USB Regen from UpTone

[Antoine]

right now the best thing to do is just power your regen with the smps it comes with and dont spend the money on a linear for it.

they are developing a new device which goes between the power supply and power plug that they claim will blow you away SQ wise and a linear is completely unneccessary!

The devialet requires 5v for handshake but after that it can be disconnected. the regen however has regulators inside so you can power it with anywhere from 5 to 12v and it will regulate it to exactly 5v.

i dont have an aries, but you will definitely hear an improvement on your usb input

That hasn't been the case for me. The default SMPS PSU that came with the Regen was a dealbreaker for me in my system.

Here are some quotes of what I wrote on CA:

Same here Rocky, at least part of it. I hear more low level detail with the Regen Amber and improved dynamics however it all also feels a bit more clinical, bland/less colorful, perhaps sometimes even a little agressive now. Voices sound a bit less natural, less "magical musical", presentation is slightly less relaxed. A slight edge to voices and cymbals previously gone seems to be back again with the Regen in place.

After the installation of a 12V LPSU (BOTWS with SBooster module):

The magic seems fully back again here and more, goosebumps all over. This listening to the Regen with the 12V LPSU I mentioned. A loud, cheering and applauding audience sounds like that again instead of an annoying source of 'white noise'. Also the strain, slight edge in the highs is gone again. I'm listening louder then ever while enjoying it more than ever. Very happy again.

Conclusion: IMHO the Regen is great but it needs a really good quality power source, a better one than the supplied SMPS to shine! Can't wait to see with what kind of PSU add-on Alex and John come up with, I hope it can even beat the best LPSU!

Please note however, like Baddog also mentioned, that most users seem to be happy with the supplied SMPS. It may be something entirely related to my system and of those other people that experienced the same or similar issues.

Indeed there's a PSU add-on coming later this year (<3 months) that can use the supplied SMPS or any other PSU in front of it as long as it gives a 7,5 - 12V output @ 1A. I believe they are also working on a replacement for the SMPS itself.

[baddog]

right now the best thing to do is just power your regen with the smps it comes with and dont spend the money on a linear for it.

they are developing a new device which goes between the power supply and power plug that they claim will blow you away SQ wise and a linear is completely unneccessary!

The devialet requires 5v for handshake but after that it can be disconnected. the regen however has regulators inside so you can power it with anywhere from 5 to 12v and it will regulate it to exactly 5v.

i dont have an aries, but you will definitely hear an improvement on your usb input

That hasn't been the case for me. The default SMPS PSU that came with the Regen was a dealbreaker for me in my system.

Here are some quotes of what I wrote on CA:

Same here Rocky, at least part of it. I hear more low level detail with the Regen Amber and improved dynamics however it all also feels a bit more clinical, bland/less colorful, perhaps sometimes even a little agressive now. Voices sound a bit less natural, less "magical musical", presentation is slightly less relaxed. A slight edge to voices and cymbals previously gone seems to be back again with the Regen in place.

After the installation of a 12V LPSU (BOTWS with SBooster module):

The magic seems fully back again here and more, goosebumps all over. This listening to the Regen with the 12V LPSU I mentioned. A loud, cheering and applauding audience sounds like that again instead of an annoying source of 'white noise'. Also the strain, slight edge in the highs is gone again. I'm listening louder then ever while enjoying it more than ever. Very happy again.

Conclusion: IMHO the Regen is great but it needs a really good quality power source, a better one than the supplied SMPS to shine! Can't wait to see with what kind of PSU add-on Alex and John come up with, I hope it can even beat the best LPSU!

Please note however, like Baddog also mentioned, that most users seem to be happy with the supplied SMPS. It may be something entirely related to my system and of those other people that experienced the same or similar issues.

Indeed there's a PSU add-on coming later this year (<3 months) that can use the supplied SMPS or any other PSU in front of it as long as it gives a 7,5 - 12V output @ 1A. I believe they are also working on a replacement for the SMPS itself.

Antoine - Just to clarify my comment - I was referring to the Regen itself and the high praise it has received. To your point, many users have indicated that moving to a different linear power supply has improved the sound quality of the Regen.

[Antoine]

@baddog, yes you're right, my fault, I didn't read your post well enough. Thanks for clarying and sorry for putting the wrong words in your mouth.

[baddog]

All good Antoine - I actually just wanted to make clear, in my meandering way, that I agreed with your comments in regards to the benefits of changing out the standard power supply provided by Uptone Audio with a linear power supply.

