Isotek substation

hi,
i picked one of these up last saturday for a bit of a play with (there's a 7 day money back deal where i got it from).
the substation is isotek's mid range product with 6 filtered outlets. outlets 1 and 2 are designed for large output devices (they mention power amps). outlets 3 & 4 are for analogue components and 5 & 6 are for digital components.
i've heard that naim power amps don't like these kind of things so i didn;t try it with my nap 250 however all my other kit has been powered by it in the last week.

setup 1:
hicaps powering preamp on outlets 1 & 2.
preamp digital psu on outlet 3
squeezebox and dax2 on outlets 5 & 6
this produced a very smooth flowing sound especially with vocals and accoustic instrumental music. note attack was curtailed somewhat so dance and rock was a bit 'nice' rather than grabbing you by the throat as it should. kick drums just appeared out of nowhere with none of the snap they used to have. i listened to this setup for a day or two before deciding that for the broad spread of music i play it wasn't going to cut it.

setup 2:
preamp psu on outlet 3.
squeezebox and dax2 on outlets 5 & 6.
hicaps back on unfiltered power.
this regained some of the snap that was missing from setup 1 however it was still a little lethargic. i only listened to this for a few hours.

setup 3:
preamp psu on outlet 3:
squeezebox and dax2 on outlets 1 & 2.
now this is more like it. the snap is back but the music still flows nicely. it perhaps isn;t as in your face as the unfiltered source components but the sense of flow and listenability it brings more than makes up for that. in fact the snap that is missing could be interpreted as harshness. certainly high notes before gave me that aching eardrum feeling whereas now thay aren't painful at all - even at mad volume.

setup 4:
squeezebox and dax2 on outlets 1 & 2:
this reintroduced a bit of the harshness into proceedings again so i doubt i'll try this for long now.

so all in all a definite improvement in setup 3 for me i feel. naim amps do not seem to like this kind of mains filtering but my digital components love it. i think i'll be keeping it.
cheers


julian

 

just out of interest which Isotek model is it?

 

I'd try a different conditioner... sounds like this thing is messing up your mains too much (perhaps too much impedance?)...

The Ben Duncan conditioners made everything brighter and with better seperation of instruments + larger soundstage... they didn't dull the sound at all.

 

rosso,
it's a Isotek SubStation.

Tim F,
that would be the last thing i want - i've got no problem at all with brightness / seperation and soundstage. my main problem was that the treble was a little too bright / distorted / harsh, the isotek has fixed this to my ears. it just doesn't get along with my naim nac 82's hicaps, the napsc seems ok though but then it only powers the 82's display and control logic.
cheers


julian

 

are you sure it's a substation?- your description suggests an isotek minisub, not substation.

minisub is a 6way filter device paired off exactly as you describe with max. current capability of 2500watts.

substation is a conditioner device using any of three different wattage transformer modules of your choosing, 150va,300va,600va.

none of them is large enough to power the output stage of an amplifier from a rotel integrated upwards let alone a nap250! as such it is only designed for low power source components.

to find out the spec of a substation for your system take your device's max current figure and double it to cater for current swings and specify the module that covers it.
nb. substation box has 6.5 spaces inside, 150va module is 1.5 spaces;300va is 2;600va is 2.5 so you are limited to how many you can fit.

eg. Arcam CD82 cd player max current is 32va;double it to 64va and as such fit a 150va module to the substation. whereas Arcam A80 amplifier is quoted as 650va! so when you double it to 1300va you can see that no modules are large enough (isotek Qube2k is appropriate).

if it genuinely is a substation all of this will have been explained to you by your dealer.

if you need more info ask away.

 

yep sorry it's a minisub. doh.

 

no sweat- stick to using only the source components through it but it has to be said that for an as yet unexplained reason naim doesn't react well to mains filters or conditioners. if you can't use it for everything why not borrow the substation instead, since you are only connecting squeezebox and dax the cost difference is only £200.

 

I use a Cleanline,and I got similar improvements to the ones you describe,although the biggest improvement i got was changing the power chord into the amp.

 

Im using the new Isotek Minisub G2 version, this is a much improvement than the old minisub. the advantage of the G2 version has cross contamination filters for the unit and can handle 3500w. Providing you use good qulity mains cables connected to it, you wont have any problem linking any hardware to it. I have connected my Plinius SA250 IV, Plinius M8 pre and Sony SCD-1. The Sa250 draws 1000w constant in class A and I have also tried connecting the SA250 to a dedicated mains spur hoping for it to sound better, but lost alot of dynamic and bass slam.
cheers

 

I'm looking at this pre as well but can't find much info on it despite it being a handsome beastie...
How does it compare to the M16?
And how much does it retail for?
And where can you get one?

 

check out http://www.pliniusaudio.com/new/new.htm.
In my views, the M16 highs sounded abit harsh and bright. The M8 sounds more organic and sweet and with bass slams to die for compared to the M16.
The m8 retails for £2200. U can get one from me at a discount price.
cheers