DIY Regen Battery tweak

[jkeny]

I'm more tempted to try this than a regen, but interesting that each iteration of these devices seems to be moving in the right direction. Maybe wait a couple of years and it will all be perfect.

Which, the Intona or the DiyinHK USB to SPDIF converter? - the Regen works OK, btw but is greatly improved with my battery tweak!

[nige2000]

slightly off topic, question for JK

http://www.diyinhk.com/shop/audio-kits/ ... witch.html

Has received good review on head-fi, very detailed and analogue like.

Do you think the 48MHz oscillator is the key factor here ?

quote from specs -

"Newest XMOS chip and uses 48MHz oscillator to asynchronous reclock usb audio data to SPDIF line, old XMOS uses only 13Mhz oscillator, over 4x better jitter rejection theoretically."

Difficult question - really don't know - could also be the internal workings of the new XMOS chip itself; could be the lower inductance of the BGA connector format; could be the driver; could be the external PS option - really impossible to tell.

I'm more tempted to try this than a regen, but interesting that each iteration of these devices seems to be moving in the right direction. Maybe wait a couple of years and it will all be perfect.

kinda expensive compared to the i2s version
the clocks are about as good as you get of the reel at reasonable cost
adding regen with clean ps to it will likely be an accumulative benefit
assuming this because im using the diyinhk i2s and the same hub chip as regen and they complement each other

[sbgk]

I'm more tempted to try this than a regen, but interesting that each iteration of these devices seems to be moving in the right direction. Maybe wait a couple of years and it will all be perfect.

Which, the Intona or the DiyinHK USB to SPDIF converter? - the Regen works OK, btw but is greatly improved with my battery tweak!

was interested in the intona until I read about the diyinhk, but probably won't do anything about either. Congratulations on the battery tweak, now everyone is talking about batteries.

[nige2000]

Actually, I see it better in this later photo of yours

- the chip has 4 legs & id is A08VW 1512 - looks like a clock. The Xilinix FPGA can use a range of clock speeds from 5Mhz to > 320Mhz

So this clock? might be the timing foundation for the whole board.
Edit: Am I right that this clock? is on the USB input ("dirty") side of the board so a clock (from the FPGA) is distributed to the "clean" side of the board through the isolator chips - not the best solution, I reckon

looks like a clock alright
very odd to put it on the input side

kinda pricy but interesting

[jkeny]

As the Silicon Labs isolators (Si8660) can only pass a max of 150MHz signal through a pin & USB hi-speed operates @ 480MHz - here's how I figure all this works.

The USB3320 USB transceiver chip handles all the USB signalling & converts the USB protocol into ULPI protocol which is a comms standard used in internal USB comms. The ULPI protocol interfaces with the FPGA chip communicating data via 8 parallel channels & the FPGA chip changes this parallel data into 8 bit serial data which it communicates with the other FPGA chip through the isolator chip. The thing about this is that the ULPI data rate is slower than USB 480MHz data rate - it uses a 8 bit data word @ 60MHz which is a lower signal rate that can easily pass through the isolators. The 5 channel connections between FPGA & Si8660 chip is the ULPI connection (3 control signals + clock + 8bit data channel) - bi-directional so needs two isolator chips.

There is free open source software that allows the two FPGA chips to communicate - a vhdl utmi-ulpi bridge implementation at:
http://vr5.narod.ru/fpga/usb/index.html

[jkeny]

looks like a clock alright
very odd to put it on the input side

kinda pricy but interesting

Yep odd that the only clock is on "dirty" side but then this device was not designed with sound quality as the target - it's targetted towards the medical isolation environment, I believe?

[motberg]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the cool cutting-edge stuff posted here.
Unfortunately, I cannot solder so many of the tweaks are out of my capability, but just yesterday I changed an Uptone Regen (powered by Teradak 9V fed by Audio-GD HE-350 regenerator) with the standard Intona USB Isolator. Now about 20 hours running time on the Intona, maybe 5 hours listening total.
Please note these are very preliminary comments, and may change drastically over the coming days... but I thought good to give you guys a heads-up that the standard version Intona works well. Mine was quickly and professionally shipped and arrived in a few days via UPS (to China).

