Although the residents of America's two great metropolises are supposed to detest each other's hometown, or at least that…
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Tinseltown. La-La Land. Smell-A. First, of course, there's the climate. No way to hate sunshine and ocean breezes. And if you were somehow able to erase all the people in Southern California, the land itself—rising from the blue Pacific to high desert to timbered, sometimes even snowy mountaintops—is gorgeous. Then, of course, there's the unusually attractive human flora and fauna roaming SoCal. How did Brian Wilson put it . . . ? "Dolls by a palm tree in the sand."
UpTone Audio's USB Regen is a powered, single-port USB 2.0 hub that takes the USB signal from your computer, regenerates (ie, reclocks) the data, provides cleaned-up 5V power from a built-in, ultra–low-noise regulator, and sends an impedance-matched signal to your DAC. The Regen is designed to sit as close to your DAC as possible; UpTone supplies a male/male USB A/B adapter—a solid, double-ended plug, which they recommend over the 6"-long male/male USB A/B cable they also provide.
At one end of the Regen's small (2.2" wide by 0.7" high by 1.8" deep) case of black-anodized aluminum is a…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Powered, single-port USB 2.0 hub.
Dimensions: 2.2" wide by 0.7" high by 1.8" deep.
Price: $175.
Manufacturer: UpTone Audio LLC, Mariposa, CA 95338. Tel: (209) 966-4377. Web: www.uptoneaudio.com
Sidebar 2: Measurements
Both Kal Rubinson and Michael Lavorgna report in this issue on the positive effects UpTone Audio's USB Regen7 had on the sound quality of D/A processors fed USB data. Kal loaned me his review sample for a few days so I could see if it made any measurable differences to a D/A processor's analog output signal.
Unlike AudioQuest's passive JitterBug, which I reviewed in the September issue, the Regen is an active device that regenerates the USB datastream. The JitterBug is intended to reduce the level of radio-frequency (RF) noise on the balanced data…
Manufacturers' Comment, UpTone Audio USB Regen
Editor: While we wish to thank Michael Lavorgna, Kalman Rubinson, and John Atkinson for their terrific team coverage of our USB Regen, I would be remiss not to take this opportunity to express our tremendous gratitude to the audiophiles and music lovers around the world who have made the Regen a runaway success—well beyond what we had initially imagined—in just a few short months.
As I pen this reply in late August, over 2000 units have been sold since its launch in May-and with zero advertising! That's crazy, especially for a small…
Unless something is broken, the bits from your computer will be delivered to your DAC intact; the claim behind three new products I recently listened through is that each can reduce noise within the DAC—noise that could otherwise corrupt the analog signal and thus make our music less musical. This notion is not based on audiophool woo-woo, but on the basic electronics of mixed-signal systems (footnote 1): Although its input is digital data, a DAC's output is subject to all the noise problems of analog circuits.
We also need to keep in mind that a USB cable is responsible for transmitting…
I then added just one JitterBug between my MacBook Pro and Auralic Vega DAC, and noted improvements: Bass definition was better, and the sound now had more weight overall, and was more relaxed and natural. These changes were also easy to hear. I found that I got the most benefit when I added a second 'Bug to the MacBook's unused USB port, which simply improved on the improvements already mentioned—not as dramatically as going from no 'Bugs to just one, but even these smaller-scale changes were easy to hear. Adding a third and a fourth 'Bug to my NAS and router offered very subtle sonic…
Outside of the listening I do for this column, I always audition, assess, and review components without using any equalization or room correction—primarily because I assume that most Stereophile readers listen in two-channel stereo, and that most aren't all that interested in EQ. Besides, two-channel is the tradition I come from, and my first instinct is to try to get at the essence of the individual component itself, without applying extraneous tools or accessories. John Atkinson's bench tests are based on the same philosophy.
Consequently, when I reviewed Monitor Audio's Silver 8…
Sidebar Contacts
AudioQuest, 2621 White Road, Irvine, CA 92614. Tel: (949) 585-0111. Web: www.audioquest.com
Schiit Audio, 24900 Anza Drive, Suite A, Valencia, CA 913255. Tel: (323) 230-0079. Web: www.schiit.com
UpTone Audio LLC, Mariposa, CA 95338. Tel: (209) 966-4377. Web: www.uptoneaudio.com
Auro Technologies sent me a small stack of Blu-ray discs, while Dolby sent along only a single demo disc—so Atmos was at a disadvantage: The only music track on the Atmos sampler was "Bailando," a music video by Enrique Iglesias. The video cut repeatedly among multiple venues, indoors and outdoors, but the ambience presented never changed. Discounting the audio/video disassociation and my admitted lack of interest in the music, the sound was clean, direct, and of generous if inappropriate ambience. It didn't make much of a case for Atmos.
The Auro-3D music was more wide ranging, from…