[Antoine]

Thanks baddog!

[completeluxury]

antoine - while i agree and i HAVE taken out the smps to run it via my teddy pardo 5v/3a power supply my point was that its not necessary to spend money on a power supply for it.

even alex (superdad) says to hold on to the smps because of this power upgrade. no real telling what it could be yet but they seem to think it will be fantastic.

[octaviars]

antoine - while i agree and i HAVE taken out the smps to run it via my teddy pardo 5v/3a power supply my point was that its not necessary to spend money on a power supply for it.

even alex (superdad) says to hold on to the smps because of this power upgrade. no real telling what it could be yet but they seem to think it will be fantastic.

When is the power upgrade coming? I was thinking of maybe waiting for that before I get a Regen.

[completeluxury]

i think they have said september at the moment

[Antoine]

antoine - while i agree and i HAVE taken out the smps to run it via my teddy pardo 5v/3a power supply my point was that its not necessary to spend money on a power supply for it.

even alex (superdad) says to hold on to the smps because of this power upgrade. no real telling what it could be yet but they seem to think it will be fantastic.

The thing is that they hypothesize it could be that the SMPS is throwing back noise into the AC mains for which some systems might be sensitive. Using the announced PSU add-on won't fix this (it will only provide clean power into the Regen) and in that case you'd still need a better PSU feeding the Regen and/or PSU add-on. Alex did mention once that they will also release a replacement for the Meanwell SMPS but I haven't seen any details or confirmations if and when it will become available.

September indeed but no fixed dates yet. It should become more clear and precise over time. Also I wouldn't wait with the order of the Regen as it is seriously backordered. If you'd want to save shipping costs perhaps Alex is willing to hold yours until the PSU add-on becomes available.

[Antoine]

A review of the Regen by Jim Smith.

Source: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f10-mu...post450364

Better sound for your computer audio – without breaking the bank

A few months ago, several threads began on the forums at Computer Audiophile.com. They were discussing a new device, the Uptone Audio USB REGEN.

I ignored the threads at first, but they continued to grow steadily. Finally, I took a look and discovered who was behind this tiny upstart audio company. Without going into those details, let me simply say that it turned out that I personally knew and respected one of the two principals, and I knew the other by his excellent reputation.

I am not going to waste your time listing all of the reasons why this item works so well. At the end of this article, you will find a link to the Uptone Audio website and two of the CA threads about the REGEN.

However, a few observations might be useful.

First, this only applies to those systems that use a USB cable to their USB-asynchronous-capable DAC, typically from a computer. For example, I use a MacBook Pro Retina with SSD, stripped down for only audio, sending the music signal via a Light Harmonic Lightspeed split USB cable to my Ayre QB-9 DSD DAC.

The REGEN is a small device that plugs into the DAC’s USB input. It gets fed the USB signal from my computer.

The REGEN is $175.00. It makes a difference - comparable in most systems – to components costing many hundreds - if not thousands - of dollars!

Frankly, I didn’t expect much because my digital components were very good. That’s probably why I was shocked at how greatly the REGEN improved my system.

And I still don’t see how it could make such an easily audible difference. But it does.

Bass is not just more tuneful and agile, it’s more powerful. As I am sure you do, I have a number of recordings that I thought I knew how strong their bass drum or organ notes were. This was not a subtle effect. In fact, I would wager it may even be measurable.

Instruments and vocals have a greater sense of palpability. Sounds such as guitar notes have a greater harmonic density. There seems to be more presence and even more spatial cues as well. From what I can surmise, these effects may vary from system to system, depending on the computer, DAC, and USB cable.

I bought mine directly from Uptone Audio, just like everyone else. At $175, I couldn’t bring myself to ask for an industry discount. And from what I now know that it does, I’d easily consider paying 5-10 times that price.

Apart from Get Better Sound or maybe a RoomPlay session (OK, I am hopelessly biased), I cannot think of a better buy in audio just now. And Uptone has an affordable power supply upgrade in the works as well. I definitely plan to buy that - if it does anything like I suspect that it might, I’ll report back on it in a future Quarter Notes.

In these times, when audio components are sold at amazingly higher and higher prices, the reasonable price for this item makes it a best buy. REGEN sales are way ahead of production. When I ordered mine, I paid and got in line. Don’t be put off by paying and waiting a bit. The combo of performance and price may keep this item back ordered.

I hope the audiophile community will support Alex & John. My highest recommendation.