Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Oh and yes, impedance lowering is another key as well as matching. that is why version 2 works better. The extra resistors in the new amber regen >3ohms, seem to match the impedance of the cable connecting to the regen better and as a consequence the bass improves. Corning optical/usb cable seemed to have elements of this in its design and was a great match for the older Regen ver 1.

Hi Wisnon, what constitutes packet noise in this particular context?

G.

Swenson can explain better than me, but all USB and ethernet data is transported as data packets, not continuous streams (nature of the beasts). The "pulse" of these data packets creates what is called packet noise, which messes up the PHY and PDN of the next leg in the relay (USB receiver interface), inducing them to create their own packet noise and so the relay baton is passed, even as the old noise dies at each changeover leg.

The trick to stop the baton passing is to design a proper interface that does not create new packet noise and for this you need a few things that lead to high signal integrity (SI): low jitter reclocking, clean power distribution network (PDN), clean power/galvanic isolation, impedance matching via the cable low overall impedance of the Dac. That is what is known so far from experimentation.

There may be other ways to get to high SI and I suspect Lukasz did the same with the digi-Lampizator circuit in his SBox based Transport, where the Spdif signal was run thru a digi-Lampi tube buffer and he showed how the irregular digital incoming signal was "squared" up on an oscilloscope. He has no scientific explanation, just speculation, but the consensus was clear that SQ was significantly improved, as you would expect from perfectly square digital signals. I asked Swenson about this, but no answer. LoL

Very interesting info you guys share. Thanks. I now have Steve's OSDE that was fully upgraded and I use his USB cable and the short block with the cable. I also use the mac mini server with Steve's big linear power supply. Are you saying this device will help the sound? Sorry, but I am still learning digital. Thanks.

Definittion of PHY here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHY_(chip)

The other point I missed is that they use thick multi-lyares for the Regen board as this helps with SI as well (not sure how, as Swenson does not tell us everything).

Cstooner, I cant answer if Regen will be better than the shortBloc or if a combo would be better tha both together. I have the Aubisque filter and did not notice any improvement when placing that on the end of the generic USB cable before entering the Regen. I THINK I noticed an improvement when using the Corning+Regen, but now I should try the Corning+Aubisque+Regen. A pal uas my iPurifier, so cant try that for the moment.