The most noticeable improvement from the Intona is the top end, cymbals especially are more natural sounding. (I have worked in bands and done a little recording)
Generally from the midrange up, everything is much clearer - with many details present that went unnoticed previously, for example Joni Mitchell, "Court and Spark", "Peoples Parties", it is now possible to immediately understand each lyric with her phrasing and pacing - and thus better to naturally follow her story line..
Bass is a little tighter with the Intona, but not deeper.
Dynamics are similar between the 2 devices.
Soundstage height/width/depth pretty much the same, with the exception of added details which adds elements positioned into the soundtage that I have not noticed previously.

In my install with the Intona, I noticed that I now need to start the computer first, let it settle, then start the Tanley DDC for JPlay to see the Tanly KS... I cannot start the Tanley
before the computer.. JPlay will not see the DDC. (With the Regen I did not have this procedural restriction).

Also I first tried the Intona with the Regen-supplied USB adapter... things sounded OK, but overall the frequency balance was tipped to the upper end when using this hard adapter.. I replaced the adapter with my prior-used PPA short cable and now the top end is more relaxed and overall balanced.

I was really happy with the Regen improvements, but I am not sure I will be putting it back into the system anytime soon (too bad there is no way I can do the 3.3v JK mod..). As of now it seems like there is nothing between the computer PPA USB port and the DAC. Everything sounds really good with just the Intona, so I want to listen to my collection for a few days and hear what I have been missing.... or if this is just some different presentation that currently seems better.

If I try the Regen, I will let you know the outcome, but it is a little busy here right now so may be while...

This my my current system as a point of reference:

Gigabyte GA-Z87M-D3H, I5-4670t (2.3GB, 6MB L3), NOFAN CR-95c, 2x4 GB Corsair, TeraDak 210 ATX LPS with separate 5V line for PPA V2 USB card, PPA battery pack on 32GB OS SSD, PS/2 mouse, USB keyboard, on-board video (monitor is powered off during play), Separate LPS powered 256GB SSD for music (all WAV files), SSD's use PPA red thin SATA cables and suspension blocks, additional storage 500GB mSATA w/SAT32MSATM port-mounted adapter. WIN2012 and AO (4A, with USB optimization), JPlay6, Mini, Total Commander. Ultrastream/Hibernate (DAC Link@20hz, Buffer@1sec., Clock@10.0ms), PPA dual USB cable, Intona standard USB isolator, PPA Regen USB cable, Tanly DDC HDMI (Wireworld Starlight 5.2, 0.3M) i2S to Audio-GD Master 7.

The rest of the stereo... this is in a small dedicated treated room.

M7 via silver ACSS to Audio GD Master 1 preamp balanced to Pro-Ject Pre Box RS Preamplifier (as tube buffer) to Audio GD M3 power amp to M&D Ruby main speakers.
Master 1 preamp outputs also goes to MiniDSP/LPS (45 hz low pass) to Pioneer powered subs - and other MiniDSP (6.5ms delay) to Classic 8.0B amp to rear-fire tweeters (M&D Omni Harmonizers turned on sides).
Sources use Audio-GD HE-350 power regenerator, each amp uses a Yulong P18 Power Purifier Filter.. power cables, interconnects, etc are entry-level audiophile style.

Saludos!

[tony]

Really well described Mothber. Heard the intona over the weekend with a variety of dacs and combinations the improvement so well outlined above is generally what was experienced. Pity it is so expensive.

[nige2000]

i see there was a little research done with chip isolators here
http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/ ... out-of-pc/
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=103391.0
theres two analog devices chips came across and theres an linear tech one too
i guess a clocked hub will be needed on the clean side if using a iso chip?

this looks interesting to pair with a hub http://www.digikey.ie/product-detail/en ... ND/4927116

tony i have two batteries here so one of them is yours

[randytsuch]

i see there was a little research done with chip isolators here
http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/ ... out-of-pc/
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=103391.0
theres two analog devices chips came across and theres an linear tech one too
i guess a clocked hub will be needed on the clean side if using a iso chip?

this looks interesting to pair with a hub http://www.digikey.ie/product-detail/en ... ND/4927116

tony i have two batteries here so one of them is yours

Nigel
The device you linked to, and the olimex referred to in the links only do full speed 12 Mbps, they don't support high speed usb. That's the problem with most usb isolators. The intona uses 2 fpgas to overcome the speed problem

Randy